The Sun, the Moon, the Hebrew Calendar, and Eclipses

(14) God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate day from night; they shall serve as signs for the set times—the days and the years;

(15) and they shall serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth.” And it was so.

(16) God made the two great lights, the greater light to dominate the day and the lesser light to dominate the night, and the stars.

(17) And God set them in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth,

(18) to dominate the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that this was good.

(19) And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

(1) יהוה said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: (2) This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.

(3) Speak to the community leadership of Israel and say that on the tenth of this month each of them shall take a lamb to a family, a lamb to a household. (4) But if the household is too small for a lamb, let it share one with a neighbor who dwells nearby, in proportion to the number of persons: you shall contribute for the lamb according to what each household will eat. (5) Your lamb shall be without blemish, a yearling male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

(6) You shall keep watch over it until the fourteenth day of this month; and all the assembled congregation of the Israelites shall slaughter it at twilight. (7) They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they are to eat it.

(8) They shall eat the flesh that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. (9) Do not eat any of it raw, or cooked in any way with water, but roasted—head, legs, and entrails—over the fire. (10) You shall not leave any of it over until morning; if any of it is left until morning, you shall burn it.

(11) This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly: it is a passover offering to God

(12) For that night I will go through the land of Egypt and strike down every [male] first-born in the land of Egypt, both human and beast; and I will mete out punishments to all the gods of Egypt, I the LORD.

(13) And the blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a sign for you: when I see the blood I will pass over you, so that no plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

(14) This day shall be to you one of remembrance: you shall celebrate it as a festival to יהוה throughout the ages; you shall celebrate it as an institution for all time.

(15) Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. (16) You shall celebrate a sacred occasion on the first day, and a sacred occasion on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them; only what every person is to eat, that alone may be prepared for you. (17) You shall observe the [Feast of] Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your ranks out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day throughout the ages as an institution for all time.

(18) In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. (19) No leaven shall be found in your houses for seven days. For whoever eats what is leavened, that person—whether a stranger or a citizen of the country—shall be cut off from the community of Israel. (20) You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your settlements you shall eat unleavened bread.

(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.]

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. retirement from the “rat race,” means being able to formulate one’s own timetable.]

While you were enslaved, your days, hours, minutes even, were always at the beck and call of your taskmasters.

(1) The four new years are: On the first of Nisan, the new year for the kings and for the festivals; On the first of Elul, the new year for the tithing of animals; Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Shimon say, in the first of Tishrei. On the first of Tishrei, the new year for years, for the Sabbatical years and for the Jubilee years and for the planting and for the vegetables. On the first of Shevat, the new year for the trees, these are the words of the House of Shammai; The House of Hillel says, on the fifteenth thereof.

(Exodus 12:2) "This month shall be to you": Adam did not count by it (but by Tishrei, as the first month). You say this, but perhaps (the meaning is) "to you," but not to a gentile? (This cannot be, for) this is understood by "It (Nisan) is the first for you." How, then, am I to understand "to you"?

As to you, but not to Adam. We find, then, that Israel count by the moon, and the gentiles by the sun. Not only does Israel count by the moon, but once in thirty days (at the blessing of the New Moon) they lift their eyes to their Parent in heaven.

And an eclipse of the sun portends evil to the gentiles, who count by the sun; and an eclipse of the moon portends evil to Israel, who count by the moon.

Initially, the court would accept testimony to determine the start of the month from any person, as all are presumed to be qualified witnesses, absent any disqualifying factors.

However, when the Boethusians, a sect whose members had their own opinions with regard to the establishment of the Festivals, corrupted the process by sending false witnesses to testify about the new moon, the Sages instituted that they would accept this testimony only from those men familiar to the Sanhedrin as valid witnesses.

Initially, after the court sanctified the new month they would light torches on the mountaintops, from one peak to another, to signal to the community in Babylonia that the month had been sanctified. After the Samaritans corrupted and ruined this method by lighting torches at the wrong times to confuse the Jews, the Sages instituted that messengers should go out to the Diaspora and inform them of the start of the month.

