Some thoughts on the origin of the Sabbath and how it relates to businesses reopening [View all]
The six days of creation and seventh day of rest tale in Genesis was probably meant as a bedtime story for Jewish children who wondered why nobody should work on the Sabbath, but I have a theory that the real origin of the Sabbath was as a sort of truce between workers to all take the same day off once a week so that they wouldn't steal business from each other and put pressure on everyone to work every day.
The current nationwide closing of non-essential businesses is in effect a sort of extended Sabbath, and I suspect that ending it prematurely will trigger that same worrying phenomenon. When some businesses and/or states reopen they will have a competitive edge against those who more wisely wait, pressuring all businesses and states to reopen. And that will only make the second wave worse.
It would be convenient if we could solve the problem like the ancient Jews did, by dreaming up a story that a supreme being has mandated that all non-essential businesses must stay closed, but that's not an option, and the only alternative is a nationwide government mandate that those businesses stay closed, which is the opposite of what our present government seems inclined to do.
So stand by for the second wave. It's going to be big.
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