What or When is Jewish Time

And the LORD spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying: ’This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: On the tenth day of this month you shall take, every man, a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household; ...

(1) החודש הזה לכם ראש חדשים, from now on these months will be yours, to do with as you like. [you have My authority to organise your own calendar. Ed.] This is by way of contrast to the years when you were enslaved when you had no control over your time or timetable at all. [Freedom, i.e. means being able to formulate one’s own timetable. Ed.] While you were enslaved, your days, hours, minutes even, were always at the beck and call of your taskmasters. Therefore, this is the first of the months of the year, since this begins your time of freedom.

Our Rabbis taught: As to twilight [period] it is doubtful whether it is partly day or partly night, or the whole of it [belongs to the] day, or the whole of it night...And what is twilight? From sunset as long as the face of the east has a reddish glow: when the lower [horizon] is dark but not the upper, it is twilight; [but] when the upper [horizon] is dark and the same as the lower, it is night: this is the opinion of R. Judah.

(6) Ten things were created on the eve of the [first] Sabbath at twilight, And these are they: [1] The mouth of the earth [2] The mouth of the well [3] The mouth of the donkey [4] The rainbow [5] The manna [6] The rod [7] The Shamir [8] The letters, [9] The writing, and [10] The tablets . And some say: Also the destructive spirits, And the burial place of Moses, our teacher, And the ram of Abraham, our father. And some say: Also the tongs, made with tongs.

(1) To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: (2) A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; (3) A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and a time to build up; (4) A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance; (5) A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; (6) A time to seek, and a time to lose; A time to keep, and a time to cast away; (7) A time to rend, and a time to sew; A time to keep silence, and a time to speak; (8) A time to love, and a time to hate; A time for war, and a time for peace.

(2) At first, bonfires were lighted on the tops of the mountains [to transmit the appearance of the new moon]; but when the Cutheans [the Samaritans] corrupted [the process], it was ordained that messengers should be sent out.

(3) How were these mountain fires lighted? They brought long staves of cedar wood, and shoots, and sticks from oil trees, and the scraps of flax, which were [all] tied on the top of [the staves] with twine; [with these, the court's agent] went to the top of the mountain, and lighted the fire; and waved them to and fro, upward and downward, until he could see his fellow, [and] that [the latter] was doing the same on the top of the next mountain; and so too, [this process was repeated with regards to the next fellow] on the top of the third mountain.