**5.** *<sup>ʾ</sup>Asîp ¯* **, Sukkôt, and the Autumn New Year**

The third festival in the Covenant Collection list is *ʾAsîp ¯* , the Festival of Ingathering. But to what form of produce does this refer? The Gezer calendar quoted above opens with "his double-month is ingathering" which must occur in the autumn, considering its placement. The product being ingathered is most likely olives, which are gathered after the summer fruit has been picked (Borowski 2003, p. 28; King and Stager 2001, pp. 88–89), perhaps also grapes. The festival calendar in Exodus 23 refers to *<sup>ʾ</sup>Asîp ¯* being "at the *s.e¯ʾ<sup>t</sup>* of the year," which could mean the "end of the year" or alternatively, "the emergence of the year" (HALOT 3886) (Köhler and Baumgartner [1967–1995] 1994–2000).

Beginning the year with the ingathering fits with the Gezer calendar, which opens with the ingathering. It also works with what we know from many extra-biblical sources, uncovered over the past two centuries of archaeological excavation, namely, that the ancient Near East had two different periods in which the new year could be marked: Autumn and Spring, which is reflected in the Akkadian names for these months.

Autumn opens with the month of *Tašr¯ıtu*—from the Akkadian *šurrû*, meaning "beginning," likely a reference to the time of planting.25 This also marks the beginning of the rainy season in the Levant, which lasts until spring. Spring begins with the month of *Nissanu*—from the Akkadian word for "first-produce,"26 since, as discussed above, this was the time when wheat began to ripen. It seems hardly coincidental that the two core harvest festivals, *Qa¯s.îr* and *<sup>ʾ</sup>Asîp ¯* are celebrated in the autumn and spring. Instead, it would seem that these two festivals marked the two new years for the ancient Israelites.

It may seem strange to imagine two new-years, since, from the perspective of linear, calendrical time, it is necessary to mark one, and begin the year at a clear point. Nevertheless, as noted at the beginning, from the perspective of cyclical time, each of these marks a beginning and is a kind of new year. In fact, we know that in Mesopotamia, each of these new year seasons was marked by a festival called the Ak¯ıtu (Bidmeade 2002, pp. 1, 44; Cohen 1993, pp. 306, 327).

We know of an overlapping autumn calendar, from Ugarit, the celebration of which began in the previous month, which was when they gathered grapes from the vine:

On the month of Rashu-Yeni ("Beginning of Wine"), on the day of the New Moon (*ym.h. dt*;), cut a bunch of grapes for Ilu (=El) as a piece offering (*shelamim*) ...

The text continues by describing how the king makes preparations starting on the 14th, and then, on the 15th begins a seven-day celebration. Finally,

On the day of the new moon of {the following month, equivalent to *Tašr¯ıtu*} ... the king will offer a sacrifice ... on the roof where there will be dwellings of branches, four on one side four on the other, a ram as burnt offering, a bull and a ram as peace offering, to be repeated seven times. According to what is in his heart, the king will speak. (Pardee 2002, pp. 63–65)

<sup>23</sup> Mnemohistory differs from history in that it is not an attempt to retrieve the past, but rather, to construct it. For a general introduction to this field, see (Halbwachs [1941] 1992; Assmann 2006). For the application to biblical literature, see (Davies 2008; Edelman and Ben-Zvi 2013).

<sup>24</sup> The Book of Jubilees connects it with other covenants as well, such as God's covenant with Noah (Jub 6:21) and the birth of Isaac (Jub 16:13).

<sup>25</sup> *CAD* vol. 18 (*Tav*), pp. 297–98, s.v. *tašr¯ıtu*. (Gelb 1956–2010).

<sup>26</sup> *CAD* vol. 11a (N-2), pp. 265–66, s.v. *nisannu*. (Gelb 1956–2010).

This month-long ritual ends with the New Moon celebration on *Tašr¯ıtu*. In the middle of the month comes a seven-day festival. This is highly reminiscent of what we know about the equivalent holiday *ʾAsîp ¯* in other biblical texts, namely *Sukkôt* (Del Olme Lette 2004).

Deut 16:15 You shall hold a festival for YHWH your God seven days, in the place that YHWH will choose; for YHWH your God will bless all your crops and all your undertakings, and you shall have nothing but joy.<sup>27</sup>

Of particular interest is the reference to dwellings of branches, which is reminiscent of the supplementary biblical commands about this festival at the end of Leviticus 23:

<sup>39</sup> Mark, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in (פ.ס.א (the yield of your land, you shall observe the festival of YHWH *to last* seven days ... <sup>40</sup> On the first day you shall take the product of *hadar* trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before YHWH your God seven days ... . <sup>42</sup> You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, <sup>43</sup> in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I YHWH your God.

As it is difficult to imagine the direct borrowing of Israel or Judah from Ugarit, it is more likely that the text from both cultures reflect versions of the same practices that have ancient roots in the region. The purpose of these branches and booths differ in the Ugaritic and biblical conception. In Ugarit, these dwellings were for the gods, and the king would then be able to go up on the roof and speak with them, making his requests. In Leviticus, there are two different conceptions—the first is so that the people can rejoice with lovely branches, and the second so they themselves can dwell in the booths. In the Persian Period, these two conceptions were merged, with the booths being made of lovely branches (Neh 8:15). Nevertheless, the ancient origins of the Israelite/Judahite ritual may be seen in the Ugaritic practice (De Moor 1972, p. 22; Waganaar 2005, p. 23).

