A Look into Postponements

     What are "postponements"? What purpose do they serve? Were they in use by ancient Israel under Moses?  Did Jesus heed, or even know of, these rules? Did God ordain them?  Did Hillel II ordain them? Does the Mishnah or Talmud enjoin their use? What is their origin? Let us delve deeply into the matter.


"The dehiyyot [postponements] are as follows:





3.1.2 Reasons for the Dehiyyot






The Scriptural Record

     First and foremost, our foundation, is the Word of God---The Holy Scriptures.  Beginning our search here, does one find any instance of postponement rules? Does it state in the Torah---say, Leviticus 23 for example, that the Day of Shouting (aka "Yom Teruah"/"Day of Trumpets") is the first day of the seventh lunar cycle unless that day of the seventh new moon happens to occur on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday--in which cases, please observe it the day following?

     One may search even the whole of Scriptures, but will never find such.


     In his Gospel account, John records that Jesus stood up on the last day of the Feast, the Great Day, and cried out to the crowd (John 7:37). This "last day, that great day" is the eighth day of the Feast of the 7th month (John 7:2) and occurs on the 22nd day of Ethanim/Tishri. The next day (John 8:2), Jesus came again to the Temple early in the morning. After His discourse with the scribes and Pharisees, He healed a man who was blind from birth. John recorded that "it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and open his eyes." (John 9:14).

     This evidence shows that the 23rd day of Ethanim was a Sabbath that year--an impossibilty with the rabbinic calendar, as this would mean that Trumpets would have been on Friday that year and a Friday Trumpets is not possible due to postponement rules.

     Now some may contend that this "last day" is the 7th day of Sukkot instead of the 8th day (and therefore the 21st of Ethanim instead of the 22nd). However, consider these facts:


*Sabbath" -- This is a mistranslation, the Hebrew here says "Shabbaton," while the Greek of the LXX says "anapausis" -- neither of which is "Sabbath." The Hebrew term for Sabbath is "Shabbat," and the Greek terms are "Sabbata" or "Sabbaton" (LXX/NT).


     John further defined this "last day" as "the great of the Feast." The Greek word translated "great" is the same Greek word John used in 19:31, where it is translated "high." John defines the rest days of a Feast as "high" or "great" days. By John's own use of the term, it can NOT be reference to the 7th day of Tabernacles, as it is not a "great" or "high" day. John indeed spoke of the Eighth Day in 7:37, which is a high day (a rest day of a Feast).

     For those who contend that John 7:37-9:14 all occured on the last & great day, please note that John spoke of "the last day (the Eighth Day -- Shemini Atzeret) in 7:37, and rightly referred to it "the great of the Feast." The Greek here is specific. John used the definitive ton ("the") to specify a certain day: "THE last...THE great." However, in John 9:14, John wrote of "a" Sabbath, not "the" Sabbath (the Greek definitive ton is absent):

"And it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes."

     IF John was yet speaking of the same day, why not refer to it specifically? Why not say, "And it was YET THE Sabbath, THE GREAT DAY, when Jesus made the clay...”?

     Also, the high days of Tabernacles are NOT "Sabbaths" (Hebrew: "shabbat"). They are never called "shabbath" in Scripture, and they have different restrictions/allowances than shabbat days.

The Historical Record

     Looking into historic documents, we find that the postponements were not yet in use in Jesus' day, nor for even centuries thereafter.

     The Mishnah (spanning the time period of 200 B.C. - 200 A.D.), which came to make up the first part of Talmud, states:


IF SABBATH AND THE DAY OF ATONEMENT [FOLLOWED EACH OTHER] i.e., when the Day of Atonement fell upon Friday or Sunday - Mas. K'rithoth 19a

when the Day of Atonement falls on a Friday - Mas. Shabbath 114b

Where the Day of Atonement fell on a Friday, the Shewbread was then baked on a Thursday - Mas. Menachoth 100b

They fold up clothing even four or five times. And they spread beds on the night of the Sabbath for use on the Sabbath, but not on the Sabbath for use after the Sabbath. R. Ishmael says, "They fold clothes and lay out beds on the Day of Atonement for the Sabbath." - Mas. Shabbat 15:3

     As evidenced above, even well after Christ's time in the flesh, the Day of Atonement was still being observed on both Fridays and Sundays which cannot be done under modern CRC rules.






     This passage, dealing with the "evening" daily offering when offered on Passover, illustrates that Passover could occur on a weekday, preparation day (Friday), or Sabbath.


