Hamas War

Monday, September 27, 2010

The Jewish Calendar, Not All So Black And White

After so many generations, centuries etc following a set/predicted/calculated Jewish Calendar, we forget that the "new moon" announcement was by humans, a matter of opinion and sometimes blurred by storm and rain clouds.  Our local Rabbi, HaRav Elchanan Bin-Nun once shocked a group of us at an English language Shavuot Shiur (Torah Class) by saying that the crews waiting to announce the New Moon had instructions not to see it at certain times.  That's because if seen at those times we'd have Holidays, like Yom HaKippurim on the wrong days, such as a Friday or Sunday.

On the Sabba Hillel blog, there's more about the calendar and how if we had a functioning/recognized Sanhedrin today, they would possibly "tweak" it.

3 comments:

Hadassa said...

The Sages had various reasons, all within Jewish law, for their decisions (sometimes tweaking?) concerning the calendar. My favorite: adding a second Adar to allow enough lambs to be born for the Pesah sacrifices. What's the name of the halachic/astronomic institute based in Yavneh that's researching, debating, deciding etc how the new moon will be sighted when the time comes to renew the practice?

Hadassa said...

Shalom and mo'adim l'simha! (I was distracted during the first comment.)

Batya said...

Hadassa, I ought to ask Catriel Sugarman if he has ideas about it. It may be part of his Beit HaMikdash story.