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You are here: Experts > Travel > Middle East for Visitors > Israel > Dividing of days past and present
Israel - Dividing of days past and present
Expert: Leon Gork - 11/6/2009
Question
QUESTION: Hello,
I am studying the division of 1 day to the next. I understand current practice is to declare one day's end and the next day's beginning at sundown/nightfall as opposed to midnight or morning. Please provide any teaching of this from religious texts (Old Testament, Torah, etc) and confirmation if the current practice is identical to how it was practiced in ancient history. Has there ever been disagreement (past or present) regarding this issue among Jews? One particular interesting phrase from scripture is from Genesis 1: "And the evening and the morning were the X day". What exactly does that mean? Did the day end with evening AND morning or did the day start with evening? Is there a differentiation between religious time keeping and civil time keeping regarding this Issue? If yes, what are the reasons and has this been practiced by ancient Jews? Please point me to good references to continue research. Thank you!
ANSWER: Obviously the day begins with the dawn not with sunset. This is the meaning of "and it was evening and it was morning, one day" that means morning and evening is one day. Each day consists of a period of darkness which is evening which is the end of the daylight part of the day and morning is the beginning of a new day.
the counting of the days has got nothing to do with the beginning and end of the law of ceasing to work on the sabbath and festivals. Obviously rest or ceasing to work begins with evening. Work begins with morning and rest begins with evening.
Counting days is a different matter. Six working days begin with Sunday morning and end with
Friday evening. Sure the Sabbath ceasing work begins on Friday evening but that isn't the beginning of the 7th day. The 7th day begins with Saturday. I hope this helps you.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Hello Leon,
Thanks for your speedy reply. Although your answer is very clear, I still want to ask for this clarification. These 2 websites say a new day according to Jewish tradition start in the evening so the sabbath starts Friday night:
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/284391
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_time_and_day_does_Sabbath_begin_and_end
I would say the language of the Bible indicates that a day starts in the morning, but these "experts" speak otherwise. Since you live in Israel and teach Jewish religion and history are these websites wrong?
Thanks!
Answer
One should ask untill complete clarity is achieved. Thanks for asking.
The experts on the matter of the calendar and everything else in Judaism are the Rabbis of the Mishna and the Talmud and later clarifications by Maimonides and other acknowledged scholars.
Briefly the people in the answers are wrong. They have mistranslated the text and have been careless in their answer.
The answer I gave you is the correct one. Don't confuse semantics with reality. There is no doubt that every day consists of a period of light and a period of darkness.
God finished creating the world as soon as it got dark on Friday evening, therefore rest begins then. But I can't count the 7th of November for example as begining on Friday evening. Sure Friday evening is the beginning of rest because then God began resting but the 7th of November will always be at dawn on Saturday. A child born on Friday night on the 6th November is born on the 6th November not on the 7th November.
I've rechecked the opinions of scholars and my answer, excepting the last paragraph is in agreement and I can give you the references if you like, but contrary to all the correctness of my answer and the answer of the sages the custom is to count the date from the evening before. This is an anomally and it's a mystery why this should be the case but that is the practice in Judaism and not as I said, but this only applies to the question of the date. In other words a person born on the evening of the 6th of November would be considered to have his birthday in Judaism on the 7th this is not because of Biblical injunction which indicates the opposite, namely the day precedes the evening.There are many proofs of this.
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