History of the Jewish Calendar. Beginning of Night. Three Periods of History. The history of a Jewish Calendar is divided into three periods: the Biblical, the Talmudic, and the post Talmudic. The Jewish day begins and ends at sundown. Thus, all holidays begin at sundown on the first day and end at nightfall on the last day shown in the calendar below. Descriptions of these holidays can be found by clicking on About the Jewish Holidays. The Jewish day begins and ends at sundown. Thus, all holidays begin at sundown on the first day and end at nightfall on the last day shown in the calendar below. Descriptions of these holidays can be found by clicking on About the Jewish Holidays. Rabbi Hillel II developed the Jewish calendar in the Jewish year 4119. Using his calendar methods as described above, and artificially assuming that the Gregorian calendar we use today was in effect at that time, the date of Rosh Hashanah ranged from August 29 to September 28 between the years 4100 and 4200 (the 42nd century).
Following the biblical calendar would be easy if it wasn't based on the moon. Since the cycle of the moon does not quite fill out a solar month, and twelve lunar cycles do not quite fill out a solar year, the calendar slowly shifts over time.
Without occasional correction, we would soon be celebrating Passover in December. Every so often, the Jewish calendar compensates by adding an extra month and thereby shifting everything back.
From time to time, teachers in the Hebrew Roots movement attempt to persuade people to abandon the Jewish reckoning of the biblical calendar and adopt an alternative calendar based upon the ripening of barley or other measure of the seasons. They argue for a stricter and more consistent correlation between the phase of the moon and the date of the month than the Jewish version of the biblical calendar offers. They advocate an alternative reckoning of the calendar on the basis that they perceive their interpretation to be more biblically correct. But is it?
Biblically Correct Calendars
Jewish Calendar 2021
From my reading of the Bible, the more biblically correct thing to do is to defer to Jewish authority. The Bible says that when debates over the application of a commandment of the Torah arise, we are to default to the Jewish authorities (Deuteronomy 17:8-13). A debate over the reckoning of the calendar falls into this category.
When introducing the appointed times of the biblical calendar, the LORD said to Moses, 'Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, these are the appointed feasts of the LORD that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts' (Leviticus 23:1-2). The words 'that you shall proclaim' are understood to be directed to the Jewish authorities. The authorities over the Jewish community have the biblical responsibility of proclaiming the festivals, i.e., announcing the annual festivals and fixing their dates. It's their job to proclaim the new moons, the new months, and the dates of the festivals. God instituted and ordained the seventy elders over Israel (the Sanhedrin) and the Jewish courts of authorities that decided on the reckoning of the calendar:
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. (Romans 13:2)
Observing the New Moon
The responsibility for determining the calendar was the first commandment that God gave the nation of Israel when he said to Moses and Aaron, 'This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you' (Exodus 12:2). The Bible commentator Rashi reckoned Exodus 12:2 as the Torah's first formal mitzvah (commandment) because it was the first commandment that God gave specifically to the nation of Israel. He noted that the LORD delivered the commandment directly to Aaron and Moses, the leaders of the generation. That is, he gave the leadership the authority to declare the beginning of a new month and determine the biblical calendar.
In the days of the Bible, the people of Israel determined the calendar based upon the sighting of the Rosh Chodesh moon. Sighting of the moon depends upon subjective observations, circumstances, and weather conditions—variables that could lead to multiple opinions about when the new month had begun. In order to keep the whole community on the same day of the month, the nation needed a system of consensus for determining the calendar. Otherwise, those who lived in different areas or who may have been less careful in their observations of the sky would fall out of synchronization with the rest of the people.
This issue becomes critical when attempting to keep commandments that pertain to specific dates. For example, in Exodus 12, God gave the whole community of Israel several date-specific commandments. Consider the situation with the Israelite community in Egypt. If one group of Israelites believed that the new moon should be calculated differently than the majority, or if another group had missed sighting the moon the first night and therefore lagged behind the calendar by a single day, disaster would have ensued. The splinter groups would have failed to mark their houses with the blood on the correct night. The mistake would have cost them their firstborn sons.
