[52] The Hebrew term חדש has a double meaning “beginning of the month” and “month;” comp. שבת, “day of rest,” and also “week,” or the period that passes between two consecutive Sabbaths. [↑]
[53] In Hebrew molad, “birth.” [↑]
[54] The molad of Tishri in the year 1 is assumed to have been on Sunday evening between eleven and twelve. (בהר״ד) [↑]
[55] In this tradition the period of the Persian rule in Palestine, which lasted over two centuries, is contracted to thirty-four years. It is possible that the years were counted according to the years of Release (שמטה) or the years of the Jubilee, and these were probably not kept immediately after the return of the Jews from Babylon. [↑]
[56] See Mishnah, Megillah iii. 4. [↑]
[57] Talm. Jerush., Shekalim i. 1. [↑]
[58] Mishnah, Shekalim i. 1. [↑]
[59] According to Tradition, Exod. xii. 2 not only deals with the appointment of Nisan as the first month of the year, but implies also the rules for fixing ראש חדש, New-moon, or the first of the month; and this verse, with its traditional interpretation, was therefore considered as the basis of the Jewish Calendar. Hence the prominence given to this section of the Pentateuch by having it read on the 1st of Nisan or on the Sabbath before the 1st of Nisan. [↑]
[60] Various reasons are given for this title. According to Tradition, the 10th of Nisan in the year of the Exodus was on Saturday; it was considered a great event, a miracle, in fact, that the Israelites could on that day select a lamb for sacrifice without being molested by their Egyptian masters, who at other times would have stoned them for such daring (Exod. viii. 22). Another reason is this: The Sabbath before any of the chief Festivals was called the great Sabbath on account of [[372]]the instruction sought and given respecting the importance and the observances of the coming Festival (see Zunz, Ritus. p. 9). This name has only been preserved in the case of the Sabbath before Passover.—It is, however, possible that “the great day,” the predominant idea in the haphtarah of the day, suggested the name.
It is the custom in some congregations to read in the Afternoon-service of Shabbath haggadol part of the Haggadah instead of the Psalms (civ. and cxx.–cxxxiv.). [↑]