Women Moon Time and the Feminine Source of Shabbat
Women Moon Time and the Feminine Source of Shabbat
Or: The secret of “IBUR”
Rabbi Ohad Ezrahi
Translated by Tamar Azulai. (2002)
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The Hebrew calendar is based on the lunar cycle. It differs from the Moslem calendar, however, as it is not based on the moon alone, but rather periodically regulates between the lunar and solar years[1]. Due to the fact that the Moslem calendar does not take the solar cycle into account, the Moslem month of Ramadan falls in a different season each year. The annual seasons however, are determined according to the Earth’s orbit around the sun, without regard for the Islam calendar! This would have been the case with the Jewish calendar too, had the ancient sages not ensured that the Jewish holidays would fall during the same season each year.
The sages drew from this concept from the verse ‘Observe the month of Aviv (i.e. spring), and keep the Passover for your God; for in the month of Aviv your God brought you forth out of Egypt’ (Deuteronomy, chapter 16, 1). Here we see that the festival of Passover must always fall during the spring month (i.e. Aviv), despite the fact that we count the months of the year according to lunar waxing and waning. Accordingly, the Sages devised the Hebrew calendar, as we know it today. (During the period of the Second Temple there were alternative calendars, the most notorious of which was found in The Book of Jubilees (Sefer HaYovim), which arranges the Hebrew dates in a different manner). The Hebrew calendar therefore takes both the sun and the moon into account. We count the months according to the new moon, while ensuring that the month of Aviv (which we call today Nissan) – the spring month – will always fall during the spring season. This is achieved by ‘impregnating’ the year every few years: by adding an extra month and thereby pushing Nissan back to the spring, which is determined according to the relative positions of the Earth and the Sun. This ‘impregnation’ is termed a leap year *.
This year, 5463 of the Hebrew calendar is a leap year – it is a pregnant year. The month of Adar 1 symbolizes the fetus and the year symbolizes the mother. But who is the father that has impregnated her? (Maybe it is inappropriate to ask such a question?!)
The use of the term ‘impregnated’ illustrates that, according to ancient Jewish thought, the year was perceived as a feminine entity – not only the year, but the month too. The leap (or impregnated) month appears frequently in the Hebrew calendar. The leap month has thirty days, rather than twenty-nine. During the leap month, the start of the new month is celebrated twice – the thirtieth day of the ending month and the first day of the new month. In ancient times, the months of the year were not commemorated according to a predetermined calendar but rather on the basis of ‘moon sightings’. Whoever saw the new moon would climb on his donkey, even on the Sabbath (!) and ride to the high court. There, he would be festively received, even if a hundred such moon seers had already arrived before him. His account would only be accepted after in-depth inquiry and investigation.
“… And they would say to him: tell us, how did you see the moon? Was it before the sun or after the sun, to the North or to the South? How high was it and to which direction did it tilt, and how broad was it? Raban Gamliel had the various shapes of the moon on a chart on his wall, which he would show to the people and ask, Did you see one like this, or like that?”
(Mishnah, Rosh-HaShana Tractate, Chapter 2).
And so it may come to pass that there was no witness of the new moon on the first night, if it had been a cloudy night or if the testimonies were too vague, and only on the second night could the moon be clearly seen and the new month commemorated. Thus the previous day would be counted as the thirtieth day of the old month and it would be celebrated, and the following day was proclaimed the first day of the new month: “The head of the courts would decree: Sanctified! And the whole crowd would reply: Sanctified! Sanctified” (Ibid.)
The Hebrew word for ‘month’ itself alludes to its link with the concept of renewal. The Hebrew word for ‘month’ is hodesh, which stems from the root hadash (new). It is therefore not really appropriate to label the solar year (which is divided into twelve parts) a year of twelve ‘Hodashim’ (months) – after all what part of nature is renewed, or begins again when January or February begins? The Hebrew month is dependent, first and foremost, on the birth of the new moon and on its renewal. In fact, the word ‘Hodesh’ in ancient Hebrew was not only used to denote the months of the year, but also the first day of the new moon – what we celebrate today as ‘Rosh-Hodesh’ – the first day of the month. We see this in the conversation that took place between David and Jonathan, when Jonathan said to his beloved David “Tomorrow is the month” (Samuel 1, 20). He was actually saying – tomorrow is the start of a new moon.
