A Time to Rest from Resting (Leviticus Ch. 23)

Leviticus 23:3-4: "For six days labor may be done and the seventh day is a day of complete rest...These are the appointed festivals of Hashem." To any astute reader of the Five Books of Moses this verse presents a problem: chapter 23 of Leviticus deals with the various festivals celebrated by the Jewish people throughout the year. What is the connection here with the upholding the Sabbath?

The festivals and the sabbath are very similar in character, both defined primarily as days when labor is forbidden, as defined by constructive activities involved in building the Tabernacle (see Exodus Ch. 31).  However, they are also different in many ways. As we see in Exodus 12:16 that we are allowed to cook on the Festival, and hinted to in Leviticus Ch. 23, in the phrase "you shall do no 'laborious' work" which is repeated by each of the festivals.
Furthermore, even if we are being reminded of the sanctity of the Sabbath in order to inspire us and encourage in regard to upholding the festivals, it is still not clear what the beginning of the verse is coming to tell us. Why are we told that for six days labor may be done?

Exodus 31:17 provides an answer:"Between me and the Children of Israel it is a sign forever that in a six-day period Hashem made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed." The world was pre-programmed with a connection to the six days but the on the seventh day G-d rested and was "refreshed", meaning the creation reverts and reconnects with its pre-Creation relationship with G-d. This is also the inner meaning behind Genesis 2:1:"Thus the heaven and earth were consummated and all their array." The creation is "consummated" with a desire for G-d, and so the seventh is a fulfilment of the creation's desire to reunite with its Maker, a chance to rest from being a creation and therefore be refreshed.

This is what we the festivals are coming to teach us as well. Even on an ordinary Sunday or Wednesday, while still inside the six-day scheme, we can exprience a sabbatical from the workaday life. This is because rest is not imposed on us from outside but is as natural a part of life as breathing, and just like G-d created the mundane weekday for work so also he created the Festival weekday for rest, both are essential aspects of life in this world.