     These show the "Passover festival" (i.e., the first day of the Feast of Unleavens) occuring on a day not allowed by the current CRC (i.e., Friday).  Also, utilizing the current fixed calendar, an Abib 16 Sabbath occurance would put Sivan 6 (which is the post-Mishnah rabbinical reckoning of Pentecost [1]) on the Sabbath. This is yet another CRC no-no.

During the Second Commonwealth down to the fourth century C.E. [at the earliest], the festival of Passover could fall on any day of the week including Friday. (Dr. Solomon Zeitlin, "The Judean Calendar During the Second Commonwealth and the Scrolls," Jewish Quarterly Review, July 1966)


"They may not decree a public fast on the first day of a month or during [the Feast of] the Dedication or at Purim. But if they had begun they may not interrupt the fast. So Rabban Gamaliel.  R. Meir said: Although Rabban Gamaliel has said, 'They may not interrupt the fast,' he admitted that they need not fast the whole day. So, too, with the Ninth of Av if it fell on the eve of a Sabbath [i.e., a Friday]." (The Mishnah, Danby, p.197, Taanith 2:10)

     The Mishnah also records the following concerning the Day of Shouting ("Trumpets"), which is the day that these Postponement rules are based around:

if the two Festival-days of the New Year fall after the Sabbath [that is, on Sunday and Monday] - Mas. Shabbath 19:5

     This Mishnaic quote shows that "Festival-days" can immediately follow Sabbath.[2] It likewise clearly states that specifically "Rosh HaShanah" (Tishri 1) could fall on the first day of the week, and thus it is seen that the postponement of this Day of Shouting (a.k.a. "Feast of Trumpets"/"Rosh HaShanah") from Sunday to Monday was not yet established during Temple times nor in the Mishnaic period.

     Why is it that the first day of Ethanim (a.k.a. "Tishri")  is not allowed to fall on a Sunday according to the rabbinical calendar anyway?

If Rosh Hashanah fell on a Sunday, Hoshanah Rabbah would fall on the Sabbath and would call for the elimination of certain rituals which the pharisaic rabbis did not want to forgo. (Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol 25, No 1, 1997; Article by Rabbi Saul Leeman, "Why is Pesach So Late This Year?").

Sunday is considered unfit, because with Rosh ha-Shanah falling thereon, the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Hosha'na Rabbah) on which the ceremony of "beating the willow-twigs" is an important part of the service, would fall on the Sabbath, and the observance of the ceremony could not be permitted. (Henry Malter, Saadia Gaon: His Life and Works)


     Do you agree that we should not observe "Trumpets" on the correct day because of this rabbinical tradition and reasoning? How many of the CRC-observant brethren are even aware that this is why "Trumpets" is never observed on a Sunday within the so-called "Hebrew calendar"?

     The following Mishnaic quote proves that Ethanim 21 ("HoShana Rabba") was not postponed from falling upon the Sabbath in the Temple and, at the least, pre-Talmudic times, and thereby likewise further shows that "Trumpets" was not postponed from being observed on the first day of the week:



B. [If] the seventh day of the willow branch coincided with the Sabbath, the willow branch [rite] is for seven days...

4:5 F. And on that day [i.e., "the seventh day of the willow branch" (Ethanim 21)] they walk around the altar seven times...

4:6 A. As the rite concerning it [is performed] on an ordinary day, so the rite concerning [is performed] on the Sabbath" -  Mas. Sukkah 4:1,3,5,6

Akavia, in 'Kizzur' p. xl, shows, from dates given in Sherira Gaon's Epistle, that Rosh Hashanah was observed on Sunday, with a consequent Sabbath Hoshana Rabbah, long after Hillel II. ('Rosh Hashanah,' here and elsewhere, refers to the first day of the holiday [Tishri 1]). (Arnold A. Lasker and Daniel J.Lasker, Behold, A Moon is Born! How the Jewish Calendar Works)

     The following historical records of the Jews, also from the Talmudic period, show that the 1st day of the seventh new moon was likewise not postponed from occuring on a Friday:

1. IN THE SEVENTH MONTH, IN THE FIRST DAY OF THE MONTH SHALL BE A SOLEMN REST (XXIII, 24). 1 This bears on what is written in Scripture:



(2) The bearing is not clear. In Pes. R. XL, 2 this verse is expounded as showing that mercy governs God's attitude in His judgment of man and that this was so in the case of Adam who was judged on the first day of the year.

(3) I.e. in the second of the special passages inserted in the Additional Service on New Year's Day. This second benediction is now known as Zikronoth, remembrance.

(4) V. A.P.B., p. 250.