The ancient Hebrews lived in tune with nature and for them the state of the moon was real and tangible. The processes of the moon’s waxing and waning were always perceived, consciously and subconsciously, as great symbols of birth, youth, maturity, old age, death and rebirth. Still today, the moon passes through this great cycle each month, reminding us of the process of human life in is entirety.
A Day of Women
There is an ancient Jewish tradition according to which the first day of the new month is considered a special day for women. This can be found already in the Yerushalmi-Talmud (Taánit, Chapter 1) and was even written down as law in the Shulhan Aruh – the Jewish Code of Law (Orach-Chayyim, 417): “Women are accustomed not to do work on this day”. However the origin of such popular practices is not always clear, especially those relating to women… When did women begin to celebrate the beginning of the new month, and for what reason? The men, who
wrote the Midrash (Homiletic Interpretations) and the Halacha (Jewish religious laws) books hundreds of years later could not always answer these questions fully. One of the 7th century Midrashic texts attempts the following explanation: God gave the first day of the new month to women as their own private festival in Sinai, because they did not take part in the building of the Golden Calf. (Pirkey DeRabbi Eliezer, 43). However, in one of the books written in Ashkenaz during the middle ages (“Or Zarua”), we can already find a different explanation, which seems self evident: Women celebrate the start of the new moon because they too are renewed each month, through their monthly menstrual period:
“As each month a woman renews and immerses herself in water for her husband, wanting to be pleasurable in his eyes, as if she were renewed, like the new moon that we long to see – and so the first day of the new month is a women’s day”.
It seems that since ancient times the women of Israel have habitually celebrated the appearance of the new moon, which was linked to their menstrual cycles. Many rituals were established in ancient Israel, at a time when the tribes were settled in the ancient east, beneath the sun’s light during the day, and the moon’s light at night, around fires, in tents and mud houses – a time when religious experience was not detached from the body, from its feelings, desires and from its fluids. Many traditions developed during these times, and many of them have since disappeared, but certain have remained with us until today and at times they may appear a little strange within the context of a Judaism characterized by books, schools, suits, fluorescent lights and cholnt of Shabbos Koidesh…
Women gather at the house of the ‘Man of God’
One of the more interesting indications of the fact that women celebrated the new month by meeting, sometimes without their husbands, can be seen in the book of Kings. The book presents the story of ‘a great woman’ who loved to host the prophet Elisha in her home, each time he passed by. When Elisha came to know that she was childless, he blessed her with child and a year later she bore a son. The boy grew up, but one day, while in the fields with his father, he had a headache. He returned home to his mother, fainted, and died. The woman mounted her donkey and went swiftly to Elisha who resided on Mount Carmel, without saying a word to her husband. When she passed through the field, her husband, who knew nothing about the death of his son, wondered why she was going to see the prophet on this day – it was neither the first day of a new month, nor the Sabbath: “And he said: Why do you go to him today? It is not the new moon nor is it the Sabbath?! And she said: Goodbye!” From this we can gather that on the first day of the new month and on the Sabbath it would have been taken for granted by her husband that she goes by herself to the prophet. Elsewhere in the bible we learn of the ecstatic influence that prevailed around the ‘Man of God’ (of which I have written in a previous article about king Saul who would undress and prophesize in the nude beside Samuel). What these women did there, we do not know. What were the customs and rituals of the women of the ancient tribes of Israel, we can only guess. Maybe this is part of the Midrashic study called for today – to complete the puzzle where pieces are missing. What did these women do together? And why did they do whatever they did in the company of a ‘Man of God’? Was the ‘Man of God’ actively involved in the women’s ceremonies or did they simply take place in the vicinity of his dwelling-place, with his inspiration but without his active participation? Was it really a gathering of women only, or did men gather as well at such sacred sites on the Hodesh day, and even if so – did men and women celebrate together or separately, and what was happening in each of those circles? There are many questions that remain to be answered…
It should be noted that the women would not only gather at the ‘Man of God’ on the first day of the new month, but on Sabbath days too – “it is not a new month and not the Sabbath” the man says to his wife as she rides off to the prophet. It seems that on a Sabbath, her action would have been understood, as the Sabbath was a day of gathering that included women too: “It shall happen, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says God” (Isaiah, chapter 66, 23).
