Shabbat the Mate of Israel and the Work God Never Rests From

Another interpretation: that which is not set aside [for another day]. A festival is set aside; the Day of Atonement is set aside; but the Sabbath is not set aside. The Sabbath said before the Holy One, blessed be He: "Master of the universe, everything has a partner, but I have no partner." The Holy One, blessed be He, said to her: "Israel shall be your partner." And when Israel stood at Mount Sinai, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: "Be mindful of that thing I said to the Sabbath, that the assembly of Israel is your partner," as it is said, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8). The Holy One, blessed be He, created three creations on each day. On the first He created heaven and earth and light; on the second He created Gehinnom and the firmament and the angels; on the third He created trees and grasses and the Garden of Eden; on the fourth He created the sun and moon and constellations; on the fifth, birds and fish and Leviathan; on the sixth, Adam and Eve and creeping things. Rabbi Pinchas says: on the sixth He created Adam and Eve and creeping things and cattle and beasts and fatlings. "Which God created and made" (Genesis 2:3) is not written here; rather, "to make" [the verb implies further making]: that which He was destined to create on the Sabbath, He brought forward and created on the sixth. "For on it He rested from all His work" (Genesis 2:3). From the work of His world He rested; from the work of the righteous and the wicked He did not rest, but rather He acts with these and acts with those: He shows these a foretaste of their reward and shows those a foretaste of their punishment. And from where do we learn that the punishment of the wicked is called work? As it is said, "The LORD has opened His armory and brought out the weapons of His wrath, for it is a work" (Jeremiah 50:25). And from where do we learn that the granting of the reward of the righteous is called work? As it is said, "How great is Your goodness which You have stored up for those who fear You, which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You" (Psalms 31:20).