The Yahwist Calendar

The literary and the archaeological evidence match well.  Our literary evidence is the TaNaK.  Let us first present the archaeological evidence. 

The Gezer calendar was discovered in 1908 in the ancient city of Gezer, which is 32 kilometers west of Jerusalem.  The script is in Paleo-Hebrew.  The Gezer calendar is on a limestone tablet that is 11cm by 7 cm.  It is dated to the 10^th century BCE.   The text is typically translated into English as the following:

Two months gathering 
Two months planting
Two months late sowing
One month cutting flax
One month reaping barley
One month reaping and measuring grain
Two months pruning
One month summer fruit
Abiyah

 

Scholars believe that the name “Abiyah” at the end, is most likely the person who wrote the inscription.  If this is the case, the name “Yah” here would be the oldest attestation of the name YHVH yet to be found, predating the Mesha Stele by two centuries.  Nonetheless, while scholars debate the timing of the moons above, I think the answer is clear:  The first moon of the year was called “Aviv” in the Torah.  Exodus 9:31 states “though the flax and the barley have been broken, for the barley is in the ear (Hebrew “Aviv”), and the flax is in the stalk.” For the barley to still be “in the ear” means that the first moon of the year is when the barley is “in ear” (or ripe.)  Exodus 12:1-3 “YHVH spoke to Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, this month/moon shall be to you the head of the months; to you it shall be the first of the months of the year. Speak to the entire community of Israel, saying, "On the tenth of this month, let each one take a lamb for each parental home, a lamb for each household. "”  Exodus 13:4 calls this first moon of the year (the moon which was the head of the year) “Aviv.”    Exodus 13:4 states  הַיּ֖וֹם אַתֶּ֣ם יֹֽצְאִ֑ים בְּחֹ֖דֶשׁ הָֽאָבִֽיב which is often translated as “Today you are going out, in the month of spring.”  This is a good modern way of understanding it, but the Hebrew would be more accurately translated "(barley) in ear/ripe" than "spring."  Nonetheless this is one of the three calendars that I am giving here, the oldest calendar in the Torah is a lunisolar agricultural calendar, where a 13^th moon would be inserted in the year, if the barley was not yet “ripe” or “in ear.”  Therefore, after twelve moons, if the barley was not in ear, a 13^th moon was added, and the following moon, the barley would be “in ear.”  

The Written Torah
The written Torah has the moon of Aviv as the first moon of the year, followed by twelve moons that are just numbered.  All other moons/months of the year in the Torah are called by their numerical place.  Leviticus 23 is the best example here, as it lists all the Feasts of Israel in one chapter.  Leviticus 23 lists the Sabbath, Passover, Shavuot, Yom Teruah (Feast of Shofar blowing), Yom HaKippurim (Yom Kippur) and Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) all in one chapter.  Leviticus 23:24 states “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, on the first of the month, it shall be a Sabbath for you, a remembrance of [Israel through] the shofar blast a holy occasion.”  Leviticus 23:27 states: “But on the tenth of this seventh month, it is a day of atonement, it shall be a holy occasion for you; you shall afflict yourselves, and you shall offer up a fire offering to the Lord.”  Leviticus 23:34 states “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month, is the Festival of Succoth, a seven-day period to the Lord.”  Therefore, it is very clear, the written Torah’s calendar has the first moon of Aviv, and then eleven (or twelve in a leap year) moons that are numerically named.   Moon names like "Tishrei" for example, are not found in the written Torah.