Rabban Gamliel had, on a tablet, and on the walls of his loft, various drawings of the moon, which he showed to simple witnesses, and said, "Was it like this that you saw, or like the other one?"...

It also happened once that two witnesses came and said, "We saw the moon at its time (meaning, on the first of the two possible days), but it was not seen [afterwards], on the evening of its intercalation," and Rabban Gamliel accepted their testimony.

Rabbi Dosa ben Harkinus said, "They are false witnesses; how can they testify that a woman gave birth, and, on the next day that her 'womb was up to her her teeth'?"

Rabbi Yehoshua said to him, "I perceive the truth of your words."

Upon hearing this, Rabban Gamliel sent Rabbi Yehoshua word, saying, "I decree upon you to come to me with your staff and your money on the day that comes out to be Yom Kippur, according to your calculation."

Rabbi Akiva went to Rabbi Yehoshua, and found him grieving; he said to him, "I have something to teach, that all that Rabban Gamliel has done is done, as it is stated (Leviticus 23:4), 'These are the feasts of God, holy convocations which you shall proclaim;' whether at their proper time, or whether not at their proper time, I have no holy convocations except for the ones proclaimed by the court."

When he came to Rabbi Dosa ben Harkinus, the latter said to him, "If we are to question the decisions of the court of Rabban Gamliel, we must also question the decisions of all the courts which have stood, from the days of Moshe until today; as it is stated, (Exodus 24:2), 'Moshe, Aharon, Nadav, Avihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up.' Why were the names of the elders not specified? Rather it was to teach, that every three that form ‏a court to be responsible over Israel, behold that court is to be considered like the court of Moshe."

After this, Rabbi Yehoshua took his staff and his money in his hand, and went to Yavneh to Rabban Gamliel on the day that came out to be Yom Kippur, according to his calculation.

Rabban Gamliel stood up, and kissed him on his head, and he said to him, "Come in peace, my teacher and my disciple! My teacher — in wisdom; and my disciple — in that you accepted my words."

Rava further said to the Elders of Pumbedita: And I can say my reason and your reason. Your reason is that since Shabbat is established and permanent, i.e., it always occurs on the seventh day of the week, both in prayers and in kiddush one should recite: Who sanctifies Shabbat. It is not necessary for Israel to sanctify Shabbat, as it is permanently sanctified by God.

Conversely, with regard to a Festival, as it is Israel who establishes it, as the Sages add extra days to certain months and establish years by intercalating them, one recites: Who sanctifies Israel and the seasons. This is Rava’s explanation of the reason for the ruling of the Elders of Pumbedita.

The Sages taught: When the sun is eclipsed it is a bad omen for the entire world. A parable: to what is this matter comparable? To a king of flesh and blood who prepared a feast for his servants and placed a lantern before them. He became angry at them and said to his servant: Take the lantern from before them and seat them in darkness.

On account of four things is the sun in eclipse; on account of an chief justice who died and was not fittingly mourned; on account of a betrothed maiden who cried out aloud in the city and there was none to rescue her; on account of sexual impropriety; and on account of two brothers whose blood was shed at the same time.

If, during an eclipse, the visage of the sun is red like blood, it is an omen that sword, i.e., war, is coming to the world.

f the sun is black like sackcloth made of dark goat hair, it is an omen that arrows of hunger are coming to the world, because hunger darkens people’s faces.

When it is similar both to this, to blood, and to that, to sackcloth, it is a sign that both sword and arrows of hunger are coming to the world.

If it was eclipsed upon its entry, soon after rising, it is an omen that calamity is tarrying to come. If the sun is eclipsed upon its departure at the end of the day, it is an omen that calamity is hastening to come.

And some say the matters are reversed: An eclipse in the early morning is an omen that calamity is hastening, while an eclipse in the late afternoon is an omen that calamity is tarrying.

And they will serve as signs. When there is an eclipse of the luminaries it is a bad sign for the world, as it is said: “Do not fear the signs from the heavens, etc.” i.e., when you do the will of God, you need not worry about retribution.