Rabbi asked Rabbi Yishmael ben Rabbi Yosei, saying to him: ‘Did you hear from your father what is meant by: “God completed [vayechal] on the seventh day”? This is bewildering.’23God finished the Creation before the seventh day, not on the seventh day. The explanation is that it is like someone who was banging with a hammer onto an anvil. He raised it while it was still day and lowered it after nightfall.24The act was begun before nightfall, so it is counted as being done during the day.
Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai said: A mortal human being who does not know [with certainty] his times, his minutes, and his hours, he must add from the profane to the sacred.25A mortal man cannot determine the exact moment when Shabbat begins, so he must take away some of the weekday hours of Friday and add it on to Shabbat. But the Holy One blessed be He, who knows [with certainty] his minutes, his times, and his hours, entered into it [Shabbat] like a hairbreadth.26God performed labor at a time that appeared to mortal man as though it was already the seventh day, although it was, in fact, not yet Shabbat.
Geniva and the Rabbis, Geniva said: This is analogous to a king who made himself a wedding canopy, painted it and embossed it. What was it lacking? A bride [kalla] to enter it. So, too, what was the world lacking?
Shabbat.27God did create something on the seventh day – namely, Shabbat itself. The Rabbis say: This is analogous to a king for whom they crafted a signet ring. What was lacking? The seal.
So, too, what was the world lacking? Shabbat.28And Shabbat is a sign, like a signet, between God and Israel (Exodus 31:17). This is one of the matters that they changed for King Ptolemy29This was when he gathered seventy Sages to translate the Torah into Greek – the Septuagint (see Megilla 9a). There were several places where the Sages veered from translating literally to evade various problems. – [they wrote] “God completed on the sixth day…and He rested on the seventh day.”
King Ptolemy once asked the rabbis in Rome: ‘In how many days did the Holy One blessed be He create His world?’ They said to him: ‘In six days.’ He said to them: ‘And ever since that time, Gehenna has been burning for the wicked? Woe to the world from its judgments.’
“His labor” – did Rabbi Berekhya not say this in the name of Rabbi Simon: It was not with toil and not with exertion that the Holy One blessed be He created His world.30But, “by the word of the Lord the heavens were made” (Psalms 33:6). And you say “from all His labor”? This is bewildering. The explanation is that it is to exact retribution against the wicked, who demolish the world [as if it were] all created with toil and with exertion, and to grant a reward to the righteous, who sustain the world [as if it were] all created with toil and with exertion.
What was created on it [Shabbat] after He rested [from creating the world]? Tranquility, satisfaction, calm, and quiet. Rabbi Levi in the name of Rabbi Yosei ben Rabbi Nehorai: As long as the hands of their Maker were touching them, they [the creations] would continuously expand. When the hands of their Maker let go of them, they were granted rest.
“He rested [Vayanaḥ]31This word can also mean, “He let go.” [on the seventh day]” (Exodus 20:11) – He let go of His world on the seventh day. Rabbi Abba said: A mortal [king], when he grants furlough [to his soldiers], he does not give them gratuities, and when he gives them gratuities, he does not grant them furlough. But the Holy One blessed be He both granted a furlough and gave gratuities: “He rested [on the seventh day from all His labor that He had made]…and God blessed [the seventh day]” (Genesis 2:2–3).