The LORD precluded that possibility when he spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, 'This chodesh (renewal of the moon) shall be the beginning of months for you' (Exodus 12:2). He thereby determined the first day of the month, synchronizing the community's calendar:
God showed Moses the moon in its first crescent (chodesh) and said to him, 'When the moon renews itself like this it will be the beginning of the month for you.' (Mechilta 1)
Declaring the New Month
The Mishnah describes the ceremony whereby the Sanhedrin used to declare the new moon. Witnesses who sighted the crescent of the new moon traveled immediately to the Sanhedrin. The members of the Sanhedrin cross-examined the witnesses to ensure that they had definitely seen the new moon. Then they declared, 'It is sanctified.' They alerted the rest of the nation by means of signal fires and messengers who spread out through the land and through the whole Diaspora.
The commandment to determine the new moon grants the authority to determine the biblical calendar, fix the appointed times, and ascertain the dates for celebrating the biblical festivals. Does the Torah grant that authority to everyone? Is every individual or every individual synagogue, congregation, and community responsible for determining the biblical calendar? If so, no forum for unity could be established, and every person could determine his own calendar according to his own interpretations. Different congregations and communities would fight over the 'correct' day for celebrating festivals, and the sanctity of the holy days would be trampled in the mud. Some communities would be celebrating their break-fast at the end of Yom Kippur while others were just beginning the fast. Some would celebrate a month earlier than others. We would fight and argue, breaking the prohibition to 'avoid foolish controversies … and strife and disputes about the Torah,' which are 'unprofitable and worthless' (Titus 3:9). Therefore, the responsibility of determining the calendar does not fall to us; it falls to the established and recognized leadership of the entire nation of Israel. In the days of the exodus, that was Moses and Aaron.
Jewish Calendar Converter
The Calendar in the Apostolic Period
In the days of the apostles, the Sanhedrin had the authority to determine the calendar.
In the Apostolic Era, various splinter groups such as the Essenes determined their own calendars independently of the Sanhedrin, but in so doing, they severed themselves from the broader community of Israel and made themselves irrelevant. Yeshua and the apostles, however, followed the calendar established by the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem and thereby celebrated the festivals along with the rest of nation. If that was not the case, the New Testament would have made note of the deviation.
No King in those Days
Some modern Karaites and Hebrew Roots enthusiasts have opted to return to sighting and determining the new moon. Others have adopted more astronomically correct models of the lunar calendar, thereby fulfilling the verse that says, 'In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes' (Judges 21:25).
Each person may do as he sees fit, but to the same extent that we develop calendars independent of the rest of the Jewish people, we sever ourselves from fellowship and community with the Jewish people and one another. If we truly believe that God's appointed times are indeed his appointments given to Israel, then we should celebrate those appointments along with all Israel and on Israel's authority, not independent of the greater people of God.
The Fixed Calendar
In the fourth century, the Christianized Roman government wanted to stop Christians from observing Passover according to the Jewish reckoning of the calendar. They forbade the Sanhedrin from convening and determining the new moon. Fade in professional screenwriting software crack 2016. The Jewish communities throughout the Diaspora began to determine the calendar independently of one another. Chaos, discord between communities, and disunity resulted. A cloudy day could change the date of Passover. Without a central authority to intercalate an extra month, the seasons began to slide. In a few years, Passover would be falling in December.
Jewish Calendar Months
To remedy the situation, Rabbi Hillel II used astronomical projections and mathematical equations to create a fixed calendar that all Israel could use to keep the months and festival season synchronized without relying on observation of the moon. We still use Rabbi Hillel's calendar today. Until a Sanhedrin wielding civil and religious authority over all Israel convenes and alters the arrangement, the calendar of Rabbi Hillel II remains the official standard for determining new moons, biblical months, and the biblical festivals. No rabbi, leader, or group of leaders has the authority to alter what has been set in place by the leadership of Israel. Any persons who attempt to do so can be dismissed because they assume authority that does not belong to them.
The fixed calendar is not a perfect system, and occasionally discrepancies arise between the Jewish calendric date and the actual phase of the moon, and occasionally it might seem that the extra month could have waited another year, but the fixed calendar provides a universal standard set in place by the lawful and recognized authorities over Israel. It needs to suffice until a singular authority over all Israel arises that can correct it. This will happen soon when the soles of our Master Yeshua's blessed feet rest again upon the Mount of Olives. In that day, he may reinstate the commandment of declaring the new moon by means of observation, or he may declare the new moons himself.
