Why does passover end earlier in israel

Only the Sanhedrin was able to make pronouncements about the new moon, so Diaspora communities could not do this for themselves. The proclamation of each new moon was significant as an alert about the exact dates of holidays. Jewish communities always knew approximately when a festival would fall, but waited until the date of the new moon had been established to decide when festivals would fall. As most holidays fall around mid-month, they could — generally — afford some delay in receiving the Jerusalem news.

But celebrating festivals for an extra day would ensure that, regardless of whatever confusion reigned about the exact start of the new month, at least one day of their celebration would be on the correct day. One biblical holiday does not fall in mid-month: Rosh Hashanah.

Delay in receiving word of this new moon would lead distant communities to miss the day and violate Torah law. This was a safety measure, to ensure that these communities would celebrate at least one day of Rosh Hashanah on the proper day.

With the official news from Jerusalem, they could not know if the new moon had been sighted on the first or the second of these days, but observing two days ensured they would not violate the holiday. As this custom of yom tov sheni spread through the Diaspora, it began to be observed even in the land of Israel and Jerusalem. This also started as a safety measure, because late-day testimony that the new moon had been seen might leave no time for observing the holiday.

Therefore the next day would be observed as Rosh Hashanah as well. The second day of Rosh Hashanah became a more integral part of the celebration of the Jewish new year.

Despite the fact that the second day of Rosh Hashanah is nearly identical to the first with the exception of a different Torah reading , the Talmudic rabbis declared the second day of Rosh Hashanah is identical in its sanctity to the first.

They called the combined two days of Rosh Hashanah Yoma Arikhta — a long or extended day. This unique understanding of the two days of Rosh Hashanah is universally accepted, in Israel as well as the Diaspora. Gradually, the custom of y om tov sheni was applied outside of Israel to all of the biblical festivals — Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot — but in Israel, only Rosh Hashanah was extended. Yom Kippur, as a fast day, was not extended to two days due to concerns over physical hardship and health safety.

Establishing the Jewish calendar by witnesses survived the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans, continuing until the middle of the fourth century C. The last Jewish patriarch in Palestine, Hillel II , therefore published the calculations that the Sanhedrin had always used as backup.

At this point, the Jewish calendar became fixed and perpetually calculable. Although the calendar was now standardized, the Diaspora custom of observing the extra Diaspora days was retained, although technically no longer necessary.

One significant outcome of these changes is that Diaspora Jews observe two seder nights. Shavuot , originally a one-day festival, was expanded to two days, both full holidays. Why do some calendars say it ends after seven days and others after eight? The answer in most Reform Jewish communities is seven days, but the history is complicated.

Eating matzah is obligatory only at the seder. Back when the months of the Jewish calendar were determined by observations of the new crescent moon, eyewitnesses would bring their testimony to the rabbinical court in Jerusalem, and the court would sanctify the new month based on this testimony.

So the court then had to get the word out to the rest of the Jewish world about which day had been declared the first of the month, so that everyone could observe the holidays on the same day. Originally this was done by signal fires as in The Lord of the Rings , which transmitted the message rapidly.

But then the Cutheans, a sect opposed to the rabbis, launched the first phishing scam and made signal fires on the wrong days to throw people off. Since this method of transmission was no longer secure, the rabbis started sending messengers to outlying Jewish communities to deliver the message in person. This was harder to forge, but much slower. Locations within two weeks' travel of Jerusalem such as other cities in Israel had no problem, since the holiday Pesach or Sukkot began on the 15 th of the month, so they would receive the message in time for the holiday.

But faraway communities such as Babylonia modern Iraq couldn't get the message in time, and didn't know when the new month had begun, though they could narrow the possibilities to two days. So to play it safe, they started observing each yom tov for two days, so that one of the days would be the correct date of the holiday as determined in Jerusalem. In the case of Pesach, this meant that yom tov was not only the first and seventh day, but was now the first, second, seventh, and eighth days, so Pesach became an eight-day holiday.

Up to the present time, all Jewish streams in Israel liberal, Orthodox, and secular follow the Torah's calendar and observe each yom tov for one day and Pesach for seven days. But outside of Israel, the two-day eight-day custom stuck.

They did not have time to let their bread rise before baking it. In the Jewish diaspora—Jewish communities outside of Israel—an extra day is usually added to religious observances, with the exception of Yom Kippur , which lasts only one day worldwide, and Rosh Hashana , which is celebrated over two days in both Israel and the diaspora. This custom has its roots in ancient times when the beginning of the months in the Jewish calendar still relied on the sighting of the crescent Moon following a New Moon.

The beginning of a new month was determined by the Sanhedrin , the supreme court of ancient Israel in Jerusalem. Once the date was published, messengers were dispatched to spread the news among Jews living abroad. Since this process took some time, it was decreed that Jews outside of ancient Israel were to observe every holiday for 2 days to make sure that the rules and customs applicable to each holiday were observed on the proper date.

This rule is still observed today. The 12 months of the year are linked to the Moon's orbit around Earth. Why are there 12 months?