The Nephites lived the Law of Moses and the observance of festivals was a part of the law. Scholars believe that the ancient Israelites celebrated a single New Year Festival around the month of September. In later Judaism, they developed this single festival into 3 separate ones.
1. Rosh Hashana (New Year)
2. Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)
3. Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)
The earlier Israelite festival is precisely what we find in the Book of Mormon – not three separate festivals, but one. Benjamin’s Speech weaves together the characteristic strands of these three Jewish festivals.
1. The Jewish New Year – was a day of judgment, of falling down before God, and of remembering and celebrating the kingship of God - all prominent aspects of Benjamin’s Speech.
2. The Day of Atonement – one finds concerns about atonement, particularly for sins of inadvertence and of rebelliousness, and admonitions about confession and giving to the poor – again, distinctive teachings of Benjamin.
3. The Feast of Tabernacles, (As at Benjamin’s) one finds people dwelling in TENTS, each man with his family, to listen to the king deliver the “paragraph of the King” and given an accounting of his stewardship as king – but sill mere-mortal. This was also to be a “Coronation of King Mosiah II”