How Time Flies, Rosh Chodesh Adar I Next Week

The other night, I looked at the sky and saw the moon. It was just a half circle, and we know what that means. There's only a week left of Shevat. Rosh Chodesh Adar Alef is a week away. This year is a Jewish Leap Year, meaning that we have two months of Adar, an "extra" month of winter before the late winter holiday of Purim.

The Jewish Calendar is a totally brilliant combination of lunar and solar calendars. The solar calendar divides the year into four basic seasons, while the lunar calendar follows the cycles of the moon. There are twelve plus a bit of those lunar cycles in the 365 day solar calendar. That causes seasonal chaos. If, like the muslims, you strictly follow the lunar calendar, not only will your holidays move from season to season, but you'll find yourself "older" than your solar calendar birthday-mates.

Since Judaism is intrinsically connected to living in the Land of Israel, our Jewish Holidays must fall in the correct season. So, unlike Islam, Judaism found a way to celebrate holidays at the right time. It's one of those simple proofs that This Land is Ours, not theirs. There's a carefully calculated formula which adds periodic days to specific months, so there are thirty 30 instead of twenty-nine 20, and some years an additional Adar, winter month, is added, so that Pesach, Passover will be in the spring.

Before our sages compiled/computed pre-computers a set calendar, I guess the decision for an extra Adar was made in the years when the almond trees had no flowers on TU B'Shvat, or something rather similar.

So, even though next Rosh Chodesh is Adar, we aren't supposed to party to prepare for Purim yet. There's another month to wait.

Ladies, please join us at Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh, for Women's Rosh Chodesh Prayers.

30th of Shevat, 5779, Tuesday 5-02-2019, 8:30am.

כולן מוזמנות, תפילת נשים, ראש אדר א' , ל' שבט, יום ג' ,5/02/2019 , 8:30, בשילה הקדומה, תל שילה

We sing Hallel out loud, but the rest of the prayers are said silently and as individuals. There will be a tour of the Tel and Divrei Torah, Gd willing, in both Hebrew and English. If you'd like more information, please contact me shilohmuse@gmail.com with "Rosh Chodesh Prayers" as subject.

Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh, is a recognized Israeli tourist and archaeological site. Archeologists agree, that Shiloh is the Shiloh of the Bible, where Chana prayed for a son. Later, when her son Samuel had been weaned, she took him back to Shiloh, so he could be educated by Eli, the High Priest.

The archaeological site of Shiloh Hakeduma is open on weekdays, offers guides and special activities for the entire family. For more information, contact them directly at visit@telshilo.org.il, 02-5789111.

Amazing Jewish Calendar vs "Goyish" Calendar Coincidences

As I've mentioned many times, the Jewish Calendar is like no other. It combines the seasonal accuracy of the solar calendar with the repetitive lunar cycles, following the moon.

In Biblical Times there were "watchers" who announced the first sightings of the "new moon." That news quickly spread in the Land of Israel, so people knew when holidays would fall. That's why both Succot and Passover begin on the fifteenth of the month. And periodically an extra month would be added in the winter, when it was clear that spring was still far off.

Jewish Holidays must occur in the right seasons, because our Jewish religion is Land-based. It's further proof that we are connected to the Land of Israel, because those seasonal aspects of Judaism only work here. In contrast the Muslim Calendar is nomadic. Holidays move around the seasons; they aren't rooted in any land. It's a strictly lunar calendar.

For the past two thousand years, we have been following a "fixed" calendar that, due to advanced calculations done by some brilliant mathematical Jewish thinkers, we are no longer dependent on the "moon watchers" to spot the "new moon" and announce the next month.

Jewish and non-Jewish calendar dates coincide in the most amazing ways.

This year my Jewish Birthday ended up on my sister's secular birth-date, and my secular one on my granddaughter's Bat Mitzvah, actual 12th Birthday. To add to the unlikelihood of that, all of our ages are easily divisible by 6.

Mazal Tov and a Long, Healthy and Productive Life to All!

Raining on Succot? So, Which Calendar is Most Accurate, Jewish or Secular?

Ariel

16-26°Today September 21
Local Rain 

16-26°Sunday September 22
Local Rain 

17-27°Monday September 23
Partly Cloudy 

16-25°Tuesday September 24
Local Rain 

(Arutz 7 weather forecast, Shiloh weather is most like Ariel)

 

It's certainly not unheard of for there to be rain during Sukkot in Israel.  It happens every few years.  I remember years of real storms and cold weather.  But nobody really expected that to happen this year, because this is the earliest that the Tishrei, autumn holidays, such as Succot and Rosh Hashanah can ever come out.  The last time we celebrated them early in September was 1899, over a hundred years ago. 

The seasons are supposed to be according to the solar calendar, not the lunar cycle on which the Jewish is based.

But it really doesn't surprise me, because I like to think that since our G-d made the world and gave us the Torah, Judaism, He also arranged the sun, moon and our calendar to coincide.

The Jewish Calendar is a brilliant invention that combines the lunar and solar cycles.  This year we'll have an added month to keep our holidays in the correct seasons.  The Muslim Calendar only goes according to the lunar cycle, and since there are fewer days in the twelve month lunar calendar, their holidays travel around from season to season.  Lunar months make more sense as months than the secular solar 28-31 days months.  I like the idea that I can see what part of the month we're in according to the shape of the moon.

Phases of the moon

G-d willing we'll have lots of rain at the right time, a blessing and not a curse.  I hope that the solar panels that heat my water have gotten a good cleaning and will work more efficiently.

Kodesh-Chol, Body-Soul

One of the lessons of Purim is that "mikreh," "just by chance," or coincidence is all in control of G-d. The miracle of Purim is "being in the right place at the right time."

Mordechai just, by chance, happened to hear the plotters against King Achashverosh, and just, by chance, that was the page in the chronicles read to King Achashverosh, when he couldn't sleep. And just, by chance, Haman came in, and just, by chance, there were ready-made gallows...

And just, by chance, there was an Esther, beautiful and wise and dedicated to her people, willing to risk it all, body and soul...

Oh, yes, body and soul, Kodesh and Chol, the Holy and the "profane," or just plain ordinary...

One of the things that distinguishes Judaism from any other is the integration of the two. It's like our calendar, which integrates the solar and the lunar, making it the most accurate calendar of all. And to think that it was developed in a world that not only predates computers, also simple adding machines and calculators. Our ancient sages somehow managed to calculate it all very accurately.

Now how did I get to this? Yes, I remember.

I was sent two requests to publicize sites/blogs on my blog, Home Game and YK's Jewish Music Forum. The requests arrived within hours of each other, which gave me the message that I had to combine them.

Home Game is more than sports,

"Home Game" documents the story of graduating 12th graders, from the Israeli village of Netzer Hazani, during their last vacation before adulthood.

Their yearly summers of beach, ball and fun usually focused on the annual youth final four basketball competition. Yet their 2005 summer vacation turned into something else entirely because the Israeli government began to implement its plan to remove them from their homes in Gush Katif, Gaza, as part of the Middle East peace process.

And the Music Forum is more than just some music reviews.

Reviews and other fun stuff about JM

Chag Shiloh Purim Sameach!