By: Joseph Jacobs, Cyrus Adler
The history of the Jewish calendar may be divided into three periods—the Biblical, the Talmudic, and the post-Talmudic. The first rested purely on the observation of the sun and the moon, the second on observation and reckoning, the third entirely on reckoning.
The study of astronomy was largely due to the need of fixing the dates of the festivals. The command (Deut. xvi. 1), 'Keep the month of Abib,' made it necessary to be acquainted with the position of the sun; and the command, 'Also observe themoon and sanctify it,' made it necessary to study the phases of the moon.
The oldest term in Hebrew for the science of the calendar is ('fixing of the month'); later ('sanctification of the new moon'); ('sanctification of the new moon by means of observation'); ('sanctification of the new moon by means of reckoning'); ('science of fixing the month'); ('rules for the sanctification of the new moon'). Among other names besides these we find (' the secret of intercalation'). The medieval and modern name is .
Babylonian Calendar.The Babylonian year, which influenced the French time reckoning, seems to have consisted of 12 months of 30 days each, intercalary months being added by the priests when necessary. Two Babylonian calendars are preserved in the inscriptions, and in both each month has 30 days as far as can be learnt. In later times, however, months of 29 days alternated with those of 30. The method of intercalation is uncertain, and the practise seems to have varied.
The Babylonian years were soli-lunar; that is to say, the year of 12 months containing 354 days was bound to the solar year of 365 days by intercalating, as occasion required, a thirteenth month. Out of every 11 years there were 7 with 12 months and 4 with 13 months.
Strassmeier and Epping, in 'Astronomisches aus Babylon,' have shown that the ancient Babylonians were sufficiently advanced in astronomy to enable them to draw up almanacs in which the eclipses of the sun and moon and the times of new and full moon were predicted ('Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch., 1891-1892,' p. 112).
The Talmud (Yerushalmi, Rosh ha-Shanah i. 1) correctly states that the Jews got the names of the months at the time of the Babylonian exile.
There is no mention of an intercalary month in the Bible, and it is not known whether the correction was applied in ancient times by the addition of 1 month in 3 years or by the adding of 10 or 11 days at the end of each year.
Bound Lunar Year.Astronomers know this kind of year as a bound lunar year. The Greeks had a similar year. Even the Christian year, although a purely solar year, is forced to take account of the moon for the fixing of the date of Easter. The Mohammedans, on the other hand, have a free lunar year.
It thus seems plain that the Jewish year was not a simple lunar year; for while the Jewish festivals no doubt were fixed on given days of lunar months, they also had a dependence on the position of the sun. Thus the Passover Feast was to be celebrated in the month of the wheat harvest (), and the Feast of Tabernacles, also called , took place in the fall. Sometimes the feasts are mentioned as taking place in certain lunar months (Lev. xxiii.; Num. xxviii., xxix.), and at other times they are fixed in accordance with certain crops; that is, with the solar year.
In post-Talmudic times Nisan, Siwan, Ab, Tishri, Kislew, and Shebaṭ had 30 days, and Iyyar, Tammuz, Elul, Ḥeshwan, Ṭebet, and Adar, 29. In leap-year, Adar had 30 days and We-Adar 29. According to Pirḳe Rabbi Eliezer, there was a lunar solar cycle of 48 years. This cycle was followed by the Hellenists, Essenes, and early Christians.
In the times of the Second Temple it appears from the Mishnah (R. H. i. 7) that the priests had a court to which witnesses came and reported. This function was afterward taken over by the civil court (see B. Zuckermann, 'Materialien zur Entwicklung der Altjüdischen Zeitrechnung im Talmud, 'Breslau, 1882).
The fixing of the lengths of the months and the intercalation of months was the prerogative of the Sanhedrin, at whose head there was a patriarch or . The entire Sanhedrin was not called upon to act in this matter, the decision being left to a special court of three. The Sanhedrin met on the 29th of each month to await the report of the witnesses.
