What's Wrong with the Jewish Calendar?
What's All This Furor over
"POSTPONEMENTS"?
Are the
"postponements" added to the sacred calendar
in the
fourth century of the present era justified?
Did
Hillel II
and his compatriots in 358 A.D. wisely add new
regulations
to the calendar, causing Yom Kippur to never
fall on a
Friday or Sunday, or Hoshana Rabbah never to
fall on a
weekly Sabbath? What about these
so-called
"postponements"? WHY were they added? Were they
observed in
the days of the
observed
during the time of Jesus Christ?
William
F. Dankenbring
The apostle Paul declared, “What
advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly because that unto them were
committed the ORACLES OF GOD. For what
if some did not believe? Will their
unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but EVERY MAN a
liar. As it is written, ‘That You may be
justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged’” (Rom.3:3-4).
Jesus Christ also affirmed,
"The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you
observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not" (Matt.23:2-3).
How do these statements relate to
the Jewish calendar? Everybody admits
that the Jewish calendar today is far different from the calendar of Biblical
times. It is based on mathematical
formulas, whereas in Christ's time the calendar was based on observations of
the new moon every month. The calendar
was changed in 358 A.D. by Hillel II and his compatriots, because of the fear
that the Jewish religion would become extinct, due to persecution of the
Romans, and due to the widespread scattering of Jewish communities throughout
the world, which would have no central authority. Jews had been banished from
Therefore, the Jewish authorities
decided to make public the calendar calculations which had been kept secret for
generations, so that the calendar principles would not be lost. However, they did much more than that. They also devised and added NEW calendar
rules never heard of in the time of the second
Was
this change in the holy calendar justified?
Was it "kosher"?
Some would say, "Yes, because
the Jews sat in Moses' seat."
However, does the fact that the Pharisees sat in Moses' seat give them
authority to CHANGE THE CALENDAR? Daniel
warns us about those who would "seek to change times and laws" (Dan.7:25).
Concerning Jesus' remarks in Matthew
23, where He said the Pharisees sat in Moses' seat, the Critical-Experimental
Commentary has this to say:
". . . the scribes and Pharisees
sit. The Jewish teachers stood to
read, but sat to expound
the
Scriptures . . . in Moses' seat -- that is, as INTERPRETERS OF THE LAW
given by
Moses. All therefore -- that is, all which,
as sitting in that seat and teaching out of that
law,
they bid you observe,
that observe and do. The word 'therefore' is thus, it will be
seen,
of great importance, AS LIMITING THOSE INJUNCTIONS HE WOULD HAVE
THEM
OBEY AS TO WHAT THEY FETCHED FROM THE LAW ITSELF. In requiring
implicit
obedience to such injunctions, He would have them to recognize the authority
with
which they taught over and above the the obligation of the law itself -- an
important
principle
truly; but HE WHO DENOUNCED THE TRADITIONS OF SUCH TEACHERS
(ch.15:3)
CANNOT HAVE MEANT HERE TO THROW HIS SHIELD OVER THESE.
It
is remarked by Webster and Wilkinson that the warning to beware of the
scribes is given
by
Mark and Luke WITHOUT ANY QUALIFICATION; the charge to respect and obey
them
being reported by Matthew alone. . . ."
In other words, we should obey the injunctions of the
scribes and Pharisees so long as they are in accord and agreement with
Scripture itself! But when they
begin to contradict the laws of Moses, or misinterpret them, then we must
"obey GOD rather than men" (Acts
Adam Clarke's Commentary says along
the same lines:
"Verse 2. The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses'
seat. -- They sat there formerly
by
Divine appointment; they sit there now by Divine permission.
What our Lord
says
here refers to their expounding the Scriptures, for it was the custom of the
Jewish
doctors to sit while they expounded the law and prophets
(chap.5:1; Luke 4:
20-22)
and to stand up when they read them.
"By
the seat of Moses, we are to understand authority to teach the law. Moses was
the
great teacher of the Jewish people; and the scribes, etc., are here represented
as
his
successors.
"Verse
3. All therefore whatsoever. That
is, all those things which they read out
of
the law and the prophets, and all things which they teach CONSISTENTLY
WITH
THEM. This must be our Lord's
meaning: He could not have desired them
to
do everything, without restriction, which the Jewish doctors taught; because
himself
WARNS his disciples AGAINST THEIR FALSE TEACHING, AND TESTI-
FIES
THAT THEY HAD MADE THE WORD OF GOD OF NONE EFFECT BY
THEIR
TRADITIONS. See chapter 15:6, etc. Besides, as our Lord speaks here
in
the past tense -- whatsoever they HAVE commanded -- he may refer to the
teaching
of a former period, when they taught the word of God in truth, or were
much
less corrupted than they were now."
