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October 8th, 2008 9th day of Tishrei, 5769
Issue #41
Genesis Journeys
The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow
Forward to a Friend
I have been blessed with a daughter named Tamara. You won’t be surprised
to hear that people meeting her regularly break out singing – “The sun will
come out tomorrow…” from the musical Annie.
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The song reflects Annie’s optimism and eagerness to meet her future, but if
she studied ancient Jewish wisdom, she would actually sing, “The sun will
come out today”. Such a change would not only save my daughter from wellintentioned but unmusical humorists, it would also more accurately reflect a
Biblical understanding of what a day really is.
In the first chapter of Genesis, during the seven days of creation, the phrase
“And it was evening and it was morning …” is repeated seven times. First
comes evening, and thereafter, morning. God is teaching us that a complete
day begins with the evening.
For this reason, the Jewish Sabbath begins as the sun goes down on Friday
evening and ends Saturday night. Early Americans, deriving guidance from
the Bible also celebrated their Sabbath from sunset of the day before.
The New England Sabbath always began at sunset on Saturday night and
ended at the next sunset.... (George M. Stephenson, The Puritan Heritage
[New York: MacMillan Co., 1952], 181-182)
Dear Rabbi,
In an earlier Thought Tools you
spoke about respect for parents
not being instinctive and how
cultures that were influenced by
the Bible have adopted this.
What about China? Aside from its
flirtation with Communism, it has
a long tradition of respect for
elders and parents.
Mary P.
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This is not surprising considering that Colonial Americans were avid Bible
scholars, often learning the text and the oral transmission in the original
Hebrew. My Genesis Journeys series is how I make this Hebraic heritage
which was known to early American Christians, completely accessible to
their modern day counterparts in (what I hope is) an engaging and useful
manner.
Now let’s examine the moral message behind God declaring that the twentyfour hour period we call a day should run, not from midnight to midnight, or
from morning to morning but from sunset to sunset?
One message God conveys to us with this information is particularly apt as
we find ourselves in challenging economic times and times of international
peril.
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Thought Tools.
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It is a message of hope. Almost everyone recognizes night and day to be
metaphors for harder and easier times. Don’t we all feel more optimistic
when the sun is shining? We smile more easily and in general feel more
cheerful about life. By contrast, in the dark we often feel a little vulnerable
and unsure of ourselves. Disaster seems to loom much more readily.
We all have a choice in how we choose to live our lives. We can assume
that regardless of how blessed our today is, we nonetheless ought to fill our
hearts with gloom because tomorrow is sure to bring disaster. Alternatively,
we can know that whatever we must contend with today, tomorrow will be
brighter.
One way of viewing tomorrow suggests that our final destination as the
human race is some inevitable catastrophe and utter doom. The alternative
is to see ourselves, despite whatever bumps we hit on the way, moving
towards a glorious period of Divine redemption, a Messianic age of life and
universal goodness.
Nobody knows for sure what tomorrow will bring. The question is what view
of tomorrow we should welcome into our hearts today. And few things
influence the choices we make and the quality of our lives today, as much as
the vision of tomorrow that we keep alive in our hearts.
God’s message to humanity that He embedded in the seven days of creation
is that light follows darkness. There may very well be treacherous and scary
shoals to navigate, but people of faith can know that the final outcome will be
a safe and sunny harbor. I am fortunate in that my daughter Tamara helps
me hold on to that thought no matter what else happens. Yes, the sun
certainly will come out today!
Edited by Susan Lapin
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