Why do we have a 7 day week?

Ruchel

Sun, Aug 26 2007, 11:41 pm

Sue DaNym wrote:

Ruchel wrote:

Sue DaNym wrote:

yeah, well, maybe tammy could not take every opportunity to deny the torah. I dont blame motek for taking her to task. id do the same if someone denied the torah.

I was taught you can disagree without being mean.

Unfortunately sometimes on this board people don't realize they can be hurting others. It happens to me too of course. But we should all try to disagree nicely no?

true, but there are somethings that are beyond the pale. when tammy denies the greatness of the torah, that hurts me. why isn't she taken to task for hurting us?

I meant everyone, not just "one side".

If someone is hurtful, tell her so but don't stoop to her level or it will go on endlessly. I am talking for myself too of course

chavamom

Sun, Aug 26 2007, 11:46 pm

TammyTammy wrote:

According to Wikipedia, the fact that the Chinese calendar uses a seven day week is because the Jesuits introduced it there in the 16th century.

That still doesn't explain why it caught on. There were what? A billion Chinese and how many Jesuits? A handful? X-ianity certainly didn't catch on.

TammyTammy

Mon, Aug 27 2007, 12:30 am

Sue DaNym wrote:

Ruchel wrote:

Sue DaNym wrote:

yeah, well, maybe tammy could not take every opportunity to deny the torah. I dont blame motek for taking her to task. id do the same if someone denied the torah.

true, but there are somethings that are beyond the pale. when tammy denies the greatness of the torah, that hurts me. why isn't she taken to task for hurting us?

By showing the logical progression of the acceptance of the seven day week, I am denying the greatness of the Torah??

Tammy

TammyTammy

Mon, Aug 27 2007, 12:32 am

chavamom wrote:

TammyTammy wrote:

According to Wikipedia, the fact that the Chinese calendar uses a seven day week is because the Jesuits introduced it there in the 16th century.

That still doesn't explain why it caught on. There were what? A billion Chinese and how many Jesuits? A handful? X-ianity certainly didn't catch on.

That's a fair question. I don't know why the week caught on but the religion itself didn't. I'll have to look into it further.

Tammy

mumoo

Mon, Aug 27 2007, 12:48 am

A man and a friend are lost in the desert and the man beseeches Gd to help him. "Dear Gd, if You get me out of here alive, I promise to dedicate the rest of my life to doing Your will." Five minutes later a Jeep rolls by, and the two get in.

The next week, back in the city, the friend reminds the man of him promise. "What do you mean, Gd didn't save us. It was those guys in the Jeep."

anon

Mon, Aug 27 2007, 2:07 am

I have 3 comments:

Sue DaNym: I don't believe it says anywhere in the Torah that thou must believe the universal 7 week to be miraculous. That's besides for the fact that it was a professor who made this statement, not Rav Elyashiv.

Motek: G-d lets the world run according to nature, and at times intervenes to perform miracles. Hence, the distinction between divine and miraculous. What's "amalek" about Tammy arguing that the 7 day week is divine, and not miraculous? By admitting it's divine, she is not taking G-d out of the picture.

Tammy: I have the same question as Chavamom. Just because we see the progression of the 7 day week becoming universal, doesn't explain WHY it came to be so. Why was it so influential? Especially, as the professor points out, it isn't the most "logical" choice of week.

catonmylap

Mon, Aug 27 2007, 5:10 am

The 7 day week is logical when you factor in that you are trying to keep shabbos.

Since the other major world religions, ie Christians and Muslim stole a form of shabbos from us (Muslim Fridays, and Christian Sundays), they would also be a believer in a 7 day week. And since together with the Muslims and Christians, we make up a good portion of the world, I'm with Tammy that it's not so unusual.

This originated from a math professor, not a history professor. From a historical perspective, it seems to make a lot of sense.

Taking apart and examining something someone says critically does not mean you want to deny the existence of Hashem or anything like that.
There are many approaches within Judaism.

justanothermother

Mon, Aug 27 2007, 5:15 am

Info on Chinese adaptation of seven day week"

Before they adopted the Western-style week, the Chinese originally used a ten-day cycle known as a 旬 xún in ordering their daily lives and activities. Although the Christian week was not unknown (it was known, for instance, from contact with the Jesuits in the 16th-18th centuries), the seven-day week as we know it first became widely familiar in the 19th century with the coming of traders and missionaries from Western powers. It was finally officially adopted by the Chinese government in 1912, after the fall of the last Imperial dynasty.

mumoo

Mon, Aug 27 2007, 8:38 am

catonmylap wrote:

Taking apart and examining something someone says critically does not mean you want to deny the existence of Hashem

An egg cell and sperm cell meet, divide and grow repeatedly (whatever, I'm not a biology genius) and then a human baby is born. We know scientifically how that happens. We can explain logically why it works. It's still a miracle.

greenfire

Mon, Aug 27 2007, 8:46 am

see this right here is why some people get pushed away from the torah ... you ask a question ... you have a discussion ... and lo and behold - they are called not frum - apikores - against the torah ... where on earth does that stem from ... some of us function better with more knowledge and understanding ... not blind information ... some things need to be answered, discussed, not demanded shock

morningstar

Mon, Aug 27 2007, 8:52 am

Of all our common units of time, the week is the only one that is not based on natural phenomenon. Daynight is based on the rising/setting of the son, months on the cycles of the moon, years on the cycles of the seasons. But the week appears to simply be a convention...
While the Jews observed the seven day week, they were not the only culture to do so . . . and throughout time, this was always the dominant division, when this would be a logical area in which to find very wide divergences.Daniel Boorstin ( The Discoverers) has a fascinating discussion of this for those who are interested.

TammyTammy

Mon, Aug 27 2007, 10:31 am

anon wrote:

I have 3 comments:

Tammy: I have the same question as Chavamom. Just because we see the progression of the 7 day week becoming universal, doesn't explain WHY it came to be so. Why was it so influential? Especially, as the professor points out, it isn't the most "logical" choice of week.

Anon,

I'm more than willing to say that HaShem ordained that our seven-day week should win out over other conceptions of the week. I'm just not ready to say that it was "amazing" or "miraculous." For the most part, how it happened is very logical and progressive.

Tammy

Motek

Fri, Aug 31 2007, 12:01 pm

anon wrote:

Tammy: I have the same question as Chavamom. Just because we see the progression of the 7 day week becoming universal, doesn't explain WHY it came to be so. Why was it so influential? Especially, as the professor points out, it isn't the most "logical" choice of week.

Nu, THAT'S THE POINT. That's what makes it amazing. It's not logical, it benefits no one, and yet ... that's the way it is.

amother

Fri, Aug 31 2007, 12:41 pm

Quote:

That is actually defenitionally, not a miracle. A miracle is something, like Krias Yam Suf, that goes AGAINST nature. A conception is a very natural phenomenon.
That is not to say, Chalila, that G-d is not involved. Of course He is, and it will not happen if He does not will it.
But we do not define a conception, or the sun rising each morning, as miracles.