We with our family and friends a very healthy, happy andprosperous New Year. R.S.V.P. BY MARSHA MARSHA, DAVID, AARON, MATT FRIEDMAN A Very Happy and Healthy New Year to All Our Friends and Family. MORREY'S SPRINKLER SERVICE MARC & NANCY AMHOWITZ JODI, CARU & BLAKE (Bell withei kr. a happy, healthy, %list Wear. REVA MALAMUD Belt astilhet to, a happy., healthy Weill Wear. SONIA & ARNOLD SMITH & FAMILY (Belt wallet for a happy, luialthy rileast (Yea". MANNY, RAE, EVELYN SCHANE AND HOLZMANS OF MARYLAND 11111.1 Mtn co ail. ow.- cifientiv and/v/6110m SOL & GRANNIE ZEILER & FAMILY 12.11'11 111115 fliw'? to- aff offlyztieriac, and oehwioeN, KEN, RONNA, ROBYN AND AARON KING LORRIE & JEFF TRAUBEN MICHAEL, JUSTIN & SAMANTHA IAy May +he cot/nit/Is ye.aw be filled with kealtlf■ artcl kappilless fop. all kvxy avAcl ThE NEW YEAR BRiNg To ALL OUR FRiENdS ANd Fmk, — H WA ? Joy, PROSPERITY S AN vERyThiNg d IN LIFE. 9/25 1998 R. &IBS. NICK GONTE MICHAEL & LORI GONTE & FAMILY DEBBIE GOLANIE & FAMILY ANN MILLER 44 Detroit Jewish News Send Someone Special A Gift 52 Weeks a Year. Send a gift subscription to DETROIT JEWISH NEWS iTN (248) 354-6620 5759 Rosh Hashanah: Never On Sunday SHARON KANON Special to The Jewish News 1593 work on calendars, he wrote, "The Jewish calculation (for inserting a day or month) lire all know the is the oldest, the most skillful rhyme, "Thirty and the most elegant." days hath Elegant, but not easy. You September, don't have to be a computer April, June and November ..." scientist to figure out how the and that a year has 365 days, Hebrew calendar works, but it except during a leap year. helps. In a recent review, dur- The Hebrew calendar, how- ing a sabbatical in Israel, calen- ever, has no such simple, neat dar maven Professor Reingold rhyme because the Hebrew cal- explained some of the intrica- endar year can have 353-355 cies and idiosyncracies of the days, or 383-385 days and 12 Hebrew calendar. or 13 months with 29 or 30 The scheme for counting days. If I were to make a ditty the years from the seventh for the Hebrew calendar, it month and the months from would probably go something Nissan was divinely decreed. like this: "Thirty days hath Referring to Nissan, "This Nissan, Sivan, Av, Tishrei, month shall be unto you the Shevat and Aciar, and all the beginning of months; it shall rest have 20, except when be the first month of the year Heshvan and Kislev also have ..." (Exodus 12:2). The reason, 30 days and then there is Adar according to the oral law, is- II, which has 29 days in a leap that God wanted to emphasize year." the exodus from Egypt, an The Hebrew day also varies epoch-making event, in which because it is not locked into a the Jewish people emerged as a rigid hour scheme. As the nation. length of daylight and night In the Bible, the Hebrew time vary with the seasons, the months are referred to primari- length of daytime and night ly by numbers. Babylonian time hours also vary with the names for the months were season. The Hebrew calendar introduced during the exile divides the temporal hours and retained as a reminder of into 1,080 parts of 3 1/2 sec- the redemption (Ramban). onds each and each part is The Babylonian word divided into 76 moments. "Tishrei" apparently derives Getting a date right is of from the root "seru," which major importance in Judaism. means "to begin." It marks the A mistake, said Rabbi beginning of the autumn har- Hezekiah de Silo, a 17th cen- vest and commercial year. tury scholar, "can cause the Rosh Hashanah is never on holy and awesome fast to be a Sunday, Wednesday or nullified, leaven to be eaten on Friday. If it falls on these days Passover and the holidays to be it is always postponed until the desecrated." next day. Excluding Anyone who has had to Wednesday and Friday pre- order a wedding or bar mitz- vents Yom Kippur from falling vah invitation or say Kaddish on a Friday or Sunday. There knows that the Hebrew date is are four different reasons why a variable based on the capri- Rosh Hashanah may be post- cious setting of the sun. In poned, which, believe it or London, sunrise occurs any- not, occurs 60 percent of the where from 3:42 a.m. to 8:06 time, making the exception the a.m. and sunset varies from rule. 3:51 p.m. to 8:21 p.m. .'During the times of the Despite its apparent irregu- Sanhedrin, the calendar, which larities, the Hebrew calendar was lunisolar, was adjusted to • was praised by the esteemed fit the seasons. The lawmakers physician and scholar Joseph would send out scouts to Julius Scaliger. In his classic check on the budding of the trees. If there were none, the Sharon Kanon writes for the committee would postpone World Zionist Press Service. Pesach by adding a second ‘t.