Some time ago (six years to be precise) I wrote a post about sacred time.
It was Sacred Space Sacred Time in my Cosmic Compass blog
You can read it there to find out what I was talking about but the reason for bringing it up now is that last week it caught up with me and hence I missed being able to do my weekly Urban Nomad post.
You see, last Sunday night was the beginning of the Jewish Holy Day – Shemini Atzeret.
In Judaism one of the elements of a Holy or sacred day is that there is no work, which means not doing anything on the computer or using a phone or writing or … the list of things not permitted at these times is significant.
Also, in Judaism the day starts at night.
That’s not actually as weird as it sounds.
Those of us who use the Western or Gregorian calendar are used to the idea that the calendar date changes at midnight.
Consequently, if you ask someone to define a single day they’re likely to tell you that it goes from midnight to midnight.
The question is; is that actually a sensible approach?
After all, if you don’t have a clock, watch, smart phone or other time-keeping device, how do you know when it’s midnight?
When there’s a full moon you can get it pretty close based on when the Moon is at the highest point in the sky.
Of course, if you want to discuss celestial navigation there are probably ways to tell but for most “normal” people that’s not really an option.
So, having the “day” start with midnight is really some weird arbitrary decision that we’ve all been conditioned into taking as some sort of cosmic truth.
But what would happen if you forgot about midnight?
What would you use to mark a “day”?
Since the daytime is designated by the period when the Sun is in the sky, one logical option would be to start with dawn ie when the Sun comes up.
I have no issue with that and it does make a lot of sense.
In Judaism the foundation of all practices is the Five Books of Moses, also referred to as the Torah.
At the beginning of the Torah the creation of the Universe is described in the book of Genesis.
There the days are defined as “it was evening and it was morning the first/second/third… day”.
So from here we get the idea of the day beginning with evening or sunset.
There are lots of lessons one can get from that.
For example, all baby mammals (including us) grow and develop in the mother’s womb for a time before being born.
Hence before coming into the world there is a dark, quiet gestation period.
So too with ideas and actions – it needs time for ideas to grow and form before they can come into the world.
One of the important lessons we derive from the creation story (amongst limitless other insights and learnings) is that everything needs boundaries.
The creation steps are as follows:
– heaven and earth
– waters above and waters below
– oceans and dry land
– vegetation
– heavenly bodies
– sea creatures and birds
– land animals and people
And finally after a week of seriously hard yakka G-d created rest.
(BTW for a scientific description of the history of the universe from creation until now have a look at David Christian’s TED talk – The History of Our World in 18 Minutes. I find the periods he describes fit very well to the stages described in the book of Genesis.)
Each of the elements covered in the creation story are defined by their limits.
We’ve all seen what happens when water gets outside its boundaries or limitations during a flood or tsunami- it can be seriously destructive.
King Solomon said “To everything there is a time and a season” (Ecclesiastes 3).
One important message from all this is that you don’t get times mixed up.
And so it was, last week.
The time for the beginning of the Jewish Holy Day arrived and I hadn’t done my blog.
Consequently it had to wait for a week (and this convoluted explanation) to apologise and promise to get myself better organised in future (but then again sometimes life just gets in the way).
I hope you’re having a wonderful time – for this time.
(And thanks to Salvadore Dali for the artwork)