Words From Rabbi White

Here is one of my favourite divrei Torahs.

I have said it in the past in Chevra Shaas, and said it at the table in my daughter's house on the last day of Pesah:

There is an ancient midrash that tells us that we can determine the dates of the holidays according to the days of Pesah.

It is a system called "at bash," matching the letters in forward and reverse order, and goes like this:

1) Since the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Tav, the 1st night of Pesah will be the same as Tisha be'av.  So, this year, Tish`a be`av will begin on Saturday night, just the seder was on Motsa'ei Shabbat.
2) The 2nd last letter is "shin." So this year, I know that SHavuot will begin on Sunday night
3) The 3rd last letter is "resh." So, we know now that Rosh Hashanah will begin Monday night (may the pandemic be over!)
4) Next in reverse order is Qof. So, the day of the great Qeri'ah, the reading of the Torah, i.e. Simhat Torah, will be Tuesday night. (OK, I know that's stretching it a bit, but as we say in Yiddish, "azoy.")
5) The 5th letter from the end is "tsade." And the day of the great TSom, the fast of Kippur, will begin this coming year on Wednesday  night.
6) The 6th last letter is "pe." And do you remember, this past Purim the zoom megilah was Thursday night.

Well, that's the end of the midrash.  But, wait, you say, what about the 7th day of Pesah?  To what does that allude? To be continued......

(try to figure it out!)