Quote of the Day: linear vs cyclical time

as cultural beings, we have cultivated a special cog­nitive ability to carve out of the continuum of time segments that are handled discretely, as if they were quantum units.

Basically, whereas profane time is historical and is best represented in a linear fashion, sacred time is essentially ahis­torical and is best represented in a cyclical manner.

...

This quantitative approach toward the weekdays stands in marked contrast to the qualitative approach toward the Sabbath itself, whose name is associated not only with the number seven , but also with the purely qualitative concept of rest. The Hebrew nomenclature of the days of the week thus also reflects the fact that, while the weekdays may be interchangeable with one another, as a group they are clearly perceived as absolutely distinct from the Sabbath .


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In the context of time, the number 7 (week) is quite remarkable because, excluding the Sabbath, it leaves 6 workdays, which makes the whole work-week system highly flexible; that is, it becomes divisible into neat day slots: 1, 2, 3.

I feel like the Sabbath plays the same role in the calendar as the space between words in a written text.