RE: First day of the week

From: Hohberger, Clive P. (CPHOHBER@zebra.com)
Date: Mon Jun 28 1999 - 14:34:58 EDT


> Jony Rosenne wrote:

>It seems ISO made a grave mistake [assigning Monday as the first
day of the week].
>
> In Hebrew, "Sunday" is "the first day" etc., there are no special
names for
> the days of the week except Saturday (Shabat).
> Jony

        True. But let's apply a standard rabbinical argument to that... If
Sunday's the
        first day of the week, then, is there a specific reason for that, or
is it the
        consequence of something else? Well, what day IS there a reason for
it
        being in a specific position in the week?

        Aha! But Shabbat IS the seventh day! The day of rest and prayer.
Comes right
        from Genesis, first chapter, and who can argue with the Torah?

        Now since Shabat falls on Saturn's Day in the Roman calendar, then
the day
        that follows it must be the "first day" of the 7 day cycle, now
called Sun Day.

        So there. This "pilpul" explains why Shabbat is the 7th day of the
week,
        and Sunday is, as a consequence, the first... and is called such in
Hebrew...

        The ISO committee clearly didn't consult a rabbi!

        Clive

>



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:20:47 EDT