"The Sabbath is not just another day of the week, nor even a special day; it sums up the week and gives meaning to it.
The weekdays are marked by the acts of Creation, ever repeated by the descent of the divine plenty into the world.
And parallel to this descent it is man's function during the week, in the order of things, to fix and to set the world right wherever it tends to go wrong.
This includes correcting the world, in the physical sense, by work and action on the external frame and, in the spiritual sense, perfecting the world by performing mitzvot.
For in the realm of the human soul, man's work on himself, his constant correcting of faults and spurring to activity of his inner being, constitutes a ceaseless creative effort.
The Sabbath is essentially the day of rest, of cessation from all labor and creative effort.
And this holds true for the spiritual effort of working on oneself as well as for the physical effort of working on the world.
The week is characterized by busyness or activity, while the Sabbath is grounded on stillness, on the nullification of oneself in the downpour of holiness.
And this self-repudiation is expressed by a renunciation of all work, whether it be in the physical sense, as being busy in the world, or in the spiritual sense, as engaging in efforts to correct one's soul.
In fact, the very power to receive the spiritual essence of the Sabbath comes from one's readiness and ability to surrender, to give up one's human and worldly state for the sake of the Supreme Holiness, through which all the worlds are raised to a higher level."
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From The Thirteen Petalled Rose by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
