Rosh Chodesh Sivan 5778, 2018, Jewish Calendar Connects Us to The Land

It always amazes me how quickly the months change. When I walk outside at night, I usually notice the size and shape of the moon, which like an old-fashioned clock hands shows the minutes even when there aren't any numbers, indicates the time in the month. A full moon means that we're halfway through the month, and now when there's a small crescent, getting narrower every night, it's clear that the new month is about to begin.

Yes, the Jewish months are lunar, but the Jewish Calendar is lunar with a crucial difference. It is also lined up with the seasons, the solar calendar. Unlike the Muslim Calendar which is a simplistic lunar one that has holidays that go from season to season, because the lunar year doesn't fit exactly into the solar one.

Jewish Holidays must be celebrated in the correct season.  Even the secular pioneering Zionists got that right, as they stressed the agricultural aspect of Jewish Holidays. Just like planting and harvesting must be done in the correct season, Jewish Holidays must be celebrated in the correct season, and the season is according to the Land of Israel. That unbreakable connection is intrinsic in the Jewish Calendar.

This coming Tuesday, May 15, 2018, we will be celebrating Rosh Chodesh Sivan 5778. Women are invited to join us for prayers at Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh.

ראש חודש סיון נתפלל ביחד בע"ה בתל שילה
א' סיון, יום ג', 8:30 15-05-2018
הלל בשירה ומוסף
סיור קצר בשילה הקדומה
דבר תורה
בואו ולהזמין קרובות, חברות ושכנות

Women's Prayers at Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh
Rosh Chodesh Sivan 5778
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
1st of Sivan, 5778, 8:30am
Hallel and Musaf for Rosh Chodesh
Tour of Tel Shiloh
Dvar Torah, Short Torah Lesson
Please come and invite family, friends and neighbors.

לפרטים נוספים For more information about our Rosh Chodesh Prayer Group, please email shilohmuse@gmail.com with Rosh Chodesh Prayer Group as subject, thanks. לכתוב ל shilohmuse@gmail.com, לציין שזה בקשר לתפילת ראש חודש.

Shiloh Hakeduma, Ancient Shiloh is a beautifully maintained archaeological park, besides a holy site for prayers. For more information about visiting the site Phone: 02-5789111, Fax: 02-9948011, visit@telshilo.org.il or art@telshilo.org.il.

Unique Jewish Lunar-Solar Calendar

There is no other calendar like the Jewish one, which is not only unique, but it ties the Jewish People/Nation with The Land of Israel. The Jewish Holidays are intrinsically connected to the Land and seasons. That is something that neither of our "competitors" can say.

Bright, though not full, moon in the night sky

Neither Christianity nor Islam have a religion/holidays that have anything to do with the Land of Israel. Christianity's holiday's can be based on pagan ones which they adopted. And Islam's calendar of holidays float around the seasons, because, unlike in the Jewish Calendar, they are dissociated with the Land and seasons. There is no mechanism to periodically correct the timing of their holidays.

Jewish Holidays must fall at exactly the correct time of the solar year (agricultural season) and are celebrated on dates according to the phase of the moon. Twelve cycles of the moon are just a few days less than it takes for the earth to revolve around the sun, so without periodically adding a month the holidays and seasons will quickly be out of sync.

The Jewish calendar is based on three astronomical phenomena: the rotation of the Earth about its axis (a day); the revolution of the moon about the Earth (a month); and the revolution of the Earth about the sun (a year). These three phenomena are independent of each other, so there is no direct correlation between them. On average, the moon revolves around the Earth in about 29½ days. The Earth revolves around the sun in about 365¼ days, that is, about 12.4 lunar months.
The civil calendar used by most of the world has abandoned any correlation between the moon cycles and the month, arbitrarily setting the length of months to 28, 30 or 31 days.
The Jewish calendar, however, coordinates all three of these astronomical phenomena. Months are either 29 or 30 days, corresponding to the 29½-day lunar cycle. Years are either 12 or 13 months, corresponding to the 12.4 month solar cycle.
The lunar month on the Jewish calendar begins when the first sliver of moon becomes visible after the dark of the moon. In ancient times, the new months used to be determined by observation. When people observed the new moon, they would notify the Sanhedrin. When the Sanhedrin heard testimony from two independent, reliable eyewitnesses that the new moon occurred on a certain date, they would declare the rosh chodesh (first of the month) and send out messengers to tell people when the month began.
The problem with strictly lunar calendars is that there are approximately 12.4 lunar months in every solar year, so a 12-month lunar calendar is about 11 days shorter than a solar year and a 13-month lunar is about 19 longer than a solar year. The months drift around the seasons on such a calendar: on a 12-month lunar calendar, the month of Nissan, which is supposed to occur in the Spring, would occur 11 days earlier in the season each year, eventually occurring in the Winter, the Fall, the Summer, and then the Spring again. On a 13-month lunar calendar, the same thing would happen in the other direction, and faster. (Judaism 101)

