Six Days of Labor and Why the Sabbath Belongs to God Alone

"Six days work shall be done" (Exodus 31:15). Rabbi Ishmael says: one verse says "Six days work shall be done," and another verse says, "Six days you shall labor and do all your work" (Exodus 20:9). How can both verses stand? When Israel does the will of the Omnipresent, their work is done by others, as it says, "Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks" (Isaiah 61:5); and when Israel does not do the will of the Omnipresent, their work is done by themselves, and not only that, but even the work of others is done by them, as it says, "You shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and in thirst" (Deuteronomy 28:48). "And on the seventh day is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD" (Exodus 31:15). Why is this said? Because it says, "These are the appointed times of the LORD, holy convocations" (Leviticus 23:4), one might think that just as the festivals are handed over to the court [to fix by the calendar], so too the Sabbath would be handed over to the court; Scripture teaches, "And on the seventh day is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD," the Sabbath is handed over to the Name and the Sabbath is not handed over to the court. So it says, "It is a sabbath to the LORD in all your dwellings" (Leviticus 23:3). "Whoever does work on the sabbath day" (Exodus 31:15): even the work of the Tabernacle. "Shall surely be put to death": I might understand by any form of death; Scripture teaches, "And the LORD said to Moses, the man shall surely be put to death; the whole congregation shall pelt him with stones" (Numbers 15:35), that is to say, by stoning.