Is there therefore a connection between the Sabbath and a woman’s menstrual cycle? As we have seen that there is a connection between the waxing and waning of the moon and a woman’s monthly period.
Seven day cycles
It is thought that the seven-day weekly cycle, which separates the Sabbath from the rest of the week, has no foundation in the natural world. The month is visual through the waxing of the moon, the year is perceived through the seasons and we obviously count the days from sunrise and sunset. But from where did the ancient Hebrews derive the method of counting a seven-day week? Is there a certain celestial body that functions according to a weekly cycle?
Actually, no. There is no such celestial body, but there is certainly an earthly body of this sort – the women’s body, which is receptive to seven-day cycles, as will be explained later.
Many of the world’s respected academics see great significance in the fact that the Sabbath is not connected to nature: The God of Israel, who “sanctifies the day of Sabbath”, proclaims the sanctity of the seventh day as He himself is neither a Nature-Deity, nor is He a part of the natural world, rather He is The Creator of the whole universe. However, I would like to propose a different approach. It is one I have learned from a dear friend of mine, Holly Taya Shere, who, uncertain about the validity of her theory, asked me for my opinion. She proposes perceiving the ancient Sabbath as being linked to the feminine and lunar cycles:
The lunar cycle comprises twenty-eight days and a bit. There are those who claim that women who are exposed to the fluctuations of the moon’s light and do not live under the influence of electric light, tend to menstruate in accordance with the lunar cycle – some at full moon, and others at the dark moon. Furthermore – there are those who claim that hormonal reactions of women living together become synchronized and they begin to menstruate at the same time. And here we have it: twenty-eight days are precisely four weeks (4 x 7 = 28). In other words, if we begin counting on the first day of the month, and we propose that women often began menstruating on this day, seven days later the moon will be half full. According to the Torah, seven days after her first blood, a woman can go to the spring, cleanse herself and unite with her husband in love. Seven days later it is full moon. Most of the important holidays in the Jewish calendar take place at the time of the full moon: Succoth on the fifteenth day of the month of Tishrei, the festival of the fifteenth day of Shvat, Purim on the fifteenth day of the month of Adar, Passover on the fifteenth day of the month of Nissan (according to the Book of Jubilees (Sefer HaYovlot) the festival of Shavuoth also falls on the fifteenth day of the month of Sivan), and the festival of love on the fifteenth day of the month of Av. The ancient Israelites enjoyed commemorating the full moon days. A woman who began menstruating on the first day of the month will ovulate on the full moon. Seven days will then pass and the moon will once again be half full. This marks an important turning point in the women’s body: If by this point the seed has not been taken into her womb, the body will begin to prepare itself for the next menstrual cycle, which will reappear when the moon wanes from the sun’s light[2].
Four Sabbaths and the monthly cycle
We see that during the course of the Hebrew month, which is a lunar month, there are four festive days in the feminine cycle:
- The beginning of menstruation
- The ritual bath of purification and the beginning of sexual intercourse
- Ovulation
- Conception, or the beginning of the body’s preparation for the next menstrual cycle.
These four events are well represented by the course of the moon (see illustration), especially when we understand the symbolism of the sun and the moon: the woman is analogous to the moon and the man to the sun. The moon is dynamic and changing, yet receptive, while the sun is static yet active. The sun’s illumination of the moon is a great symbol of the union of masculine and feminine in the cosmos – the link between God and his divine presence – the Shechina – in Kabbalistic terms and, in the language of our ancient ancestors, between “YHWH and Asherato” (God and his Goddess, Ashera).
The moon is dark during a woman’s menstruation, a time when women traditionally refrain from sexual relations with their partners. This is the first Sabbath of the month.
When the moon is half full and the sun’s light begins to cover the face of the moon, it is the time to return to lovemaking. This is the second Sabbath[3].
The full moon is a time for great celebration – the great Sabbath. It is the time of ovulation and the peak of feminine fertility, when the male seed can imbue the woman and impregnate her. The moon is full and this is the third Sabbath of the month.
