[Avodah] A Shabbos of months? OR Two parallel cycles of Jewish year

[Michael ORR]

On 06/19/2011 08:37 PM, Michael ORR wrote:
> Judaism has a Shabbos of days (yom hashabbos), a Shabbos of weeks
> (shevuous), a Shabbos of years (shmitah), and a Shabbos of shemitahs
> (yovel).
> 
> I am wondering about whether there is any tradition of Shabbos with
> respect to other units of time.
> 
> A SHABBOS OF MONTHS
<snip>
> A SHABBOS OF HOURS
>"Joel C. Salomon" <joelcsalomon at gmail.com> replied:

>Interesting thought.  ...  in
>things like days or years that don't have a "built-in" cycle, we can
>collect them in groups of seven.  Months (almost) divide up a year, and
>hours a day, so a "seven" of hours or of months isn't as meaningful....

>--Chesky
REPLY:
I was trying to explain how a seven of months does indeed seem significant, and 
it does not seem like such a stretch.  Tishrei is the seventh month from Nissan 
and Nissan is the seventh month from Tishrei.  Both are our most significant 
months, each with a major seven-day festival in the middle followed later by a 
completion/atzeres.  If we allow the seven year cycles to overlap in this way 
then a year is composed of two seven-month cycles, like day and night.  

And then if we can understand the 12 month-year as a composite of overlapping 7 
month cycles, then it seems natural to try to extend this logic to a 24 hour 
day.  (BTW, is there a Torah source for dividing the day into 24 hours?)
I am wondering about sources for this.  So far I have just seen suggestive 
shreds, e.g. in the Sfas Emes (comparing Yom Kippur and Purim – Yom K’Purim) and 
in the Ramban, comparing the Atzeres of Shevuous with the Atzere of Shemini of 
Sukkos.  Am just starting to look at RAK’s edition of Sefer Yetzirah which looks 
like it will be helpful.  Wondering if others have additional tips or feedback?
Even if the focus on the concept of a “Shabbos of months” is not accepted as 
compelling, I am looking for sources that discuss the division of the Jewish 
year into two parallel cycles.  Commonalities between the cycles are:
-Each cycle centres on major seven-day festival  around time of equinox
-Seven day festival culminates in completion/atzeres that is celebration of 
Torah
-Month preceding the festival (Elul or Adar) is month of transformation (Elul is 
teshuva and Purim/Adar is “ve’nahapoch hu”)
-The first and tenth days of the festival month have special distinctions - (RH, 
YK, New Year of Nissan and Shabbos HaGadol, on the 10th in its original year).  
The first day is a new year in both cases.
-Each cycle has apparent solstice-related observance:   (1) 17th of Tammuz, 
leading to Tisha B’Av – time when light begins to decrease – Represents a 
beginning of galus/exile , and (2) Chanuka – when the light begins to increase, 
 represents an end of galus/exile.
Any further leads or feedback is appreciated.  (I acknowledge with thanks the 
previous suggestions to look at the following on the significance of 7 
generally:  RSRH, mequbalim in general. E.g. Maharal, Gevuros H', pereq 46.) 
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