From before the destruction of the Temple certain rules were in existence. The new moon can not occur before a lapse of 29½ days and ⅔ of an hour. If the moon could not be exactly determined, one month was to have 30 days and the next 29. The full months were not to be less than 4 nor more than 8, so that the year could not be less than 352 days nor more than 356. After the destruction of the Temple (70 C.E.) Joḥanan ben Zakkai removed the Sanhedrin to Jabneh. To this body he transferred decisions concerning the calendar, which had previously belonged to the patriarch. After this the witnesses of the new moon came direct to the Sanhedrin.
Jewish Calendar 2024
Empirical Determination of Leap-Year.Every two or three years, as the case might be, an extra month was intercalated. The intercalation seems to have depended on actual calculation of the relative lengths of the solar and lunar years, which were handed down by tradition in the patriarchal family. Moreover, it was possible to judge by the grain harvest. If the month of Nisan arrived and the sun was at such a distance from the vernal equinox that it could not reach it by the 16th of the month, then this month was not called Nisan, but Adar Sheni (second).
On the evening before the announcement of the intercalation the patriarch assembled certain scholars who assisted in the decision. It was then announced to the various Jewish communities by letters. To this epistle was added the reason for the intercalation. A copy of such a letter of Rabban Gamaliel is preserved in the Talmud (Sanh. xi. 2).
The country people and the inhabitants of Babylonia were informed of the beginning of the month by fire-signals, which were readily carried from station to station in the mountain country. These signals could not be carried to the exiles in Egypt, Asia Minor, and Greece, who, being accordingly left in doubt, celebrated two days as the new moon.
Owing to the weather it was frequently impossible to observe the new moon. Ev nova mods. In order to remove any uncertainty with regard to the length of the year on this account, it was ordained that the year should not have less than 4 nor more than 8 fullmonths. After the fixing of the calendar it was settled that the year should not have less than 5 nor more than 7 full months.
R. Gamaliel II. (80-116 C.E.) used to receive the reports of the witnesses in person, and showed them representations of the moon to test their accuracy. On one occasion he fixed the first of Tishri after the testimony of two suspected witnesses. The accuracy of the decision was disputed by Rabbi Joshua, who was thereupon commanded by the patriarch to appear before him prepared for travel on the day which was, according to his (Joshua's) calculation, the Day of Atonement, an order with which he most reluctantly complied.
During the persecutions under Hadrian and in the time of his successor, Antoninus Pius, the martyr Rabbi Akiba and his pupils attempted to lay down rules for the intercalation of a month.
Under the patriarchate of Simon III. (140-163) a great quarrel arose concerning the feast-days and the leap-year, which threatened to cause a permanent schism between the Babylonian and the Palestinian communities—a result which was only averted by the exercise of much diplomacy.
Talmudic Period.Under the patriarchate of Rabbi Judah I., surnamed 'the Holy' (163-193), the Samaritans, in order to confuse the Jews, set up fire-signals at improper times, and thus caused the Jews to fall into error with regard to the day of the new moon. Rabbi Judah accordingly abolished the fire-signals and employed messengers. The inhabitants of countries who could not be reached by messengers before the feast were accordingly in doubt, and used to celebrate two days of the holidays. By this time the fixing of the new moon according to the testimony of witnesses seems to have lost its importance, and astronomical calculations were in the main relied upon.
One of the important figures in the history of the calendar was Samuel (born about 165, died about 250), surnamed 'Yarḥinai' because of his familiarity with the moon. He was an astronomer, and it was said that he knew the courses of the heavens as well as the streets of his city (Ber. 58b). He was director of a school in Nehardea (Babylonia), and while there arranged a calendar of the feasts in order that his fellow-countrymen might be independent of Judea. He also calculated the calendar for sixty years. His calculations greatly influenced the subsequent calendar of Hillel. According to Bartolocci his tables are preserved in the Vatican. A contemporary of his, R. Adda (born 183), also left a work on the calendar.
Mar Samuel reckoned the solar year at 365 days and 6 hours, and Rab Adda at 365 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes, and 25 25/57 seconds.