Remember, we cannot use one Scripture to contradict another
one! "The Scripture cannot be
broken" (John
This overall fact being
acknowledged, however, another question remains. What about the "postponements"
which were added to the overall Jewish calendar in 358 A.D. by Hillel II and
his rabbinical associates? Remember,
these additions were made to the calendar laws THREE CENTURIES AFTER the time
of Christ and the apostles! Are these
laws binding upon us today? Should God's
Church be bound to follow the modern "Jewish calendar" and all its
additions and "postponements"?
This is another question altogether,
and needs investigating!
What about this matter of calendar
"postponements"?
But What about
"Postponements"?
How, then, should we view questions
about the "postponements"?
First, let's carefully notice just what these "postponements"
are.
Notice! Arthur Spier in The Comprehensive Hebrew
Calendar tells us:
"12.
These are the four Dehioth (postponements):
"a. When the Molad Tishri occurs on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday,
Rosh
Hashanah
is postponed to the following day.
"b.
When the Molad Tishri
occurs at
to
the next day. (Or if this day is a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday, to Monday, Thursday
or
Sabbath because of Dehiah a.)
"c.
When the Molad Tishri of
a common year falls on Tuesday, 204 parts after
i.e.,
3d 9h 204p or later, Rosh Hashanah is postponed to Wednesday, and, because of
Debiah
a., further postponed to Thursday.
"d.
When, in a common year
succeeding a leap year, the Molad Tishri occurs on Monday
morning
589 parts after
to
the next day."
Spier goes on:
"Dehiah
a mainly fulfills the following three religious requirements: Yom Kippur
(Tishri
10) shall not occur on the day before or after the Sabbath and Hoshana Rabbah
(Tishri
21) shall not occur on the Sabbath.
"By tradition the Hebrew
calendar year must be of a certain number of days, neither
more
nor less, which accomplishes the balancing of the solar year with the lunar,
according
to the rule of intercalation. To make
Dehioth a and b possible,
so as to
postpone
Rosh Hashanah by 2 days occasionally, Dehioth c and d
were established,
so
that in such a case a year will not be too short or too long" (Spier, p.15, emphasis
mine
except in the final paragraph).
Arthur Spier points out the fact of postponements, when they occur,
but not much about the why. The
"why" of postponements is explained more in another volume, Understanding
the Jewish Calendar, by Rabbi Nathan Bushwick. He writes:
"The
second dechiah prevents Yom Kippur from falling the day before or the
day
after
Shabbos. This is avoided so that
there will not be two days in a row on
which
it is forbidden to prepare food or do the other sorts of work that are
permitted
on Yom Tov. Since Yom Kippur is one week and two days after Rosh
Hashanah,
Rosh Hashanah cannot fall on Wednesday or Friday in order that Yom
Kippur
not fall on Friday or Sunday. The second
dechiah also prevents Hoshanah
Rabbah
from falling on Shabbos, in which case we would not be able to perform
the
custom of Arava and the seven hakofos. In order to prevent this, Rosh
Hashanah
is not permitted to fall on Sunday.
"There
are therefore three days, Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, on which Rosh
Hashanah
can never fall. If the molad falls
on one of these days, then Rosh Hashanah
is
nidcheh -- pushed off -- until the next day. In case the molad falls after
on
Shabbos, Tuesday or Thursday, Rosh Hashanah is pushed off one day because
it
is a molad zoken, and since that would put it on one of the three days
on which it
cannot
fall, it is pushed off yet another day.
In such a case we find that Rosh Hashanah
has
been postponed two days from the molad (Understanding the Jewish
Calendar,
p.80-81,
bold emphasis mine).
Now let's notice these "postponements" more
closely.
In the days of Hillel II, the Jewish
leadership had already rejected Christ as the Messiah. They had rejected His reinterpretation of the
Sabbath laws. He was much more
permissive and lenient, and Himself "broke" their stringent Sabbath
regulations (see Mark 2:23-28; Matthew 12:1-8; Luke 6:1-11; John 5:1-10,
16). Jesus said many of their
"Sabbath laws" were a yoke of bondage, contrary to God's original
intent.
However, in the centuries that
followed, the Jewish leaders became even more hostile toward the Christian elements
in their society. Messianic Jews were
banished from the synagogues following the rebellion in 70 A.D. By 135 A.D., a "CURSE" had been
written into the daily synagogue prayer, the Amidah. This "curse" was against all
"heretics" and "Nazarenes" -- meaning those who followed
Jesus Christ, the "Nazarene."
