9. According to Exodus 12:6, when was the Passover lamb to be slaughtered? (See also the box “What Part of the Day?”)

⁹ The Pentateuch and Haftorahs points out that Exodus 12:6 says that the lamb was to be slaughtered “between the two evenings.” Some Bible versions use exactly that expression. Others, including the Jewish Tanakh, translate it “at twilight.” Still others, “at dusk,” “during the evening twilight,” or “around sundown.” So the lamb was to be slaughtered after the sun had set but while there was still light, at the start of Nisan 14.

10. According to some, when was the lamb slaughtered, but what question does that raise?

¹⁰ In later times, some Jews thought that it would have taken hours to slaughter all the lambs brought to the temple. So Exodus 12:6 was understood to refer to the end of Nisan 14, between the time when the sun started to decline (after noon) and the end of the day at sunset. But if that were the meaning, when would the meal have been eaten? Professor Jonathan Klawans, a specialist in ancient Judaism, noted: “The new day begins with the setting of the sun, so the sacrifice is made on the 14th but the beginning of Passover and the meal are actually on the 15th, although this sequence of dates is not specified in Exodus.” He also wrote: “Rabbinic literature . . . does not even claim to be telling us how the Seder [Passover meal] was performed before the destruction of the Temple” in 70 C.E.​—Italics ours.