In 325 the Council of Nice was held, and by that time the equinox had retrograded to March 21. This council made no practical change in the existing civil calendar, but addressed itself to the reform of the Church calendar, which was soli-lunar on the Jewish system. Great disputes had arisen as to the time of celebrating Easter. Moreover, the Church was not fully established, many Christians being still simply Jewish sectarians. A new rule was therefore made, which, while still keeping Easter dependent on the moon, prevented it from coinciding with Passover.
Under the patriarchate of Rabbi Judah III. (300-330) the testimony of the witnesses with regard to the appearance of the new moon was received as a mere formality, the settlement of the day depending entirely on calculation. This innovation seems to have been viewed with disfavor by some members of the Sanhedrin, particularly Rabbi Jose, who wrote to both the Babylonian and the Alexandrian communities, advising them to follow the customs of their fathers and continue to celebrate two days, an advice which was followed, and is still followed, by the majority of Jews living outside of Palestine.
Under the reign of Constantius (337-361) the persecutions of the Jews reached such a height that all religious exercises, including the computation of the calendar, were forbidden under pain of severe punishment. The Sanhedrin was apparently prevented from inserting the intercalary month in the spring; it accordingly placed it after the month of Ab (July-August).
Post-Talmudic Period.The persecutions under Constantius finally decided the patriarch, Hillel II. (330-365), to publish rules for the computation of the calendar, which had hitherto been regarded as a secret science. The political difficulties attendant upon the meetings of the Sanhedrin became so numerous in this period, and the consequent uncertainty of the feast-days was so great, that R. Stronghold 5 download full version. Huna b. Abin made known the following secret of the calendar to Raba in Babylonia: Whenever it becomes apparent that the winter will last till the 16th of Nisan, make the year a leap-year without hesitation.
This unselfish promulgation of the calendar, though it destroyed the hold of the patriarchs on the scattered Judeans, fixed the celebration of the Jewish feasts upon the same day everywhere. Later Jewish writers agree that the calendar was fixed by Hillel II. in the year 670 of the Seleucidan era; that is, 4119 A.M. or 359 C.E. Some, however, as Isaac Israeli, have fixed the date as late as 500. Saadia afterward formulated calendar rules, after having disputed the correctness of the calendar established by the Karaites. That there is a slight error in the Jewish calendar—due to inaccuracies in the length of both the lunar and the solar years upon which it is based—has been asserted by a number of writers.
Error in the Calendar.According to Isidore Loeb the Jewish cycle in 19 years exceeds the Gregorian by 2 hours, 8 minutes, and 15.3 seconds. This makes a difference in a hundred cycles (1900 years) of 8 days, 21 hours, 45 minutes, and 5 seconds ('Tables du Calendrier Juif,' p. 6, Paris, 1886).
The assumed duration of the solar year is 6 minutes, 39 25/57 seconds in excess of the true astronomical value, which will cause the dates of the commencement of future Jewish years, which are so calculated, to advance from the equinox a day in error in 216 years ('Encyc. Brit.' s. v. ' Calendar,' 9th ed., iv. 678).
The fixed calendar is not a perfect system, and occasionally discrepancies arise between the Jewish calendric date and the actual phase of the moon, and occasionally it might seem that the extra month could have waited another year, but the fixed calendar provides a universal standard set in place by the lawful and recognized authorities over Israel. It needs to suffice until a singular authority over all Israel arises that can correct it. This will happen soon when the soles of our Master Yeshua's blessed feet rest again upon the Mount of Olives. In that day, he may reinstate the commandment of declaring the new moon by means of observation, or he may declare the new moons himself.
By: Joseph Jacobs, Cyrus Adler
The history of the Jewish calendar may be divided into three periods—the Biblical, the Talmudic, and the post-Talmudic. The first rested purely on the observation of the sun and the moon, the second on observation and reckoning, the third entirely on reckoning.
The study of astronomy was largely due to the need of fixing the dates of the festivals. The command (Deut. xvi. 1), 'Keep the month of Abib,' made it necessary to be acquainted with the position of the sun; and the command, 'Also observe themoon and sanctify it,' made it necessary to study the phases of the moon.
