Holy Hormones Bible Study: Teaching — not Entertainment
What is a day? Some Jewish background
FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD #6
Disclosure: I’m not a Messianic. I’m an NT Saint who has been exposed to my OT Heritage.
This post continues the rag-tag series on the closer examination of some of the aspects of the Passover/Last Supper. If you have come in part-way through the series, there is some explanation in the earlier episodes to be found in FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD
A common Gentile view of a Jewish day
This series deals with the Feast of the Unleavened Bread so, for obvious reasons, a Jewish Day will be the focus. The day is of particular interest to Judaism and is plump with interesting information but only a few relevant points will be discussed here.
Figure 6–11 shows a common NT Saints’ understanding of a Jewish day.
The intricacies of the clock of a Jewish day would not normally command the interest of a Gentile NT Saint but this article concerns the timing of events of the Day of the Crucifixion in order to assess the validity of some of the claims made about it. Why be satisfied with near-enough-is-good-enough rushes of blood to the head when there are real numbers available to test any interpretations made?
Figure 6–1: Common Gentile understanding of a nominal Jewish day
Night and day
Post #4 examined the Holy Spirit’s definition of a day in terms of being one rotation of a perpetually spinning globe, and the presence or absence of light on the surface on the globe from a stationary single source, as shown later in Post #5, Figure 5–1(Genesis 1:5); the terms dusk and dawn include a sequence of events as the light of the sun increases and decreases with its appearing/disappearing over the horizon, as shown in Figure 5–2, but it was left there.
Where does one choose the starting point in a continuous, spinning process? Obviously, the Western World has chosen the middle of the night to click-over because the technology has been there for a considerable time. What about ancient times when there were no clocks? How would Israel be able to know it was time to assemble before the Lord as He decreed?
Simple, He made them a clock, as is written in Genesis 1:16 || Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
The clock was the stars of the Universe! A study of the Jewish Mazzeroth, which was stolen by Satan, rejigged and renamed Zodiac, is beyond the scope of this project but is a highly recommended study.
As it turns out, however, the sun is a very unreliable star to select as the reference because, relative to the surface of the Earth, it is moving rapidly — of course its transient movement can be plotted by the shadow it casts but, again obviously, that, too, is always moving. Also, the sighting is obviously (that word again) influenced by topography. But God has got this. Since time immemorial, in Judaism (and, perhaps, other cultures) the new day begins with the sighting of the North Star, Polaris,2 every day. The thinking behind this is soooo elegant.
• Polaris is always in the same spot in the sky for every viewing location on the Earth’s surface in the Northern Hemisphere.
• It is the 50th brightest star so there is warning that it is about to appear.3
• Around the Middle East its elevation is high enough so any effects caused by terrain are easily eliminated by choosing an adjacent viewing point. (Tower of Babylon?)
• And I’d be surprised if there weren’t a countless other reasons.
The obvious objections to this must be addressed.
• Polaris is not visible in the Southern Sky. True, but context, context, context. In Biblical Times the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East was the action centre.
• What about overcast skies? That’s a zinger — I don’t know how to answer that for the very early days before the advent of Geodesy. But the sun could also be not visible.
Some comments about night and day by Important Jews
There are several differing definitions of the Jewish day circulating in Christendom but they carry no weight because they paint a different culture, from yesterday, with favourite colours of this culture, today.
It is written in John 11:9–10 || Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” Even though Jesus is speaking in metaphor it implies that the day ends when the light ends. (Can there be a more important Jew?)
This Jewish perspective is repeated in Chapter 1 of Mishnah Berakhot 1:2.14 || When discussing Deuteronomy 6:7, “…when you lie down.”, it is stated, “And before the stars come out, too, it is daytime, and not time for lying down.” This shows that it is the stars which define the new day. Any light around sunset is still yesterday.
Daily observances
Orthodox Judaism regard the daily clock seriously. Tables and charts of important times, with regard to the sun, are adhered to for every day of the year. Figure 6–2 is a page out of a book of prayer-time reminders for the major cities in Israel with reference to Jerusalem (2022). As can be seen from the slight changes in times, the nominal day concept is not entertained.
Figure 6–2: Daily prayer times for major cities in Israel
Shabbat
Shabbat, in particular the Candle Lighting (End of Shabbat), is of paramount importance. Figure 6–3 shows the instructions given for lighting the candle by one of the major Judaism websites.5 The reverence is palpable. As can be seen, “It’s a desecration of the Shabbat to light candles after sunset.” Even in today’s apparently lackadaisical times Jews are rigorous in the observance of Shabbat. As one website put it, “Only Yom Kippur is more important than the weekly Shabbat.” The words unspoken heard here are, “Get it right for Shabbat!” The Jews don’t go throwing Shabbats around, willy-nilly.
Figure 6–3 Judaism instructions regarding the End of Shabbat
But it can be seen there is confusion in Judaism concerning the definition of the terms which leads to misunderstanding of the Jewish day. It can also be seen that even one of the most influential Judaism websites, chabad.org, appears to issue conflicting instructions. One Rabbi speaks of 18 minutes before sunset while the other speaks of 40 minutes before sunset when sunset is not the defining factor. Figure 6–4 examines this confusion.
Files showing dates and times for the Shabbat Candle lighting times for significant population centres in every country are easily downloaded from a number of Jewish websites.
Buffer zone
Because of the fear of desecration by missing out on the end of the week a buffer is applied. Figure 6–4 shows the recommended Candle Lighting time in relation to the Geodetic curves for sunset and Polaris sighting in 2022.
The Candle Lighting (End of Shabbat) (–) curve denotes the times presented by the Rabbis.
The 18 minute buffer curve (+) snugly fits the sunset.
The 40 minute buffer curve (x) snugly fits the Polaris sighting which, according to the evidence already to hand, is more accurate.
Even though no harm was caused in this case, the surprising discovery is that one of the Premier Centres of Judaism, despite an army of fact-checkers and editors, does not know its definitions. The same applies to NT Saints. Too much (sic)knowledge is often regurgitation other people’s misunderstanding. We are all guilty. We should all be cautious. Definitions will be the crux of the project from now on.
Figure 6–4 Conflicting instructions given about lighting
Now the day is over
A lot of time has been spent in getting a deeper insight into the make-up of the day because it is one of the focal points of Mosaic, Talmudic and Rabbinical Judaism. Without some common grounding no logical discussion can be conducted — only the usual emotional clichés. It is hoped that the time has been well spent. These foundations will be references in discussions which will follow.
The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)
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1Typical Jewish Day https://www.biblecharts.org/generalcharts.html
2"Jewish Time.” aishcom, https://aish.com/jewish_time/
3 Polaris brightness https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/polaris-the-present-day-north-star/
4Berakhot 1:2.1 https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Berakhot.1.1?lang=bi
5 Candle Lighting https://www.chabad.org/calendar/candleLighting_cdo/locationId/247/locationType/1/jewish/Candle-Lighting.htm