By the time of Hillel II, Judaism
had become more and more legalistic. To
the legalistic Jewish leaders, if you celebrated Yom Kippur on a Friday, a day
of mourning and repentance of sin, you could not leap right into a festive day
of joy and rejoicing that very Friday evening. Therefore, they moved the Day
of Atonement, so it could not fall on a Friday!
Stroke of a pen -- change in a
divine law! How this must have made them
feel powerful, and authoritative!
"Kinda cool," as some might say, today!
The rabbis reasoned, how could you
prepare food, and a meal fit for a king, for that Sabbath evening, if you were
fasting on Friday?
And what about celebrating Yom
Kippur right on the heels of the weekly Sabbath? If you had been celebrating the Sabbath with
joy and rejoicing, and that very evening Yom Kippur begins, the Jews felt that
you would have no opportunity to "prepare" for it -- to get into the
right mental and spiritual frame of mind, repenting of sins, and fasting. They reasoned, how can you jump immediately
from feasting to fasting? Or, from
fasting to feasting -- without a day in between?
The Jewish Book of WHY has
this to say about the "postponements":
"Why does the first day of Rosh Hashana never fall on a
Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday?
'When the
calendar was finally issued by Hillel II in 359 C.E., it was arranged so that
the holidays
would not interfere with the observance of the Sabbath and so that the
Sabbath would
not interfere with holiday observance.
"If Rosh
Hashana (1 Tishri) were to fall on a Wednesday, Yom Kippur (10 Tishri) would
fall on a Friday. If Yom Kippur were to
fall on a Friday, that would
make it
impossible for Jews to prepare for the Sabbath.
"If Rosh
Hashana were to fall on a Friday, Yom Kippur would fall on a Sunday, which
would allow
no time for Jews observing the Sabbath to prepare for Yom Kippur, which
would begin
immediately after the Sabbath" (p.227-228).
Nevertheless, the question
remains: Is this reasoning of the Jewish
leaders really sound-minded, according to the Scriptures? Or were the decisions on these
"postponements" added to the calendar laws because of Jewish legalism
and false thinking?
Solomon wrote: "There is a way which seemeth right unto
a man, but the end thereof are the ways of DEATH" (Proverbs
The Jewish Book of WHY also
explains about the postponement for Hoshana Rabba, the seventh and final day of
the Feast of Tabernacles:
"Rosh
Hashana never falls on a Sunday because that would mean that Hoshana Rabba
(the
last day of Sukkot, which always falls on 21 Tishri) would fall on a
Saturday, which
would
not be desirable.
"In
talmudic times Hoshana Rabba was regarded as a day much like Yom Kippur. It
brought
to an end the long holiday period beginning with Rosh Hashana, and was con-
sidered
to be the one final opportunity to reverse an unfavorable decree issued against
the
individual on the High Holidays. If
Hoshana Rabba were to fall on the Sabbath,
this
would interfere with the ceremony of beating a bunch of hoshanot (willows)
during
the
synagogue services, an action forbidden on the Sabbath. Beating the willows was
an
act of self-flagellation and a sign of remorse, similar to the malkot ceremony
practiced
on
Yom Kippur" (p.228).
Here again, this postponement was
made due to Jewish Sabbath halacha -- the stringent and onerous Jewish Sabbath
rules. Jesus Christ did NOT endorse the
Jewish Sabbath technical regulations and restrictions, but rather He reproved
the Jewish religious leaders for making the Sabbath a "yoke of
bondage" (compare Matt.15 and Mark 7).
He upbraided and censored them over their "traditions of the
elders"!
A Look at Psalm 81
The Talmud has a story, much like a
parable, to teach us a sublime and precious truth about the calendar. Writes Arthur Herzog in Judaism:
"Rabbi Pinhas and Rabbi Hilkiah said in the name of
Rabbi Simon: Each year
all of the
ministering angels appear before the Holy One, praised be He, and ask:
'Lord of the
Universe When does Rosh Hashanah occur this year?' And He answers
them, 'Why do
you ask Me? Let us inquire of the
earthly court' (which in ancient
times set the
date of each new month and thus the entire calendar).
