Parshas Tazria-Metzora
By Rabbi Dovid Zauderer
So there were these two Jewish guys who had just left Yeshiva and were now enrolled in a secular college. They desperately tried any way they could to “fit in” with the predominately non-Jewish college culture around them. So one day, while sitting in the cafeteria, one of them leaned over to the non-Jew sitting next to him and said: “Tell me, when does Christmas fall out this year?” to which the non-Jew replied: “Huh?”
This joke may be mildly amusing but it talks to the fact that we Jews have a different calendar and system of counting time than others around us. Only we who have a lunisolar calendar system could possibly ask such a ridiculous question about Christmas. To the non-Jew the question doesn’t make any sense … Christmas “falls out” on December 25th the same way it does every year!
The truth is that the Jewish calendar is more different than you might realize. For example, not many people know this, but when it comes to the days of the week, we Jews have a special way of counting them, as taught to us by the great Jewish scholar and philosopher Nachmanides, in his commentary to Exodus 20:8 quoting a Mechilta:
“Rabbi Yitzchak says: ‘You should not count [the days of the week] as others count them. Rather you should count them with reference to the Sabbath.’” The meaning of this is that other nations count the days of the week in such a manner that each is independent of the other. Thus they call each day by a separate name or by a name of the ministers in heaven, such as Sunday, which means “sun’s day,” Monday which means “moon’s day,” etc, or by any other names which they call them. But Israel counts all days with reference to the Sabbath: [we refer to Sunday as] “the first day of the Sabbath,” [Monday as] “the second day of the Sabbath.” etc. etc. This is of the essence of the commandment which we have been obligated always to remember the Sabbath every day [of the week]. This is the literal meaning of the verse, and so did Rav Abraham ibn Ezra interpret it.
And it’s not only the counting of the days of the week that we Jews count differently … it’s the months too!!
As Nachmanides writes in his commentary to Exodus 12:2 in explanation of G-d’s first commandment to the Jewish people to set up the Jewish calendar:
Now the purport of the expression, “This month [the Hebrew month of Nisan] shall be unto you the beginning of months” is that Israel is to count this as the first of the months, and from it they are to count all months — second, third, etc., until a year of twelve months is completed — in order that there be through this enumeration a remembrance of the great miracle, [i.e., the exodus from Egypt, which occurred in the first month]. Whenever we will mention the months, the miracle will be remembered. Thus every time a person says, for example, “the third month,” he implies that it is the third in the order of the months which begins with Nisan, when the exodus occurred. It is for this reason that the months have no individual names in the Torah … Just as in counting the weekdays we always remember the Sabbath-day since the weekdays have no specific name of their own, but instead are called “the first day of the Sabbath”, “the second day of the Sabbath,” so we remember the exodus from Egypt in our counting “the first month,” “the second month,” “the third month,” etc., to our redemption.
Nachmanides continues to clarify the commandment to count the Jewish months from the month of Nisan:
This order of the counting of the months is not in regard to the years, for the beginning of our years is from Tishrei, [the seventh month], as it is written, “And the feast of ingathering at the turn of the year” (Exodus 34:22). Now the feast of ingathering is in the seventh month (see Leviticus 23:39) and yet Scripture calls it here “at the turn of the year”, which means the beginning of the new year. Thus we learn that Tishrei is the beginning of the year, although in the order of the counting of the months it is the seventh month..... If so, when we call the month of Nisan the first of the months and Tishrei the seventh, the meaning thereof is “the first [month] to the redemption” and “the seventh month” thereto. This then is the intent of the expression, “it shall be the first month to you”, meaning that it is not the first in regard to the year but it is the first “to you,” i.e., that it be called “the first” for the purpose of remembering our redemption.
Now Nachmanides goes on to explain the source for the present names of the months Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, etc.:
Our Rabbis have already mentioned this matter when saying, (Yerushalmi Rosh Hashanah I, 2): “The names of the months came up with us from Babylon,” since at first we had no names for the months. The reason for this [adoption of the names of the months when our ancestors returned from Babylon to build the Second Temple], was that at first their reckoning was a memorial to the exodus from Egypt, but when we came up from Babylon, and the words of Scripture were fulfilled — “And it shall no more be said: As the Eternal lives, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but: As the Eternal lives that brought up and that led the children of Israel from the land of the north” (Jeremiah 16:14-15)… from then on we began to call the months by the names they were called in the land of Babylon. We are thus reminded that there we stayed [during our exile] and from there, blessed G-d brought us up [to our Land] These names — Nisan, Iyar, and the others — are Persian names and are to be found only in the books of the prophets of the Babylonian era (See Zechariah 1:7, etc.; Ezra 6:15; Nehemiah 1:1. and in the Scroll of Esther 3:7, etc.) It is for this reason that Scripture says, “In the first month, which is the month of Nisan”, (Ibid.) Thus both memorials are mentioned simultaneously: the first month to our redemption from Egypt, which is the month of Nisan, a name which is reminiscent of our Babylonian exile from which we have also been redeemed.
So we learn from Nachmanides that although we should really be referring to Nisan as “the first month”, Iyar as “the second month”, etc. the Sages brought with them the Persian names Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, etc. upon returning from the Persian exile in order to remember that exile and our redemption from it. [Ed. note: See Sefer Haikkarim 3:16 for further clarification of Nachmanides’ position on the proper names to use when referring to the Hebrew months. See also commentary of Emes L’Yaakov on Exodus 12:2 - dz]
Now we will briefly discuss the proper Jewish way to count the years.
Everyone knows that the year we are in presently – according to Jewish tradition – is not 2021 but 5781. This is because our calendar begins with the birth and creation of Adam and Eve, not with the birth of Jesus.
So why do we use the secular date if it counts years to the birth of One Who We Don’t Believe In, you ask? That is a great question!
The truth is that not everyone did use that date …..
In fact, a very strongly worded rebuke to those who use the secular date can be found in the Derashos of the Chasam Sofer (7 Av 5570). After writing that it is worthwhile to use the count from the creation of the world, as this emphasizes our belief that the world was created by G-d, he continues: “And not like those recent innovators who write at the beginning of a letter the number of years since the birth of the Christian messiah….”
However, most Jews use the secular date in our times for various reasons.
[To learn more about the Halachic permissibility of using the secular date, click on: https://dinonline.org/2011/12/
So we see from the above that there definitely is a uniquely “Jewish” way of counting days, months and years … who knew?
http://www.torchweb.org/torah_detail.php?id=661