Then comes the fourth Sabbath, which is the Sabbath that indicates the great preparation for the beginning of the next cycle. Pre-menstrual phenomena now prepare the womb for purification, for the waning of the sun’s light, that was until now in unification with the moon.
I have used the term ‘Sabbath’ to portray the significant days of the female cycle, as I believe that this is its origin. On each of these days women would rest from work. It would be a day for introspection, pleasure, and sanctity. An indication of this concept can be seen in the fact that, since ancient times, women would refrain from work on the first day of the new month, without really knowing why.
I propose, as suggested by my friend Holly Taya from the depths of her feminine intuition, that it was these women of ancient times who began to count a weekly seven day cycle – a cycle that was in tune with their own sexual cycle, as well as with the cycle of the moon’s coupling with the sun. In time, such concepts were integrated into the masculine world, which began to count the seven-day week and established it in the Torah as a given fact. This seven-day cycle, originating from a feminine context by women commemorating rest days according to the lunar and bodily cycles, became disconnected from the lunar cycle as society became more and more male dominated. Thus we have arrived at today’s Torah. Due to the fact that the moon’s cycle is not connected to the daily 24-hour cycle, according to which we count the seven-day week today, one may assume that the feminine way of counting was slightly fluctuating and more flexible. There was obvious need to adjust the weekly count every few weeks, in order to ensure that the Sabbath would fall exactly on the critical points of full and dark moons in the lunar cycle. Just as the wise-men of the courts sat and determined the months and dates hundreds of years later, not through calculation alone, but mainly based on the sightings of the new moon, so we can presume that women would commemorate their Sabbath – not according to a mathematically calculated calendar of seven precise solar days, but rather according to the state of the moon, which they would watch continuously, and feel within their bodily cycle. I also presume that just as we have the leap month and leap year today, they had a kind of ‘leap week’ comprising eight days, which occurred once every few weeks and was meant to synchronize the Sabbath with the moon. I believe this to be the origin of what later became the feminine term ‘the secret of conception’ (Sod Ha’ibur). According to the sages, the ‘secret of conception’ is connected only to the ‘conception’ (or impregnation) of years and months (i.e. the addition of an extra month or day to create a leap year or month), and has no connection to any real process of physical conception and birth[4]. However, when the ‘secret of conception’ was still in the hands of women, who celebrated their Sabbaths with the moon, it was linked to real conception – to the great secrets of menstruation and the days of love, conception and birth.
Allow me to take things a little further and draw a connection between the commandment of ‘Observe the month of spring’, which I mentioned previously, and the well-known commandment ‘Observe the Sabbath day’ (Deuteronomy, 5, 12): Is it possible that the primary sense of preserving the Sabbath was connected to preserving the synchronization between the Sabbath days and the lunar cycle, just as preservation of the month of spring means preserving the connection between the new moon in Nissan and the solar spring season? Is it possible that this is really the original meaning? That only since the idea of the Sabbath was integrated into a male dominated world[5], and the original sense of preserving the Sabbath in accordance with the moon has been forgotten, that more severe structures were developed, which are linked to what we know today as ‘keeping the Sabbath’? (Because the male body does not respond to nature in the same way, and it was far more natural for men to simply count seven days).
The counting of the Omer
In accordance with the abovementioned concepts, there is another tradition that has existed for hundreds of years: The Torah commands us to count seven Sabbaths between Passover and Shavuoth, a process known as ‘The counting of the Omer’. However, rather than saying that we should begin counting the day after Passover, the Torah rather uses a slightly strange wording: ‘You shall count from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Until the day after the seventh Sabbath you shall count fifty days. And you shall offer a new offering to God” (Leviticus, 23, 15-16). There were indeed sects in Israel who interpreted matters on the literal level, and claimed that the counting of the Omer should begin from the day after the Sabbath that fell during the week of Passover. However the Sages adamantly contested this, claiming that although the word Sabbath appears in the text, the meaning is not the Sabbath day, but rather the day of the holiday, the day of Passover itself, and that the words of the Torah have called it Sabbath, in a somewhat confusing way. As Rashi expounds[6]: “From the day after the Sabbath – from the day after the first holiday of Passover”. However according to what we have explained until now, things can be shown in a new light: Passover falls on the full moon of the month of Nissan, and according to our conclusion above, the full moon day is indeed considered and counted in ancient times as the Sabbath. Moreover: this is the origin of the concept of Sabbath! It seems that the verses retained the original meaning of the word Sabbath, and the sages, knowingly or not, fiercely protected the tradition that the full moon day of Passover would be called the Sabbath even if (according to the system of counting that developed later, in patriarchal society) it fell in the middle of the week.