...in an attempt to coordinate the traditional lunar year with the solar year Judaism has worked out a system of 19-year cycles, in which there are seven leap years. In distinction to the day added to the secular leap year, the Jewish calendar adds a full month to the end of its year. In this manner the Jewish holidays fluctuate by about a month or so in relationship to the Gregorian calendar, but always fall at the same time of year. (My Jewish Learning)

A complex mathematical system was set up, pre-computer, to periodically compensate with an extra winter month. That's why some some years have thirteen months and others just twelve. Also the cycles of the moon sometimes take twenty-nine days and other times thirty. That creates a situation that periodically deprives people, like my youngest, of a birthday.

Unlike in Biblical times, when Rosh Chodesh was only known after the first sign of the "new moon" was spotted, nowadays we know in advance. So, I'm taking this opportunity to remind you that next week, yes, this coming Friday will be Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan.

Women's Prayers at Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh

Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan 5778 
Friday, October 20, 2017 

30th of Tishrei, 5778, 8:30am 

Hallel and Musaf for Rosh Chodesh 

Tour of Tel Shiloh 

Dvar Torah, Short Torah Lesson 

Please come and invite family, friends and neighbors. 

תפילת נשים ראש חודש חשון

בשילה הקדומה, תל שילה

יום ו' 20-10-2017

ל' תשרי, תשע"ח 8:30

הלל ומוסף לראש חודש

יהיה דבר תורה קצר וסיור בתל

כדאי לבוא ולהזמין חברות, משפחה ושכנות

Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan is two days, the first which is Friday the 30th of Tishrei, and the first of Cheshvan will be on Shabbat. Since women come from places other than Shiloh, and it will already be rain season, we're meeting on Friday, the 30th of Tishrei, October 20, 2017.

Ladies, please join us for Rosh Chodesh Prayers!  In the meantime, Shabbat Shalom.

Jewish Calendar Proves That This Land is OURS!

We are now about to celebrate the Jewish Holiday of Succot which happens in the fall, late summer. It's a holiday that cannot be celebrated here in the Holy Land in the winter or heat of summer. All of our holidays are connected with seasons of the year and agriculture. The Jewish People are not nomadic by nature, nor theology.

The Jewish Calendar is brilliant. It is lunar--each month begins with the "new moon" and ends as that cycle does. But it's not exclusively lunar, because that, like the muslim calendar, would cause the holidays to travel across the seasonal spectrum. Twelve months of the lunar calendar are a few days shorter than it takes for the earth to travel around the sun. So the Jewish Calendar gets adjusted according to the solar calendar, to guarantee that the holidays will always fall in the correct season. There's a pattern of adding an extra month periodically that was set a very long time ago. Before that, when the vast majority of the Jewish People were in the  Land of Israel, we waited for an announcement that the new moon had been sighted. And when it was still terribly wintery towards the end of Adar, the Sanhedrin would add a second Adar, so Passover would be in the spring and not winter.

In the fourth century, Hillel II established a fixed calendar based on mathematical and astronomical calculations. This calendar, still in use, standardized the length of months and the addition of months over the course of a 19 year cycle, so that the lunar calendar realigns with the solar years. Adar I is added in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years of the cycle. The current cycle began in Jewish year 5758 (the year that began October 2, 1997). If you are musically inclined, you may find it helpful to remember this pattern of leap years by reference to the major scale: for each whole step there are two regular years and a leap year; for each half-step there is one regular year and a leap year. This is easier to understand when you examine the keyboard illustration below and see how it relates to the leap years above.

In addition, Yom Kippur should not fall adjacent to Shabbat, because this would cause difficulties in coordinating the fast with Shabbat, and Hoshanah Rabbah should not fall on Saturday because it would interfere with the holiday's observances. A day is added to the month of Cheshvan or subtracted from the month of Kislev of the previous year to prevent these things from happening. This process is sometimes referred to as "fixing" Rosh Hashanah. If you are interested in the details of how these calculations are performed, see The Jewish Calendar: A Closer Look. (Judaism 101)

Jews who live abroad do not have the agricultural connections to the Holidays and prayers for rain that we have here. Proof that Islam is not connected to this Land is in its calendar which is strictly twelve months and lunar. Their holidays float around the seasons, rootless, like the nomads they are.

Chag Succot Sameach

Chag Simchatenu

Have a Happy Succot

The Holiday of Our Joy

How Can Israel be Occupying a "Country" that has Never Ever Existed?

