As I write this, I’m still recovering from the time change due to daylight saving. It’s remarkable how our internal clocks are set and reset, and how external adjustments—whether the simple act of adjusting our clocks or flying across time zones—upsets the synchronization of our bodies with the world around us. We similarly must adjust to the changing seasons, whether it’s shorter days and colder nights that drive us inside, or the glorious days of summer that lift our spirits and remind us of the gift of our California sunshine.

Among Judaism’s earliest innovations was to manage the passage of time in ways that would create a uniquely Jewish (or in the Bible’s case, Israelite) experience of the days, weeks, months, and seasons.  Other religions, of course, mark time in their own ways with their own holidays and daily rituals, but of the world’s western religions, Judaism was the first to do so, and it still holds the status of having the most holidays in a year.

As I read the book “Remembering Abraham,” by Ronald Hendel, the chair of Jewish Studies at U.C. Berkeley, I learned that the structure of the week and the Shabbat are actually an innovation of our ancient ancestors. In a sense, the early Jews invented the calendar as we know it based on 52 weeks in a year. The structure of the year built on those weeks remained in flux for centuries, but its basic seven-day unit was our people’s gift to humanity.

Over the next few days, we’ll look at how our tradition built a truly unique identity and a sense of spirituality based on this basic unit in such a way that our own (re)structuring of time ultimately created much of the religion we know as Judaism.

—Rabbi Ron Stern