The Canaanite Calendar
The Prophets section of the Hebrew Bible, has verified archaeological Canaanite moon names.  Nonetheless, the calendar still begins the year with Aviv (like the Written Torah’s Calendar), but we find the Canaanite Moon names in the Prophets as opposed to numerical moon names.  Please see the twelve Canaanite moon names, and note that three of the four of them are in the Hebrew Bible:

Ancient Hebrew/Canaanite Calendar

Aviv (“Green ears of grain”) Ex 13:4; 23:15; 34:18; Deu 16:1
Ziv – (“Bright flowers”) 1 Kings 6:1; 6:37
Mattan – (“Gift of crops”)
Ḏavaḥ – (“Offering of produce”)
Karar – (“Heat of summer”)
Ṣhachim – (“Shining of sun”)
Etanim – (“Perpetual streams”) 1 Kings 8:2
Bul – (“Rain for crops”) 1 Kings 6:38
Marpaim – (“Remedies of plants”)
Pagriym – (“Corpses of plants”)
Pu’ullot – (“Labors of late planting”)
Ḥayr – (“White of frost”)

1 Kings 6:1 “And it was in the four hundred and eightieth year after the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt, in the fourth year, in the month Ziv, which (is) the second month of Solomon's reign over Israel, that he did (begin to) build the house of the Lord.”

1 Kings 6:38 “And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it, and he built it seven years.”

1 Kings 8:2 “And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto king Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.”

The calendar given in the Prophets, is a clear adoption of the Canaanite calendar, per archaeological finds that line up with these passages in the Prophets.  We can safely conclude that the Israelites had the same calendar of Canaan.  Please also see the book "Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? [William Dever, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.]. Dever concludes that the Israelites were Canaanites who became monotheists.  What could be debated is if the Canaanite calendar changed from Aviv and numerical moon names to the one above, or if the Biblical (Judean) authors of the Torah and Deuteronomic History just later added Israelite moon names.  I personally believe there are passages in Judges, Samuel, and Kings that are the oldest passages in our TaNaK, and these passages are from the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  My belief is that the Israelites always had the Canaanite Calendar, and the Authors/Editors/Redactors of the Torah used numerical names for moons. 

The Talmud and The Babylonian Calendar:
When Judah was exiled to Babylon, Judah adopted Babylonian practices, some of which are detestable to YHVH.  In Ezekiel 8:14-15, YHVH takes Ezekiel to see detestable things.  “And He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the house of the Lord that is to the north, and behold there the women were sitting, making the Tammuz weep. And He said to me, "Have you seen, son of man? You will yet see again greater abominations than these."” Tammuz is the name of a Babylonian Goddess, and YHVH detests the worship of this deity, as “I am YHVH your Elohim who brought you out from Egypt, there shall be no other gods besides me.”  Exodus 23:13 “Concerning all that I have said to you; you shall beware, and the name of the gods of others you shall not mention; it shall not be heard through your mouth.”  Judaism will not say the Divine Name out of fear of using it in vain (which is noble), but the moon names of Babylon’s Calendar are used, despite at least one (more likely two of them) are confirmed Babylonian deities (the other being Nisan. Tammuz is absolutely a Babylonian deity.  Here is the modern Jewish Calendar, all having the Babylonian Moon names:

Nisan – 7th month – Neh 2:1,
Iyyar – 8th month
Sivan – 9th month
Tammuz – 10th month
Av – 11th month
Elul – 12th month – Neh 6:15
Tishrei – 1st month
Marcheshvan (aka Cheshvan) – 2nd month
Kislev – 3rd Month – Neh 1:1, Zec 7:1
Tevet – 4th month
Shevat – 5th month – Zec 1:7
Adar – 6th month – Ezra 6:15
2nd Adar in Leap Years

In summary, Judah (not the Northern Kingdom, but the province of Judea after the Babylonian Exile) adopted Babylonian practices.  Judah decided to remove the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet and went with Aramaic (Babylonian) script to write the Hebrew language.  Judah also decided on removing the Israelite/Canaanite Calendar and going with the Babylonian Calendar.  Therefore, without doubt, the Calendar of Yahwists should be the Israelite Calendar used in Canaan.  The New Year was moved by the Rabbis to be the first of Tirshrei.  The schools of Hillel and Shammai discuss this in the Mishnah.  Rosh Hashanah 1:1 specifically defines Rosh Hashanah’s “new year” status. “The first of Tishrei is the beginning of the year [Rosh Hashanah] for years, sabbatical cycles, and the jubilee.”  In fairness, the Rabbi's argue that since the Jubilee happens in Tishrei, not on the first of Aviv, this is their written Torah premise for moving the New Year to the first of the seventh month.  Problem is, Exodus 12 and 13 specifically state that the head of the year for Israel is to be the moon of Aviv.  It appears that the Pharisaic sect of Judaism, that won the battle for orthodoxy of the Jewish faith after the Second Temple was destroyed, made this clear change.  

