Friday, April 26, 2019 /21 Nisan, 5779
Parashat Aharei Mot I Leviticus 16:1-17:16

Dear Friends,

This is one of those anomalous Shabbatot during the year when the calendar gets truly messed up. Here’s why:

In the Reform Movement, and in Israel, we keep seven days of Passover. Yet, there are those of the Orthodox, Conservative and even within the Reform Movements, who keep eight days of Passover, like the tradition in which I was raised. Now, that is commonly not a terrible problem – we just end a day earlier, and run to eat pizza or pasta…

But, it IS a problem when we are trying to synchronize Torah portions, so that we all are reading the same parasha on the same Shabbat. And, commonly, when Passover commences on a Sunday or Monday or Tuesday, and ends mid-week of the following week, there is no harm, no foul. However…

When Passover commences on an Erev Shabbat, a Friday night, as it did this year, then it would end for those with seven days the following Friday, and for those who keep eight days, the festival ends the following Shabbat. Which means, instead of their being the normal one Shabbat which falls during Passover, there would be two Shabbatot. Still following me?  So here’s the problem: during the days of Passover when Torah is read, the normal, weekly reading of the Torah – commonly from Leviticus – is suspended, and a special section, from Exodus, is read to retell the story of the Exodus.  And, there are special assignments for the Shabbat, or the two Shabbatot, as in this year, to be read during Passover.  And, then the regular reading of Leviticus is continued where it was left off. So…

This year, those who observe seven days of Passover recommence reading the normal sequence a week earlier than those who keep eight days, and Torah reading will be off by a week going forward.  This has happened before, and the normative corrective is to uncouple a double Torah portion, where two parashiyot are combined due to the calendar, and separate them into two separate weeks, at some later date.  This year, due to this being a 13 month year – with Passover and then Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur coming “late,” there is only one double portion (Matot-Mas’ei) later in August, at which a calendar correction may be made.

I hope you followed the intricacies of the Torah and the calendar – the stuff which makes Reform Judaism (and Israeli Judaism) just a bit more complex. Why we went from eight to seven days, in Reform Judaism and in Israel, would be another, longer explanation. In any event…

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach,

Rabbi Doug Kohn
rabbikohn@bethelsp.org