Another notable element in the festival at Ugarit is that the celebration was multipodal. Significantly, it featured a seven-day festival starting on the 15th (full moon) of the sixth month, and concluded on the first of the seventh month (new moon). In the Priestly and Holiness calendars, we see something similar. The first of the seventh month is a festival of horn blasts, the tenth of the month is a time for atonement and cleansing (*Yôm Hak¯ıppurîm ¯* ), both of the people and of the sanctuary, and the 15th marks the seven (or eight) day festival of *Sukkôt*.

It would seem that, in this tradition, we have a month-long celebration, as described in Nehemiah 8, with the New Year element coming at the beginning instead of the end. Dividing the new year proper from the agricultural festival allowed *Sukkôt* to concentrate on celebrating the ingathering season, as well as to look forward to the upcoming rainy season. Although the biblical text does not discuss *Sukkôt* as a rain festival, this is certainly what the festival marks in the Second Temple period, and it seems reasonable to assume that this goes back to earlier times, since Iron Age Israel and Judah were also agricultural societies depending on rainfall.

Comparative evidence, as well as later tradition, point to the virtual certainty that the autumn festivals marked the new year, and that this was the meaning of the festival of horn blasts in the Priestly literature. In fact, the connection between horn blasts, enthronement ceremonies, and ancient Near Eastern new year festivals suggest the likelihood that YHWH was ceremonially enthroned on this new year celebration in the First Temple period (Mowinckel 1962, vol. 1, pp. 107–92). Nevertheless, the biblical texts only state that it is the first of the seventh month. Why is the new year's element being

<sup>27</sup> The two festivals were a month apart, but they are still versions of the same basic autumn new year celebration. Note that according to 1 Kings 12:32–33, the northern kingdom of Israel celebrated its autumn festival the month after Judah's (i.e., month 8 and not month 7), perhaps because produce ripens later in the north (Talmon 2005).

suppressed here? The answer may come from the realities of the exilic period and the influence of Babylonian culture. To quote Julye Bidmeade (2002, p. 44):

Initially, the Mesopotamian calendar was based on a lunar cycle—the occurrence of the rising new moon after sunset indicated the beginning of the new month. The full moon marked the middle of the month, and the *um bubbulim ¯* (the day of disappearance) indicated the end of the month ... . Eventually the calendar was adjusted to correspond to the solar year. The year was divided into two six-month periods determined by the equinoxes. Because of this division, the celebration of a New Year could occur both at Nisannu and at Tašr¯ıtu. However, in lexical lists, economic documents, and other official inscriptions, Nisannu is always the first month of the Standard Mesopotamian calendar.

I would argue that the Israelite calendrical conception goes through a similar shift. Beginning with a celebration of cycles, the moon cycle and the seasonal/agricultural cycle, the moon and year become ways of marking linear time. As such, it became important to fix the beginning of the month and the beginning of the year.<sup>28</sup> For this reason, the Priestly or Holiness text makes it clear the spring month is the first month of the year (Exod 12:2). This is also why the Ritual Decalogue, which revises parts of the Covenant Collection,29 describes *ʾAsîp ¯* occurring not at the "end (or emergence) of the year" (ʤʰָʹָ ʤʺʠ ʔ ʶʒ ʡᄴ) but at "the turn of the year" (ʤʰָʹָ ʤʺ ʔ ᄴ ʷ ʔ ʺᄴ) implying that it happens in the middle of the year, as would be the case in a spring calendar.

It may even be that this is what brought about the use of numbered month-names as opposed to what we find in some ancient passages in the book of Kings, in which at least certain months have other names:

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites left the land of Egypt, in the month of *Z¯ıw*—that is, the second month—in the fourth year of his reign over Israel, Solomon began to build the House of YHWH. (1 Kgs 6:1)

And in the eleventh year, in the month of *Bûl*—that is, the eighth month—the House was completed according to all its details and all its specifications. (1 Kgs 6:38)

All the men of Israel gathered before King Solomon at the Feast, in the month of*ʾEt¯ anîm ¯* —that is, the seventh month. (1 Kgs 8:2)

We can add to this list the name *ʾAbîb ¯* , encountered above, which was the older name for what becomes the first month. These month names probably reflect what the local Canaanite population used as well (Vanderkam 1998, p. 6), but the priestly scribes, who accepted the Babylonian imperial calendar, and wished to emphasize that the year began in the spring, adopted numbers as names. That this did not necessarily filter down into popular practice is implied from the fact that, at least in the exilic period, the Jews adopted the Babylonian names of the months and did not use numbers.

The official adoption of the spring new year goes together with the cancellation of the full moon *Šabbat¯* and the reconceptualization of *H. odeš ¯* not as a moon celebration but as the beginning of a month. In short, the originally cyclical month-time that went from full-to-new-to-full, etc., became a way of marking the beginning of the month, which was determined to be at *H. odeš ¯* . Full moon *Šabbat¯* was no longer marked, though in Tishrei and Nissan, it remained as the date of the great agricultural festivals *Sukkôt* and *Mas.s. ôt*. In addition, it is hardly coincidental that three other "festivals" in the later Jewish calendar are celebrated on the full moon: *Tû b e -Š e bat¯* (15th of Shevat, the new year for trees), *Tû b e -ʾAb* (15th of Av, the festival of love), and *Šabu¯ʿôt*, celebrated on the 15th of Sivan according to the sectarian calendar.

<sup>28</sup> This was a standard trajectory of calendars in the ancient period, including the Egyptian and Greek calendars (Stern 2012).

<sup>29</sup> The claim here that the Ritual Decalogue revises the Covenant Collection follows (Gesundheit 2002, pp. 12–43). This is contra the view that this text was older and perhaps even the source for the passage in the Covenant Collection.
