6
Friday, Feburary 11, 1984
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Jewish Calendar Means Survival
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in' the Jewish calendar
and reinforced the
Jewish sense of being
different. Geographic
space was dominated by
the Gentile majority but
the calendar provided a
framework of Jewish
time which enveloped the
Jew with the Jewish past
and values.
The calendar was a ve-
hicle of Jewish solidarity.
Each week, the Shabat was
a reminder — a sign of the
covenant that linked Israel
and God. The Shabat also
played a practical role in
segregating Jews from
non-Jews; on Shabat, Jews
came together in fellowship,
eating, learning and acts of
solidarity. While others
went to work, Jews stayed
home and sought each other
out in their own institu-
tions.
The Hebrew calendar's
distinctive rhythm enabled
the Jew to live.amidst con-
temporary events yet
simultaneously exist be-
yond them. Every Jewish
holiday brought the past
right into the present. In
doing so, the immediacy of
now was offset by the time-
less presence of great events
of Jewish history.
Yet the rabbis opted not
to separate the Jews totally
from the general society or
from its solar calendar. Cit-
ing as the basis of the ruling
the biblical injunction that
Passover occur in the
spring, and that Sukkot is
an autumn harvest festival,
the rabbis insured that the
Jewish holidays would cor-
relate to the solar seasons.
Since the lunar year is
354 days long and the
solar is 365, holidays on a
_ pure lunar calendar
would wander 11 days
per year — further and
further away from the
original solar seasons.
Unadjusted, the lunar
calendar would separate
Jews totally from the
general society's calen-
dar and from the societal
flow of time.
By insertion (intercala-
tion) of an extra month in
seven out of every 19 years
(roughly equivalent to add-
ing about 11 days per year),
the Jewish calendar was
permanently synchronized
with the solar one. The Jews
are different — yet they
share the same time.
In the first century after
the destruction of the Tem-
ple, the rabbis had to fight
against the Sadducees for
leadership of the Jewish
community. The Sadducees
insisted on a Jewish solar
calendar and accused the
Pharisees of imitating or
borrowing the Greek
lunisolar calendar.
_ The Sadducees' motivat-
ing force in fighting for a
solar calendar was, in the
words of George Foote More,
"the desire to create a dis-
tinctively Jewish division of
time, fundamentally unlike
those of other people, and
particularly that of the
Greeks. - As nobles and gov-
ernment functionaries
primarily, the Sadducees ,.
were deeply immersed in
contact with Greeks but
they sought to stay Jewish
by formalism and by reserv-
ing some areas of life as
Jewish.
On the other side of the
line were the sectarians.
In the First Century CE, a
Dead Sea sect withdrew
to Qumran to save its
ideological purity. The
Qumranians rejected
both the rabbinic and the
Sadducean systems for
being too compromising
vis-a-vis the Greeks and
non-observant Jews. The
Qumranians adopted a
solar calendar of 364
days, thereby separating
their observances from
the rabbinic calendar.
In their "Manual of Disci-
pline," the Qumran group
explained their solar calen-
dar as follows: "They must
not deviate by a single step
from carrying out the orders
of God at the times ap-
pointed for them; they must
neither advance the statut-
ory times nor postpone the
prescribed seasons." This
last is a rejection of interca-
lation.
The rabbinic tradition
won out over both alterna-
tives. In effect, the Sad-
ducee sect sought to
preserve Jews from the Hel-
lenistic influence by a pro-
cedural segregation of Jews
— yet they could not or
would not compete in the
areas of ideas. By contrast,
the rabbis dealt with Hel-
lenism — including incor-
porating some of its concep-
tual and cultural models.
The rabbis competed by
absorbing the good, not just
rejecting the bad. Their in-
volvement in general his-
tory was combined with
preservation of Jewish dis-
tinctiveness and with
generating effective emo-
tional and sociological prac-
tices of Judaism able to
compete with Hellenism
when offered as a choice.
Similarly, the Qumran
"fundamentalists" were
insisting that only God
can decree the holy days.
In other words, Jews
have no role in the revela-
tion. (Interestingly, when
Mohammed set up a dis-
tinctive Islamic calendar
— a purely lunar one — to
break from the inherited
Arab pagan calendar, he
abolished the intercalat-
ing moral). of Nasi
"which he regarded as
man-made artifact repre-
senting a sinful deviation , )
divine order of
things.")
By contrast, the rabbis
By
taught that the heavenly
court had given its
authority over to the rab-'
binic earthly court which
was empowered to establish
the new month, intercalate
the calendar, etc.
Revelation is God-given,
said the Rabbis, but it is also
given over to humans to dis-, ,
cover and proclaim. Thus
Jews can apply the tradition –
and incorporate insights
from their host cultures as
part of the ongoing unfold-
ing of revelation and of
Jewish participation in the
task of tikkun olam, perfect-i
ing the world.
Qumranian
perfec-
tionism led to withdrawal.
But total purity turned out
to be sterile. Sundered from
the tree of life of the Jewish
people, Qumran was dead to
Jewish history long before
the Roman attackers who
destroyed Qumran made it
official.
The victory of rabbinic
leadership and rabbinic
thinking in Judaism as-
sured the triumph of the
rabbinic understanding
of the calendar. Their
challenge then is our
challenge now. Neither
total withdrawal nor
total immersion, softened
only by retaining a re-
sidual traditional area of
life, will stand up best to
the attractions of an open
society.
The task is to participate
distinctively — to nurture
Jewish consciousness and
knowledge in each person
and in the community in-
stitutions so Jews can carry
on the classic dialectic of
universalism and par-
ticularism.
To know our own unique
calendar and values, to as-
sert them and live them as
citizens dealing with the is-
sues of the broader society;
to reshape the best of gen-
eral culture to fit Jewish
values and to reject the
negative components — is
the central historical way of
Judaism.
Mondry Fellowship at Bar-Han
RAMAT GAN — A Fel-
lowship in Advanced Yid-
dish Studies and Research
has been established at
Bar-Ilan University in
honor of Mrs. Adelle Mon-
dry of Detroit, according to
an announcement by Pro-
fessor Emanuel Rackman,
president of the university.
The fellowship, presented
by David and Eugene Mon-
dry in honor of their mother,
"symbolizes Mrs. Mondry's
life-long dedication to Yid-
dish, to Jewish education
and to Israel." Adelle Mon-
dry has authored a Yiddish
book of memoirs. Her hus-
band, the late Harry Mon-
dry, was a leader of the Far-
band Labor Zionist Al-
liance.
,1,75,.'stlian't§- :61;e
presently enrolled in the
Yiddish studies program at
Bar-Ilan. A chair in Yiddish
language and literature
was recently dedicated.
The opening of the Yid-
dish department at Bar-Ilan
will be featured at the
Miami Beach banquet of
the university on March 4,
along with the observance
of Nobel Prize Yiddish
author Isaac Bashevis
Singer's 80th birthday.
Singer will appear in con-
junction with the estab-
lishment of the Foundation
for Yiddish Studies at the
university which will bear
his name.
The house is a castle
which the king cannot
enter.
(