THE HEBREW CALENDAR (3)

1. Calendar Rules used to determine dates for God's Feast Days

a) Postponements are part of the process of calculating and declaring the date of the Feast of Trumpets (Tishri 1, the first day of the Hebrew sacred year), which in turn is used to set the year's dates for observing God's annual Holy Days. After calculating the Molad of Tishri, the following postponement rules are used to declare Tishri 1.

i) Rule One

@1. When Tishri's Molad or advancement occurs on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday, the declaration of Tishri 1 is advanced one day to a Monday, Thursday or Saturday (Sabbath) respectively. This rule prevents the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) from falling on a Friday or Sunday. Since Atonement is a complete day of fasting coupled with the command that absolutely NO work is to be done on the day, this rule prevents a fast day followed by a day of feast and rejoicing before God (the Saturday Sabbath) and vice versa.

ii) Rule Two

21. When Tishri's Molad happens at or after noon (18 hours 0 parts), the declaration of Tishri 1 is delayed to the following day.

iii) Rule Three

@1. When Tishri's Molad of a common year occurs on a Tuesday (on or after 9 hours and 204 parts) the declaration of Tishri 1 is moved to the next day (Wednesday). Then, because of the above listed Rule One, the day declared as Tishri 1 is moved to Thursday.

iv) Rule Four

@1. When Tishri's Molad of a common year comes right after an intercalary year occurs on a Monday, at or after 15 hours and 589 parts, the declaration of Tishri 1 is advanced to Tuesday. This rule applies roughly once every 186 years.