When is the Jewish New Year?

Rav Zevin (1888-1978, 1956, p. 33) discusses whether Rosh Hashanah is really the Jewish New Year. He notes that in the Torah the holiday is referred to as the 1st day of the 7th month, which clearly means that that it is not the New Year. Ezra and Nehemiah also used this dating, see Nehemiah 7:72. (Also Megillat Esther 3:7 refers to Nisan, as the first month.) Furthermore even in the time of the Talmud, Rabbi Yehoshua (Rosh Hashanah 11a) maintained that the world was created in Nisan, which would mean that the 1st of Nisan is really the Jewish New Year. Zevin also notes that in the prayers of Rosh Hashanah there is barely any reference (he notes one verse) to the day as marking the New Year, as the day is usually referred to as a day of remembrance. Zevin concludes that notwithstanding all these points, it is accepted that Rosh Hashanah is the New Year, as the name itself attests to.

Shemot 12:2 explicitly states that the month of Pesach (Nisan) is the first month of the year, and all of the dates in the Torah follow this system. This implies that the year begins in the spring. However, Shemot 23:16, 34:22, record that the holiday of the gathering (Sukkot) was at the end of the year, which implies that the year begins in the fall. Also, Devarim 31:10 records that the law of hakhel is to be done at the end of the every seven years, in the shemitta year in the holiday of Sukkot. This phrase “end of every seven years” also implies that Sukkot marks the end of the year. However, this dating of hakhel is problematic even if Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the year. If Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the year, then Sukkot, which is 15 days later, is in the beginning of the shemitta year and not the end of the seven years. Rashi (on Devarim 31:10) explains that Devarim 31:10 refers to Sukkot in the 8th year since that would be the end of the shemitta cycle. Furthermore, he explains that 31:10 refers to the 8th year as the shemitta year since some laws of shemitta still applied. Yet, 31:10 records that hakhel was to be in the shemitta year, and the 8th year is no longer the shemitta year.

Ibn Ezra (on Shemot 12:2 and Vayikra 25:9) tries to prove that the year begins in Tishrei in an argument he had with a Karaite, Yehuda HaParsi. One proof is that the blowing of the shofar for the yovel year occurs on Yom Kippur, Vayikra 25:9. Presumably the blowing of the shofar announces the start of the yovel year, and thus the year begins in Tishrei. A 2nd proof is that if the New Year is in Nisan, then hakhel should be by Pesach in the beginning of the year instead of waiting until the middle of the year. A third proof is from Shemot 23:16, 34:22 which we mentioned above. A fourth proof is from Vayikra 25:11, which records the prohibitions of working the land in the yovel year, and first records that one cannot plant before recording the prohibition of harvesting. In Israel planting is done in the fall and harvesting in the spring, so if the New Year was in the spring, then the text should have first recorded harvesting and then planting. Furthermore Ibn Ezra claims that if the New Year was in Nissan, then it should have been forbidden to plant in the 6th year as well since one could not harvest in the 7th year. Yet, the Torah only forbids planting in the 7th year. (I think this is the proof.)

In his comments on Vayikra 25:20, Ibn Ezra disputes a proof from the Sadducees that the year begins in Nisan. Vayikra 25:20 records that “the people will ask what can we eat in the 7th year, can we not harvest our crops?” The Sadducees argued that the words “our crops” implies that that the people planted the crops in the fall, as otherwise they would not be called “our” and this planting could only be done if the shemitta year started in Nisan since then the planting was done in the fall of the 6th year. Ibn Ezra responded that our crops could be what grew naturally, as in 25:12 (although 25:12 does not use the word ours). Furthermore, Ibn Ezra notes that Vayikra 25:21 records that the crops of the 6th year would last for three years, but according to the Sadducees during yovel it would have to last four years: the 7th year would be the shemitta year, the 8th year would be yovel, and only in the 9th year could one plant crops but as the planting season was in the fall the crops would not be available until the 10th year. Thus the harvest of the 6th year would have had to last four years but the Torah only stated that the produce would last 3 years. (However, Rashi on 25:22 notes that even when the year begins in Tishrei it is possible that the crops of the 6th year would need to last 4 years.)

Notwithstanding the arguments of Ibn Ezra, I think the text supports Rabbi Yehoshua that the year starts in Nisan, as implied by Shemot 12:2. Shemot 23:16 and 34:22 can be understood as simply referring to the end of the agricultural year, not the calendar year. Sukkot is the celebration of the complete harvest since after Sukkot there is no more harvest and this signaled whether the agricultural year was successful or not. It would be similar to a business that does all of its business in the summer, so for the business the end of the summer is considered the end of the year.

Devarim 31:10, which records “the end of every seven years in the shemitta year” would mean that hakhel was to be done at 6 years and seven months in the 7 year cycle, which is close to the end of the cycle. I do not understand why Ibn Ezra thought it is problematic to read hakhel in the middle of the year. If the New Year is in Nisan, this allows hakhel to be both in the shemitta year itself and at the end of the 7-year cycle, as stated in Devarim 31:10. (See our discussion in our commentary on Devarim 31:10, "Hakhel, shemitta, sukkot and the new year.")

Ibn Ezra’s proof from the fact that the prohibition of seeding is recorded before the prohibition of harvesting is not convincing since the verse (Vayikra 25:11) does not show the order of the year but follows the order of field work, first one plants and then one harvests. Also, I do not see why planting should have been forbidden in the 6th year just because it was forbidden to harvest in the 7th year, as according to the Torah one can eat the crops that grow in the 7th year, Vayikra 25:7 .

I think Vayikra 25:21 recorded that the crops of the 6th year would last 3 years because really the yovel year was also the shemitta year, so there was no double years of no planting and no harvesting, see our discussion on Vayikra 25:8-11, " From yovel to yovel: 49 or 50 years?" http://lobashamayim.blogspot.co.il/2015/05/vayikra-258-11-behar-from-yovel-to.html In addition, even if one maintains that the yovel year was separate from the shemitta year as Rashi pointed out (on 25:22), 25:21 can be understood as only referring to the shemitta year and not to the yovel year,.

Furthermore, Vayikra 25:22 supports the idea that the New Year is Nisan since it records that the people would plant in the 8th year and in the 9th year the new crop would be ready. If shemitta started in Tishrei, so then already in the summer of the 8th year one could eat of the planting from the fall of the 8th year. (Bulah, 1992, on 25:21, explains that if the year starts in Tishrei, then for 2/3 of the 8th year there would be no produce and that the full harvest would not be until the 9th year.) It is simpler to understand that the year starts in Nisan, which means there would be no harvest (other than from natural growth) in the 8th year because one could not plant in the 7th year. The fall planting in the 8th year would then be available in the 9th year.

With regard to the blowing of the shofar for the yovel year, I believe it was blown in the seventh month of the 49th year to announce the upcoming yovel year, which would begin five months later in Nissan, see our discussion on Vayikra 25:9,10, "Shofar blowing, Yom Kippur and the yovel year." This would allow people time to prepare for the yovel year and be similar to the idea that the shofar on Rosh Hashanah announces that Yom Kippur is coming, see our discussion on Vayikra 23:23-25, "Rosh Hashanah," http://lobashamayim.blogspot.co.il/2009/05/vayikra-2323-26-emor-rosh-hashanah.html