Note 217 — Chapter II · TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH AND ON RELATED OCCASIONS

Leviticus, xxiii, 23-25; Numbers, xxix, 1-7. It has been suggested that the first ten days of the seventh month were epagomenal, bridging the gap, as it were, between the old lunar year of 355 days and the solar year (J. Wellhausen, Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels,³ Berlin, 1905, p. 105 n.²; see below, p. 247 n.²). In the ritual of the Jewish church they are described as days of “penitence.”