"Rabbi
Hoshayah taught: When the earthly court
decrees 'Today is Rosh Hashanah,'
the Holy One,
praised be He, tells the ministering angels, 'Set up the court room, and
let the
attorneys for defense and prosecution take their places, for My children have
stated 'Today
is Rosh Hashanah.' But if the earthly
court should reconsider and decide
that the
following day should be declared the first of the year, the Holy One, praised
be
He, tells the
ministering angels, 'Set up the court room and let the attorneys for prosecution
and defense take their places on the
morrow, for My children have reconsidered
and decided that tomorrow is to be declared the first of the year.'
"What is
the reason for this? 'For it is a statute
in Israel, an ordinance of the God of
Jacob' [Psalm
81:5]. However, if it is not a statute
in Israel, it is not an ordinance [for]
the God of
Jacob" (Judaism, "The Cycle of the Year," p.191-192).
No doubt this was a basic, true principle, during the time
of Christ, and the Second Temple period. Let's notice Psalm 81 more
closely. What is God telling us
here? Beginning in verse 3, God says,
"Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our
solemn FEAST DAY. For this was a statute
in ISRAEL, and a law of the God of Jacob" (Psa.81:3-4, KJV).
"In the time appointed"
means the time or date that GOD appointed (His "appointed feasts"
-- see Lev.23:2-4). Obviously, the
blowing of the trumpet occurs primarily on the "Feast of Trumpets,"
the "Day of Blowing," called Rosh Hashanah (the "head of
the year"), and Yom Teruah (the "day of blowing"). The new moon of this date determines the rest
of the entire year.
But notice the sequence, then. First, God "appoints" the day. Then,. determining the new moon or Tishri 1,
the "Feast of Trumpets," was the duty of the children of Israel --
first, THEY declared the new year, making it a "statute," a
"statute of Israel." Then,
once they have done that, God Himself endorsed their action -- their decision
became "a law of the God of Jacob."
This passage of Scripture shows that
God normally backs up His priests and the elders and judges of His people when
they make decisions based and founded in His Law regarding His sacred
calendar! But if they make decisions contrary to
the Law, then their decisions are NOT VALID OR LEGALLY BINDING!
But what about their decisions
concerning the "postponements"?
Should we follow the Jewish authorities on these matters as well?
Whose AUTHORITY "Counts"?
As the servants of God, we are
required by God's own authority to preach the TRUTH, and adhere to the TRUTH,
no matter what the Jews do! Yes, they do
sit in Moses' seat. But their authority
is not compulsory, if they teach contrary to the Torah, the Scriptures, and the
Law of God! In such cases, we must
evaluate carefully what they are teaching, and analyze it in the light of the
Scriptures themselves.
As Isaiah the prophet wrote: "To the law and to the
testimony: If they speak not according
to THIS WORD [THE SCRIPTURES], there is NO LIGHT in them" (Isaiah
8:20).
Jesus Christ plainly gave His
apostles the power and authority to make halachic decisions whenever
necessary, upon this earth. He plainly
said, "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed
in heaven" (Matt.16:19). This
authority was given to His true apostles and the true leaders of His
Church! In cases where Jewish
authorities go astray, or wrongly interpet the laws of God, the apostles and
leaders of the Church Jesus founded have authority from Him to "bind and
to loose" -- to explain what is Scriptural and obligatory, and what is
not! Compare also Matthew 18:18 and John
2023. God's TRUE ministry has authority to "bind and loose." But again, this authority must be used in
accordance with and agreement with the LAW and Scriptures of God -- according
to TRUTH!
The apostle Paul warns us that we
must beware, "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices"
(II Cor.2:11). One of his greatest
weapons is to appeal to human pride and vanity -- personal
"ego." We must beware of the
"pride" of the "novice" who thinks he knows more than he
really does.
The so-called "calendar
experts" -- and there are many of them -- have fallen victim to Satan's
seduction and suggestions that appeal to human vanity.
We ought to thank God for the Jews,
who have preserved and safeguarded His holy, sacred calendar, and brought it to
us so that we can know when God's "holy festivals" and appointed
times occur. But when it comes to the
matter of the "postponements," we need to be very careful and
circumspect. As Paul wrote, "See
then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as WISE, redeeming the TIME,
because the days are evil" (Eph.5:15-16)..
Are the "postponements"
valid today?
The
Calendar in Christ's Time
Hillel II did not invent a "new" calendar in 358 A.D. Rather, because of onerous Roman persecution
against the Jews, in order to preserve the calendar and Jewish unity amongst
the Diaspora, Hillel II and the rabbinical council agreed to make the
age-old calendar calculations, used to verify the visual sightings of the new
moons each month, which had come down from the time of Aaron and Moses, public
information, so that the sacred calendar would never be lost, even during the
galut, or time of Jewish dispersion and banishment from the land of Israel.
