2. There is an old tradition that we should recite daily a hundred benedictions. On Sabbath and Holy-days, when the Amidah contains only seven berachoth instead of eighteen, the deficiency is made up by seeking an occasion for birchoth ha-nehenin. Hence the minhag spread of partaking on these days of various kinds of fruit between the meals.
3. Tradition teaches us that on the holy days of rest we must not only abstain from actual work, but also from ordering anything to be done by those who refuse to recognise the Sabbath-laws as binding on them.—Circumstances force us to deviate at times from this rule. There were Jews who would not allow any work to be undertaken on Friday which would continue of its own accord after the Sabbath had set in. Thus they would not have light in their homes on Friday evening or warm food [[360]]on the Sabbath-day, although all necessary precautions had been taken before Sabbath came in to keep the light burning and the food warm for twenty-four hours. But the more these Jews insisted on excluding light and fire from their homes, the more did our Sages demand light and warm food as essential comforts of the Sabbath, and to them the Sabbath-candles and the warm food were a mitsvah of great importance. Much work is done on Sabbath for the public by non-Jews; e.g., in connection with railway-trains, steamboats, and other public conveyances. May the Jew avail himself of the work thus done for all alike without his bidding? He may in some cases—e.g., for a long sea-voyage—in others not. But he must always bear in mind that Judaism depends on the adherence of the Jews to the noble principle, כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה “All Israelites are sureties responsible for each other.” The meaning of this principle is this: If a certain act appears to one of us allowable, but at the same time our action might mislead others and cause them to break the Law, we must not do it. Thus if Jews were to avail themselves of the public conveyances, the whole aspect of the Sabbath would change, and the day would ultimately be forgotten.
4. When dire necessity compels a Jew to break the Sabbath, let him not think that the Sabbath is lost to him, or he to Judaism. So long as Jewish conscientiousness is alive within him, let him endeavour to keep as much of the Sabbath as he is able. He must not say, “I have broken the Sabbath. How can I join my brethren in the Sabbath Service!” Whatever he does conscientiously will be acceptable before God, and he will thus find himself exhorted to watch carefully, and to seize the first opportunity of returning to the full observance of Sabbath. The same principle applies to all the Divine Precepts.
The Jewish Calendar.
The Jewish Calendar[47] reckons the day from evening to evening, in accordance with the order observed in [[361]]the verse, “And it was evening and it was morning, one day” (Gen. i. 5). The evening begins after sunset, at the moment when stars become visible under normal conditions of the atmosphere: at צאת הכוכבים “the coming forth of the stars,” scil., of at least three stars of middle size.
The day is divided into evening, morning, and afternoon. With each of these periods is connected an appropriate prayer or service, viz., Maarib or Evening-prayer, Shacharith or Morning-prayer, and Minchah or Afternoon-prayer.
Seven days form a week. The days of the week are described in the Bible and the Talmud simply as the first day, the second day, &c. Only the seventh day has a second name, Yom ha-shabbath or shabbath, “the day of rest,” or “the rest.” In post-Biblical literature the sixth day is called Erebh shabbath or Ma’ale shabbatha, “the eve of Sabbath,” or “the coming in of Sabbath.” The evening following Sabbath is named Motseë shabbath, “the departure of Sabbath.” Similarly the day preceding a Festival and the evening following it are called Erev yom-tobh and Motseë yom-tobh, “the eve of the Festival.” and “the departure of the Festival.”
Four weeks and one or two days make one month, חדש or ירח. The length of the month is determined by the duration of one revolution of the moon round the earth. Such revolution is completed in twenty-nine days and a half.[48] As, however, the calendar mouth [[362]]does not commence in the middle of the day, but at the beginning of the evening, it was necessary to add half a day to one month, and to take off half a day from the next. The months have therefore alternately twenty-nine and thirty days.
The months are named according to their order, the first month, the second, &c.; the first being the first month in the spring. Other names, implying agricultural and climatic relations, were likewise in use, and the following four of them have been preserved in the Bible: the first month is called Abib, “ears of corn;” the second Ziv, “beauty;” the seventh Ethanim, “hardy fruit;” and the eighth, Bul, “rain.”[49] Since the return of the Jews from the Babylonian exile, names of foreign origin have been in use, viz., Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Abh, Elul, Tishri, Cheshvan, Kislev, Tebheth, Shebhat and Adar.[50] Roughly speaking, these months correspond to April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January, February, and March.