Ask a kindergarten child why Rosh Hashanah is celebrated on the first day of Tishrei and he will tell you that it is the day the year begins. But ask a rabbi and he will probably explain that the Hebrew year begins on the first of Tishrei because, according to Jewish tradition, that was the day Adam was created, on the sixth day of Creation.
There is one major problem with that explanation: The Torah explicitly says that the year should begin in the month of Nisan: “This month shall be for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you” (Exodus 12:2). So how did the change happen, and why does the Talmud offer no explanation of the moment when it was decided to completely overhaul the calendar?
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The moon at the beginning of a month. The commandment to sanctify the new month was not necessarily connected to the calendar
(Photo: Nazarii Neshcherenskyi / Shutterstock)
Rachel Elior, professor emerita of Jewish thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, responds with a smile: “The past is an ocean of oblivion with isolated islands of knowledge. We know for certain that in the second century BCE there was a controversy over the calendar, and it stands to reason that if there is a major dispute, something happened — because people do not argue over what exists as a matter of routine.”
She notes that “Chapter 7 of the Book of Daniel tells of a king who comes to change laws and times. Commentators say this refers to Antiochus Epiphanes, who wanted to impose a lunar calendar throughout his kingdom and in Judea in order to standardize his rule and collect taxes. But Temple worship was based on a solar calendar of 364 days and 52 Sabbaths. The high priest Onias son of Simon — the last priest of the House of Zadok, who served according to the ancient biblical tradition of the priesthood passing by inheritance from father to son, dating back to Aaron son of Amram — told King Antiochus that the calendar could not be changed because all sacred worship in the Temple was based on the 364-day solar Sabbath calendar maintained by the Temple priests and the priestly divisions.”
So what did Antiochus do?
“He removed him from the high priesthood.”
The mistake made by those who studied in the beit midrash
This is a good point to stop and discuss the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in the Qumran caves in the Judean Desert. Among the hidden treasures found there was a calendar entirely different from the one familiar to us today. Jews now use a calendar based on 12 lunar months, totaling 353-355 days a year. But the calendar discovered at Qumran, based on the time it takes Earth to orbit the sun, has 364 days.
Hanukkah candle lighting. Antiochus wanted a lunar calendar
(Photo: Drazen Zigic / Shutterstock)
True, Earth’s orbit takes slightly longer — 365 days, five hours and 49 minutes. Asked whether the Zadokites were unaware of this, Elior responds emphatically: “Of course they knew. Their calendar has 364 days because the year is made up of four equal seasons. Each season lasts 13 weeks, exactly 91 days. That way, the year always begins on Wednesday, the day on which the heavenly lights were created according to the Book of Genesis, and under this system every holiday always falls on the same day of the week.”
What does the calendar have to do with the Zadokites?
“For most of biblical history, the high priests were from the House of Zadok, descendants of Aaron, and they preserved the calendar according to which Temple worship was conducted. There were 24 priestly families, with a different family serving for seven days each week. It was important to them to have a calendar that could be divided by both seven and four because, in their view, this testified to a fixed, cyclical and predetermined divine order in Creation. That is why the Zadokite priests fought the Hasmonean priests, who were forced to accept the lunar calendar established by Antiochus as the kingdom’s calendar. The Zadokites regarded themselves as the Sons of Light and their opponents as the Sons of Darkness.”
But according to the Torah, aren’t the months supposed to be sanctified according to the moon?
“That question stems from a later religious conception shaped in the world of the beit midrash,” or Jewish study hall. “The Sages explained that the commandment to sanctify the new month was based on the verses in Exodus: ‘The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall be for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.’ But the passage says that the year begins in the month of Nisan and makes no mention whatsoever of a need to sanctify the month according to the moon. That is a later interpretation.”
The moon and the sun. 'The Zadokites regarded themselves as the Sons of Light and their opponents as the Sons of Darkness'
(Photo: Mike Pellinni / Shutterstock)
Incidentally, what did the Zadokites do about the extra day and a quarter missing from their calendar?
“There is no written record of this, but the late Prof. Shemaryahu Talmon, a scholar of the scrolls, said that the Temple priests most likely added one uncounted week in a sabbatical year and two uncounted weeks every 28 years to compensate for the day and a quarter separating the astronomical calendar from the priestly calendar. In any event, it was not that the priests did not know how many days there were in a solar year. They had a thorough command of astronomy. They chose a 364-day solar Sabbath calendar that allowed days and festivals to be calculated in a fixed and predetermined manner.”
The government always determines the calendar
Back to Antiochus Epiphanes — and yes, this is the same villain you all remember from the Hanukkah story.
“In 175 BCE, Antiochus IV removed the Zadokite high priest Onias III and appointed Onias’ Hellenized brother Jason in his place,” Elior continues. “Antiochus interfered in the religious and political order and wanted to ensure that taxes were collected according to his calendar, the intercalated Greek lunar calendar. To collect taxes systematically, you need a calendar.”
What is the connection?
“A calendar is a central element of government because it signifies the source of authority and legitimacy. The calendar regulates the timing of holidays, workdays and days of rest, ceremonies, tax payments and administrative and economic life. It also marks the transition from an old regime to a new one. For example, the French Republican calendar, a decimal solar calendar, was introduced in 1793 following the French Revolution and abolished the official use of the Catholic Church’s Gregorian calendar from the monarchical era. Similarly, the new Soviet calendar, which sought to create a new organization of working days, was introduced in two stages following the October Revolution of 1917.
