What are the connotations of "VaY'chal Elokim ba'Yom ha'Shevi'i"?
Rashi #1, Seforno, Targum Onkelos and Targum Yonasan: It means that Hashem finished or completed on the seventh day.
Rashi #2 (in Sefer ha'Pardes, citing Targum Yerushalmi): It means that Hashem desired the seventh day. 1
Rashi (ibid.): As in, "Nichsefah v'Gam Kaelsah" (Tehilim 84:3).
Why does the Torah insert the (otherwise superfluous) words "Melachto asher Asah"?
Targum Yonasan: To incorporate the ten things that He created during Bein ha'Shemasos. 1
See Avos 5:9.
Our verse says that "Hashem rested from all His work on the seventh day," and the previous Pasuk (2:1) has already stated that the work was finished - presumably on the sixth. But our verse also says that He finished His work on the seventh day!
Rashi #1 1 and Seforno: In a Midrash, R. Shimon explains that, unlike a human, who is forced to add some time to Shabbos, in order to avoid transgressing Shabbos, Hashem, 'Who knows His seconds,' entered Shabbos the split second before.
Rashi #2, Hadar Zekenim #1: The only thing that was lacking was rest, and that is what Hashem created with the advent of Shabbos.
Hadar Zekenim #2: Adam thought that Hashem would create more things on the seventh day. It was not recognized that He rested until the seventh day.
Kol Eliyahu: Inanimate things were already perfected within six days. The words "His work" refer specifically to living beings, which need rest; rest was created only on day seven. The words, "all His work" allude to the 10 miraculous things created just before Shabbos, during Bein ha'Shemashos (Avos 5:6). E.g. Hashem rested, and did not send manna on Shabbos.
Rashi almost always quotes a Midrash, even when he does not specifically say so. Refer to 2:2:151.1:1 .
How can we explain that "Hashem completed His work on the seventh day," if ,"He rested on the seventh day"?
Maharal #1 (Tif'eres Yisrael, Ch. 40, p. 122): According to one opinion in the Midrash, all of Creation received its Tzurah (form- specific function) on Shabbos; this actualization is not Melachah, on the contrary, it is Menuchah (rest).
Maharal #2 (ibid.): Alternatively, time is connected; the end of the sixth day is attached to the beginning of the seventh. 1
Maharal #3 (ibid.): Alternatively, it was the Shabbos itself that was missing, and was created on the seventh day. Shabbos is what connects creation to its Creator; through Shabbos, the world was perfected. 2
This answer parallels Rashi's first answer; refer to 2:2:151.1:1.
Chazal refer to Shabbos as a "Kalah," a bride (Bava Kama 32b); a bride represents new connection with her husband. The word "va'Yechal" shares the root Kaf-Lamed-Heh. The Midrash also compares Shabbos to the signet of a ring; see Maharal (ibid).
What does it mean that Hashem rested from work on the Shabbos? The verse says, "Hashem, Creator of the ends of the earth, does not tire or grow weary!" (Yeshayah 40:28)?
Maharal (Tif'eres Yisrael, beg. Ch. 40): Rest is the completion of an activity that requires time. Time itself, which elapsed during the six days of creation, was necessary for the world, not for the Creator. 1 So too, the Shabbos rest at the cessation of that time was not necessary for Hashem, but rather for the world.
Maharal: For example, Hashem decreed that the earth must bring forth vegetation. Therefore, He first created the earth, and later, after time had elapsed, vegetation.
Why was the world created specifically in six days, and Shabbos specifically on the seventh?
Maharal (Tif'eres Yisrael, Ch. 40, p. 122): Every physical object takes up space, and a three-dimensional object has six sides. 1 Therefore, Hashem created the physical world in six days. However, there is an additional aspect; namely, the central point. A point does not take up space, and does not even relate to the physical. The center is represented by Shabbos.
The three dimensions are length, width and height. A three-dimensional cube has six faces - four sides, top and bottom. (EK)
Why does it not say, "va'Yehi Erev, va'Yehi Voker" on the seventh day?
Rosh (to Bereishis 3:15), Hadar Zekenim: There was light all of Shabbos. It did not get dark.
QUESTIONS ON RASHI
Rashi writes: "'Hashem completed on the seventh day' - ... It [only] appeared as if He completed it then." What does Rashi mean?
Gur Aryeh: Seemingly, Rashi means that Hashem in fact finished when it was still the sixth day, but it appeared as if it was [already] the seventh. The Midrash clarifies; since Hashem does not need to add on to Shabbos from the weekday, 1 He therefore stopped exactly at the beginning of Shabbos, which does not mean Shabbos itself.
There is a Mitzvah for us to "add from the weekday onto the holy," namely, to actively accept Shabbos, and abstain from Melachah, even before Shabbos technically begins (Yoma 81b).
Rashi writes: "... It [only] appeared as if He completed it then." If so, why doesn't the Torah state, 'He finished on the sixth day'?
Gur Aryeh: Had the Torah written so, we might have thought that Hashem stopped creating in the middle of the sixth day, simply because there was nothing left to create! If so, resting on Shabbos would have been incidental. The contradiction in the verses teaches that Hashem stopped exactly at the beginning of the seventh day, because of the sanctity of Shabbos.
