This is part of a series of posts that studies each of the commandments in the Torah (the first 5 books of the Jewish and Christian bibles), then maps them in a massive visual hierarchy that details their interconnected nature.
Have a look at:
The New Year
With Passover falling on the “14th day of the 1st month”, and Passover being just about 2 weeks away, whether you follow the traditional Jewish Hillel II calendar or the Karaite agricultural calendar, that means in the last day or two, we have entered the Biblical “beginning of months”, the Biblical new year. Just yesterday (March 17th, 2010), witnesses from Jerusalem spotted the new crescent moon, signaling the new month:
I wanted to look at the Torah and see where exactly is this bit about “beginning of months” that I’ve long heard about, and have witnessed so many silly calendar arguments over.
Let’s dig in.
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the 14th day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.
-Exodus 12:1-11
Exodus 12 details the first Passover in Egypt, a story most Jews and Christians are familiar with.
Maimonides interprets this commandment in a way that requires much extrapolation beyond the text:
Courts must calculate to determine when a new month begins.
-Maimonides’ interpretation of Exodus 12:2
A court must determine when the new month begins, says Maimonides. Well, the text doesn’t say that. One might extrapolate that from questioning and other texts, but this particular commandment says nothing about religious courts determining the beginning of months.
How was the new month traditionally determined?
Originally, the New Moon was not fixed by astronomical calculation, but was solemnly proclaimed after witnesses had testified to the reappearance of the crescent of the moon,”
-Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 12, p. 1039.
Of course, neither mainstream Judaism nor Christianity keep the Scriptural commandment here:
The Christian new year is January, per Pope Gregory XIII’s calendar.
The Jewish new year, civilly, is Rosh HaShana. That’s when everyone says “happy new year”. Almost no one considers the month where Passover falls as the new year, despite the commandment here to the contrary. Although some religious Jews might pay lip service and acknowledge it is the religious new year, you won’t find many Jews saying “happy new year” this time of year.
Also, as far as I know, mainstream Judaism does not have a centralized court set up to calculate the new month as Maimonides would recommend.
In other words, and generally speaking, Judaism is neither following this Scriptural commandment, nor following Maimonides’ instruction regarding this commandment. Fascinating!
**Update: In the comments to this post, fine blog reader Joseph tells me this is not true, there is a modern religious court, a sanhedrin, that is accepting witnesses for the new moon, then ruling for the new year. See Sanhedrin – Fixing the Calendar. That implies that Judaism, to some degree, is following Maimonides’ instruction regarding this commandment and following the spirit of the Scriptural commandment. I still hold, however, that greater Judaism rarely considers this the “new year”, and thus, personal observance of this commandment is almost non-existent in the world today.
Instead, mainstream Judaism, as well as much of Messianic Judaism, follows the Hillel II pre-calculated calendar to determine the new month. Most of the time it’s fairly accurate, including this year, when it actually aligns within a few days of the appearance of the new moon.
How do we interpret this for the greatest commandments project? It has been my preference to provide a more generalized, open-to-interpretation summary that remains faithful to the text, then let the reader specialize it as they see fit. I prefer that over providing a word-for-word copy of Maimonides’ summaries.
So, folks, here is the commandment as I see it:
Observe your new year in the first month, the month in which Passover falls.
-My summary of Exodus 12:2
That remains faithful to the text, and leaves open more specialized interpretations, such as Maimonides’.
Because this commandment lays the ground work for other times, seasons, and feasts, I’m deriving it directly from “Keep all God’s commandments”, and moving Feast-specific commandments to derive from this:
In the next day or two, we’ll look at the commandments for Unleavened Bread and Passover.
Happy Biblical New Year!