Delving Inside the Remarkable Jewish Calendar

The Jewish calendar is wonderfully complex. There is to it a meaningful inner architecture. Think of the 10-day period that connects Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: the “aseret ymai teshuvah” – the Ten Days of Repentance. Then there is the 50-day period – the “sepherat ha-omer” – the Counting of the (barley) sheaf, which connects Passover and Shavuoth, and thus Redemption and Revelation in Moses’ time. Within the sabbatical month (Tishre), the seventh month for the counting of the festivals, we observe Rosh Hashanah, Shabbat Shuva (Sabbath of Repentance), Yom Kippur, Sukkoth, Shemini Atzeret (eighth day of Solemn Assembly) and Simchat Torah. In this way, just as the seventh day – Shabbat – is set apart for G-d’s service, even so is Tishre, the seventh month.

There are many other examples of calendrical intricacy. One which is often overlooked is the period between Purim and Passover – which is exactly one month. Purim takes place in the middle of Adar (14th), Passover/Pesach begins the middle of Nisan (15th). Both Purim and Pesach are Biblical holy days whose leitmotif is redemption. Both occur in the Spring, the season of new life and hope. Both commemorate the salvation of the Children of Israel from destruction.

There are many differences of course: Passover is one of the three pilgrimage festivals, along with Shavuoth and Sukkoth, commanded in the Torah and connected to the Temple worship in Jerusalem. We learn of Purim in the Book of Esther later in the Hebrew Bible – in the Ketuvim (Writings). The story takes place in the far-off capital of the Persian Empire about seven centuries after the time of Moses and the Exodus. Passover is clearly the more important of the two holidays, with G-d playing the central role in the Exodus story. In the scroll of Esther, the Purim narrative, the Redeemer of Israel is only hinted at.

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There are six special Sabbaths which occur in this Spring period, which refers not only to the four-week period connecting Purim and Passover, but also the few weeks before Purim: Shabbat Shekalim, Shabbat Zakhor, Shabbat Parah, Shabbat Hachodesh, and Shabbat Hagadol. The first four are called the Four Special Sabbaths. There are four corresponding special Torah readings.
1) Shabbat Shekalim takes place right before the beginning of Adar or on the first day of Adar (or Adar II in a leap year). The Israelites are obliged to contribute a half-shekel as a tax to support the sacrificial system commanded by G-d in the Torah. This system took place first in the Mishkan (Sanctuary) in the wilderness during the 40 years of wandering in the Torah, and later, and for about a thousand years, in both Temples in Jerusalem.
2) Shabbat Zakhor is the Sabbath right before Purim. On this Shabbat, we remember the terrible things the Amalekites did to the Israelites in the Torah and later in the Bible. We recall, too, that the villain of the Purim story, the genocidal vizier of Persia named Haman, was himself an Amalekite.
3) Shabbat Parah is the Sabbath immediately after Purim, when we read the mysterious rules relating to the “parah adumah,” the red heifer, which we must accept on faith.
4) Shabbat HaChodesh refers to the Sabbath right before Nisan, the month of Passover. This month, the month of Spring (Aviv in later biblical times), is in fact the first month for the counting of the festivals (chagim).
5) Shabbat Hagadol is the Great Sabbath, which falls directly before Pesach. It was during the Exodus that the various 12 tribes of Israel were forged into a single people, dedicated to Divine Service and changing history’s course. Malachi, the late prophet, called for the coming of Elijah, the harbinger of the Messiah and the great and fearful Day of Adonai. This is the prophetical reading for the day (haftarah).

Two of these special Sabbaths fall before Purim, and three before Passover. Shabbat Zakhor (remembering Haman the Amalekite) is directly related to Purim, Shabbat HaChodesh (Spring-when we begin to count the festivals) and Shabbat Hagadol (future redemption in messianic times) prepare us spiritually and thematically for Passover.

The religious issues prominent in Shabbat Shekalim (devotion to duty) and Shabbat Parah (the mystery of faith) are not so obviously connected to either Purim or Pesach as the other special Spring Sabbaths. Nonetheless they help to elevate this entire period, beginning right before Adar and continuing through the 15th of Nisan, as a time of spiritual preparation. This period, connecting Purim and Passover, should not be overlooked as yet another example of the religious genius of our Sages as they crafted sacred time as exemplified in our Luach (the Jewish calendar).