Reflections on the Major Holy Days of Judaism

By Dr. Martin Sicker

It should come as no surprise that Judaism, which has existed as the religion and culture of the children of Israel since the days of Moses, more than three millennia ago, has had occasion to institute markers reflective of its development and history from then to the present day. The present work, ‘Reflections on the Major Holy Days of Judaism,’ is intentionally limited in scope to those occasions earmarked as ‘holy convocations’ in the primary sourcebooks of Judaism, The Five Books of Moses, known in Jewish lore as the Torah, and in many translations as the Pentateuch. It is these ‘holy convocations’ that dominate Judaism’s annual religious and liturgical calendar, yet the biblical texts that ordain them are in many instances less than clear with regard to their observance. As a result, over the millennia since their original promulgation, scholars and others have struggled with the problem of defining in acceptable and actionable terms the purported intent of the sacred texts, a process that continues to the present day. This study recalls the notable reflections of scholars since the first century C.E., as well as their disagreements, on the evolution of the Major Holy Days of Judaism, their significance, traditions, and distinctive customs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781796097498

Dr. Martin Sicker

Dr. Martin Sicker is a writer and lecturer on the Middle Eastern geopolitical and cultural history, with a special focus on Jewish history and religion. He is the author of 62 previous books on these subjects as well as on geopolitics, political theory, and political economy.

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Copyright © 2020 by Dr. Martin Sicker.

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Contents

Preface

1. Shabbat

2. Passover

3. Shavuot

4. Rosh Hashanah

5. Yom Kippur

6. Sukkot

References

Notes

Preface

It should come as no surprise that Judaism, which has existed as the religion and culture of the children of Israel since the days of Moses, more than three millennia ago, has had occasion to institute markers reflective of its development and history from then to the present day. The following study, ‘Reflections on the Major Holy Days of Judaism,’ is intentionally limited in scope to those occasions earmarked as ‘holy convocations’ in the primary sourcebooks of Judaism, The Five Books of Moses, known in Jewish lore as the Torah, and in translation by the non-Jewish world as the Pentateuch.

It is these ‘holy convocations’ that dominate Judaism’s annual religious and liturgical calendar, yet the biblical texts that ordain them are in many instances less than clear with regard to their observance. As a result, over the millennia since their original promulgation, scholars and others have struggled with the problem of defining in acceptable and actionable terms the purported intent of the sacred texts, a process that continues to the present day. The work that follows recalls the notable reflections of scholars since the first century C.E., as well as their disagreements, on the evolution of the Major Holy Days of Judaism, their significance, traditions, and distinctive customs.

1

Shabbat

"Our sages call the Sabbath Yesod Haemunah, the very foundation of our faith. This is no exaggeration. For the loftiest thoughts by which Judaism has ennobled the human mind, the highest ideals for which our people have been striving for thousands of years at the cost of innumerable lives, are all centered in the Sabbath."¹ It has been noted, in this regard, that the establishment of a seven-day week based on the regular observance of the Sabbath is a distinctly Jewish contribution to civilization. However, unlike those special occasions of religious observation in various cultures that are linked to natural phenomena, one of the most distinctive features of the week is the fact that it is entirely dissociated from the lunar cycle. It is essentially defined as a precise multiple of the day, quite independently of the lunar month.²

This fact is a matter of great historical significance because in the ancient world depiction of calendric time was directly related to recurring natural phenomena, and the most convenient of such phenomena was the lunar cycle, new moon to full moon to new moon. However, the lunar cycle of approximately twenty-nine days, twelve hours, forty-four minutes, and three seconds that elapse between any two successive new moons, does not lend itself into a neat subdivision into blocks of days that facilitate temporal regularity. Such regularity was indispensable for the establishment of settled life with a high level of social organization, particularly significant since the rise of a market economy, which involved orderly contact on regularly recurrent, periodic market days.³ The latter was achieved by the biblical decision to create a temporal order based on a seven day cycle completely independent of the lunar cycle, while at the same time marking significant events according to the lunar calendar. Moreover, this dissociation of the week from a natural occurrence, as set forth in the biblical creation narrative, sets the stage for the biblical concept of a transcendent God, untouched by nature in any manner.