What do scholars say?  Looking at other calendars found in the Ancient Near East, no conclusive views are held.  Scholarship is divided.  Although the Torah never explicitly refers to an autumn new year, there are two verses that imply that Autumn could be seen as the new year.  Exodus 34:22 "You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the first fruits of the wheat harvest; and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year."  This Hebrew translation is accurate.  Therefore, Exodus 34:22 does appear to contradict Exodus 9:31, Exodus 12:1-3, and Exodus 13:4.

The Gezer Calendar:
Let us return to the Gezer Calendar.  I believe my view on the Gezer Calendar is correct.  The Gezer Calendar is older than the Torah’s Calendar, and the Prophets Calendar.  Bible scholars do not agree on everything, but there is more agreement that the Torah and the Prophets were written long after the events they recorded, and many of the events recorded have no archaeological (or historical) reality.  Since we can date the Gezer Calendar to the 10^th century BCE, it is older than the Torah’s and Prophets’ Calendars, and it is obviously older than the Babylonian Calendar the Judean leadership adopted over the “Biblical” calendar of the Prophets and the Torah.  The Gezer Calendar in my view lines up with the New Year being on the first day of the seventh month (or more likely the full moon of the seventh month), which lines up with Ancient Near East and Proto-Indo-European Calendars, which had the new year begin with our time of the beginning of Autumn on a full moon.  Let me list the Gezer Calendar again, and prove that the calendar began with the time of the “seventh moon” of the Torah.  Below, I will place the text of the Gezer Calendar in Black, and my understanding after in Blue:

Two months gathering (our September-October)
Two months planting (our November-December)
Two months late sowing (our January-February)
One month cutting flax (our March)
One month reaping barley (our April)
One month reaping and measuring grain (our May)
Two months pruning (our June-July)
One month summer fruit  (our August)
Abiyah 

Please note, my comments in blue are not perfectly accurate, as all cultures in the Ancient Near East had “moons” for “months.” (The word “moon” in English is related to the word “month.”  A month is a cycle of the moon.  It was not until the Romans made  their solar calendar the calendar of the West (which the Roman church used), that months became completely unrelated to the moon.   Now, back on point.  Notice that I colored one moon/month above in red.  This is the Aviv moon.  Why?  Because on one would reap barley until it was ripe (“in ear.”).  Therefore, while scholars debate when this Gezer Calendar starts, I think this matches calendars in the Ancient Near East and it matches “Barley”, i.e. when the Barley is Aviv. I believe that Israel first had a new year at the time of the beginning of our modern Autumn, but then at the time the Torah was written, the Judean religious elite succeeded in a shift to be in the Spring.  After the fall of the Second Temple, when the Pharisees won the battle of which Jewish Sect and which brand of Judaism would survive in the exile from Israel, the Pharsiees, founders and inventors of the synagogue, won the battle for orthodoxy in Judaism.  Their calendars and their oral torah became “orthodox”, even though Pharisaic Judaism was not the orthodox Judaism when the Second Temple was standing.  For the record, I think synagogues were invented when the Greeks ruled Israel, i.e. synagogues were born in the Maccabean Period.  It was the synagogue that championed the Rabbis as leaders of Judaism, as synagogues are a huge reason for the success of Judaism without a Temple.  The Sadducees and the Essenes and other differing Jewish groups lost the battle of orthodoxy because they did not establish anything like synagogues.  The Rabbis, members of the sect of the Pharisees, were the clear victors of orthodoxy after the Second Temple fell.

