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 [email protected] 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 [email protected], 02-5789111.

Have a Wonderful Week

According to Judaism the day starts at nightfall. Shabbat begins as the sun starts to set and ends at night when you can see three stars in the sky. The Havdala ceremony which separates the Sabbath from the rest of the week includes a candle with multiple wicks.

And many people light the Shabbat candles again, after Shabbat as a "Melave Malka" for a good week.

Blessings to all of you.
May there be good news, good health and many joyful events and news...

Shavua Tov

Looking Forward to 5778

A version of this was also posted on Israel Blogger as New Jewish Year, 5778, Reflections.

In just a couple of days the Jewish People will be celebrating a new Jewish Year, 5778. It occurs just as the summer is coming to an end. Every year at this time, we hear how the Kineret aka Sea of Galilee is lower than ever before in history.

Kineret aka Sea of Galilee at Sunset, mid-winter

All but the trees and well-watered plants have dried out. We live with fear of wildfires, whether lit by carelessness or Arab terrorists. It's definitely a time of the year when drought and starvation seem to be our future, Gd forbid. But davka now, when prices of local agriculture is highest, summer fruit and vegetables are hard to find and most expensive, we make great feasts to celebrate a new year.

It reminds me of the fact that we start our new day at night. That is how Gd commands us.

The Jewish Calendar and Jewish Day require a faith in Gd that darkness will become light, and rains will fall. And also to survive uncontrollable personal difficulties and troubles, we all must learn how to see the good, thank Gd and trust that we can and will survive.

With all the imperfections of the State of Israel, when I take a good look and compare today with the past, I see amazing improvements. Actually, it's good not to be satisfied with today, because that makes us strive to make it all even better. But we must never give up.

May Gd bless us all, individually and as a People in the Jewish Year 5778.

9th of Av and Summer Heat

The Jewish Calendar is linked to the seasons and the Land of Israel, so I guess the fact that our greatest tragedies have taken place during the hottest days of the year must mean something. It doesn't rain during the summer in the HolyLand.

Temple Mount Today

We have two fast days during the hottest and driest time of the year, the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av, just three weeks apart. They both commemorate the invasion of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Holy Temple. If we're suffering now, with running water, fans and airconditioning, try to imagine how difficult it was thousands of years ago when the city and Temple were burning with real fire.

Our house doesn't have air-conditioning. Most of the summer I don't need it, but by yesterday the heatwave got to me, and I've been telling people:

"It's so hot I've been feeling young all of a sudden. It's like hot flashes from menopause!"

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!

Rain, Can't Complain, but....

Here in this precious part of the world, our rain season is short, barely half the year, and of course it doesn't rain every day, though most of us would be happy if it rained every night leaving us with sunny days....

Not enough rain is bad for the crops, the gardens and keeping the streets and solar water heaters clean. But too much daytime rain is depressing, keeping us indoors. The plants need a certain amount of sun, and for those of us who dry our clothes in the sun outside, insufficient sunshine wreaks havoc with our laundering.

Part of our prayers is praying for rain, but we don't pray all year. Here in Israel we start two weeks after the end of Succot, and that's when it suddenly rained.

I heard some familiar sounds from outside, and it was rain! Thank the Good Lrd for your mercy. May we deserve and be blessed with rain, the right quantities and timing. May it be a blessing and not a curse.

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!