From: gmiller@worldbank.org (Gene C. Miller)
Subject: Re: Calendars (was: Christian Holidays)
Followup-To: talk.religion.misc
Organization: worldbank.org
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 19:01:55 GMT

In article <765329d7734816t184@witsend.uucp>, "D. C. Sessions"
<dcs@witsend.tnet.com> wrote:
> 
> In <1gnqpvINN94k@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, ses2@po.CWRU.Edu (S. E. Stansfield)  wrote:
> # In a previous article, gmiller@worldbank.org (Gene C. Miller) says:
> # >In article <1992Dec2.232111.21236@midway.uchicago.edu>,
> # >dsoconne@quads.uchicago.edu (Daniel S OConnell) wrote:
> # >> 
> # >  Surely Dano meant to type the spring equinox rather than the spring
> # >solstice. In any event, I haven't yet seen any sources on when the Passover
> # >was tied to the first full moon after the vernal equinox.
> 
> Deut. 16.1: "Observe the month of Abib [spring--dcs], and keep the
>             Passover ..."  (Also from the related agricultural
>             practices.)
> Lev. 23:5:  "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month
>             at dusk ... and on the fifteenth day of the month is the
>             feast of unleavend bread ..."

     While Abib (now Nisan) was indeed the first month, there is no
indication in these verses of any connection to the vernal equinox. To the
extent that Passover is also an agricultural festival (in addition to
commemorating the Exodus), the tie to the equinox may find its basis there.
Unless D.C. Sessions is asserting that the Exodus took place on the first
full moon after the vernal equinox. If so, it would be nice to see a
source.
> 
> # >                                                          Because OT
> # >Judaism was so emphatically male and profoundly anti-female as far as
> # >deities were concerned (in life as well I gather. Some orthodox sects
> # >apparently still practice very strong sexual segregation. Women are not
> # >allowed to dance with the Torah, etc.),
> 
>   To be precise, they don't allow mixed dancing of any kind.  Since
>   the MEN are dancing with the Torah...  As far as "anti-female" is
>   concerned, normative Judaism has always been strong against any
>   suggestion that the Creator is in any way sexual.  (Mystics use
>   sexual imagery as analogy, but then only the very well-learned
>   are supposed to study mysticism.)  This is in itself neither for
>   nor against women; 3000 years ago Judaism was on the bleeding
>   edge of establishing women's rights in the Near East.
> 

     Curious that a Creator who transcended gender should have been so
selective about which gender He chose as his spokesmen on earth. Or were
there women high priests that I've missed? We can't forget that Samuel
explicitly said when searching for a king for Israel that "Man looketh on
the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart," so the
selection criteria were clearly held to be divine in origin. Funny that no
womens' hearts qualified. . .

> # >                                        it is interesting to me that this
> # >high and holy day should have been attached to a heavenly body commonly
> # >identified as female. Perhaps it's the sibling of another little nugget:
> # >Deborah, who prophesied while sitting under a palm tree and whose song is
> # >among the oldest pieces of literature in the Old Testament.
> 
>   "Commonly" identified?  In Europe perhaps, but please don't be
>   shocked to find that European mythology is not universal.  For
>   instance, in Hebrew the word for month or new moon, chodesh,
>   is masculine.
> 

     "The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (Harper & Row: 1983)
says the following regarding Asherah, whom the Hebrews also worshipped
(polytheistically) for a while: ""Semitic name of the Great Goddess. . .the
Old Testament 'Asherah' is translated 'grove' without any explanation that
the sacred grove represented the Goddess's genital center, birthplace of
all things. . ." Albright in "Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan" says regarding
Asherah that the ". . .Canaanites called her Qaniyatu elima, She Who Gives
Birth to the Gods, or Rabbatu athriatu yammi, Lady Who Traverses the Sea
(i.e., the Moon)." This of course does not rule out male lunar deities, or
even a transition from a matriarchal to a patriarchal system. Nevertheless,
the view that the moon was feminine extended well beyond Europe and seems
to have been held in Canaan during OT times. Yahweh of course set out from
the start to try to distinguish himself from the rest, viz. the first of
the ten commandments.

> # Actually, the Jewish calender is a Lunar one.  The months always start on
> # (I believe) the new moon.  Despite the misogyny of much of judaism there is
> # a strong feminine component, even in orthodox circles.  It is the women who
> # light the candles on the eve of the sabbath.  
> 
> Correct; the months start with the new moon.  So does the Mulsim
> month, BTW; I wouldn't call Islam a feminist religion on that
> basis!  Whether this has anything to do with feminism or not is
> another matter, since the identification of the moon with women
> is a European pagan practice.  Semitic calendars are typically
> lunar, period.
> 
If the Jewish calendar were purely lunar, the holidays, including Passover,
would migrate steadily across the solar year. To the extent that the Jewish
calendar resets itself based on an equinox, a solar event, it is perhaps
most accurately called a luni-solar calendar...Gene
Xref: sparky talk.religion.misc:24591 rec.arts.books:23269