18 Friday, January. 20, 1984
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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Jewish Calendar's Development
By ALLAN BLUSTEIN
Chaplain, Sinai Hospital
The Jewish calendar is
based on the revolutions of
the moon around the earth
(lunar calendar) while the
Gregorian (after Pope Gre-
gory XIII, 1582) calendar
follows the revolutions of
the earth around the sun
(solar).
The Muslim calendar is a
lunar calendar which be-
gins with the year 622 CE
(the year that Mohammed
fled to Medina from Mecca).
It's based on 30-year cycles,
19 of which have 354 days,
and 11 are leap years of 355
days. A lunar month com-
prises 29 1/2 days which is the
time it takes for the moon to
circle the earth. This means
that the Muslim reckoning
is 11 days behind the solar
calendar. As a result, the
seasons of the year occur at
varying times — i.e. spring
might be in December,
-summer in February, etc.
Muslim holy days (such as
Ramadan) float all through
the solar year.
The Jewish calendar is a
combination of lunar and
solar years. This means that
the months are determined
by moon movement around
earth while the days are re-
ckoned by earth's move-
ment around the sun.
Jewish holidays come 11
days later each year but this
is remedied by a leap year
every third year (i.e. 30 days
making up for the three-
year loss). Festivals are
thus all in the same seasons
year after year.
For the Arabs and
Jews historically, the
moon served as a natural
clock. Being in the main
shepherds, nomads and
inhabitants of the desert,
they could only really do
things in the cool of the
evening. After the Jews
settled in the Holy Land,
they became farmers and
thus found themselves
dependent on solar regu-
lation as well. Hence they
combined the two.
Historically and geo-
graphically, farming
peoples reckoned solar
while hunters, shepherds
and Bedouins reckoned lu-
nar.
Hillel II (370 CE) formu-
lated the Jewish calendar as
we know it today, projecting
it for 6,000 years. Thus
some holidays cannot fall on
certain days, i.e. Yom Kip-
pur on a Friday or a Sunday
(because of cooking needs or
the obligation to bury the
dead).
Rosh Hashana can never
fall on a Sunday, Wednes-
day or Friday. Sundays are
out because Hoshana Raba
(of Sukkot) is that day when
the willow branches are
prepared and beaten and
this would occur on a Sab-
bath which is forbidden. It
can't occur on a Wednesday
or a Friday either because
Yom Kippur then would fall
on a Friday or a Sunday
(also forbidden).
Most authorities hold
that the Jewish year is re-
ckoned from Creation by de-
termining the ages of
Adam, Seth, Enoch, etc. We
also utilize accepted tradi-
tion — 400 years from the
birth of Isaac to the Exodus
from Egypt. Thus it is 3,830
years from Creation to 70
CE. The difference is 3760.
Therefore, if one wants to
know what Jewish year it is
when one has the secular
year, all that's necessary is
some simple addition i.e.
3760 + 1984 = 5744.
HU Law Prof.
Attends Cairo
Convention
JERUSALEM — A He-
brew University law profes-
sor returned recently from
an international convention
of legal scholars in Cairo.
Prof. Alfredo Mordechai
Robello, chairman of the Is-
rael Matz Institute for Re-
search in Jewish Law at the
university, said he was re-
ceived warmly and with
friendship by his Egyptian
colleagues at the conven-
tion of the Societe Inter-
nationale des Droits L'An-
tiquite, a scholarly organ-
ization devoted to the sub-
ject of law in the ancient
world. He added that his col-
leagues even expressed the
hope that one of the associa-
tion's future conventions be
held in Jerusalem.
Prof. Robello delivered a
lecture at the convention on
"The Expulsion of Jews in
the Roman Empire."
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