Page 17 - BV1

In his book written in 1985, Jewish scholar Eviatar Zerubavel expounds on the fact that the
seven-day cycle (Sunday through Saturday) went through a number of metamorphoses to finally be
known as the ASTROLOGICAL WEEK. He also states emphatically that this "week is not an-
chored in nature in any way..." boasting that "a CONTINUOUS SEVEN-DAY CYCLE that runs
through history paying no attention whatsoever to the MOON AND ITS PHASES is a distinctly
Jewish invention. Moreover, THE DISSOCIATION OF THE SEVEN-DAY WEEK FROM NA-
TURE HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS OF JUDAISM TO
CIVILIZATION" [dissociation from nature = contributions?!] (The Seven Day Circle, p. 14).

Earlier in his book (on page 10) Professor Zerubavel comments that "only by establishing a
weekly cycle of an UNVARYING, STANDARD LENGTH could society guarantee that the conti-
nuity of its life would never be interrupted by NATURAL PHENOMENA SUCH AS THE LUNAR
CYCLE. The DISSOCIATION OF THE WEEK FROM THE LUNAR CYCLE, is, therefore, the
most significant breakthrough in the evolution of this cycle from its somewhat rudimentary and im-
perfect predecessor." While I disagree that God's weekly cycle is "somewhat rudimentary and im-
perfect," Zerubavel clearly brings out the fact that the Jews CHANGED the weekly cycle as given
by God. And WHY did they change the cycle? So that commercial enterprise would not be
disrupted!!

Notes Jonathan Brown --

It is quite easy to see how flowing with the natural rhythm of the moon cycle would dis-
rupt commercial enterprise. When you're waiting with a truck load of rotting vegetables,
who wants to wait for the new moon to be gone? The uninterrupted flow of our current
seven-day cycle was thus very appealing to our predecessors who were caught up in
BUILDING COMMERCE (Keeping Yahweh's Appointments, p. 92).

Zerubavel adds: "Hence the indispensability of a CONTINUOUS WEEK for the establish-
ment of settled life with a high level of social organization, particularly significant since the RISE
OF A MARKET ECONOMY, which involved orderly contact on regular recurrent, periodic
MARKET DAYS" (The Seven Day Circle, p. 10).

Concludes Joseph Lewis, "now that the Jews have ABANDONED THE OBSERVANCE
OF THE SABBATH as the bond between them and their God, they should discontinue the obser-
vance [to be logical] of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and COMPLETE their emancipation from
this demoralizing superstition" (The Ten Commandments).

While this passage has an obvious anti-Semitic bent, it does highlight the fact that the Jews
have DIVORCED THEMSELVES from God's true Sabbath and weekly cycle! In order to have
their Sabbath come at regular intervals, they abandoned the lunar cycle of their forebears and
adopted the seventh day of the pagan week that was prevalent in the world in which they lived. In-
stead of keeping their Sabbath in accordance with the moon's changes, the Jews of Babylonia de-
cided upon the seventh day REGARDLESS of its coincidence with the moon's variations.

17