The oldest term in Hebrew for the science of the calendar is ('fixing of the month'); later ('sanctification of the new moon'); ('sanctification of the new moon by means of observation'); ('sanctification of the new moon by means of reckoning'); ('science of fixing the month'); ('rules for the sanctification of the new moon'). Among other names besides these we find (' the secret of intercalation'). The medieval and modern name is .
Babylonian Calendar.The Babylonian year, which influenced the French time reckoning, seems to have consisted of 12 months of 30 days each, intercalary months being added by the priests when necessary. Two Babylonian calendars are preserved in the inscriptions, and in both each month has 30 days as far as can be learnt. In later times, however, months of 29 days alternated with those of 30. The method of intercalation is uncertain, and the practise seems to have varied.
The Babylonian years were soli-lunar; that is to say, the year of 12 months containing 354 days was bound to the solar year of 365 days by intercalating, as occasion required, a thirteenth month. Out of every 11 years there were 7 with 12 months and 4 with 13 months.
Strassmeier and Epping, in 'Astronomisches aus Babylon,' have shown that the ancient Babylonians were sufficiently advanced in astronomy to enable them to draw up almanacs in which the eclipses of the sun and moon and the times of new and full moon were predicted ('Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch., 1891-1892,' p. 112).
The Talmud (Yerushalmi, Rosh ha-Shanah i. 1) correctly states that the Jews got the names of the months at the time of the Babylonian exile.
There is no mention of an intercalary month in the Bible, and it is not known whether the correction was applied in ancient times by the addition of 1 month in 3 years or by the adding of 10 or 11 days at the end of each year.
Bound Lunar Year.Astronomers know this kind of year as a bound lunar year. The Greeks had a similar year. Even the Christian year, although a purely solar year, is forced to take account of the moon for the fixing of the date of Easter. The Mohammedans, on the other hand, have a free lunar year.
It thus seems plain that the Jewish year was not a simple lunar year; for while the Jewish festivals no doubt were fixed on given days of lunar months, they also had a dependence on the position of the sun. Thus the Passover Feast was to be celebrated in the month of the wheat harvest (), and the Feast of Tabernacles, also called , took place in the fall. Sometimes the feasts are mentioned as taking place in certain lunar months (Lev. xxiii.; Num. xxviii., xxix.), and at other times they are fixed in accordance with certain crops; that is, with the solar year.
In post-Talmudic times Nisan, Siwan, Ab, Tishri, Kislew, and Shebaṭ had 30 days, and Iyyar, Tammuz, Elul, Ḥeshwan, Ṭebet, and Adar, 29. In leap-year, Adar had 30 days and We-Adar 29. According to Pirḳe Rabbi Eliezer, there was a lunar solar cycle of 48 years. This cycle was followed by the Hellenists, Essenes, and early Christians.
In the times of the Second Temple it appears from the Mishnah (R. H. i. 7) that the priests had a court to which witnesses came and reported. This function was afterward taken over by the civil court (see B. Zuckermann, 'Materialien zur Entwicklung der Altjüdischen Zeitrechnung im Talmud, 'Breslau, 1882).
The fixing of the lengths of the months and the intercalation of months was the prerogative of the Sanhedrin, at whose head there was a patriarch or . The entire Sanhedrin was not called upon to act in this matter, the decision being left to a special court of three. The Sanhedrin met on the 29th of each month to await the report of the witnesses.
From before the destruction of the Temple certain rules were in existence. The new moon can not occur before a lapse of 29½ days and ⅔ of an hour. If the moon could not be exactly determined, one month was to have 30 days and the next 29. The full months were not to be less than 4 nor more than 8, so that the year could not be less than 352 days nor more than 356. After the destruction of the Temple (70 C.E.) Joḥanan ben Zakkai removed the Sanhedrin to Jabneh. To this body he transferred decisions concerning the calendar, which had previously belonged to the patriarch. After this the witnesses of the new moon came direct to the Sanhedrin.
Jewish Calendar 2024
Empirical Determination of Leap-Year.Every two or three years, as the case might be, an extra month was intercalated. The intercalation seems to have depended on actual calculation of the relative lengths of the solar and lunar years, which were handed down by tradition in the patriarchal family. Moreover, it was possible to judge by the grain harvest. If the month of Nisan arrived and the sun was at such a distance from the vernal equinox that it could not reach it by the 16th of the month, then this month was not called Nisan, but Adar Sheni (second).