My Reconstructed Yahwist Calendar:

In short, I believe the Ancient Israelite Peoples, before Judaism was invented by Judean religious elite, celebrated new moons and full moons.  I also believe that they celebrated a feast of ingathering (Full Moon to start the new year in Autumn) and the full moon to start the summer season.  These would be the same two full moons today that Passover and Sukkot fall on.  I believe that the Ancient Israelites did not have a seven day week.  They had days of the moon.  The word "Sabbatu" was originally the full moon of each moon, as I will prove here.  

The REAL story (per scholars) as to when and how the seventh day week came to be The seven-day weekly cycle has zero connection to nature. Yet, it became central not only to Judaism, but also to Christianity and Islam, and it now is the main structure for time across the globe. There is no denying this. Christianity adopted the Shabbat (Sabbath) week, the six days followed by a seventh day "sabbath" structure of Judaism. Constantine was the Roman emperor who not only converted to Christianity, but Constantine declared Christianity was the religion of the Roman Empire, and established the seven-day week in Europe. This has stood the test of time, even when Revolutionary France and the Soviet Union tried to abolish it. [Eviatar Zerubavel, The Seven Day Cycle: The History and Meaning of the Week (Chicago, 1989).]

Bible scholars (*see my list of scholars and sources below), do not believe that Genesis has the oldest texts of the bible. Passages like Judges ch5, 2Kings ch4, Hosea ch2, Amos ch8 are amongst the oldest Hebrew recorded. Passages from these sections of the Bible, mention the Sabbath after a New Moon. Let us look at some of these passages.

2 Kings 4:23

וַיֹּאמֶר מַדּוּעַ אתי הלכתי [אַתְּ הֹלֶכֶת] אֵלָיו הַיּוֹם לֹא חֹדֶשׁ וְלֹא שַׁבָּת וַתֹּאמֶר שָׁלוֹם.

Why would you go to him today? It is not a New Moon nor a Shabbat. She answered "it is ok." (In this passage, a husband was asking his wife why she was going to the seer when it was not a New or Full Moon/Sabbath).

 

Hosea 2:13

וְהִשְׁבַּתִּי כָּל מְשׂוֹשָׂהּ חַגָּהּ חָדְשָׁהּ וְשַׁבַּתָּהּ וְכֹל מוֹעֲדָהּ

I will put an end to her joy, to her New Moon and her Shabbat, and all her festivals.

Amos 8:4-6

שִׁמְעוּ זֹאת הַשֹּׁאֲפִים אֶבְיוֹן וְלַשְׁבִּית ענוי [עֲנִיֵּי] אָרֶץ. ח:ה לֵאמֹר מָתַי יַעֲבֹר הַחֹדֶשׁ וְנַשְׁבִּירָה שֶּׁבֶר וְהַשַּׁבָּת וְנִפְתְּחָה בָּר לְהַקְטִין אֵיפָה וּלְהַגְדִּיל שֶׁקֶל וּלְעַוֵּת מֹאזְנֵי מִרְמָה. ח:ו לִקְנוֹת בַּכֶּסֶף דַּלִּים וְאֶבְיוֹן בַּעֲבוּר נַעֲלָיִם וּמַפַּל בַּר נַשְׁבִּיר.

Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land, 8:5 saying, “When will the New Moon be over, So that we may sell grain, And Shabbat, that we may open the wheat market, To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales, 8:6 So as to buy the helpless for money And the needy for a pair of sandals.

