“On the seventh day, God completed His work which He had done,

and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.”

“…the word vayishbot, and He rested, describes Hashem’s rest from His melacha [work]. While this word normally denotes physical labor, here we can understand it as referring to the intermediaries (from the word malachim, angels or messengers) through which His Presence manifested itself during the first six days.

In the course of Creation, Hashem’s Presence had grown increasingly obscured by His emerging creations… When the first Shabbos arrived, however, He ceased to express Himself through intermediaries and allowed the universe to return to its roots, and to perceive its Creator directly in His full glory.

Thus a return to one’s heavenly roots is an essential aspect of Shabbos – and of teshuvah as well, as the very name teshuvah (literally ‘return’) implies. [One who engages in] teshuvah does far more than merely repent for his past transgressions – he also returns to his sacred roots.”