Happy Biblical New Year!
Nisan/Aviv 1, the 1st day of the 1st month…Exodus 12:1 “This new [moon] shall be the beginning of the months [lit. moons] for you…A time to think back and forward and begin afresh, with Spring Sprung (for us Northern Hemisphere folk at least) and the early “harvest” getting ripe. Aviv means “spring” or new. Passover was anciently tied to the Barley harvest.
In later Jewish tradition, there are of course several “New Years,” the best known is “Rosh Hashanah,” as it is now widely known, which in biblical times was “Yom Teru’ah,” the day of the “Blast” or “Shout,”–of a trumpet or even a band of people celebrating. But it was a civil, economic New Year “reset” related to the Fall Jewish Festivals in the 7th month.
I took this photo of the Barley harvest in Israel several years ago–in this season–two weeks before Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread.
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