The Great Handoff

 

The festival coming up on Sunday, Shavu‘ot (the “Feast of Weeks”), was the subject of some controversy in late biblical times. The reason was that, unlike other festivals, this one had no specific date. Instead, its date was tied to the practice of bringing the first sheaf of the barley harvest (called an ‘omer of barley) to the Temple.

 

Here I’m afraid I have to get into some technical details. But eventually I hope to get back to something important.

 

The Torah says that following the bringing of the ‘omer, on the “day after the shabbat,” people are to count off seven weeks, 49 days. The day after that, the 50^th day, marked the festival of Shavu‘ot. Its very name reflects this commandment: the “Feast of Weeks” was determined by counting off seven weeks.

 

But controversy centered on the phrase the “day after the shabbat.” Normally, that would mean Sunday. But sometimes shabbat is used in reference to days other than seventh day of the week, and one tradition—the one adopted by rabbinic Judaism—held that in this case, the Torah meant to refer not to the Sabbath, but to the first day of Passover. Since Passover always started on the 15^th of the first month (Nisan), this meant the counting of the seven weeks/49 days began the day after that, the 16^th of Nisan. As a result, Shavu‘ot will always fall 50 days later, on 6^th day of the third month (Sivan).

 

Other Jewish groups disagreed with this interpretation. “Shabbat means Shabbat,” they said. So the Torah was either talking about the Shabbat that occurs in the middle of the Passover, or possibly on the first Shabbat after Passover is over.

 

One Jew to adopt this position was the anonymous author of the book of Jubilees, who lived sometime around 200 BCE. His explanation actually had a lot to say for itself. To begin with, Jubilees took the word Shabbat in its usual sense, the seventh day of the week. Counting from that Sunday (i.e., “the day after Shabbat”), Shavu‘ot would always fall on the 15^th of the third month. This brought Shavu‘ot in line with the other two major festivals, Passover and and Sukkot, both of which started on the 15^th of the month. Endorsing a calendar in which Shavu‘ot started not on the 15^th but on the 6^th of the month seemed a little strange.

 

But there was a deeper controversy underlying the argument between the book of Jubilees and the ancestors of rabbinic Judaism. The book of Jubilees was opposed to the idea of human beings determining the dates of festivals or of any other holy day. Presumably, these important matters ought to be in the hands of God alone. So, for example, Jubilees didn’t like the (so-called) Hebrew calendar, whereby the beginning of each new month could be proclaimed only if two witnessed could testify that they had seen the thin sliver of the new moon. This certainly seemed a flimsy procedure: if two witnesses did not come forward, was the whole month to start a day later?

 

 What is more, according to the Hebrew calendar, a whole extra month (called the Second “Adar”) had to be inserted every few years (at irregular intervals) in order to keep the festivals in sync with the seasons—otherwise, Passover would slowly move back to the winter, then to the fall, and so forth, while Sukkot would similarly slide backwards into the summer, and then on to the spring.

 

Jubilees avoided all these difficulties. According to its calendar—and by the way, the Torah itself did not actually say which sort of calendar it intended for us to use—the beginning of the new month had no need of witnesses spotting the new moon. There was no connection between the first of the month and the position of the moon.

 

Instead, each month was simply 30 days long. Multiplied by 12 months, this made for 360 days. The calendar further specified that there were four “extra-mensual” days at four cardinal points of the year, making for a total of 364 days. Each year, we theorize, a 365^th day was added at the end, and every four years, a 366^th day, keeping the calendar perfectly aligned with the sun. No need for human intervention—ever!

 

The same spirit characterized the book’s attitude toward Shavu‘ot. This festival had a fixed date, the 15^th of the third month, so there was no need for human beings to count off 50 days. In fact, Jubilees makes no mention of such counting.

 

This was a neat solution to all the difficulties raised by the Hebrew calendar. So why didn’t our spiritual ancestors adopt it? No doubt sectarian politics had something to do with it, but I believe that their preference also says something basic about rabbinic Judaism. We are not opposed to the idea of divinely-determined things being handed over to human control. On the contrary, that’s the whole idea of rabbinic Judaism.

 

The Torah starts in heaven, but eventually its interpretation and adjudication are turned over to human beings. That is why on every Rosh Hodesh (the beginning of the lunar month) we bless God for having turned over to Israel the task determining the new month, and end: “Blessed are You, who sanctified Israel and the beginnings of the month.” And since the beginning of the month also determines the day on which any particular holy day in that month will fall, we likewise say, “Blessed are You, who sanctified Israel and Passover/Sukkot/Yom Kippur.”

 

In a sense, this passing of authority from the divine to the human is commemorated by the festival of Shavu‘ot. Saturday night this year marks the time when the heavens opened and the Torah was given by Moses to the people of Israel. The great handoff, from the divine to the human, dates from that event.

 

Mo’adim le-simhah!