The cave where most of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered
(Photo: Sean Pavone/Shutterstock)
“I once looked into this and found that the body legally responsible for determining Israel’s official schedule of holidays, which is tied to the precise calculation of the calendar, is actually the Civil Service Commission, a unit under the Prime Minister’s Office, rather than the Finance Ministry or Religious Services Ministry, as one might expect. In other words, the calendar is not merely a means of measuring time but also a symbolic instrument of government that expresses the new order and its new source of authority, in contrast with the previous order and its former source of authority.”
Elior explains that when Antiochus sought to impose his new rule, intervene in Judea’s religious and political institutions and collect taxes according to his calendar, he demanded the use of the Hellenistic Greek lunar calendar, the imperial Seleucid calendar.
“After Onias III refused the king’s order, Antiochus removed him and appointed his brother Jason as high priest after Jason promised the king revenues and payments in return for the high priesthood,” she says. “This violated the biblical order under which the priesthood passed only from father to son. About three years later, Menelaus, whom Jason had sent to King Antiochus, offered 300 talents of silver more than Jason and was therefore appointed high priest.”
She continues: “After the death of Antiochus V in 162 BCE, a succession crisis emerged in the Seleucid dynasty. Alexander Balas and Demetrius I competed for the throne. Jonathan, the Hasmonean son of Mattathias, supported the Seleucid king Alexander Balas, while his brother Simon, another son of Mattathias, supported Demetrius I. Demetrius later appointed Alcimus as high priest. In the struggle between the two claimants to Antiochus’ throne, Alexander Balas ultimately prevailed, and in 152 BCE he appointed Jonathan the Hasmonean as high priest and leader of Judea.
“Jonathan was murdered in 143 BCE by Tryphon, a Seleucid ruler. In the second struggle between claimants to the throne, Demetrius prevailed and appointed Simon son of Mattathias as high priest and leader. Simon, who served from 142-134 BCE, was murdered by his son-in-law Ptolemy son of Abubus. After his death, his son John Hyrcanus I succeeded him. This marked the beginning of the Hasmoneans’ tenure as high priests appointed by the heirs of the House of Seleucus and as leaders under their patronage, in complete contradiction to the tradition under which kingship was reserved for the tribe of Judah and the high priesthood for the Zadokites.”
A fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls
(Photo: Seth Wenig/AP)
How did the Zadokites respond?
“After they were removed from the high priesthood, which they had held for 1,000 years, they fought to preserve the fixed, predetermined solar calendar against the Hasmoneans, who followed the Seleucid lunar calendar. The Zadokite priests wrote numerous works concerning the struggle over the sacred biblical calendar revealed from heaven, which begins in the month of Nisan, the month of spring, on Wednesday, the day of the spring equinox. They regarded it as the foundation of the oath and eternal covenant between heaven and earth. Among the works discussing the solar Sabbath calendar found among the Qumran scrolls are the Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, the ‘Some Works of the Law’ scroll, the Temple Scroll and the ‘Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice.’”
The battle was decided after the destruction of the Second Temple
Elior explains that the struggle over the Jewish calendar was finally settled after the destruction of the Second Temple, in the famous account of the dispute between Rabban Gamliel, president of the rabbinical court, and Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah over the determination of Rosh Hashanah in the early second century CE.
Two witnesses came and testified that they had seen the new moon. Rabban Gamliel accepted their testimony even though their account presented a physical contradiction: They claimed the moon had been visible one night but was not visible the following night. Rabbi Dosa ben Harkinas and Rabbi Joshua believed the testimony was false and that the new month therefore could not be sanctified.
This meant that under Rabban Gamliel’s and Rabbi Joshua’s respective calculations, Yom Kippur fell on different dates. To prevent the Jewish people from splitting and adopting two separate calendars, Rabban Gamliel invoked his authority as head of the Sanhedrin and ordered Rabbi Joshua to appear before him carrying his staff and money on the day that, according to Rabbi Joshua’s calculation, was Yom Kippur. From Rabbi Joshua’s perspective, doing so constituted a desecration of the holiest day of the year.
After the destruction, the Sages became the religious authorities. Priests in the film 'Legend of Destruction'
(Illustration: David Polonsky and Michael Faust)
Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Dosa ben Harkinas persuaded Rabbi Joshua that the determination of the Sages and the rabbinical court was religiously binding. When Rabbi Joshua accepted the ruling and appeared before Rabban Gamliel, the head of the Sanhedrin rose to greet him, kissed him on the head and called him “my teacher and my student.”
“Many people tend to regard the Sages as conservatives, but they were the innovators, while the House of Zadok were the guardians of the ancient tradition,” Elior says. “The question of who determines the calendar is really the question of who holds authority. Rabban Gamliel was effectively saying: Until now, the priests dictated the situation, but the Temple has been destroyed and the Torah Sages are now the authorities.”
How did the priests respond?
“In the centuries before the destruction, some of the Zadokites lived in the Qumran caves, where they preserved the scrolls they had taken with them from the Temple when they were removed from the priesthood — scrolls that attested to their authority, their selection and the righteousness of their cause, as well as the reliability of their tradition. These scrolls attested to the sanctity of their calendar, which in their view had been revealed from heaven in the days of Enoch son of Jared.
“They waited for the Creator to intervene in their struggle against those they regarded as the Sons of Darkness. After the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, the priests served in synagogues as teachers and prayer leaders and preserved traditions connected to angels and priests. For the priestly class as a whole, it was a tragedy. Until then, the calendar had been, from their perspective, like mathematics from heaven, not something subject to human determination.”