• There never ever was an independent country called Palestine!
• There never ever has been a Palestinian people!

Check your history books! Check/google online for a list of kings, presidents, emperors, prime ministers of such a country. You won't even find a tribal leader, not in the twentieth century nor a thousand years ago. 

It would be even harder to find references for "Arab Palestinian culture." I dare you to find a source more than a century old. The term is very new, and that's because it was invented as a tool to supplant, replace Jewish nationalism aka Zionism in the very well documented Jewish Homeland, the Land of Israel.  

This whole Arab Palestinian myth was concocted to prevent a viable Jewish state.

“There is no such country as Palestine. ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria. ‘Palestine’ is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it.” – Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, Syrian Arab leader
“There is no such thing as a Palestinian people, there is no Palestinian entity, there is only Syria. You are an integral part of the Syrian people, Palestine is an integral part of Syria. Therefore it is we, the Syrian authorities, who are the true representatives of the Palestinian people.” – Syrian dictator Hafez Assad to the PLO leader Yassir Arafat
“There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not.” – Professor Philip Hitti, Arab historian
“It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but Southern Syria.” – Representative of Saudi Arabia at the United Nations (Cherson and Molschky)

Before the advent of political Zionism, the Land of Israel was extremely deserted. There have always been Jews and Jewish communities here in Jerusalem, Tsfat, Hebron, Gaza and other historic Jewish cities. But there hasn't been an independent vibrant country since the Jewish Kingdom was conquered by Rome over two thousand years ago.  Ever since then, this Holy Land has been ruled/occupied by foreigners until May, 1948 with the Jewish Declaration of Independence. The State of Israel is the resumption of Jewish rule here. 

Islam was invented after Christianity which was very long after Judaism emerged as a religion/people/culture. 

The Jewish Calendar is a brilliant synthesis of the solar and lunar cycles to guarantee that our Jewish Holidays will always fall in the correct season according to the seasons in the Land of Israel. This gives a very tangible proof of our inalienable rights and connections to this precious Land. 

In contrast, the Muslims have a strictly lunar calendar in which their holidays wander around the seasons in their very nomadic way. They are opportunists without roots, just like their calendar.

May G-d give us, the Jewish People leaders with the wisdom and strength necessary to accept the gifts and miracles G-d has bestowed upon us, so that we will have true peace. 

Rosh Hashannah Early? No, Right on Time

For those who run their lives according to the "goyish" aka solar or Christian Calendar, Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish New Year, which we just celebrated last week on September 5th came "very early."  Jewish schools in the northern hemisphere had to decide whether or not to open before their usual September date or earlier or later.  Yes, that includes Israel, where many schools started a week early so the children would have some educational preparation for Rosh Hashannah.

Many of us live rather schizophrenic lives when it comes to the calendar, and that includes yours truly.

I must admit that this morning when I went into the kitchen for my second mug bucket of coffee, and I noticed the dark grey clouds trying to mask the orange sunrise, I knew for sure that we are in the Month of Tishrei.

Rosh Hashannah is behind us and the Israeli fall has begun.  Our evenings and early mornings have been getting chillier and the days more humid.  This is typical weather for the season of the Jewish High Holidays, Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur.  Of course this summer-fall weather will yoyo for another month, and then G-d willing it will begin to rain.

When I stepped out the door to take more pictures of the sunrise I was impressed by how little of it I could see.  The trees are beginning to seriously block my view.

There was a time when standing in exactly the same spot I could see a lot more sky, but Baruch Hashem, thank G-d we've had rain, and the trees have been growing.

For those who schedule and function strictly according to the Jewish Calendar, there are no debates or discussions or even feelings that the Holidays are "early." That's because strictly speaking they aren't.  This is a year that will have a second Adar, which G-d willing will give us an extra month of rain and prevent the calendar situation the Muslims have.  Their holidays travel around the seasons, because they have an inflexible twelve month lunar calendar without any leap (extra) months.

Since Jewish Holidays are also entwined with specific harvests, we must celebrate them in their exact solar seasons.  The coordination of the two types of calendars, lunar and solar, in the Jewish Calendar is brilliant.  Another aspect of the calendar is that our two weeklong holidays, Succot and Passover begin with the full moon, in the middle of the lunar month.  All of this must match perfectly.

So, whether the Jewish Holidays are early or late depends on your "focus" or "lighting."  Two pictures I took this morning form the same spot illustrate it well.

Picture #1 was given an automatic flash by the camera.  The flash emphasizes the tree by my door and deemphasizes the sunrise.

Picture #2 So I quickly turned off the automatic flash and took another shot of the same scene.

Now I'll leave it in your hands.  Which should be called the Jewish Calendar and which the "goyish" calendar?