The Festivals and the Calendar Controversy
Chapter 6
17For this reason it has been ordained and written on the heavenly tablets that they should celebrate the Festival of Weeks during this month—once a year—to renew the covenant each and every year. 18This entire festival had been celebrated in heaven from the time of creation until the lifetime of Noah—for 26 jubilees and five weeks of years [= 1309]. Then Noah and his sons kept it for seven jubilees and one week of years until Noah’s death [= 350 years]. From the day of Noah’s death his sons corrupted [it] until Abraham’s lifetime and were eating blood. 19Abraham alone kept [it], and his sons Isaac and Jacob kept it until your lifetime. During your lifetime the Israelites forgot [it] until I renewed [it] for them at this mountain.
20Now you command the Israelites to keep this festival during all their generations as a commandment for them: one day in the year, during this month, they are to celebrate the festival, 21because it is the Festival of Weeks and it is the Festival of Firstfruits. This festival is twofold and of two kinds. Celebrate it as it is written and inscribed regarding it. 22For I have written [this] in the book of the first law in which I wrote for you that you should celebrate it at each of its times one day in a year. I have told you about its sacrifice so that the Israelites may continue to remember and celebrate it throughout their generations during this month—one day each year.
23On the first of the first month, the first of the fourth month, the first of the seventh month, and the first of the tenth month are memorial days and days of the seasons. They are written down and ordained at the four divisions of the year as an eternal testimony. 24Noah ordained them as festivals for himself throughout the history of eternity with the result that through them he had a reminder. 25On the first of the first month he was told to make the ark, and on it the earth became dry, he opened [it], and saw the earth. 26On the first of the fourth month the openings of the depths of the abyss below were closed. On the first of the seventh month all the openings of the earth’s depths were opened, and the water began to go down into them. 27On the first of the tenth month the summits of the mountains became visible, and Noah was very happy.
28For this reason he ordained them for himself forever as memorial festivals. So they are ordained, 29and they enter them on the heavenly tablets. Each one of them [consists of] 13 weeks; their memorial [extends] from one to the other: from the first to the second, from the second to third, and from the third to the fourth. 30All the days of the commandments will be 52 weeks of days; [they will make] the entire year complete. 31So it has been engraved and ordained on the heavenly tablets. One is not allowed to transgress a single year, year by year.
32Now you command the Israelites to keep the years in this number—364 days. Then the year will be complete and it will not disturb its time from its days or from its festivals because everything will happen in harmony with their testimony. They will neither omit a day nor disturb a festival. 33If they transgress and do not celebrate them in accord with his command, then all of them will disturb their times. The years will be moved from this; they will disturb the times and the years will be moved. They will transgress their prescribed pattern. 34All the Israelites will forget and will not find the way of the years. They will forget the first of the month, the season, and the Sabbath; they will err with respect to the entire prescribed pattern of the years. 35For I know and from now on will inform you—not from my own mind because this is the way the book is written in front of me, and the divisions of times are ordained on the heavenly tablets, lest they forget the covenantal festivals and walk in the festivals of the nations, after their error and after their ignorance. 36There will be people who carefully observe the moon with lunar observations because it is corrupt [with respect to] the seasons and is early from year to year by ten days. 37Therefore years will come about for them when they will disturb [the year] and make a day of testimony something worthless and a profane day a festival. Everyone will join together both holy days with the profane and the profane day with the holy day, for they will err regarding the months, the Sabbaths, the festivals, and the jubilee.
38For this reason I am commanding you and testifying to you so that you may testify to them because after your death your children will disturb [it] so that they do not make the year [consist of] 364 [days] only. Therefore, they will err regarding the first of the month, the season, the Sabbath, and the festivals. They will eat all the blood with all [kinds of] meat. [ . . . ]
Chapter 15
1During the fifth year of the fourth week of this jubilee [1986]—in the third month, in the middle of the month—Abram celebrated the Festival of the Firstfruits of the wheat harvest. 2He offered as a new sacrifice on the altar the firstfruits of the food for the Lord—a bull, a ram, and a sheep; [he offered them] on the altar as a sacrifice to the Lord together with their [cereal] offerings and their libations. He offered everything on the altar with frankincense. [ . . . ]
Chapter 16
20There he built an altar for the Lord who had rescued him and who was making him so happy in the country where he resided as an alien. He celebrated a joyful festival in this month—for seven days—near the altar that he had built at the well of the oath. 21He constructed tents for himself and his servants during this festival. He was the first to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles on the earth. [ . . . ]
Chapter 22
1In the first week in the forty-third jubilee, during the second year [2109]—it was the year in which Abraham died—Isaac and Ishmael came from the well of the oath to their father Abraham to celebrate the Festival of Weeks—this is the Festival of the Firstfruits of the harvest. [ . . . ]
Chapter 34
18For this reason, it has been ordained regarding the Israelites that they should be distressed on the tenth of the seventh month—on the day when [the news] that made [him] lament Joseph reached his father Jacob—in order to make atonement for themselves on it with a kid—on the tenth of the seventh month, once a year—for their sins. For they had saddened their father’s [feelings of] affection for his son Joseph. 19This day has been ordained so that they may be saddened on it for their sins, all their transgressions, and all their errors; so that they may purify themselves on this day once a year. [ . . . ]
Chapter 49
1Remember the commandments that the Lord gave you regarding the Passover so that you may celebrate it at its time on the fourteenth of the first month, that you may sacrifice it before evening, and so that they may eat it at night on the evening of the fifteenth from the time of sunset. [ . . . ]
Chapter 50
1After this law, I informed you about the Sabbath days in the wilderness of Sin that is between Elim and Sinai. 2On Mount Sinai I told you about the Sabbaths of the land and the years of jubilees in the Sabbaths of the years, but its year we have not told you until the time when you enter the land that you will possess. 3The land will observe its Sabbaths when they live on it, and they are to know the year of jubilee. 4For this reason I have arranged for you the weeks of years and jubilees—49 jubilees from the time of Adam until today, and one week and two years. It is still 40 years off for learning the Lord’s commandments until the time when he leads (them) across to the land of Canaan, after they have crossed the Jordan to the west of it. 5The jubilees will pass by until Israel is pure of every sexual evil, impurity, contamination, sin, and error. Then they will live confidently in the entire land. They will no longer have any satan or any evil one. The land will be pure from that time until eternity.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
