The Beginning of the Lunar Year

by Fr. Mark Wojdelski, FSSP

(This is part of a series of articles, and will make little sense without the introductory articles: (1) , (2), (3), and (4).  There are more than four articles in the series, but the first four are very important to understanding the conceptual framework.  Here also is a link to the complete calendar for reference. (“complete” lunar calendar)

At long last, we “officially” reach the beginning of the religious year, the month of Nisan.  In our hypothetical calendar, this falls on the Friday after the Fourth Sunday of Lent. On the first day of the first new year after the Exodus (according to the religious calendar), the Tabernacle is erected for the first time, and divine worship begins. “The Lord said to Moses, ‘On the first day of the first month you shall erect the tabernacle of the tent of meeting.’” (Ex 40:1–2) Of course, if the Exodus began on a Friday, the first day of the second year would be a Tuesday, not a Friday, but this should not matter for our purposes.

After this, the priests are ordained:

At the door of the tent of meeting you shall remain day and night for seven days, performing what the Lord has charged, lest you die; for so I am commanded.” And Aaron and his sons did all the things which the Lord commanded by Moses. (Lev 8:35–36)

This ritual either began on the first day of the month, coinciding with the erection of the tabernacle, and lasted until the following 7th day of Nisan, or it began on the 2nd day of Nisan and stretched to the 8th of Nisan. It makes no difference, but if we choose the latter possibility, 2 Nisan would coincide with the Saturday known as “Sitientes,” from the introit of the Mass of the day. There were several days on which ordinations were conferred.  Although sacred ordination can take place on (almost) any day of the year, the most common days for conferring them were the Ember Days.  The reason for this is that the five extra lessons on the Ember Days provided very convenient places to insert the conferral of tonsure and the minor orders (one before each of the extra lessons).  This day departs from that arrangement, since it is in every way a typical Saturday of Lent.  This day is however the day on which ordinations were traditionally conferred before the beginning of Passiontide, when any festivities associated with the ordination of clergy would be prohibited until Easter. Beginning on the second day of the month, the 7-day ordination of the Levitical priests would then conclude on the eve of the Sabbath of the following week, which would be more fitting (see the previous article that suggests the appropriateness of this sort of timing). This might also explain the fact that in Jewish tradition, the first through the eighth days of Nisan are days when mourning is prohibited, because “From the 1st until the 8th of Nisan was established the Daily offering.”¹ The “daily offering” spoken of is the twice-daily sacrifice offered in the tabernacle (and later in the temple) every morning and every evening.

Now this is what you shall offer upon the altar: two lambs a year old day by day continually. One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer in the evening; and with the first lamb a tenth measure of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a libation. And the other lamb you shall offer in the evening, and shall offer with it a cereal offering and its libation, as in the morning, for a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord. (Ex 29:38–41)

Also on the first day of this month, from the apocryphal book of Jubilees: “And again Jacob went in unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare him a third son, and he called his name Levi, in the new moon of the first month in the sixth year of this week.”² Corresponding with the erection of the tabernacle we have the traditional birth of Levi, the patriarch of the priestly tribe of Israel.

At the same time the tabernacle was being consecrated, a series of sacrifices were begun. In modern Jewish worship, there is a series of twelve short readings that record the initial offerings of each of the tribal leaders. The thirteenth day is devoted to a recapitulation of the consecration of the altar. (Num 7:12-88)

All of the offerings from the various tribes follow this formula:

He who offered his offering the first day was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah;  and his offering was one silver plate whose weight was a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver basin of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering; one golden dish of ten shekels, full of incense; one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering; one male goat for a sin offering; and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Nahshon the son of Amminadab. (Num 7:12–17)

The offering for this first day was assigned to Nahshon, the son of Amminadab. Amminadab was also the father of Elisheba (or “Elisabeth” in the same way “Joshua” = “Jesus”) the wife of Aaron. “Aaron took to wife Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon; and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.” (Ex 6:23) These four sons (two actually, since Nadab and Abihu died childless [Num 3:4]) would continue the line of priests after the death of Aaron, and so every priest in the old covenant comes from a union of the tribe of Levi in the person of Aaron, the first high priest, and the tribe of Judah, of which Elizabeth was probably the most prominent woman at the time.

Nahshon was a direct ancestor of King David, and therefore of Christ. By making this offering on Levi’s birthday on behalf of the tribe of Judah, the tribe solidifies its link to the priestly line, which will ultimately be joined forever in the New Testament with the coming of Christ.

It is also interesting to ponder the idea that although the weights of the various dishes and bowls were set, the design was not necessarily identical, and each tribe might have had distinguishing features in their vessels. If we are to believe that the twelve tribes of Israel are fulfilled in the twelve apostles, then this individuality manifested in the fabrication of the vessels will point to the diversity in liturgical and spiritual expressions of the one same Catholic religion, transmitted to the world via the twelve apostles.

Another interesting event occurred at this same time of year under the rule of King Hezekiah, something only mentioned in the books of Chronicles:

“And the priests went into the temple of the Lord to sanctify it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found within to the entrance of the house of the Lord, and the Levites took it away, and carried it out abroad to the torrent Cedron. And they began to cleanse on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the same month they came into the porch of the temple of the Lord, and they purified the temple in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the same month they finished what they had begun.” (2 Chr 29:16–17)

The Chronicler includes Hezekiah among those kings who did right in the sight of the Lord. (2 Chr 29:2) He was “cleaning up” after the disastrous reign of his father Ahaz, who had actually closed the temple and set up altars to false gods all over his kingdom. (2 Chr 28:24) Due to their inability to celebrate the passover at the proper time, its celebration was moved to the following month, an eventuality that was provided for in the law of Moses. (Num 9:11)

The sixteenth day of the month would correspond to Holy Saturday, which goes in to Easter Sunday after sunset. “On the sixteenth day of the same month they finished what they had begun.” (2 Chr 29:17) “And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.” (Gen 2:2) This will be discussed further in a future installment.

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On a somewhat (but not completely) unrelated note, on the third day of this month, Daniel begins a three-week fast that ends on the 23rd day of the month.

In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks.  I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks.  On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, that is, the Tigris, I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, whose loins were belted with gold of Uphaz. His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the noise of a multitude. And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves.  So I was left alone and saw this great vision, and no strength was left in me; my radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength. Then I heard the sound of his words; and when I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in a deep sleep with my face to the ground. (Dan 10:2–9)

The third day of the first month corresponds to Passion Sunday, while the twenty-fourth day of the first month would correspond with the first Sunday after Easter (Low Sunday). This is perhaps interesting since that is the day after the 7-day celebration of the Resurrection, which begins on Holy Saturday (in the evening) and ends at sunset on the following Saturday, which begins the eighth or “octave” day celebration. In the original catalog of feasts enumerated in the book of Leviticus (23:36) the only feast that has an eighth day associated with it is the feast of Booths, or Tabernacles, which (as we have seen previously) seems to have been instituted as a figure of our “earthly habitation” contrasted with our eternal dwelling in heaven. (2 Cor 5)  Now this is also the day in the liturgy on which our Lord appears to the apostles in the upper room for the second time, and Thomas is with them. When in the presence of the risen Lord (apparently not manifesting Himself as transfigured), St. Thomas is given the grace to see past the living man who was showing him His pierced hands, feet, and side. It is at this moment that he sees, in his mind’s eye, the truth of the matter, and is able to utter his famous confession: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28) Such a grace of faith cannot come from any amount of physical evidence, although the evidence is further confirmation of the truth. Such faith can only come from the superabundant love of God for humanity. “When the goodness and loving kindness [lat. humanitas]³ of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” (Tit 3:4–6)