Weekend

Jews invented the weekend, and changed human history forever. Before Judaism, nobody had a day off. You work every single day until you died. That was just life, then the Torah introduces shabbat, one day every sevens you stop working completely. No exceptions, rich, poor, slave, free, everyone stops. The ancient world thought Jews were lazy. Greeks, Romans mocked them for wasting whole day doing nothing. Here's what happened, Jewish communities were healthier, and they lived longer. They were more productive than the six days, because they actually rested. Other cultures started noticing. By the time of chrisitianity spread, they adopted the concept but moved it to Sunday. Islam took it, and moved it to Friday.  Sunday the entire world is operating on seven day cycle with rest day. That's three billion people follow the rhythm created by the ancient Jews, and didn't stop there. Five days work week, the weekend, vacation time, labor laws about rest period, it all traced back to the radical idea that humans need regular rest. One ancient Jewish law restructured human civilization. 

犹太人发明了周末，从而永远改变了人类历史。 在犹太教出现之前，没有人有休息日。 你每天都要工作，直到死去。 那时的生活就是这样，后来《托拉》引入了安息日，每七天有一天完全停止工作。 没有例外，无论贫富、奴隶还是自由人，所有人都要休息。 古代世界认为犹太人很懒。 希腊人、罗马人嘲笑他们浪费一整天什么也不做。 然而，犹太社区的人更健康，寿命也更长。 他们比工作六天的人更高效，因为他们真正休息了。 其他文化也开始注意到这一点。 随着基督教的传播，他们采纳了这个概念，但将其改到了周日。 伊斯兰教也接受了它，但改到了周五。 如今全世界都在遵循由古代犹太人创造的七天工作周期和休息日。 全球有三十亿人遵循着这种节奏，而且这并未停止。 五天工作制、周末、假期、关于休息时间的劳动法，这一切都源于人类需要定期休息这一激进理念。 一条古老的犹太律法重塑了人类文明。