The Sabbath Year and Rosh Hashanah

The Sabbath Year and Rosh Hashanah

Sept. 14, 2018: When does the year begin?

Often I put 2 and 2 together with scriptures when someone else has a discussion with me. This time I was wishing for a less complicated answer to the question of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Teruah. For as I anticipated the proof that the 25th year in Ezekiel 40:1 is computed on a Tishri 1 basis is perhaps not the least complicated explanation to begin a lesson with. And someone simply quoted Exodus 12:2 and supposed that the new year there is the same as the new year in Ezekiel 40:1. The last article which may be found here did show the 25th year was computed from Tishri 1 because a spring year will not fit in the chronology. This is complex because it requires a person to know about the overall chronology, which is detailed in the book. But I have thought of an approach that requires much less knowledge.

If you will turn to Deuteronomy 30:10, there will will find instructions for reading the Torah in the Sabbatical year: “Then Mosheh commanded them, saying 'At the bound of [the] seventh of years, in the appointed season of the year of release, in the feast of Sukkot, in coming all Yisrael to see the face of Yahweh your Almighty, in the place which he will choose, you shall read this Torah in front of all Yisrael in their ears.”

We may list the time elements when the Torah was to be read:

1. At the bound of [the] seventh of years [and]
2. In the appointed season of the year of release
3. in the feast of Sukkot
4. in coming all Yisrael

It will become apparent that the “in” phrases all refer to the same time: the seven days of Sukkot. Sukkot was a pilgrim feast “by foot,” to Yerushalayim. This is when all Yisrael came. The appointed season, time, is also Sukkot. The “at” phrase refers to Tishri 1, as we shall see, or at least that appears to be how it was interpreted by Ezra. Ezra read the Torah on both Yom Teruah and during Sukkot. Before I delve into this reading of Torah, there are two other matters to clear up.

Most translations say “at the end of [every] seven years,” which is highly misleading in English, and also can be misleading in Hebrew if the reader is not paying attention. The Jews give two opinions. The majority say the Torah should be read in the 8th year after the seventh year. A minority say the Torah should be read in the 7th year at the beginning of it.

To say the least, the 8th year Sukkot is not “in the appointed season of the year of release,” so the majority view faces a contradiction. It turns out that the matter may be resovled by improving the translation of “end” to a more correct rendition. The word “miqets” in Hebrew means “limit” or “boundary,” and as such can refer to a beginning limit or an ending limit, a near boundary or a far boundary. A Jewish scholar named Ibn Ezra pointed out the key to understanding “miqets.” He cited Jeremiah 34:14 where the exact same words occur in the usual incorrect English translation, “At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear.” This is a contradiction in normal English. If the servant is let go at the end of seven years, then he has served for seven years. In fact, he is only supposed to serve for six years! The contradiction disappears when the English is corrected: “At the limit (bound) of the seventh of years....,” and now it is naturally understood that the phrase refers to the beginning boundary of the sabbatical year in Deut. 31:10.

The second matter I have to clear up is the mistranslation “seven years.” The Hebrew, in fact, says “seven of years,” which means “seventh of years” or “seventh year.” Deut. 15:9 terms it “year of the seven,” which again means the seventh year. The English translators did not understand that “seven of years” is not a normal noun and adjective combination. It is a construct case combination. As a result they spliced in the word “every” in nearly every version to read: “[every] seven years.” This mistake enhances the incorrect meaning of a whole string of seven years. Actually ONLY the seventh year is meant: “the seven of years,” or the no. 7 year of the years. Understanding this matter is critical to understanding the text, and also Daniel 9:24 where “seventy sevens” are spoken about. There also, a “seven” is a sabbatical year. And there also we should not automatically conclude that a “seven” is a string of seven years. Sevens are in fact discrete sabbatical years.

So we have in Deut. 31:10, “At the bound of the seven of years...” i.e. “At the boundary (or start) of the seventh year.” Here are some translations that are correct or closer to correct:

1. JUB And Moses commanded them, saying, At the beginning of the seventh year, in the appointed time of the year of release, in the feast of the tabernacles...
2. NRSV Moses commanded them: “Every seventh year, in the scheduled year of remission, during the festival of booths,
3. CEV Moses told these priests and leaders: Each year the Israelites must come together to celebrate the Festival of Shelters at the place where the Lord chooses to be worshiped. You must read these laws and teachings to the people at the festival every seventh year, the year when loans do not need to be repaid.

