Date: Thursday, 17 December 1992 20:42:36 MST
X-Mailer: TMail version 1.15R
From: "D. C. Sessions" <dcs@witsend.tnet.com>
Organization: Nobody but me -- really
Subject: Calendars (was: Christian Holidays)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Distribution: world

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 ..."

# >                                                          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.

# >                                        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.

# 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.

There are three commandments which are generally specific to women:
ritual immersion after menstruation,burning a portion of dough when
baking bread, and lighting candles for holy days.  The first is
dictated biologically, the second by traditional domestic division
of labor, and the third by the fact that in traditional practice the
husband is at services as the holiday begins, leaving the wife at
home to prepare.  (If there are no women in a household, a man
must assume the responsibility.) 

--- D. C. Sessions                            Speaking for myself ---
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