(5) The conclusion is only that Adam was created on New Year's Day, the first of Tishri, this being the sixth day from the twenty-fifth of Elul.

Midrash Rabbah - Leviticus 29:1

     The Talmud likewise claims that Adam was created on Ethanim 1 (aka, "Tishri 1"):


     Now we, as the rabbinic Jews who authored the material above, are quite aware what day Adam was created, aren't we?  The Book of Genesis explains clearly to us that he was created on the sixth day--the day before the Sabbath (Gen. 1&2). This being the fact, it is clear that the "rabbis" who authored these Midrash and Talmudic quotes did not believe Ethanim 1 was to be postponed from occuring on the day before the weekly Sabbath (that is, on Friday).

The Origin of Postponements

     We have examined the Scriptural and historical records and have found them replete with proof that the postponement rules of the CRC were not in use in either the 1st of 2nd Temple periods, nor thereafter during the Mishnaic period.

     So when did these man-made rules come into place?  Did Hillel II institute them in 358/359 C.E. when he published the, up til then, "secret" astronomical information which had been used by the Sanhedrin to determine if the witnesses who came to testify of their sighting of the fresh crescent were lying or not?

"The plain fact is that, as seen by recent scholars, the system of the fixed calendar was not developed until fully three or four centuries after the close of the Talmudic period, about A.D. 485. [therefore, around the eighth or ninth century C.E.]...Nor can anything be found in the Talmud about the weighty calendaric matters as the regulated succession of full and defective months within the year, the four postponements of New Year's Day, the 19-year cycle, or the number and succession of intercalated years in this or any cycle." (The Code of Maimonides, Book Three Treatise Eight SANCTIFICATION OF THE MOON, translated from the Hebrew by Solomon Ganz; Introduction by Julian Obermann, Astronomical Commentary by Otto Neugebauer, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956, p xli-xlii)

"There is...unimpeachable evidence from the works of writers with expert knowledge of the calendar that the present ordo intercalationis [sequence of intercalations--the 19 year cycle] and epochal molad were not intrinsic parts of the calendar of Hillel II, these being seen still side by side with other styles of the ordo intercalationis and the molad as late as the 11th century. Also the four dehiyyot [postponement rules] developed gradually. ...By the tenth century the Jewish calendar was exactly the same as today." (Cecil Roth, editor, Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 5, p.50, article: Calendar)

     While we cannot be positively sure as to when the postponement rules were added alongside the other man-made rules of the then-developing calculated rabbinical calendar, we know with complete confidence that these rules were not in use, nor even conceived of and known, during Jesus' day. There are some indications that the initial elements of these postponements began to creep in near the end of the Talmudic period, but as the Encyclopaedia Judiaca quote states above, these rules developed gradually, along with the rest of the rabbinic calendar rules, over the course of many years.

Pushed Off For Preparation?

     It is claimed that we need this "ADU" postponement to block Sabbath and annual Holy Days from occurring back-to-back, lest there be no day of preparation in between to prepare for the second of the two Appointed Times. Is this claim genuine in God's eyes?

     The concept of "preparation day" stems from Exodus 16 with:

"...on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily...bake what you shall bake, boil what you shall boil, for tomorrow is the Sabbath." (Exodus 16:5,23)


     What are we "baking and boiling" for the Day of Atonement that one must bump it over one day to have a preparation day in its rightful place when nothing is eaten on this God-appointed fast day anyway???

     The fallacy of such a rule is further disproved by this very fact: God specifically declared one of His appointed times to occur on "the morrow after the Sabbath"!

     IF God is truly against Sabbaths and annual Holy Days being back-to-back, and He feels and understands that they are "impractical" for us humans to keep, why then did He Himself ordain at least one back-to-back Sabbath/Holy Day every year (i.e., the seventh Sabbath of the count from Elevation Sheaf day followed by Pentecost---Leviticus 23:15-21)?

     Facts are facts, brethren.  Through the whole of Scripture, there are no indications of postponements rules.  Through the late 2nd Temple (Jesus' day) and early post-2nd Temple records, we find significant evidence against postponements being used or even known.

     It has been claimed by many who hold to the CRC that the burden of proof to change from it lies upon those of us who already have left it--that we need to present the evidence to them. But the Biblical fact is this:  We are each admonished through the apostle Paul to prove all things--not to others, but to our own selves.  We, individually, are to put all doctrines and the like to the test BEFORE we hold fast to them.  Dear friends, how many of us can claim we have done such testing and proving of this so-called Hebrew Calendar?


1.  See our article Determining Elevation Sheaf Day & Pentecost   BACK





Author Email: Brian Hoeck