If in these cases (and I could post many more biblical passages), that the Shabbat (Sabbath) refers to the seventh day of the week, the order of Shabbat after the New Moon would be "odd." Biblical authors usually begin with what occurs more frequently, which is why we see texts like Nehemiah 10:34 "… for the Shabbats, and for the New Moons, and for the Appointed Festivals.” In these later texts, Shabbat refers to the seventh day of the week, so it comes before the New Moon, which occurs every month, and then is followed by Festivals that happen once annually. In the earlier biblical texts, the Shabbat appears to refer not to a day of the week but rather to a lunar phase, i.e. a Full Moon. Just as the Hebrew word for New Moon (Chodesh) refers to a new moon (compare to "Chadash" meaning "new"), the word "Shabbat" in these texts, which follows "Chodesh", designates a Full Moon. This is precisely why Bible scholars such as Joel Baden, Israel Finkelstein, Daniel Fleming, Jacob Wright, and Andrew Tobolosky believe that originally, Israel's Sabbath was originally on a Full Moon, and later, after the Babylonian exile, moved to a weekly system. The Full Moon is an important time in many cultures. The major Hindu festivals began at the Full Moon. Throughout the ancient Near East, the fifteenth of month/moon was the time for ritual celebrations. A number of Jewish festivals (Sukkot, Pesach, Purim, Tu BiShvat, Tu B’Av) begin fifteen days after New Moon, on the full moon.

Why the Number Seven was important in the ANE, and how the Sabbath moved from the full moon to a "seventh day?" The ANE (Ancient Near East) has many texts older than the Bible. The southern Mesoptamian ruler Gudea built a temple, and dedicated it for seven days. In the Gigamesh Epic, the number seven is often repeated. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh mourns for six days and seven nights. Similarly, when the royal mother of Neo-Babylonian ruler Nabonidus dies, she is mourned for seven days and nights, parallel to seven-day periods of mourning known after the death of King Shulgi of Ur and after the Guteans invade Nippur. In the Ugarit writings, many rituals last seven days, such as mourning and fasting. Even feasts last seven days. [see Fleming, Time at Emar: The Cultic Calendar and the Rituals from the Diviner’s Archive (Winona Lake, Indiana, 2000).] In Egypt, the number seven has symbolic significance linked to creation and regeneration. [see Fleming, Time at Emar: The Cultic Calendar and the Rituals from the Diviner’s Archive (Winona Lake, Indiana, 2000).] In Homer's Odyssey 12:397 and 14:249-252, we see that feasts were also celebrated for seven days.

In the Hebrew Bible, there are many seven day periods, seven month periods, and seven year periods, such as mourning (shiva), chaggot (feasts), weddings, and temple dedications.  According to Bible scholars, the earliest sign of a period of a "week" started in Ancient Egypt, where the "week" lasted for ten days and not seven. [Richard Parker, The Calendars of Ancient Egypt (Chicago, 1950).] Passages like Exodus 23:12 and Exodus 34:21 "six days you will work, and on the seventh day you will cease" (שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּעֲשֶׂה מַעֲשֶׂיךָ וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי תִּשְׁבֹּת) concerns farming activities, when farm animals and natives rest, but foreign born slaves perform the arduous fieldwork. What scholars see, is that the earliest sabbath passages (with the oldest Hebrew) in the bible required rest one day out of every seven days, but each home can start their seven day period on a different day. It was later in Israelite history, that the starting period of work and rest became standardized for all Israelites. The same is true with the annual sabbaths like Exodus 23:10-11 "Six years you shall sow your land and gather its yield, but the seventh year you let it rest and lie still so that the poor of your people may eat; what they leave, the beasts of the field shall eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and olive grove." (שמות כג:י וְשֵׁשׁ שָׁנִים תִּזְרַע אֶת אַרְצֶךָ וְאָסַפְתָּ אֶת תְּבוּאָתָהּ. כג:יא וְהַשְּׁבִיעִת תִּשְׁמְטֶנָּה וּנְטַשְׁתָּהּ וְאָכְלוּ אֶבְיֹנֵי עַמֶּךָ וְיִתְרָם תֹּאכַל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה כֵּן תַּעֲשֶׂה לְכַרְמְךָ לְזֵיתֶךָ.) These passages in Israelite society, was about productivity and rest for the agrarian world of the Levant. But importantly, scholars point out that here the seventh day and the seventh year were not called "Shabbat" (Shabbat is a Hebrew noun meaning "rest"). Therefore, scholars are clear that these were agrarian laws in Israel, distinct from the Full Moon Shabbat (Sabbath). To quote Dr. Jacob Wright "Another observation is equally important: These laws do not require communities to cease from particular activities on the same seventh day—in other words, they need not agree on a common fixed point in time from which all members of society collectively count the same seven days."

