Galilee Diary #459, September 30, 2009 Marc Rosenstein
These are the festivals of the Lord, holy
convocations, which you shall proclaim at their proper time. -Leviticus 23:4
One of the things that many
immigrants from traditional backgrounds learn to appreciate about living in
Israel is the fact that the "second day of the holiday for the Diaspora" is not
observed here. So, for example in the Diaspora, the eighth day of Sukkot, Shmini
Atzeret, a full holiday, is doubled, and its second day (i.e., the 9th day of
Sukkot) observed as Simchat Torah. In Israel, it is only one day, also observed
as Simchat Torah, so Israel and the Diaspora celebrate Simchat Torah a day
apart. Pesach is only seven days in Israel instead of eight, and there is only
one seder. Most people find this a great relief (liberation!), but it causes
havoc with in-law relations: instead of tonight at our place and tomorrow at
yours, we have to alternate years. This is not so simple.
While of course holidays are a time of rest and joy and
kedushah, I think that many Jews, no matter how devoted they are to the
tradition, often find this doubling of the days burdensome, and don't miss it
when they come to live in Israel.
The reason for the second day
preserves the historical fact that up until about the 4th century, each new
month was declared according to the observation of the new moon. Once this was
ascertained, signal fires or runners transmitted the information to outlying
communities - and all the way to the Babylonian and other exiles. To cover the
possibility that the signal might not get through in time, an extra day was
added as a margin of error: after all, everyone could see the moon and count the
days - there was never a possible variation of more than a day in the
declaration, so the most we could err if we didn't get the signal was one day.
Within Israel this margin was not needed. Also, it was not relevant to
post-Torah holidays like Purim and Chanukah, where an error would not matter so
much.
But what about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? An extra day of Yom
Kippur is not an option (a 48 hour fast?). And Rosh Hashanah is the only holiday
that actually falls on the new moon itself - all the others come later in the
month. Thus, even in Israel there was always a degree of uncertainty about the
declaration of Rosh Hashanah, and so it was - and is today - observed for two
days.
The Moslems still wait to sight the new moon before declaring
their holidays, so while we all knew that the festival at the end of Ramadan, Id
El Fitr, should coincide with Rosh Hashanah this year, we Jews knew well in
advance exactly when our holiday would fall. Our Moslem neighbors couldn't tell
us which days they'd be off work until the new moon was actually observed and
proclaimed.
Since the fourth century our calendar has been fixed by
astronomical tables, and we don't wait for the signal; the Talmud even states
this explicitly. So you might think that the second day is now superfluous. And
indeed, one of the first reforms of the Reform movement was to cancel it. This
put the Orthodox on the defensive, as Reform had the Talmud on their side, and
the main Orthodox defense was that we can't change what has been handed down to
us, which felt (and still feels) a bit lame.
Meanwhile, since when Rosh
Hashanah falls on Shabbat one doesn't sound the shofar or recite Avinu Malkeinu,
we were rescued this year by the second day - our service on the first day was
rather dry and disappointing, and we waited with anticipation for the second
day. Maybe that's really why we have two days...
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