By Prof. Sacha Stern
Source: The Torah
Photo Source: Unsplash,
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?
Creation of the Sun, Moon and Stars, Johann Sadeler, after Maerten de Vos, 1639. Rijkmuseum
As part of its introduction to the Pesach offering, Exodus 12:2 declares that the month in which the exodus from Egypt will occur should be counted as the first month of the year:
שמות יב:ב הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם רֹאשׁ חֳדָשִׁים רִאשׁוֹן הוּא לָכֶם לְחָדְשֵׁי הַשָּׁנָה.
Exod 12:2 This month is unto you the beginning of months; it is to you the first of the months of the year.
The text here does not define the month of the exodus, though other passages clarify that it is the month of Aviv (Exod 13:4, 23:15, 34:18, Deut 16:1). The word aviv refers to a stage of ripening of the crops (see Exod 9:31), suggesting that the month of Aviv is sometime in the spring. Yet, the Torah does not clarify exactly when this month, or any other month of the year, begins and ends.
This is rather strange. Severe punishments are prescribed for those who transgress the festivals; yet we are not told how the calendar works, and thus the dates when these festivals are supposed to fall. This ambiguity is highlighted by a debate between two medieval commentators about whether the Torah assumes a lunar or solar calendar.
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