Note 777 — Chapter VIII · THE HEBREW SABBATH

That the Old Testament thus contains indirect evidence of the celebration of full-moon day by the early Hebrews was long ago recognized by the learned commentator, August Dillmann. “Von einer Feier des Vollmondes zeigt sich bei den Israeliten keine Spur.... Jedoch war er dadurch bevorzugt, dass an ihm das grosse Frühlings- und Herbstfest begann” (Die Bücher Exodus und Leviticus,³ p. 635). A passage in one of the Psalms (lxxxi, 3): “Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our feast-day,” probably refers to new moon in the seventh month, or New Year’s Day (Leviticus, xxiii, 24), and to the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, which began on the fifteenth of the same month (ibid., xxiii, 39).