And there we have it – if the seven Sabbaths counted in the Omer are only seven lunar Sabbaths, as explained above, and they begin on the night of the full moon (the night of Passover), then the seventh Sabbath in the series is the one where a woman would celebrate her purity by bathing in a natural bath and would unite with her husband through the act of love. In other words, it seems logical that the festival of Shavuoth is connected to this union of masculine and feminine. And indeed, surprisingly or not, despite the fact that the Torah does not mention this at all, tradition has added this element to the festival of Shavuoth: The festival of ‘first fruits’ became the festival of ‘the giving of the Torah’, and the giving of the Torah is considered representative of the marriage between God and the Assembly of Israel, which is the embodiment of the Shechina. The Kabbalists further added the tradition of bathing at dawn on the day of Shavuoth, in order to be like a bride, who purifies herself before the union with her love:
“And later at the brink of morn, a little before the rising of dawn, when the skies are blackened, then one should bathe…as then [the sfira of] Kingdom (Malhut) is bathed in the supreme ritual bath, which is the secret of the crown of the fiftieth gate and we too are the lady’s bridesmaids, bathing with her, and leading the bride to the bathing house at this time”. (Rabbi Haim Vital, Pri-Eitz-Hayyim, the gate of Hag HaShavuoth, chapter 1)
The Jewish tradition has continued to observe many motifs, fragments derived from the ancient Sabbath, which was the women’s weekly day of rest in the pre-Torah Hebrew society. It may be that these Sabbaths did not originate as a religious commandment, or as a binding tradition, but rather as a happening of women, for women, which took place on the days when their bodies ask for rest, or when the events connected to the ‘secret of conception’ – like the day of the ritual bath, or ovulation, or the beginning of the pre-menstrual symptoms – called for a change in their regular routine, and eventually became sacred, festive and ritualistic. The Hebrew, Israeli and Jewish traditions of many generations have adopted the Sabbath, detached it from the lunar processes and from the ‘secret of conception’, and possibly even laden it with the laws of the Sabbath “like mountains hanging of a single hair” as the sages themselves were saying. However, sufficient traces of scattered information have been preserved, enabling us a peak into the ancient traditions of the Sabbath – the Sabbath of women and the moon. And so, until today Midrashic and Kabbalistic literature has recognized the Sabbath as being a day of feminine quality – “Come bride, come bride”, we call the Sabbath queen, which is vaguely reminiscent of ancient times, where the Sabbath was entirely a celebration of feminine sexuality, by women, together with the cycles of the moon’s renewal.
[1] The solar year comprises 365 days and a quarter, while the 12 lunar months are counted as 355 days, which is exactly the numerical value of the word “Shana” (Year) in Hebrew.
* Translator’s note: In Hebrew the term used for leap year (me’uberet) also means ‘impregnated’ or ‘imbued’.
[2] See the book of “Sh.La.H” on the Book of Exodus, Portion of Bo, in Torah Or, where these things are alluded to very briefly. They are also briefly mentioned in the book Megaleh Amukot, 39.
