Halakhah zu Kohelet 1:12

It was mid Friday night, the fourteenth day of the month of Tevet, in the year 4919,¹ Corresponding to Saturday, December 13, 1158 C.E. (Gregorian calendar). I, Abraham the Spaniard, known as “Ibn Ezra,”² “Ibn Ezra” was a family name; the name of Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra’s father was Me’ir. was in one of the cities of the island that is called “Edge of the Earth,”³ See Preface. which is in the seventh zone of the inhabited zones of the earth.⁴ The ancients divided the inhabited portion of the earth (the northern hemisphere), into seven zones, from south to north. The seventh zone is the northern-most zone, in which England lies. I was asleep and my sleep was sweet to me. I dreamt that what appeared to be a man stood before me with a sealed letter in his hand. He spoke up and said to me: “Take this letter that the Sabbath sends you.” I prostrated myself and bowed before God and I blessed the God who gave us the Sabbath for honoring me so. I took hold of the letter with both my hands and my hands dripped with myrrh. I read the letter and it was sweet as honey to my mouth. However, as I read the last lines my heart became agitated and my soul almost failed me. I asked the one who stood before me: “What is my iniquity and what is my sin? From the day that I knew the revered God who created me, and I learned his commandments, I have always loved the Sabbath. I would go out to greet her with a full heart even before she arrived, and I would send her forth when she departed with joy and song. Who among her servants is as faithful as I? Why did she send me this letter?” It read as follows: