Comentários de Citação sobre Isaías 40:28

מכל מלאכתו, this means that after the sixth “day” G’d did not “create,” ברא, anything new. When the Torah used the expression וישבות, which gives the impression that G’d “retired” into inactivity, this is not accurate; the Torah used terminology that we humans can relate to. There is of course, no such things as יגיעה, fatigue, exhaustion, in connection with G’d. He is, by definition “tireless.” Compare Isaiah 40,28 who describes G’d as לא יעף ולא יגע, expressing exactly these sentiments. Creating the universe was not something tiresome for G’d. Another way of understanding the word וישבות, would be ויפסק, “He stopped, terminated.” This would also fit with Exodus 12,15 תשביתו שאור, “terminate leavened things!”

כי בו שבת, the word שבת when applied to G-d, cannot mean “He rested,” in the sense this term is commonly used, as we have it on the authority of Isaiah 40,28 that G-d never “grows faint or weary;” seeing that He did not have to exert Himself when creating the universe, why should He have been tired so that would have to “rest?” The word has to be understood as G-d having put a temporary stop to an activity. We find a similar term used when the regular descent on weekdays of the manna came to a halt after the Israelites had crossed the Jordan, (Joshua 5,12) before they commenced eating from the produce of the land of Canaan. Both events are reported there as having occurred on the same day. We also find the verb שבת used in the sense of an interruption Job 32,1 when Job’s friends interrupted their arguing with Job for three days out of their respect for his righteousness. An even better proof is Genesis 8,22, where G-d assures Noach after the deluge that the regular phenomenon of day and night following one another will never again be suspended, i.e. יום ולילה לא ישבתו, “day and night will occur without interruption.” Neither day nor night will take “a break from their routine.”

וינח ביום השביעי, He rested on the seventh day, etc. The Torah cleverly forbids among the 39 categories of forbidden work also such activities which do not involve something causing fatigue. Moving an object from a private domain to a public domain or vice versa does not represent any "work" in the regular sense of the word. There are other such activities (writing two letters of the alphabet for instance) all of which are nonetheless prohibited on pain of death. A person may say to himself that since such acitivities do not involve physical effort why should there be a death penalty for performing such activities on the Sabbath? The Torah answers that the work prohibition is not related to the amount of effort involved. If G'd rested on the seventh day it was certainly not because He had become tired of creating the universe and needed a rest. Isaiah 40,28 puts it succinctly: "He never grows faint or weary." The word מנוחה in the sense of rest as we use it, i.e. rest in order to recover from exhaustion, is quite inappropriate when applied to G'd. Any activity to which the term מלאכה is applicable is prohibited regardless of the physical or mental effort involved.

וינפש AND WAS REFRESHED — Take it as the Targum renders it: ונח “and He rested”. Every form of נפש is derived from the noun נֶפֶש, soul; the idea is, that one calms his soul and takes breath when one reposes after the toil of labour. — And He of Whom it is written, (Isaiah 40:28) “[… the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth] fainteth not nor is He weary”, and Whose every action is accomplished by His mere command had the term “repose” written of (ascribed to) Himself in order to make comprehensible to the human ear what it can understand.