Mesopotamian Sapattu and the Hebrew Shabbat (Sabbath): Full Moon Holidays
Bible scholars feel that the Hebrew word "Shabbat" derives as a loan word from the Akkadian sapattu or sabattu. [Grund, Entstehung, pp. 106-110.] The Akkadian sabattu, attested from Old-Babylonian to Neo-Babylonian times, refers to the Full Moon holiday celebrated on the 15th of the month. A text from the library of Ashurbanipal (685-627 BCE) calls this a “day for the resting of the heart” (ūm nuḫ libbi). Enuma Elish, a Babylonian creation epic, describes how Marduk appointed the moon-god Nannar as the jewel of the night to fix the days. [Enuma Elish, Tablet 5] I will paste this text here: "Shine over the land at the beginning of the month (arḫu), Resplendent with horns to fix six days. On the 7th day (sebutu) the crown will be half size, On the 15th day (šabattu), halfway through each month, stand in opposition."

To quote Dr. Jacob Wright: "This same sequence—with first day or new moon (arḫu, cognate to Hebrew yareach), seventh day (sebutu, cf. Hebrew sheviʿi), and fifteenth day (šabattu)—is found in a number of other Mesopotamian contexts, ranging from the Atraḫasis Epic (I 206-207 and 221-222) to economic documents. The celebration of these three days can be traced back as far as the Sargonic period (22nd cent. BCE). This offers a close parallel to the holiday cycle as it was celebrated in ancient Israel. The arḫu parallels Israelite Chodesh, and šabattu the Israelite Shabbat. Moreover, the fact that the seventh day (sebutu) was also celebrated serves as a tantalizing parallel to what I suggested above, namely that the seven-day counting may have begun as a count from the new moon celebration."

Reinvention of Shabbat by Judah (Judaism) after its exile to Babylon
Bible scholars believe that Judean scribes reinvented the Jewish sabbath after Babylon exiled Judah/Israel from her homeland in 586 BCE. To once again quote bible scholar Dr. Jacob Wright: "The shift from the monthly to the weekly Shabbat was done under the influence of Mesopotamian culture. This influence began with the incursions of the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian armies in the southern Levant (in the seventh and sixth centuries), though more direct and sustained contact with Mesopotamian culture began after the conquest of Judah in 587. The synergies produced by Judean interactions with these Mesopotamian cultures reverberate throughout the late biblical writings they authored and redacted." I will not go into a long discourse here on how this process happened when Israel was in Babylon. When Persia conquered Babylon, and sent the Jews back to their homeland of Israel, Israel had fully redacted her texts, created a "Hebrew Bible", and created a seven day period of time. Little did she know how she as a little tiny tribe would impact the entire world's concept of time, mainly due to the creation of two Abrahamic religions out of Judaism: the rise of Christianity and Islam, and their acceptance of a seven day period of time we call "a week." Now I will get to my last two sections of this blog, the list of Bible scholars and their sources.

List of Bible Scholars:
*Baden, Joel S. (2012). The Composition of the Pentateuch: Reviewing the Documentary Hypotheses. Yale University Press. 
*Dever, William (2006). Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
*Finkelstein, Israel & Neil A. Silberman (2002).  The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. Free Press.
*Fleming, Daniel E. (2020). Yahweh before Israel: Glimpses of History in a Divine Name. Cambridge University Press.
*Friedman, Richard E. (2017). The Exodus: How It Happened and Why it Matters. Harper One. 
*Tobolowsky, Andrew (2017). The Sons of Jacob and the Sons of Herakles. Mohr Siebeck.
*Tobolowsky, Andrew (2022). The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Cambridge University Press. 
*Wright, Jacob L. (2023). Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of the Scripture and its Origins. Cambridge University Press. 
*Wright, Jacob L. (2023). How and When the Seventh Day Became Shabbat retrieved from https://thetorah.co.il/

 