Why and When was the Seventh Day Named Shabbat?

The biblical narrator informs us that the entire process of creation was completed on the sixth day, and on the seventh day God finished his work which He had made: and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He hath made. And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it He rested from all His work which God in creating had made (Gen. 2:2-3). It has been pointed out that the divine blessing and sanctification bestowed on this final day were related to no specific process or product, but to time itself. With the sanctification of time, the work of creation reached its climax and consummation.⁴

It is noteworthy that the text in the creation narrative never identifies the seventh day by the name Shabbat or Sabbath, the latter term appearing only in the form of the verb shabbat, meaning to desist from labor. However, the correlation between the seventh day and the sabbath day is made clear later in the biblical text, as it states: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them and He rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it (Ex. 20:11), and also, the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He ceased from work and rested (Ex. 31:16-17).

The question that remains to be answered is why the creation narrative speaks only of the seventh day, perhaps alluding to but not mentioning the Sabbath? One explanation proffered is that there is a significant difference between the divine rest on the seventh day of creation and the later mention of the Shabbat in the Decalogue revealed at Mt. Sinai. It has been suggested that former should be understood as the metaphysical Shabbat, the parameters of which were determined in heaven and would remain so through eternity. This is in contrast to the statement in the Decalogue, revealed millennia after the creation to the children of Israel, setting forth their obligation to rest on the Sabbath in perpetual memorial of the divine rest on that day in a manner the parameters of which it were left to their creative discretion.⁵ Similarly, it has been suggested that "in the first instance Shabbat is seen as a universal consecration and rest in imitatio dei. The Sabbath is both the crown of God’s Creation and the climax of each mundane week. By dividing time into a recurring pattern of six ordinary days of labor and as seventh day of heightened sacrality and rest, one lives in accord with the rhythms established by God ‘in the beginning.’ In the second instance, the Exodus, Sabbath takes on a more distinctly national coloration . . . On the one hand, the Sabbath celebrates freedom from all forms of human servitude; on the other, it is a day necessitating Israel’s loyalty before YHWH by virtue of His having redeemed them."⁶

Considered from a historical-critical perspective, it has been suggested that the initial omission of the name Shabbat may have been intended to avoid any initial association of the term Shabbat with the Mesopotamian shapattu festival, celebrating the full moon, while nonetheless hinting at the connection with the later Israelite institution of the Sabbath. It has been pointed out in this regard that "if we take the basic meaning of the root shbth or shpth in Akkadian and Hebrew, then the Akkadian shapattu can mean that day in the middle of the month which marked a definite boundary, for it divided the month in two; and the Hebrew shabbath may have meant, originally, the day which marked a definite boundary, because it separated the weeks from one another; the two words would then be close to each other in meaning because of their common etymology," notwithstanding that the Israelite Sabbath bore no relation to any aspect of the lunar cycle.⁷

It is noteworthy, in this regard, that Jewish tradition has it that Abraham, upon deep reflection, uniquely rejected Mesopotamian idolatry, which was intimately linked to the lunar cycle. But "preoccupied with more elementary and individual concepts, he was unable to transform the Shabbatu into the kind of institution that the Sabbath later became. Therefore, there is no mention in the Torah that the patriarchs kept the Sabbath. However, the modification of the Shabbatu may have started in Abraham’s day, and its evolution may have been carried forward by Abraham’s descendants, especially by Jacob and his family."⁸ With regard to the text under consideration, "the same tendency to dissociate the biblical sabbath from Near Eastern practice would perhaps be present in the threefold repetition of the phrase ‘seventh day.’ This seems to emphasize that the day derives its special character solely from God, and is to be completely divorced from, and independent of, any connection with the phases of the moon."⁹

