Rabbi Mordecai Schwartz will lead us in study of the development of the holidays of the Israelite calendar— Passover, Shavuot, Rosh HaShanna, Yom Kippur, and Succot —and how they came to be transformed by the Sages of the Talmud. Our goal is to discern whether there is a pattern in the way that the Sages treated these holidays: Did they have a specific purpose in mind? If so, what was it?

In order to achieve this goal, we will first look at the Biblical calendar as a whole, and then focus on each individual holiday. We will use the Bible, Mishnah, Midrash, and the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds to identify the Biblical and Rabbinic aspects of each holiday.