Hillel's publication of this
knowledge in no way "destroyed" the sacred calendar. Rather, it preserved
the calendar by making it possible for generations to come to verify the
true dates of the calendar, leap years, and new moons, and annual holy days,
without the need of a Sanhedrin, or an official court to do "new
moon" observances from Jerusalem, during the many centuries during which
the Jews were banished from living in Jerusalem!
As we have already seen, Arthur
Spier in The Comprehensive Jewish Calendar tells us what happened.
Originally, he says, the beginning of months was determined by direct
observation of the new moon from Jerusalem.
These dates were then announced and sanctified by the Sanhedrin, or
Jewish Supreme Court in Jerusalem, after witnesses had testified they had seen
the new crescent, and after their testimony had been "thoroughly examined,
confirmed by calculation, and duly accepted." Let's review Arthur Spier's seminal points
one final time:
Spier explains:
"A special committee of the Sanhedrin, with its president as
chairman, had the
mandate to
regulate and balance the solar with the lunar years. This so-called
Calendar
Council (Sod Haibbur) calculated the beginnings of the seasons (Tekufoth)
on the basis
of astronomical figures which had been HANDED DOWN AS A
TRADITION OF
OLD . . ." (Spier, The
Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, p.1).
Spier tells us what the Jews had to do in the fourth
century to preserve the calendar. He asserts:
"This method of observation and intercalation was in use
throughout the period of
the second temple
(516 B.C.E.-70 C.E.), and about three centuries after its destruc-
tion, as
long as there was an independent Sanhedrin.
In the FOURTH CENTURY,
however, when
oppression and persecution threatened the continued existence of
the
Sanhedrin, the patriarch Hillel II took an extraordinary step to PRESERVE
THE UNITY OF
ISRAEL. In order to PREVENT the Jews
scattered all over the
surface of
the earth from celebrating their new moons, festivals and holidays at
DIFFERENT
TIMES, he made PUBLIC the system of calendar calculation which
up to then
had been a CLOSELY GUARDED SECRET. . . .
"In accordance with this system,
Hillel II formally sanctified all months in advance,
and
intercalated all future leap years until such time as a new, recognized
Sanhedrin
would be
established in Israel" (p.2).
These facts confirm the usage of the
Hebrew calendar calculations, therefore, to ascertain the dates of Passover,
and the other holy days and new moons, in the years before Hillel II, including
the holy day dates during the time of Jesus Christ. They give us a clear view of why certain
changes were made in the fourth century.
What about the "Postponements" in
the Calendar?
However, what about the "postponements" added to
the calendar by Hillel II and the Sanhedrin of his time? Rabbi Hillel II did institute certain changes
in the calendar, when going from an observational calendar to a mathematical
one. The major change he inaugurated was
the introduction of "postponements" of the New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and
subsequent holy days.
Accordingly, when the molad (new
moon) of Tishri occurs on a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday, the 1st of Tishri is
postponed to the following day. This
legality was introduced mainly to prevent Yom Kippur occurring on the day before
or after the weekly Sabbath, and to prevent Hoshanah Rabbah (the seventh day of
the Feast of Tabernacles) from occurring on a Sabbath.
This change or innovation was
supposedly made, based on the authority given to the Sanhedrin to interpret and
rule on technical legal matters for the good of the community during every
generation or circumstance. Jesus Christ
Himself accepted this authority, so long as it did not contradict Torah or
the Word of God (Matt.23:2-3).
This authority is based on God's
provisions as stated in the Torah. The
Scriptures themselves clearly give this authority to the presiding rabbinical
authorities of each generation -- the authority to make judgments and binding
decisions -- so long as they are not contrary to the Scriptures themselves
(John 10:35).
A NEW LOOK at the
"Postponements"
Because of the decisions made by the
Rabbinical Council and Rabbi Hillel II in 358 A.D., in the modern
astronomically-based Jewish calendar, Passover (Nisan 14) can only fall on a
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Sabbath.
Therefore, Nisan 16 -- the day of
the wave sheaf offering -- can only fall on a Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, or
Monday. This is because of the
"postponements" made for the calendar for the time of the dispersion
or Diaspora of the Jewish people. But
did God actually give the Jewish leaders the authority to make such arbitrary
"postponements"? Or are they
based on mere 'human reasoning," which can end in "death"
(Proverbs 14:12)?
To answer this question, let's
examine the calendar used during the time of Christ, and the Second Temple
period. Were these postponements also in
effect in the calendar before Hillel II, or during the time of
Christ?
Further Evidence from the Mishnah