Halakhah do Estery 3:22

It is already many years since I placed my heart to the investigation of the commandment of "Techelet", which in our many iniquities was withheld from us. And this is one of the goodly matters withheld from us in our exile, in our man wanderings, and was forsaken from our good soul, and we are not able to arise up and see, and bow down to G-d in the temple, in the House of our chosenness. For this indeed is the main suffering of the exile, as we mention in our prayers. And as Isaiah the prophet said (chapter 63), "Lord, why hast Thou made us to stray from Thy ways, and hardened our heart from Thy fear". And this also refers to the "Techelet", as is written in tractate Menachot 43b, "Rabbi Eliezer ben Yakov said, whosoever has "Tephillin" on his head, the "Tephillin" on his arm, the "Tzitzith" on his garment, and the "Mezuzah" on his doorpost, is in absolute security against sinning, etc." And it is also said there (Menachot 44a), "His four 'Tzitzith' came and grabbed him by the face," see there. This means that what we learnt in the Braitha (ibid 43b), "'That you may look upon it and remember (all the commandments of the Lord) and do them'; seeing brings to remembering, and remembering brings to doing," etc, see there. And the essence of the remembering of "Tzitzith" is brought by the "Techelet", which is likened to the Throne of Glory, as we have said (ibid 43b), "How is Techelet different from all other dyes? It is because Techelet is like unto the sea, and the sea is like unto the sky, and the sky to the Throne of Glory." And Rashi, of blessed memory, explained, "And through the Techelet one is reminded of the One who sits upon the throne," see there. And see also the Midrash in Bamidbar Rabbah (Nasso 14 regarding the Prince of he children of Ephraim) and Talmud Yerushalmi Brachot (Chapter 1 law 2) and as it is written in the Holy Zohar (volume 3, page 175b), "(And this Techelet is) one string that is imprinted with a dye, and the dye comes from a fish which can be found in the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret) and is called "Kinneret". There was a Kinnor (lyre) which hung over the bed of King David. For sure, this Kinneret (the fish from which the Techelet is extracted) is actually the Kinnor (lyre) of King David which played of its own accord in praise of the Most High King. Therefore, the color of Techelet reaches unto the firmament, and from the firmament unto the Heavenly Throne. And in this conjunction (i.e. the Techelet) the word "Commandment" is used. This is as it is written (Kings 2, chapter 18), 'It is the command of the King, why do your transgress the command of the King? For it is the command of the King (ie. the Schinah)'. And we have learnt, that the foundation and the root are encrowned together in the Kingdom. This is the memory, the crown, and the entrance way to all the other crowns, as it is written (Psalm 118), 'Open up for me, the Gates of Righteousness,' and it is written (ibid), 'This is the Gate for G-d,' and regarding this it is written (Numbers 15), ' And you will see Him, (Hebrew "OHTOH" can be translated it or him), and remember all of the commandments of he Lord.' And to include in this One all the other crowns, "etc, see there. It is also known that the first gate to all the gates is fear and awe. And through it do the righteous come to all the gates, as it is written (Psalm 111), "The beginning of wisdom is fear of G-d."

When the new moon comes again at the time of ripening in the Land of Israel, then one year is complete, whether the year is twelve months or thirteen. For this reason, in Hebrew they did not refer to the month of ripening as Nisan, rather “first.”⁸⁰ The first month in the Hebrew calendar might not always coincide with the Babylonian month of Nisan. The same is true for all the months. Therefore, other than in books of the exilic period, you will not find in the twenty-four books (the Hebrew Bible)⁸¹ The canon for the Hebrew Bible contains 24 books: Pentateuch (5), Early Prophets (4), Later Prophets (4), Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemia, Megilot (5), and Chronicles. names for the months as they are known today, of which the first is Nisan.⁸² The names used for the months of the Hebrew calendar – Nisan, Iyar, etc. – for approximately the last two and a half millennia are Babylonian in origin. These names were adopted by the Jews after the destruction of the first Temple. Until that time the months were not given names and were referred to numerically – first month, second month, etc. So the year for Israel does not begin with the equinox, rather with the day of the new moon. Once we know that this month is the first, we observe the holidays in the seventh month from it. Thus, if Passover was in the days when the barley ripens, then Pentacost will be at the time of cutting and Tabernacles at the time of gathering.

Know that the Chaldeans do not have a second Adar, because their months are not lunar months.¹⁰⁸ See Evans (p. 187) where he describes the Babylonian calendar as also a lunisolar calendar with a second Adar. Also see Otto Neugebauer, The Exact Sciences in Antiquity, p. 102. Instead they divide the solar year into twelve parts. The meaning of the verse “In the first month, the month of Nisan” (Esther 3:7), is that in that specific year it was so, for in an intercalated year the first month would have been Iyar. Therefore, it is not correct to translate “in the first” (Joel 2:23) as “ in Nisan.” ¹⁰⁹ This is how the term is rendered in the Aramaic translation of Jonathan ben Uziel. This was done so that people at that time would understand.