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Calendar

Control the Calendar, Control Judaism

Calendrical disputes, which recurred frequently in ancient and medieval Jewish communities, created alternative dates for festivals such as Yom Kippur and Passover. Here, we look at four disputes and the different ways that communities navigated them. 

Dr.

Sarit Kattan Gribetz

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From the Primordial Light to Shabbat: How Creation Became Seven Days

The creation account was divided in the post-exilic period into six days to provide an etiology for Shabbat. This necessitated creating light on day one to distinguish between day and night. In turn, it required assigning significance to the sun and moon on day four beyond their role as sources of light.

Prof.

Christoph Berner

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Enuma Elish: Babylonia’s Creation Myth and the Enthronement of Marduk

The new year and Akitu festivals in Babylonia were celebrated in the spring, during which the high priest of Marduk’s Esagil temple would read the Babylonian creation story, Enuma Elish. This narrative tells how the young god Marduk became king of the gods by saving them from Tiamat and her army of monsters.

Prof.

Wayne Horowitz

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The Hasmonean Calendar Begins with the Rule of Simon the High Priest, 142 B.C.E.

Chanukah commemorates the rededication of the Temple by Judah Maccabee in 164 B.C.E. But the war continued for another 22 years until the Seleucid King Demetrius appointed Simon as High Priest of Judea. To mark their new autonomy, the Judeans use the high priest’s regnal years, like that of a biblical king, to date their documents.

Dr.

Rotem Avneri Meir

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Deuteronomy’s Festival Calendar

The festival calendar in Deuteronomy 16 began as a short revision of the calendar in Exodus 23. As it was expanded to clarify and adjust its details, it merged its springtime Matzot festival with the Pesach offering, which was originally connected to the consecration of firstborn animals.

Prof.

Reinhard G. Kratz

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Priests & Rabbis Determine Ritual Reality

The Torah allows the removal of vessels from a house before the priest quarantines it for tzaraʿat, understanding impurity here not as the result of physical reality but of a human declaration. This idea is developed further by the rabbis, who apply it to other areas of Jewish law.

Prof.

Martha Himmelfarb

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The Paradox of Pesach Sheni

As a historical commemoration, Passover is tied to a specific date. Nevertheless, the Torah gives a make-up date for bringing the offering a month later. Gerim, non-Israelites living among Israelites as equals, are also allowed to bring this offering, even though it wasn’t their ancestors who were freed. How do we make sense of these anomalies?  

Prof.

Steven Fraade

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The Genesis of Time

The simple meaning of Genesis 1–2:4 is that God created the world out of primordial elements. And yet, one important new initiative was the construction of time, embracing the day, the month, the year, and the week. The week, however, does not depend on a cosmic phenomenon but served to introduce the concept of a people holy to a creator God.

Prof.

Jack M. Sasson

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What Is the Bible’s Calendar?

The Torah prescribes the observance of festivals on very specific dates, but does not explain how the calendar must be reckoned: Is it lunar? Is it solar? Does it follow some other scheme? And why is the Torah silent on this?

Prof.

Sacha Stern

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Is the Autumn Ingathering Festival at the Beginning, Middle, or End of the Year?

The Feast of Ingathering is “at the tzet (צֵאת) of the year” (Exod 23:16). This phrase is generally translated as “the end of the year,” but a closer look at the meaning of the Hebrew verb in biblical Hebrew suggests it may mean the beginning.

Harvey N. Bock

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Does a Day Begin in the Evening?

Close reading of the relevant biblical texts uncovers friction, maybe momentous historical reform.

Dr. Hacham

Isaac S. D. Sassoon

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The Three Shavuot Festivals of Qumran: Wheat, Wine, and Oil

Throughout the Bible, we find that the land of Israel is blessed with grain, wine, and oil (דגן, תירוש, ויצהר). In the Torah, however, the festival of Bikkurim, “First Produce,” only celebrates the wheat harvest. In the Temple Scroll, the Essenes rewrote the biblical festival calendar to include two further bikkurim festivals to celebrate wine and oil.

Prof.

Marvin A. Sweeney

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The Essence of the Hebrew Calendar

The Hebrew calendar marks multiple news year’s days to express different values: nature and history, universal and particular.

Prof.

Aaron Demsky

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The First Month of the Year

A cornerstone of the Jewish luni-solar calendar or a commandment about the order of months?

Prof.

Jonathan Ben-Dov

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The Historical Uniqueness and Centrality of Yom Kippur

Prof.

Isaac Kalimi

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On the Origins of Purim and Its Assyrian Name

In the book of Esther, the name for the holiday Purim derives from Haman’s pūr (פּוּר, “lot”) to determine what day to attack the Jews. The name Purim predates the story of Haman’s lot, and may originate in a forgotten Assyrian calendrical celebration, when the new year was named with a pūru.

Dr.

Amitai Baruchi-Unna

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Why Do We Eat Matzah in the Spring?

To mark the new year of grain and ensure the bountiful wheat harvest to come. But why do we remove all our chametz (leaven)?

Dr.

Yael Avrahami

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The Origins of Sukkot

The connection between the Israelite festival of Sukkot in the temple and the Ugaritic new year festival and its dwellings of branches for the gods.  

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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The Elephantine Passover Papyrus: Darius II Delays the Festival of Matzot

A new look at the “Passover Papyrus” from Elephantine and the nature of the Hebrew calendar in the Achaemenid Empire.

Prof.

Idan Dershowitz

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Megillat Ta’anit and Its Scholion (Commentary)

A Brief Introduction

Prof.

Vered Noam

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When Does Counting the Omer Begin?

The omer or “sheaf” offering takes place ממחרת השבת, “after the Shabbat” (Leviticus 23:15). Jewish interpreters have debated the exact meaning of this phrase for two millennia, resulting in four different dates being adopted by one Jewish sect or another.

Prof.

Marvin A. Sweeney

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Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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The Jewish Calendar in Jubilees

A 364 Day Solar Year

Prof.

Michael Segal

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Biblical Exegesis as a Source of Jewish Pluralism: The Case of the Karaites

Karaism is often characterized by its rejection of the Talmud in favor of a super-literalist interpretation of the Torah. But Karaism is better understood as an alternate, parallel form of Judaism based on the Bible.

Prof.

Daniel J. Lasker

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