AboutDavid Rosenblum Expertise I am an ex-student of yeshiva and I like to be
presented with Torah study problems. If you have
studied the Torah and have questions on the subject
matter, I want to hear about it. I am not a Rabbi and
not qualified to decide halachic issues. I am still
interested in halachic questions for which I can
sometimes offer general guidelines or present
decisions in halachic works such as Mishna Berurah. I
welcome questions from non-Jewish people but I cannot
respond to religious references that are not part of
Judaism. If you are working on a paper or doing
research and want general information on a Jewish
subject, I may or may not satisfy your need, depending
on how comfortable I am with the question. If you
have a personal problem, I am not qualified to help
you but I will do what I can to offer you some
assistance.
Expert: David Rosenblum Date: 8/8/2006 Subject: Inclusive Reckoning
Question Hello Mr. David Rosenblum,I am researching the term "Inclusive reckoning". Is the term "forty days and forty nights" literally 40 days and 40 nights, or could it be parts of 40 days and 39 nights? Could you please elaborate?
Answer I don't think the term per se is used in Torah text so I cannot speak for it. Nevertheless the Torah regularly counts partial days and years as full. As to that method of counting, it only applies to the first or last unit of the period. So if a king is said to have ruled 4 years, he could very well only have ruled part of the first and part of the last year. As to the 2 middle years we can assume they were complete years.
Same goes for 40 days and 40 nights: days 2 through 39 are complete days where as days 1 and 40 could in theory be partial as discussed earlier.
