CALENDAR
167
CALENDAR
till 3 a. m.; and the third or morning watch till about
6 a. m. Seven consecutive days form the Week, or
second element of the Jewish calendar. As in our
ecclesiastical calendar, the days of the Jewish week
are numbered, not named. They are called the first
day, the second day, the third day, and so on to the
seventh, which last is also called "sabbath" (n3S',
shdbbath), a name likewise used to designate the week
itself. The sixth day, our Friday, is also known in
the Xew Testament, in Josephus, and in Rabbinical
writings as "the eve of the sabbath", or as "the day
of the preparation", the TvapaaKtv-ri, a term still em-
ployed by the Latin Church in connexion with Good
Friday (Cf. Mark. xv. 42; Josephus, Antiquities of
the Jews, XVI, vi, 2; Talmud of Jerusalem, Treatise
PesShim, chap. iv. I).
The third and most important element in the Jew- ish arrangement of time is the Month. The two Hebrew words for month are m\ y(rdh, and l"in, hodesh, whose primitive meaning, "moon", "new moon", points to the dependence of the Jewish month on the phases of the moon. As a matter of fact, the Hebrew months have always been lunar, and extended from one new moon to another. The beginning of the month with the appearance of the new moon was — as it is still — of great practical im- portance among the Hebrews, inasmuch as the first of every month was to be observed as Xew Moon's Day, and certain feasts were affixed to the 10th, 14th, or other days of the month. The earliest appear- ance of the new moon was long ascertained by direct observation, and authoritatively settled by a com- mission of the Sanhedrin, and the intelligence then made known to the Jews at large, first by means of fire-signals, and later on through special messengers. In the present day, and for many centuries, this very primitive manner of fixing the beginning of the month has given way to a systematic calculation of the lat- ter's duration, and the Jewish calendar is now con- structed on the basis of a mean lunation of 29 days, 12 hours, 44 min., and 3J sec. Besides being indicated
by means of numerals, the first month, the second
month, etc., the del new months have been designated
in the course of Jewish history by two sets of names.
Of the former set — going back probably to Chanaanite
times — only four names have survived in the Hebrew
Bible. These are: IT3X, 'Abhibh (A.V.Ex., xiii, 4,
xxiii. 15; I)eut.,xvi, 1), subsequently the first month;
.'/.in- (111 K.,_ vi, 1), subsequently the second
month; D'JDX, 'Etkantm (III K.. viii. 2), subsequently
the seventhmonth; and*>,3, BfiMTLl K., vi, 38), subse-
quently the eighth month. The latter set of names,
certainly of Babylonian origin, began to be used
after the Exile. Of its twelve names now found
in the Jewish calendar only seven occur in the
Hebrew text, but the whole twelve appear as the
main divisions of the Meyillath To' anith (Scroll of
Fasting), which in its original form is referred to a
date before the Christian Era. These twelve names
are as follows: l.Nisan (Neheni.,ii, 1 ; Esth.,iii,7); 2.
Vj/i/dr (not named in Scripture); 3.Siwd?i (Esth.,viii,
9;Baruch,i,8); 4. TdmmCU (Cf. AY.' Ezech., viii, 14);
5. 'Abh (not named in Scripture); 6. 'Eti'tl (Nehem.,
vi, 15; I Mach.. xiv, 27); 7. Tishri (not named in
Scripture); 8. Mdrhi shwun. or simply llcxliwan (not
named in Scripture) ; 9. Kislew (Zach., vii. 1 ; Nehem.,
i, 1); 10. Tebhclh (Esth.. ii, 16); 11. Shcbhat (Zach., i,
7; I Macl,.. xvi. 14); 12. 'Adar (I Esdras, vi, 15;
Esth., iii, 7, viii, 12, etc.).
The twelve months thus named made up the ordi- nary Year (nx", shanah), or next important ele- ment in the Jewish calendar. As they were lunar months they formed a mean year of 354 days, a year consequently shorter than the solar year by ten or eleven days. This difference, as can be readily seen, would have, in the course of time, completely disordered the months in relation to the seasons of the year; thus the first month, or Xtsdn (cor- responding to the end of March or the beginning of April), in the middle of which the first ripe barley was to be presented to Yahweh in con- nexion with the paschal feast (Ex., xii, 1 sqq., xiii,
THE JEWISH CALENDAR
Hebrew Month
Nisan. P'3
■Iyyir, VK
Stwan, \V0
Tammdz, IIDn
'Abh, 3X 'EMI. ?li>S
Tishri. nCTI Marheshnan (H&hwan),
Kislew, l^DD
Tebheth, J13U Shebbat. OX* •A.lar. TIN [We-'Adar], mxi
(Inter-
■ alary i
Durins; 20th cen-
tury first of mont
occurs between
30 March 13-April 11
April 12-May 11 May 1 1-June 9 June 10-July 9
July 9-Aug. 7
Aug. 8-Sept. 6
Sept. 6-Oct. 5
Oct. 6-Nov. 4 Nov. 4-Dec. 3
Dec. 4-Jan. 2 Jan. 2-Jan. 31
29 +
30-
29
30
Feb. 1-Hareh J
(...)
(29)
March 3-March 13
354
384
Principal I easts
1 New Moon
I 14. Paschal lamb killed
! L5-21. Paschal Feast
, (KirMfruits of barley
I offered)
1 New Moon
11. Second Passover
(Num., ix, 10, 11)
1. New Moon
■j 6. Pentecost. (Firstfruits
{ of wheat harvesl I
i 1 . New Moon ■ 7. Fast. Taking of Jeru- salem by Titus New Moon
Fast. Destruction of the Temple
Mo
I
1. Ne
i 2 New ^ ear's 1 ee I ", Hi 1 >:i v of Atonement
1 L5-21. Feast of Tab
1 1 n-tfruits of
I. wine and oil)
New Moon
Feast of the Dedica- tion <>f the Temple New Moon
Fast. Sie^e of Jerusa- salem
Mo
New Moon
i t of Purim New Moon 15 Feast of Purim