Critical study of the relevant prophetic texts suggests the possibility that it took some time before the term Shabbat was firmly associated with the seventh day of creation, as some prophetic statements appear to link the Shabbat with the New Moon or Rosh Hodesh. Thus Hosea prophetically declaims, I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her appointed seasons (Hos. 2:13). Amos admonishes: Hear this, O ye that would swallow the needy, and destroy the poor of the land, saying: ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may set forth corn (Amos 8:4-5). Isaiah declares: Bring no more oblations; it is an offering of abomination unto Me; new moon and Sabbath, the holding of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity along with the solemn assembly (Isa. 1:13). In considering these statements, it has been argued: "If in all these cases Shabbat refers to the seventh day of the week, the order of Shabbat after New Moon would be odd. Biblical authors usually begin with what occurs more frequently. Such is precisely what we find in late post-exilic texts, for example Nehemiah 10:34: ‘. . . for the Shabbats, and for the New Moons, and for the Appointed Festivals.’ In these late texts, Shabbat refers to the seventh day of the week, so it comes before New Moon, which occurs every month, and is followed by the Appointed Festivals that are celebrated once a year. In the earlier texts, however, Shabbat appears to refer not to a day of the week but rather to a lunar phase. Just as chodesh refers to the new moon, the word shabbat, which follows chodesh in the texts, would seem to designate what we call ‘full moon.’"¹⁰ It is noteworthy in this regard that a number of Jewish Festivals, including Pesach (Passover), Sukkot (Tabernacles), Purim, and Tu Bishvat, begin fifteen days following the New Moon. It has been suggested that the choice to begin these festivals on this date must have something to do with the full moon.¹¹

There is a presumption that the seventh day of the week was renamed the Sabbath primarily as a matter of calendric convenience. Assuming that the New Moon and Full Moon were treated as special occasions, and the seventh day of the intervening periods between them was observed as a ‘day of rest,’ it seems reasonable to integrate the several occasions based on existing practices. Thus, beginning with the New Moon, marked as the first day of the new month, followed by the Full Moon fourteen days later, and then by the New Moon again fourteen days later, and integrating this with the seventh days of rest cycle would make the days 1, 8, 15, and 22, of the lunar cycle to be days of rest. Then, dispensing with the pagan celebration of the Full Moon, demarcated as Shabbat, and applying the name Shabbat to all the seventh days of rest in the recurring cycle, we arrive at the Jewish lunar calendar month of 29-30 days. In effect, then, Israel developed two systems of time that rub independently of—and even compete with—each other; one was lunar, and the other was based on seven-day periods of time.¹² It is noteworthy that Shabbat is unique among all the registered occasions in the Jewish calendar because it alone cannot be postponed. No matter what the circumstances, every seventh day is the Shabbat, whereas this kind of consistency does not apply to other religious occasions, all of which are dependent on the lunar calendar, which in turn is variable because in antiquity the onset of the new moon had to be determined visually, something that was not always feasible.

God Finished His Work on the Sabbath?

Perhaps the most striking feature of the passage in the creation narrative is the statement, And on the seventh day Elohim finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. This assertion raises some questions the answers to which are not at all self-evident, and has been used by at least one early Church authority for polemical purposes. Thus, in reference to this text, Jerome wrote: Therefore we shall press the Jews who boast of the repose of the Sabbath, because already then, in the beginning, the Sabbath was broken while God labored on the Sabbath by bringing his works to completion on it and by blessing the day itself; since in that day He completed the universe.¹³

A modern commentator sought to obviate at least one difficulty with this text by arguing that the phrase vayekhal Elohim, translated here as and God finished, should be translated as God held a finishing: this is the meaning of the Hebrew word . . . and not that God finished his work on the seventh day which would contradict verse 1.¹⁴ He bases this argument on the use of kilu, a variant of the word vayekhal, in this sense elsewhere in Scripture (2 Chron. 29:17). His argument, however, as well as the prooftext on which it is based, is not especially compelling.