On the evening before the announcement of the intercalation the patriarch assembled certain scholars who assisted in the decision. It was then announced to the various Jewish communities by letters. To this epistle was added the reason for the intercalation. A copy of such a letter of Rabban Gamaliel is preserved in the Talmud (Sanh. xi. 2).
The country people and the inhabitants of Babylonia were informed of the beginning of the month by fire-signals, which were readily carried from station to station in the mountain country. These signals could not be carried to the exiles in Egypt, Asia Minor, and Greece, who, being accordingly left in doubt, celebrated two days as the new moon.
Owing to the weather it was frequently impossible to observe the new moon. Ev nova mods. In order to remove any uncertainty with regard to the length of the year on this account, it was ordained that the year should not have less than 4 nor more than 8 fullmonths. After the fixing of the calendar it was settled that the year should not have less than 5 nor more than 7 full months.
R. Gamaliel II. (80-116 C.E.) used to receive the reports of the witnesses in person, and showed them representations of the moon to test their accuracy. On one occasion he fixed the first of Tishri after the testimony of two suspected witnesses. The accuracy of the decision was disputed by Rabbi Joshua, who was thereupon commanded by the patriarch to appear before him prepared for travel on the day which was, according to his (Joshua's) calculation, the Day of Atonement, an order with which he most reluctantly complied.
During the persecutions under Hadrian and in the time of his successor, Antoninus Pius, the martyr Rabbi Akiba and his pupils attempted to lay down rules for the intercalation of a month.
Under the patriarchate of Simon III. (140-163) a great quarrel arose concerning the feast-days and the leap-year, which threatened to cause a permanent schism between the Babylonian and the Palestinian communities—a result which was only averted by the exercise of much diplomacy.
Talmudic Period.Under the patriarchate of Rabbi Judah I., surnamed 'the Holy' (163-193), the Samaritans, in order to confuse the Jews, set up fire-signals at improper times, and thus caused the Jews to fall into error with regard to the day of the new moon. Rabbi Judah accordingly abolished the fire-signals and employed messengers. The inhabitants of countries who could not be reached by messengers before the feast were accordingly in doubt, and used to celebrate two days of the holidays. By this time the fixing of the new moon according to the testimony of witnesses seems to have lost its importance, and astronomical calculations were in the main relied upon.
One of the important figures in the history of the calendar was Samuel (born about 165, died about 250), surnamed 'Yarḥinai' because of his familiarity with the moon. He was an astronomer, and it was said that he knew the courses of the heavens as well as the streets of his city (Ber. 58b). He was director of a school in Nehardea (Babylonia), and while there arranged a calendar of the feasts in order that his fellow-countrymen might be independent of Judea. He also calculated the calendar for sixty years. His calculations greatly influenced the subsequent calendar of Hillel. According to Bartolocci his tables are preserved in the Vatican. A contemporary of his, R. Adda (born 183), also left a work on the calendar.
Mar Samuel reckoned the solar year at 365 days and 6 hours, and Rab Adda at 365 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes, and 25 25/57 seconds.
In 325 the Council of Nice was held, and by that time the equinox had retrograded to March 21. This council made no practical change in the existing civil calendar, but addressed itself to the reform of the Church calendar, which was soli-lunar on the Jewish system. Great disputes had arisen as to the time of celebrating Easter. Moreover, the Church was not fully established, many Christians being still simply Jewish sectarians. A new rule was therefore made, which, while still keeping Easter dependent on the moon, prevented it from coinciding with Passover.
Under the patriarchate of Rabbi Judah III. (300-330) the testimony of the witnesses with regard to the appearance of the new moon was received as a mere formality, the settlement of the day depending entirely on calculation. This innovation seems to have been viewed with disfavor by some members of the Sanhedrin, particularly Rabbi Jose, who wrote to both the Babylonian and the Alexandrian communities, advising them to follow the customs of their fathers and continue to celebrate two days, an advice which was followed, and is still followed, by the majority of Jews living outside of Palestine.
