Вайикра 23:4 Комментарий: Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Rabbeinu Bahya & Siftei Chakhamim

'אלה מועדי ה THESE ARE THE APPOINTED FESTIVALS OF THE LORD [EVEN CONVOCATIONS OF HOLINESS WHICH YE SHALL PROCLAIM] — Above (v. 2), where similar words are used, Scripture is speaking of proclaiming the year to be a leap-year, here it is speaking of the קדוש החדש, sanctification of the month (a technical expression denoting proclaiming when is the New Moon — the beginning of a month) (Sifra, Emor, Chapter 10 1).

Scripture now discusses festivals. The Sabbaths were called “ My chosen times” [:2]; the festivals are called their chosen time , because God does not determine the day of the week on which they fall. Allow me at this point to present a few general principles concerning the festivals. In the days when the Temple still stood, the Sanhedrin determined when the festivals would be held. Consider the case of King Hezekiah’s Passover, where Scripture clearly says “The king had taken counsel…” [II Chronicles 30:2]. The Exegetes tell us that the Sanhedrin would examine many factors when determining the length of the year. For example, Rabbi ⊂ Aqiba is said to have decreed two [actually three — Translator] leap years in a row [Sanhedrin 12a], because the situation required it. In all of Scripture we find no evidence of the procedure whereby ancient Israel maintained its calendar. Sa‘adya Gaon claims that they made the calendar conform to the same fixed rules that we now employ; but this cannot be true, as the Mishna and the Talmud both record that Passover occasionally used to fall on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. Two stories tell of the occurrence of such events. Today we add a leap month whenever the lunar year falls approximately one month behind the solar year, but in ancient times this was not the case. The Jewish calendar began on a Friday morning at 8 o’clock (by adding 4 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes and 40 seconds to Sunday night, 11 minutes and 20 seconds past 11 o’clock in the evening, we get 8 o’clock Friday morning ), and the first intercalation occurred one and a half years later. Nowadays, the calendar is based on the average duration of the moon’s orbit. Although the interval between two appearances of the new moon is “sometimes longer and sometimes shorter” [Rosh HaShana 25a] than a lunar month, the actual sighting of the moon over Jerusalem (or over any other place) does not occasion the declaration of the new month. To prove this, assume that the midpoints of the sun, moon, and earth are all connected by a straight line. Is Jerusalem necessarily the place where this line intersects the earth’s surface? Moreover, whenever we see the new moon of Nisan on a Sunday night — and everyone around the world sees the new moon at the same time — the month of Nisan does not begin until Monday night. The months of Ṭevet, Sh e vaṭ, and Adar can likewise be delayed one day after the sighting of the new moon. This can happen whenever the New Year is delayed two days, because the new moon of Tishrey falls on Tuesday morning, after 03:11:20. There are also occasions when the month of Tishrey begins on Thursday, but the moon remains invisible even as late as Friday night and even if the sky is clear: Whenever the new moon occurs close to midday, the strong light of the sun renders it invisible, because the new moon is always in the same part of the sky as the sun. Even the astronomical moment when the moon is directly between the sun and the earth does not always determine the start of a new month. In particular, the New Year following a leap year is always postponed one day whenever this moment occurs on a Monday morning, after 09:38:16⅔. It is also postponed, as was mentioned earlier, when the moment of collinearity occurs on a Tuesday morning, after 03:11:20. Were it not for my unwillingness to digress, I would explain the mysteries of intercalation, and the little-understood laws regarding a new moon that occurs before midday. The main point is that our Sages, of blessed memory, have transmitted to us the law that in Exile we are to base our calendar completely on a fixed set of rules. This tradition dates back to the time of the prophets, and we cannot improve upon it. The practice of observing two-day festivals in the lands of Exile originally arose because of uncertainty over when the month began. Nowadays some people fast two days on Yom Kippur, in order to conform both to the calculated New Moon and to the astronomical New Moon. Such fasting does them no good, however, because the New Year is often delayed two days after the new moon appears. Suppose a month “ought” to begin with the new moon. Whenever the new moon of Tishrey occurs on Tuesday morning, after 03:11:20, then they “ought” to fast on the eighth day of Tishrey. Thus, why should we subvert the rules which have been handed down to us, for the sake of creating an entirely different calendar? — for that is what will happen if we conform our calendar to the sighting of the new moon.

אלה מועדי ה' מקראי קודש אשר תקראו אותם, “These are the appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations, which you are to proclaim, etc.” The Torah describes all the festivals as related to the attribute Hashem. The reason the word אלה is used to introduce them is that that word symbolises something permanent, enduring. The message is that these festivals will not become redundant through historic developments in the future. As long as this physical universe will continue to exist the Jewish people will continue to observe these festivals. This is also what is meant when the Torah wrote the words לנו ולבנינו עד עולם, “for us and our children forever” (Deut. 29,28), i.e. the laws of the Torah apply for all foreseeable future times.
Tanchuma Pinchas 17 relates that a Gentile once asked Rabbi Akiva why the Jews were still celebrating the festivals when the prophet (Isaiah 1,14) had told the people that “G’d hated your new moons and your festivals, etc.” Rabbi Akiva answered that if Isaiah had spoken of “My new moons, My festivals,” instead of: “your new moons and your festivals,” he would have a point. What G’d hated were the festivals introduced by King Jerobam which were meant to supplant the festivals described in the Torah here. We have been told in Kings I 12,32 that King Jerobam introduced a festival in the eighth month (to supplant Sukkot in the seventh month), a month he had chosen of his own will (verse 34).
Furthermore, it is written in verse 38 of our chapter “apart from the Sabbaths days of the Lord,, etc.” The repetition of the word אלה, “ these,” in verse 37 of our chapter plus the word מלבד in verse 38 are the Torah’s way of saying that no other festivals are to be considered as “G’d’s” festivals. The ones listed in our portion will never be abolished; this is why they are called “G’d’s festivals.” Concerning these festivals the psalmist said in Psalms 111,8: “they are well-founded for all eternity, wrought of truth and equity.”