The Jubilee 2000 translation is by far the best here. We may perhaps do better only by rendering the word “beginning” as “bound” or “boundary.”

When then did Ezra read the Torah to the people? If we look to Nehemiah 8:1-18 for an example we find they read the Torah on the first day of the seventh month (8:2), and they did so on the second day, possibly because the new moon report was not determined on the first day (Neh. 8:13). Then they read the Torah during the seven days of Sukkot (Neh. 8:18). The law was read, “and the ears of all the people gave attention to the scroll of the Torah,” just as Deut. 31:11 says, “in their ears.”

This then shows that the seventh year began on Tishri 1, because this is when they read the Torah, and they also did the same at the feast of Sukkot that year. Several points are now in order.

Since the reading of the Torah is associated with the seventh year, I point out that Israel was neither to sow nor reap in the seventh year. Sowing happened in the late fall, October to Novemeber. Reaping was in the spring. A spring based year would forbid reaping what was sowed in the previous fall, and forbid sowing what could be reaped in the next spring. Such a system contradicts the common sense of agriculture in Israel. Since sowing would be permitted under such a system in the fall before a spring based year, there would be a standing crop in the field during the seventh year. The land would not actually enjoy a fallow rest in the seventh year. And such a crop also would be entirely unnecessary since he promised to supply them for three years out of the sixth year’s produce. Further, sowing would be forbidden last fall half of a spring based year leading to no standing crop in the beginning of the 8th year. Thus the land would have a fallow rest in the eighth year, which is contrary to Scripture. Some claim that the unreaped crop in the 7th year will self sow so that they have food in the 8th year, but the Scripture assigns the produce generated from self sowing (spilling of seed) from the 6th year to things that grow by themselves in the 7th!

Therefore, taking all the texts together, it is clear that timing the sabbatical year from spring to spring leads to contradictions.

The seventh year does begin with the first day of the seventh month, and by implication it is the Rosh Hashanah day of the seventh year, and all other years counted in the Sabbatical/Jubilee system. As explained before the words “rosh hashanah” refer to the beginning month of the seventh year, the seventh month, in Ezekiel 40:1.

So I think this is easier to understand by resorting to the precedent set in Nehemiah 8:1-18 by Ezra’s reading of the Torah in fulfillment of Deut. 31:10-11. This counters the uninformed teaching of the “spring sabbatical year,” and by implication the uninformed teaching that Tishri 1 does not begin the years of the seven year cycle.

The denial that Tishri 1 marks the beginning of sabbatical years usually begins with the implicit assumption that there is only one defintion of a “year” in scripture. But scripture does not say there is only one way of reckoning a year. Scripture suggests it is not the only definition by the way it treats other time units: It is easily proven that “day” has several different reckonings, 1. dawn to dusk, 2. 24 hours, 3. 6 days, 4. a time period. It is also easily proven that the word for month, “hodesh” has two different meanings, 1. new moon, and 2. 29 or 30 days, a month. So why should the year have only one definition? Scripture does not say in Exodus 12:2, “This is the only definition of year.” It says, “This month for you is the head of months. It is for you the first of the months of the year.” The word “year” in this passage refers to a solar year, 365 or 366 days. We can prove that there is another definition of “year” in Scripture. Solomon began to build the temple in the 4th year of his reign, in the second month, and it was finished in the 11th year of his reign in the 8th month. And it took seven years (1 Kings 6:38). The only way this works is when Solomon’s years begin and end on Tishri 1. If a spring year is tried, then the time is more than 7 years resulting in a contradiction. Again Nehemiah reckons the 20th year in the 9th month, and then the same 20th year of Artaxerxes in the first month. This can only happen if Judah is reckoning the reigns of kings from Tishri 1. A spring year results in a contradiction. One would expect the 21st year to begin in Nisan, but it says 20th. Again, the book of the Law is found in Josiah’s 18th year. He purges the land and the temple, and then in the same year observes the Passover. There is not enough time between Nisan 1 and 14 for all the events. The only way it works is if the 18th year began on Tishri 1. If a spring year is supposed, a contradiction results. All the cleansing cannot be fit into 13 days. Finally, as mentioned before, if the sabbatical year begins in the spring, then there is a ripe grain crop that spring due to sowing the previous fall. And Israel will have foraged on a planted crop that year and not on aftergrowth from the spillings of year six. This also contradicts what the Law says. So the sabbatical year must begin on Tishri 1.