Under the reign of Constantius (337-361) the persecutions of the Jews reached such a height that all religious exercises, including the computation of the calendar, were forbidden under pain of severe punishment. The Sanhedrin was apparently prevented from inserting the intercalary month in the spring; it accordingly placed it after the month of Ab (July-August).
Post-Talmudic Period.The persecutions under Constantius finally decided the patriarch, Hillel II. (330-365), to publish rules for the computation of the calendar, which had hitherto been regarded as a secret science. The political difficulties attendant upon the meetings of the Sanhedrin became so numerous in this period, and the consequent uncertainty of the feast-days was so great, that R. Stronghold 5 download full version. Huna b. Abin made known the following secret of the calendar to Raba in Babylonia: Whenever it becomes apparent that the winter will last till the 16th of Nisan, make the year a leap-year without hesitation.
This unselfish promulgation of the calendar, though it destroyed the hold of the patriarchs on the scattered Judeans, fixed the celebration of the Jewish feasts upon the same day everywhere. Later Jewish writers agree that the calendar was fixed by Hillel II. in the year 670 of the Seleucidan era; that is, 4119 A.M. or 359 C.E. Some, however, as Isaac Israeli, have fixed the date as late as 500. Saadia afterward formulated calendar rules, after having disputed the correctness of the calendar established by the Karaites. That there is a slight error in the Jewish calendar—due to inaccuracies in the length of both the lunar and the solar years upon which it is based—has been asserted by a number of writers.
Error in the Calendar.According to Isidore Loeb the Jewish cycle in 19 years exceeds the Gregorian by 2 hours, 8 minutes, and 15.3 seconds. This makes a difference in a hundred cycles (1900 years) of 8 days, 21 hours, 45 minutes, and 5 seconds ('Tables du Calendrier Juif,' p. 6, Paris, 1886).
The assumed duration of the solar year is 6 minutes, 39 25/57 seconds in excess of the true astronomical value, which will cause the dates of the commencement of future Jewish years, which are so calculated, to advance from the equinox a day in error in 216 years ('Encyc. Brit.' s. v. ' Calendar,' 9th ed., iv. 678).
The following calculation of the differences between the Jewish and Gregorian lengths of the year and month was privately made for the writer byProf. William Harkness, formerly astronomical director of the United States Naval Observatory at Washington:
1 year = 365d. 05h. 997 12/19 ḥalaḳim or 365d. 05h. 55m. 25.439 s. 48m. 46.069 s. true value (29d. 12h. 793 ḥalaḳim) 235 = 6939d. 16h. 595 ḥalaḳim = 19 years 29d. 12h. 44m. 3⅓s. True value = 29d. 12h. 44m. 02.841s.
According to these calculations the Jewish year exceeds the Gregorian by 6 m. 39.37s. and the Jewish month by .492 s. Insignificant as these differences may appear, they will cause a considerable divergence in the relations between Nisan and spring as time goes on, and may require a Pan-Judaic Synod to adjust.
Writers on the Calendar:Mashallah, 754-813; Sahl ben Rabban al-Ṭabari, 800; Sind ben Ali, 829-832; Shabbethai b. Abraham Donolo, 949; Ḥasan, judge of Cordova, 972; Abraham b. Ḥiyya, d. 1136; Abraham ibn Ezra, 1093-1168; Isaac b. Joseph Israeli, 1310; Immanuel b. Jacob of Tarrascon, 1330-1346; Elia Misraḥi, d. 1490; Abraham b. Samuel Zacuto, professor of astronomy at Saragossa, 1492, Moses Isserles, d. 1573; David Gans (d. 1613), a friend of Keppler and Tycho Brahe; Raphael Levi Hannover, 1734; Israel Lyons, 1773, member of an English polar expedition. Besides the following works of the Talmudic period: , Baraita of the secret of intercalation (R. H. xx. 2); (Pirḳe de Rabbi Eliezer ha-Gadol b. Hyrcanus).
Bibliography:- L. M. Lewisohn, Geschichte und System des Jüdischen Kalenderwesens, Leipsic, 1853 (Schriften heraus-gegeben vom Institute zur Förderung der Israelitischen Literatur);
- also the works of Steinschneider, Scaliger, and Ideler.