[3] According to the Kabbala it is customary to wait and not to bless the moon before the seventh day, despite the fact that Jewish law permits it during the period extending from the appearance of the new moon until the full moon. Rabbi Josef Karo in his book Megid Meisharim writes: “By blessing the moon we unite the lower assembly of Israel (the Kabbalistic emanation (Sphira) of Kingdom) with the higher emanations … and it should not be blessed until seven days have passed, as external forces may invade the assembly of Israel during this time of renewal. So seven days should pass, which is an allusion to the seven days of creation, and by that these forces detach from her. But they still remain in close proximity, and when Israel blesses the moon, these forces will be eradicated. These forces can no longer infiltrate, when the lower assembly of Israel is united with the higher emanations (Sphirot) through the blessing of the moon. And if they would bless the moon before seven days had passed, when the external forces were still around, we would have no strength to eradicate them, and the assembly of Israel would be united with the higher emanations while these forces are still present. Then secular would be mixed with the sacred.” Rabbi Menachem Azarya of Pano, in his book “10 Articles” (Asarah Ma’amarot) quotes from the early medieval book Tshuvot HaGeónim (Responses of the Learned Ones): “Seven days prior to the sighting of the moon the quality of Compassion (Midat HaRahamim) wages a petty war against Sama’el and his troops. And the hairy one (Sa’ir – an allusion to Esau and literally a male goat) starts to fight with the hairless one (an allusion to “Jacob, the hairless one”) based on envy, for the one who’s as beautiful as the moon (the Shechina). And Michael and Gabriel fight the accusers. And at the end of the seventh day Gabriel overcomes them and Michael, the high priest brings a sacrifice to Shamashael, the great minister who stands by Esau, which is in the image of the Sa’ír (Hairy, but in Hebrew also a male goat) and sacrifices it on the altar of repentance (teshuva) at the beginning of each month. And then desire is reconciled and honor is multiplied and fulfilled and the power of the hairy image perishes in the fire of valor (Gevoura). However, it returns during the waning stage of the moon, until the designated day, as it is written ‘and the moon’s light will be like the sun’s light’. From this we learn that it is best not to welcome the face of the divine presence through the moon’s blessing until the seventh night of unification, and in anyway not after the sixteenth day”. (Ten Articles (Asara Ma’amarot), The Mother of All Beings, (Em Kol Hai) part 1, 19). What is still unclear from the above is that the battle between the dark and light forces seems to end on the first day of the month, at the time of the sacrifice of the Sa’ír, when the seven days of battle draw to a close. However, Rabbi Menahem Azarya deduces that we should wait seven days after the beginning of the month to bless the new moon. Nonetheless, the Kabbalistic tradition not to bless the moon before seven days have past becomes much clearer if we compare the lunar cycle to the feminine menstrual cycle. As the moons cycle is the representation of the cycles of the Shechina – the divine feminine aspect, the assembly of Israel, or the emanation of Kingdom (Sphirat Malchut).
[4] It was, as usual, the Kabbalists who could not accept the notion that the secret of conception was not linked to any real processes of conception and birth. They therefore reinstated this sense by linking it to the spiritual world. According to the Kabbalists, the ‘secret of conception’ is strongly linked to the secrets of human conception and the reincarnation of soul. For example, according to Rabbi Yeshaya Horowitz, in his book ‘The Two Tabernacles’ (Shl”ah): “The secret also contains the regularity of months and the ‘impregnation’ of years, the incarnation of souls from generation to generation, and the secret of ‘impregnation’ hinted at by the sages (Ketubbot 112/a) who were sworn not to reveal the secret of conception” (Shl”ah to the book of Exodus, Bo, Torah Or). This is another example of the process I have mentioned in other places, where the Kabbala restores to Judaism some basic mythical ideas and concepts that existed in ancient days, when the tribes of the Hebrews were worshiping YHWH in their tribal ways, before Judaism was formed as a religion.
[5] In the same way as it incorporated many traditions and concepts originating in the feminine world, particularly into the status of Cohen (priesthood) – as shown by my friend Rabbi Natan Margalit in his doctorate Life Containing Texts: The Mishnah’s Discourse of Gender, A Literary/Anthropological Analysis, University of California, Berkeley, 2001, Berkley, California. See also the article “Not By Her Mouth Do We Live: A Literary/Anthropological Reading of Gender in Mishnah Ketubbot, Chapter 1” published in Prooftexts, Vol. 20, no. 1, as well as: “Hair in Tanakh: Symbolism of Gender and Control” Journal of the Association of Graduates in Near Eastern Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, 1993, pp. 39-52.
[6] In his commentary of the Torah, Leviticus 23, 11 based on the studies of Hazal in the Tractate of Mehahot 65/ b.
