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accessories,
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architectural
artifacts,
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comfortable chairs

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Paint Smart Studio

546 North Pontiac Trail
(Just South of Maple
(15 Mile Rd)
Walled Lake, MI
48390

248.960.6700

Fax: 248.960.6325
www.paintsmart.net

A new concept for a
traditional product
brought to you by

I error in the length of the year would
recur at the rate of about three days
every 400 years. To fix this prob-
lem, it was decided that three of
I every four years that end in 00
would be regular, not leap years
!with the extra day in February.
Although 1600 was a leap year,
1700, 1800 and 1900 were not.
I The cycle begins again with this
year.
This system, known as the Grego-
Irian calendar, while still imperfect
I has, nonetheless, become the stan-
dard throughout most of the world
for secular purposes (although it
I was devised, and continues to
I serve, as a church calendar).
. •

Jewish Calendar

Long before monks and popes
grappled with the reckoning of
time, Jewish scholars took on the
I challenging task and devised their
I own system.
According to tradition, the present
Jewish calendar was introduced by
I the patriarch Hillel II in 358 C.E.
There is considerable evidence, how-
I ever, that the calendar was in use
I long before Hillel. His innovation
probably was the system of leap
years. There alsowas development
eafter the time of Hillel II, but certainly
1 by the 900s C.E. the calendar was
I exactly the same as today.
Although the Jewish calendar often
is described as lunar (based on
phases of the moon), it is, in fact, a
combination of lunar and solar. The
I months are determined by the
moon; the years by the sun. Jewish
holidays fall on specific days in cer-
I tain months, but being agriculturally
!based, the holidays must occur at
specific times of the year. The sea-
:
sons are determined by the earth's
orbit around the sun.
The Jewish calendar uses a system
I of 12 lunar months. The solar year,
I however, is longer than a lunar year
by about 1 1 days.
Exactly how to adjust the 12 lunar
months to the solar year was solved
by using a somewhat complicated,

I

1920 in Detroit: Great Grandpa & Grandpa Craigie
helping customers.

TIE ONE ON

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HOURS: Mon.-Sat. 9:30-6 • Thurs. till 7

Courtyard Center • 32500 Northwestern Hwy. • Farmington Hills, MI 48334 • (248) 851-6770

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Photography

- Children and Family Portraits
- Restoration of Old Photos
-Digital Party Souvenir Photos
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(248) 932.1780

29655 W. Fourteen Mile Rd.
Farmington Hills, Ml 48334
Fax- 248-932-1797
E-mail - buzholzman@aol.com

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2000

68

In the Midwest

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-

mathematical formula. In fact, to
really understand the Jewish calen-
dar takes a pretty good knowledge
of math, the kind of stuff that makes
most people's eyes glaze over. The
first days of some holidays cannot
fall on certain days of the week,
and the first day of Adar (or Adar II
in a leap year) never comes on a
Sunday, Tuesday or Thursday.
This isn't to say that the ancient
rabbis were the kind of men who
walked around with slide rules and
pencils in their shirt-pocket protec-
tors ... but they could have been.
To make it simple, the lunar year is
adjusted to the solar year by adding
the extra month of Adar II in each of
seven out of the 19 years that make
up the cycle of the moon. The extra
month is added in years 3, 6, 8,
11, 14, 17 and 19 of the cycle.
How to explain the cycle and why
those seven years were chosen ...
Sorry, but my eyes glaze over.
Leap years can cause some minor
problems. In the Gregorian calen-
dar, it's not complicated. Someone
born on Feb. 29 in a leap year cel-
ebrates his or her birthday in a
common year on March .
In the Jewish calendar, the rules
are somewhat different. A boy or
girl reaches majority status, bar or
bat mitzvah, in the 1 3th or 12th
years, respectively. What if the
child was born in Adar of a com-
mon year, but reaches his or her
majority in a leap year? Halacha,
Jewish law, states that the bar or
bat mitzvah is observed in Adar II.
Another problem concerns the
observance of yahrtzeit (anniversary
of death). If someone died in Adar
of a common year, most opinions
hold that the yahrtzeit is observed
in Adar I. Nonetheless, a strong
body of opinion states that the
yahrtzeit should be observed in
both Adar I and II.
Probably the most famous day in
Adar is Purim. Should it be
; observed in Adar I or II, or perhaps
in both? (Halacha says it is cele-
' orated in Adar II.) ❑