My Reconstructed Yahwist Calendar:

In short, I believe the Ancient Israelite Peoples, before Judaism was invented by Judean religious elite, celebrated new moons and full moons.  I also believe that they celebrated a feast of ingathering (Full Moon to start the new year in Autumn) and the full moon to start the summer season.  These would be the same two full moons today that Passover and Sukkot fall on.  I personally believe that Elijah was the original Israelite Passover.  I believe that when Elijah fought the prophets of Baal, and won, this became a "Passover" in the Northern Kingdom.  I also believe that Elijah did create a covenant between YHVH and the Israelites in the Northern Kingdom.

1 Kings 18:30 “And Elijah said to all the people, "Come near to me," and all the people came near to him, and he repaired the torn down altar of YHVH.”  In this passage, Elijah is doing a sacrifice on Mt. Carmel, which is a violation of the Torah.  Elijah also built a torn down altar to YHVH, and Elijah never questioned the Israelites for having an Altar to YHVH on Mt. Carmel.  If this was sinful, why did Elijah just build a completely new altar in a different location on Mt. Carmel?

1Kings 19:14 Elijah said, “I have been zealous for the Lord, the God of Hosts, for the Children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, they have torn down Your altars, and they have killed Your prophets by the sword, and I alone remain, and they seek to take my soul.”  In this passage, Elijah has no idea that altars outside of the Jerusalem Temple is sinful, contrary to the Torah of Moses.  Elijah is in distress that Israel has destroyed all the altars. This is the OPPOSITE of the book of Deuteronomy, which says all the altars to YHVH must be destroyed except the altar in the Tabernacle/Temple.  Elijah is clearly not knowledgeable of what the book of Deuteronomy says.  Deuteronomy has 24 commandments to sacrifice only "in the place that YHVH will choose."  The first of these is Deuteronomy 12:

1 Kings 18:21
וַיִּגַּ֨שׁ אֵלִיָּ֜הוּ אֶל־כָּל־הָעָ֗ם וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ עַד־מָתַ֞י אַתֶּ֣ם פֹּסְחִים֘ עַל־שְׁתֵּ֣י הַסְּעִפִּים֒ אִם־יְהֹוָ֚ה הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ לְכ֣וּ אַחֲרָ֔יו וְאִם־הַבַּ֖עַל לְכ֣וּ אַחֲרָ֑יו וְלֹֽא־עָנ֥וּ הָעָ֛ם אֹת֖וֹ דָּבָֽר
And Elijah drew near to all the people and said, "Until when are you passing over between two ideas? If the Lord is God, go after Him, and if the Baal, go after him." And the people did not answer him a word.

**Notice the word "Passover" is in this text.  Considering, Elijah and Elisha part the Jordan River and cross on dry ground, considering 1 Kings chapter 19 has Elijah on Mt. Horeb talking about a covenant that the Israelites have broken, considering that there is no evidence of the Exodus, I propose a theory where Elijah made a covenant with Israel on Mt. Horeb that involved commandments.  I strongly believe the Ancient Israelites had no idea of an Exodus from Egypt origin story.  This was born after the Assyrian conquest.  I have a theory (not proven) that Passover was about Elijah and the Prophets of Baal in Israel, and whatever covenant (now lost) that Elijah gave to Israel was celebrated on the same full moon Passover is celebrated today.  I believe that a Harvest feast was celebrated seven weeks after the Passover.  I believe a new year was celebrated on the first day of the seventh moon.   I believe Israel celebrated a Feast of Ingathering "at the turn of the year" (see Exodus 23:16b).  I also believe it is probable the Israelites celebrated the full moon of the eighth month as well.  For example, King Omri is accused in 1 Kings 12:33 for inventing a holiday on the full moon (15th day) of the 8th month.  I think we will never know, but something tells me the authors of the Book of Kings had to slam Omri in 1 Kings 12:33 for "inventing" a holiday.  To me, this implies that the Israelites were celebrating a holiday on the full moon of the eighth month, before they were exiled to Assyria.