It also has been pointed out that the biblical statement, as traditionally understood, caused embarrassment to ancient translators and commentators, for it seems to be out of harmony with the context, implying some divine activity also on this day.¹⁵ Indeed, the Sages considered this so troubling that they suggested that when Jewish scholars prepared the original Greek translation of the Pentateuch, the verse was deliberately rendered in a non-literal manner that would avoid raising the troublesome question.¹⁶ Thus, the Septuagint version, as a modern translation asserts: And God finished on the sixth day his works which he made, and he ceased on the seventh day from all his works which he had made. However, this rewording was of no help to commentators concerned with the text as handed down in the Masoretic version, for whom the first verse in this passage, And the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them, clearly indicates that the divine work of creation was concluded by the end of the sixth day, and if so, what was it that was finished on the seventh day?

This question evidently troubled the Sages of the talmudic era, who were all in accord with the proposition that creation of the universe was completed on the sixth day. Nonetheless, one sought to explain the seeming textual anomaly by means of a simile, asserting that It is like a man striking the hammer on the anvil, raising it by day and bringing it down by nightfall. That is, at the instant that the seventh day commenced, the metaphoric hammer slammed down on the anvil completing the work of creation. But the obvious question remained that even this took an instant of time, meaning that some work was done on the seventh day. Another sought to respond to this concern by adding, Mortal man, who does not know his minutes, his [exact] times or his hours, must add from the profane to the sacred; but the Holy One, blessed be He, who knows His moments, His times, and His hours, can enter it by a hair’s breadth.¹⁷ In other words, God but not man could have completed the creation at the very instant that the seventh day commenced.

A medieval commentary, reflecting this common traditional standpoint, understands this text as saying that everything was concluded on the sixth day, and that on the seventh God was finished, that is there was nothing left for Him to do on the seventh day, as evidenced from the conclusion of the sentence, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. What it is that He rested from? From any further creative activity with regard to what had been completed on the sixth day.¹⁸ Another commentator argues, in this same regard, that if the text had stated that everything was concluded on the sixth day, it would have raised some uncertainty about when the work was concluded on the sixth day. When one says something was finished on a particular day, it could mean in the morning, afternoon, or evening of that day.

Accordingly, to make it clear that the sixth day, in its entirety, was a day devoted to creative activity, it states that on the seventh day Elohim finished His work, that is, from the very outset of the seventh day all further creative activity had ceased. And, to eliminate any residual doubt about what took place on the seventh day, the text immediately makes it clear that He rested on the seventh day [in its entirety] from all His work.¹⁹ It is noteworthy that the ArtScroll edition of the Pentateuch incorporates this reading of the text into the translation by rendering the Hebrew ba’yom hashevi’i as by the seventh day instead of on the seventh day, a possible but not usual rendition of the preposition, ba.²⁰ Support for this position, focused on the fact that the first time the idea of completion of creative activity is mentioned in the text, as it states, on the seventh day Elohim finished His work, whereas it subsequently twice states that God rested from all His work, raising the question of why the first text says His work and not all His work, as in the subsequent texts of the passage. The suggested response is that the original assertion that on the seventh day Elohim finished His work may merely intend to say that there were some things that still remained to be completed at twilight. However, when it subsequently states that God rested from all His work, it makes clear that nothing was left undone.²¹ It also has been pointed out that the term vayishbot or and He rested, is an anthropomorphism used for purposes of human edification, and not as a description that may be applied appropriately to God, as pointed out by the prophet Isaiah in his assertion, The Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not, neither is weary (Isa. 40:28).²² Therefore, the term vayishbot would be better rendered as and He desisted from further creative activity. In this regard, it has been asserted that the Sabbath was appointed that we might learn the meaning and sanctity of time, experiencing time without exploiting it for work but simply as a holy gift out of the hand of God.²³

Taking a somewhat different approach to the biblical text, it has been asserted that it is accurate in that it postulates a seventh indispensable stage