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The day begins with darkness and ends when the sun sets. This order was established with the creation of the first day as recorded in the Torah, in Genesis 1:2-5.
| Preceding | Following |
Now the earth was unformed and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of the Almighty moved upon the face of the waters. Genesis 1:2 |
And the Almighty said, Let there be light, and there was light. And the Almighty saw the light, that it was good, and the Almighty divided the light from the darkness. Genesis 1:3 |
"And the Almighty called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.
And there was evening and there was morning, one day." - Genesis 1:4-5
| The First Day | |
And the earth was unformed and void; and darkness night was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of the Almighty moved upon the face of the waters. |
And the Almighty said, Let there be light, and there was light day. And the Almighty saw the light, that it was good, and the Almighty divided the light from the darkness. |
The Almighty renames the "darkness" as night, and the "light" as day. Note the order does not change. He states the evening first, and then the morning second, and these in this order, made up the first day. Every day afterwards follows precisely the same order. The evening and then the morning.
For this reason Jewish people from the earliest times have observed a change of one day to the next at sunset. Evening (arab) and morning (boqer) are alternate words for darkness and light.
| First Day | Second Day | Third Day | Fourth Day | Fifth Day | Sixth Day | Seventh Day | |||||||
| evening | morning | evening | morning | evening | morning | evening | morning | evening | morning | evening | morning | evening | morning |
| And there
was evening, and there was morning one day. |
And there
was evening, and there was morning a second day. |
And there
was evening, and there was morning a third day. |
And there
was evening, and there was morning a fourth day. |
And there
was evening, and there was morning a fifth day. |
And there
was evening, and there was morning a sixth day. |
and He
rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made |
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| Genesis 1:5 | Genesis 1:8 | Genesis 1:13 | Genesis 1:19 | Genesis 1:23 | Genesis 1:31 | Genesis 2:2 | |||||||
By this we also know that our rest on the seventh day, the shabbat, includes the evening through to the next evening in which the first day of the week begins. Therefore all our of special days also begin at sunset in the evening.
Zionbinyahudah
(chatroom nickname) is an anonymous anti-establishment Paltalk preacher
who promotes a "dawn-to-dawn day"
doctrine opposed to the teaching of Judaism as presented above. He has
taken issue with the method in which this article presents the
dusk to dusk day. The charge is that I have altered the scriptures by
replacing
certain words with my own. Here I hope to clarify any
misunderstandings that
may have inadvertently resulted from this method.
In the above article I have posted Genesis 1:2-3 twice. The second time you will note that the words "darkness" and "light" have been crossed out and replaced with the words "night" and "day". This is not to alter what the original says but to demonstrate the effect that verse 4 has upon them verses 2-3. It is the Creator Himself Who renames darkness to "night" and light to "day" - not myself. This side by side comparison helps to show that the order of darkness/night before light/day is preserved in the renaming and in all the following days that evening precedes the morning.
Most readers have correctly understood that no attempt whatsoever is being made to change the original scriptures but rather to compare and magnify them and draw attention to certain facts stated therein. However those who have no legitimate criticism and who teach against authorized interpretation will attempt to misrepresent this scriptural exposition for something incredible. Read the whole article in context and see for yourself if there is any hint of intent to misrepresent the Torah. This is not a debate but an explanation of thousands of years of consistent interpretation and practice by Jews of every kind all over the world. Shalom.