דתניא אחרים אומרים אין בין עצרת לעצרת ואין בין ר"ה לר"ה אלא ד' ימים בלבד ואם היתה שנה מעוברת ה' הוה ליה ריש ירחא דאייר מעלי שבתא וריש ירחא דסיון שבתא קשיא בין לרבי יוסי בין לרבנן לר' יוסי שבעה חסרין עבוד
the first for the dwelling of the <i>Shechinah</i> in Israel, the first for the [priestly] blessing of Israel,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' By Aaron, v. ibid. 22.
');"><sup>23</sup></span> the first for the interdict of the high places,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Upon which sacrifices were offered before the erection of the Tabernacle.
');"><sup>24</sup></span> [and] the first of months. Now, since the first of Nisan of that year was on a Sunday, that of the previous year must have been on a Wednesday. For it was taught: Others say, Between one 'Azereth<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'solemn assembly' — the Feast of Weeks.
');"><sup>25</sup></span> and another, and between one New Year['s day] and another, there can be a difference of only four days,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., one falls four days later in the week than the previous year's, since the Jewish year, which is lunar, consists of three hundred and fifty-four days.
');"><sup>26</sup></span> and in a leap year, five [days].<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' An extra month of twenty-nine days being intercalated.
');"><sup>27</sup></span> Hence the first of Iyar must have fallen on the eve of the Sabbath [Friday], and the first of Siwan on the Sabbath, which is a difficulty according to both R. Jose and the Rabbis? — In R. Jose's view, seven months were declared defective;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' So there was a difference of three days, not four, that year consisting of three hundred and fifty-three days, which makes the first of Siwan fall on a Sunday. ');"><sup>28</sup></span>
Shenei Luchot HaBerit
The purpose of these garments was to be לשם ולתפארת, "for dignity and adornment," as stated by the Torah in Exodus 28,2. Genesis 2,28 reports: "Adam and Eve were nude; they did not experience a sense of shame." The serpent became jealous when it saw their nudity. This is the mystical dimension of all the forbidden sexual unions. The serpent had infected humans with a pollutant. The priests were warned by the Torah not to climb the altar by means of steps so as not to reveal even part of their bodies in the process (Exodus 20,23). It is a natural tendency of man to want to climb steps, to become G–d-like, the vision held out to Eve by the serpent in Genesis 3,4. This tendency became outlawed, i.e. ערוה. Adam later was מושך בערלתו tried to conceal the fact that he was circumcised, as stated by our sages in Sanhedrin 38b. The seven days of inauguration of the Tabernacle before Aaron took over in his capacity as High Priest were symbolic of the seven days of creation. On the eighth day Moses called upon Aaron; on that day he was crowned with ten crowns (Rashi on Leviticus 9,1). He was considered as if he had been created anew on that day. On that date Adam was resurrected, so to speak, because Aaron fulfilled the commandment of "sacrificing his own personality," i.e. אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן, performing an act which reversed the direction Adam had taken, when, instead of cementing his close relations with G–d, he had distanced himself from G–d by eating from the tree of knowledge and bringing death into the world. Nonetheless death henceforth would occur when someone, who was close to G–d (i.e. a priest) would fail to observe all the strictures on the performance of the service in the Tabernacle G–d had placed on the priests, just as death was the consequence of non-observance of G–d's law in the macrocosm, so now death would be the penalty for failing to observe G–d's law within the Tabernacle, the microcosm. At the creation G–d had warned with the words מות תמות; now two sons of Aaron died because they had approached G–d in a forbidden manner, as will be explained in due course.
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