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Some dates relating to Exodus are in the Book of Exodus, others are in other Books of Torah, or elsewhere in the Bible. And some are speculative, with evidence from a variety of sources.

Note: I'm only asking about Hebrew day/month and not the year.

Nissan 14 (Exodus 12), Jews prepped their houses for the Passover. Nissan 15 eve, they ate the Passover. Nissan 15 midnight, 10th plague. Nissan 15 overnight and/or morning, they left.

Went to Succoth (unknown how long the journey was but they had told Pharaoh they'd be gone 3 days, so it couldn't be far...stayed unknown period of time but probably very brief since they wanted to put some distance between them and the Egyptians when they figured out the deception).

Went to Etham (unclear how long it took but pillars of cloud and fire allowed them to travel day and night, so must have been at least a couple of days), camped for unknown period of time (likely 1 night).

Turned back, camped at Pi hahiroth (one more night?).

Unknown: Crossed Red Sea (stayed one night before crossing).

After crossing the Red Sea they walked 3 days in the Wilderness of Shur.

Then they came to Marah, Moses made the water potable. Stayed unknown period of time (no mention of camping).

Then they came to Elim and camped there for an unknown period of time.

Iyyar 15 (Exodus 16), entered Wilderness of Sin, (per Rashi) ran out of food. Iyyar 16, first appearance of manna. Sivan 1 (per Rashi), they arrive at Mt. Sinai.

So we have 4 weeks & 2 days between leaving Egypt and arriving in Sin. The timelines indicate both relatively short journeys before the arrival at the Red Sea and after crossing it. But there is a month to fill.

Rashi claims the entire journey from leaving Egypt to crossing the Red Sea took a week but I am assuming there are other interpretations of the timeline.

I would like to hear possibilities. Also, if you spot an error or have a different interpretation for the rest of my timeline, please speak up.

Thanks!

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    Interesting question, but it seems odd to me that you include the 1 Sivan date based in Rashi when you're explicitly asking only for explanations that differ from his.
    – msh210 ♦
    Sep 2, 2018 at 21:07
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    Just trying to be thorough :-) I'm actually doing a timeline from the beginning of Exodus through the giving of the second set of tablets. But this is the place I'm currently stuck and I know this site prefers more narrow questions.
    – Cyn
    Sep 2, 2018 at 22:33

1 Answer 1

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This site has it as 21 Nissan

http://www.torahtots.com/timecapsule/thismonth/nisan.htm

This site discusses whether it was 7 or 8 days from the Exodus (in Nissan) http://astrotorah.weeklyshtikle.com/2010/06/yam-suf-7-or-8-days-from-exodus.html

Chabad.org also says 21 Nissan https://www.chabad.org/calendar/view/day.asp?tdate=4/26/2019

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  • Isn't this the opinion of Rashi that the OP explicitly didn't want?
    – Double AA ♦
    Sep 2, 2018 at 23:03
  • I understood that comment to mean that the OP would also like others, not that it is rejecting Rashi. But as the second link indicates, even within that understanding (1 week) there are differences of opinion.
    – rosends
    Sep 2, 2018 at 23:57
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    rosends is correct.
    – Cyn
    Sep 3, 2018 at 2:16

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