When the Festival of Ingathering Sets the Leap Year

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 402:4

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

"And the Feast of Ingathering at the turning of the year" (Exodus 34:22). Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav: One does not declare a leap year unless the [autumn] season would be deficient by the greater part of a month, sixteen days. These are the words of Rabbi Yehudah. Rabbi Yose says: twenty-one days. Rabbi Yochanan said: Both expounded a single verse, "And the Feast of Ingathering at the turning of the year." One master holds we require the entire festival to fall within the new season, and the other master holds we require only part of the festival to fall within the new season. What underlies their dispute? If they held that the day of the equinox completes [the old season], then neither view works out, neither for the one who requires the whole festival within the new season nor for the one who requires only part of it. Rather, they hold that the day of the equinox begins [the new season]. An objection was raised: the day of the equinox completes, says Rabbi Yehudah; the day of the equinox begins, says Rabbi Yose. And it was further taught: one does not declare a leap year unless the season would be deficient by the greater part of a month, sixteen days; Rabbi Yehudah says two-thirds of the month, twenty days; Rabbi Yose says we calculate—sixteen days before Passover, we declare a leap year; sixteen days before the festival [of Tabernacles], we do not declare a leap year. Rabbi Shimon says: even sixteen days before the festival, we declare a leap year. Others say: the minimum is fourteen days. Ravina said: in truth, the "others" are positioned at the season of Tishrei, and they hold that we require the entire festival within the new season. The first day [of the festival] is called "the Feast of Ingathering"—the festival that comes at the time of ingathering. "Three times in the year [all your males shall appear]" (Exodus 34:23)—your males. And likewise "the face of the Lord" is written in remez 357.

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