Re: Slate: Secular Israelis try to save the "Sabbath"

In article <2005Jul31.105917@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <moshes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>"Rafael" <jmalfatto@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>> If Shabbat is a part of Jewish culture, then it's not only a "cultural
>> thing", it's a "Jewish cultural thing."

>But interestingly enough, the _idea_ is accepted by all of civilised
>society. AAMOF, the word for "seven" in many languages bears a
>similarity to the word "Shabbat".

I only know the word in Hebrew and in many Indo-European
languages, and it is true that the words are similar.
That they are similar in all the Indo-European languages
is not that much evidence, as they have a common source.
Linguists consider the agreement between the words for
six and seven in the Semitic and Indo-European languages
to be coincidence.

>I sometimes try to imagine what it would be like qwithout a "week",
>if the days didn't come in groups of 7. It's frightening. But unlike
>a "month" which has a basis in Nature, there is nothing in Nature to
>support a seven-day grouping. Yet it's well-nigh universal!

It is universal NOW. It seems the ancient Egyptians used
a 9-day week. The lunar month naturally divided into
quarters, and these quarters are closer to 7 days than any
other number. However, there is another reason for the
7-day week; each day is named for a non-fixed object in
the sky visible to the naked eye, and there are exactly 7
of these; the Babylonians used these names, or the names
of the corresponding gods.

The Roman names of the days, currently used in Romance
languages, are for Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter,
Venus, and Saturn in that order. Our names correspond,
except that Wodin has replaced Mercury.


--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
hrubin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558
.

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