The Four Gates
Since three arrangements cannot occur within the fixed calendar, most holidays can each occur on one of four possible days.
All the holy days and festivals fall in the months of Nisan through Tishrei, months one to seven. These months always have the same number of days, alternating 30 and 29. The next two months are Cheshvan and Kislev. Both or either of these months can have either 29 or 30 days, allowing for adjustments to be made and the schedule in the coming year to be manipulated. The months of Tevet and Shevat, months ten and eleven, have 29 and 30 days respectively. Finally, in a regular year the month of Adar has 29 days, while in a leap year Adar I of 30 days is added before the regular Adar, which becomes Adar II of 29 days. The result is that the period from 1 Tevet to 29 Cheshvan is fixed, except that in a leap year Adar one of 30 days is added; and all adjustments are made using 30 Cheshvan and/or 30 Kislev.
The period from 1 Adar (or Adar II, in leap years) to 29 Cheshvan contains all of the festivals specified in the Bible - Purim (14 Adar), Pesach (15 Nisan), Shavuot (6 Sivan), Rosh Hashanah (1 Tishrei), Yom Kippur (10 Tishrei), Sukkot (15 Tishrei), and Shemini Atzeret (22 Tishrei). This period is fixed, during which no adjustments are made.
The result is that all dates from 1 Nisan through 29 (or 30) Cheshvan can each fall on one of four days of the week. Dates during Kislev can fall on any of six days of the week; during Tevet and Shevat, five days; and dates during Adar (or Adar I and II, in leap years) can each fall on one of four days of the week.
| Gate | Purim | Passover (first day) |
Shavuot (first day) |
17 Tammuz/ Tisha B'Av |
Rosh Hashanah/ Sukkot/ Shmini Atzeret/ (first day) |
Yom Kippur | Chanukah (first day) |
10 Tevet | Tu Bishvat | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thu | Sat | Sun | Sun* | Mon | Wed | Sun or Mon | Sun or Tue | Sat or Mon | |
| 2 | Fri | Sun | Mon | Sun | Tue | Thu | Mon | Tue | Mon | |
| 3 | Sun | Tue | Wed | Tue | Thu | Sat | Wed or Thu | Wed, Thu, or Fri | Tue, Wed, or Thu | |
| 4 | Tue | Thu | Fri | Thu | Sat | Mon | Fri or Sat | Fri or Sun | Thu or Sat | |
*Postponed to not fall on Shabbat
With each gate, some unusual effects occur.
Read more about this topic: Days Of Week On Hebrew Calendar
Famous quotes containing the word gates:
“We’ve cracked the hemispheres with careless hand!
Now, from the Gates of Hercules we flood
Westward, westward till the barbarous brine
Whelms us to the tired world where tasseling corn,
Fat beans, grapes sweeter than muscadine
Rot on the vine: in the land were we born.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)