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market days. Only by establishing a weekly cycle of an unvarying, standard length could
society guarantee that the continuity of its life would never be interrupted by natural phe-
nomena such as the lunar cycle. The DISSOCIATION OF THE WEEK FROM THE LU-
NAR CYCLE, is, therefore, the most significant breakthrough in the evolution of this cy-
cle from its somewhat rudimentary and imperfect [?] predecessor. Only by defining the
week as a precise multiple of the day, rather than...a fraction of the lunar month, could
human beings permanently avoid the problem of having to handle LOOSE REMAIN-
DERS and, thus, introduce into their lives the sort of temporal regularity that they could
never attain with the quasi [lunar] week (The Seven Day Circle, p. 10).

Other Lands

While the weekly Sabbath was divorced from the lunar reckoning by the Babylonian rab-
bis, the lunar Sabbath continued to be kept in various parts of the world. Hutton Webster makes
mention of the fact that

The Buddhist Sabbath, or uposatha, like the Jain posaha, owed its existence remotely to
the Vedic lunar rites. As celebrated anciently in India and in modern times in Nepal and
Ceylon [Sri Lanka], the uposatha falls on the DAY OF THE NEW MOON, on the DAY
OF THE FULL MOON, and on the TWO DAYS which are EIGHTH from new and full
moons. The uposatha is marked not only by fasting but also by abstinence from secular
activities: during its continuance buying and selling, work and business, hunting and fish-
ing are forbidden, and all schools and courts of justice are closed...The uposatha, as con-
trasted with the upavasatha, is a ceremony attached to ALL FOUR OF THE LUNAR
PHASES, instead of to two only; moreover, it is a REST DAY as well as a fast day...
Elsewhere the uposatha service is referred particularly to the FIFTEENTH DAY OF
THE MONTH, "it being full moon" (Rest Days, pp. 155-156).

The Chinese festivals at the moon's phases reach back into the past as far as the historical
eye can follow them.

At this juncture I would like to leave you, the reader, with some Jewish insight into God's
holy Sabbath day. In Creation: The Jewish Oral Tradition, we read --

Its [the Sabbath's] unique quality and power is that it recharges and renews the spiritual
energy of the world. The other weekdays literally derive their nourishment from it. This
applies to the entire structure of creation -- without this system of replenishment, the
world would not survive, but after six days would immediately implode, returning to the
chaotic state of "emptiness and void" -- as the Torah states: "For in six days God created
the world"; meaning, for six days after this, without the life-giving energy of the holy
Shabbat, God would have to create the world anew.

The article goes on to say:

This is so, even today. Every new week which passes over us is actually sustained and re-
ceives its very life-force courtesy of the holy Shabbat, and all of creation is given the abil-

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