Weekly Torah Study: Pinchas 5785/2025

This part of Parshat Pinchas will be familiar to many who have attended Rosh Chodesh & holiday services throughout the year. The Maftir readings particular to these days primarily come from this part of the parsha.

NEW-YEAR.

By: Isidore Singer, J. F. McLaughlin, Wilhelm Bacher, Judah David Eisenstein:

In the earliest times the Hebrew year began in autumn with the opening of the economic year. There followed in regular succession the seasons of seed-sowing, growth and ripening of the corn under the influence of the former and the latter rains, harvest and ingathering of the fruits. In harmony with this was the order of the great agricultural festivals, according to the oldest legislation, namely, the feast of unleavened bread at the beginning of the barley harvest, in the month of Abib; the feast of harvest, seven weeks later; and the feast of ingathering at the going out or turn of the year (; see Ex. xxiii. 14-17; xxxiv. 18, 22-23; Deut. xvi. 1-16).

The Regnal Year.

The regnal year was evidently reckoned in the same way as late as the end of the seventh century B.C. This is evident from the account of the eighteenth year of King Josiah, in which only by such a reckoning can sufficient time be allowed for the events of that year which precede the celebration of the Passover, assuming, of course, that the Passover was celebrated at the usual time in the spring (II Kings xxii. 3, xxiii. 21-23). Only in the same way can the fourth year of Jehoiakim be made to synchronize with the twenty-first year of Nabopolassar, in which the battle of Carchemish was fought, and also with the first year of Nebuchadrezzar, the Babylonian year having been reckoned from the spring (Jer. xxv. 1, xlvi. 2). The second half of the Hebrew year would thus correspond to the first half of the Babylonian year. In Ezek. xl. 1 the prophet has his vision at the beginning of the year, apparently in the month of Tishri. The Levitical law places the beginning of the Sabbatical year in the autumn, on the tenth day of the seventh month, according to the later reckoning (Lev. xxv. 9). It has been pointed out also that the story of the Flood places the beginning of the deluge on the seventeenth day of the second month, which would, on an autumn reckoning, coincide with the beginning of the rainy season (Gen. vii. 11; Josephus, "Ant." i. 3, § 3).

Possibly Two Modes of Reckoning.

There is much difference of opinion as to whether or not there was in preexilic times a second mode of reckoning from the vernal equinox. This inference has been drawn from such passages as II Sam. xi. 1, I Kings xx. 22, 26, and II Chron. xxxvi. 10. The expression used here, "at the return of the year," is, however, sufficiently explained as "the time when kings go out"; that is to say, the usual time for opening a military campaign. Of course if the law of the Passover (Ex. xii. 1; Lev. xxiii. 5; Num. ix. 1-5, xxviii. 16-17) is pre-exilic, the question admits of no further argument. It seems, however, to be now very generally accepted that this law in its present form is not earlier than the sixth century and that it represents post-exilic practise. According to this legislation, which henceforth prevailed, the month Abib, or Nisan (March-April), became the first of the year. It is possible that this change was due, in part at least, to the influence of the Babylonian sacred year, which likewise began with the month Nisan. It appears, however, that the festival of the New-Year continued to be observed in the autumn, perhaps originally on the tenth, and later on the first day of the seventh month, Tishri. Josephus asserts (l.c. i. 3, § 3) that while Moses appointed Nisan to be the first month for the sacred festivals and other solemnities, he preserved the original order of the months for buying and selling and for the transaction of other business. The Seleucidan calendar, from 312 B.C., placed the beginning of the year in the autumn; but it appears that the Palestinian Jews still reckoned from the spring and dated the Seleucidan era according to that reckoning (see Schürer, "The Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ," 2d ed., Eng. transl., I. i 36-46, on the dates in the Books of Maccabees; comp. Esth. iii. 7).https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11499-new-year

"A pleasing odor to God"...

Elokim arose at the sound of truah, but Hashem at the sound of the shofar. Since the term truah is found in the Torah in connection with Rosh Hashanah, whereas only the term shofar is found in connection with Yom kippur, the hint is reasonably clear. If, as we said before, Samael, i.e Satan, has no control over man on Yom Kippur, as long as man exploits the day properly, it follows that he who ignores the opportunity presented by that day will fall irretrievable victim to Samael. This is the "bribe" that G'd gave to Satan. The attribute of mercy, when ignored, causes utter destruction of the soul for all those who have ignored it. A hint of all this is found in the numerical value of the word "Satan." It adds up to 364, i.e. Satan has control on 364 days of the year, not on the 365th day, the Day of Atonement. (Yuma 19) - Akedat Yitzchak 63:1:14

The Torah did not content itself with writing אותו, "him," but wrote instead את משה, although the word "him" would have been quite unmistakable. The reason is that we deal with an independent statement by the Torah, i.e. a testimony by the Torah that what Moses conveyed to the people was exactly what G'd had commanded him to convey. It was not merely what Moses thought that G'd had commanded him to convey. - Or Ha'Chaim