Rabbi 360

How does our calendar hint at our redemptive future? Hold on for some technical information and Talmudic argument before we get to the end.

This week we welcoming in the new month of Adar II–the special month we add to our calendar during a leap year. Yes, this year in the Jewish calendar is also a leap year as it is in the Gregorian calendar. However, rather than add one day to the calendar, a Jewish leap year requires the addition of an entire month.

The reason is the discrepancy between the lunar year and the solar year. A solar year as we know is about 365.25 days—based on the revolution of the earth around the sun. A lunar year, however—based on counting 12 cycles of the moon—is about 354 days. This 11-day difference is important since while the Jewish calendar is primarily a lunar-based calendar (a new month begins on the new moon, a number of major holidays fall on the full moon), certain holidays need to fall in particular seasons, such as Passover in the Spring and Sukkot in the fall.  Without a solar correction, the Jewish calendar will shift 11 days every year vis-a-vis the solar year, and holidays will therefore over time move throughout the year.

So it is fair to say that the Jewish calendar is a luni-solar calendar, and the way that is reckoned is to reference the Metonic cycle. Discovered by 5^th-century-BCE Greek astronomer Meton of Athens, the Metonic-cycle is a 19-year period in which 235 lunar months roughly equals 19 solar years:

A solar year is 365.2422 days, and 19 solar years (365.2422 × 19) is 6,939.602 days. A lunar month is 29.53059 days, and 235 synodic months (29.53059 × 235) is 6,939.689 days. Roughly the same. However, there is a slight difference to make up: if multiply 12 (lunar months) by 19 years, you will get 228, which is 7 less than the 235 lunar months of the 19-year cycle. Therefore in order for calendars to even out, 7 months need to be added to the calendar within the 19 year cycle. In the Jewish calendar, that is in years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19.

[Here is a trick to figure out which year of the cycle we are in: divide the Jewish year by 19, and the remainder will be the year of the cycle. So this year is 5784 ÷ 19 = 304 with a remainder of 8. We are in the 8^th year of a cycle.]

The month that is added to the Jewish calendar is a second month of Adar, or Adar II. (Perhaps it would have been too confusing to have a new name for the month that appears only semi-frequently.) Adar is the springtime month that falls in February/March between the month of Shevat (the month in which we celebrate Tu Bishvat, the new year of the trees) and the month of Nissan (the month in which we celebrate Passover.). But Adar has its own holiday, Purim, when we celebrate the story of the Book of Esther and the saving of the Jews of ancient Persia from a plot of destruction. So the question arises, when do we celebrate Purim when it is a leap year, Adar I or Adar II?

This becomes a conversation for the ancient rabbis of the Talmud (in tractate Megillah 6b) for the answer is not so straightforward. The first principle they turn to in determining which month is from the Book of Esther itself:

Mordecai recorded these events. And he sent dispatches to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus, near and far, charging them to observe the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar, each and every year (bechol shanah v’shanah)

Esther 9:20-21

These last words, bechol shanah v’shanah, are, for the rabbis, proof that no matter which month they choose, it has to be the same every year. So again, Adar I or Adar II? And in good talmudic fashion, there is a disagreement. Rabbi Eliezer the son of Rabbi Yossi said that since Adar follows Shevat, then even in a leap year Purim should be celebrated in the month that follows Shevat, i.e. Adar I. Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel argued that since Adar precedes Nissan, then even in a leap year Purim should be celebrated in the month that precedes Nissan, i.e. Adar II.

Both of these calendrical arguments make logical sense, so what are the values that underlie them? To Rabbi Yossi, it is that one should not put off the performance of a mitzvah. To delay the celebration of Purim by a whole month would be an unnecessary delay. On the other hand, to Rabbi Shimon, mismach geulah l’geulah adif—”joining one redemption to another is preferable.” It is better to celebrate Purim closer to Passover, as these two holidays are linked by their themes of miracles and rescue and liberation and redemption.

And we know which argument wins out based on our current practice, we celebrate Purim in Adar II, and thus our tradition validates this concept of mismach geulah l’geulah adif.

It is an interesting exercise to think about the related themes and practices of Purim and Passover, and to perhaps treat them as one extended holiday cycle, as the rabbis seem to suggest.

On the other hand, there is another way to think about this Talmudic principle, one that can inform us not only during the springtime holiday time, but all times: that we are by definition interconnected with one another, and so one person’s redemption is necessarily joined with another’s. The liberation of one is necessarily joined with the liberation of all. One can not be free unless others are free.

For us as a Jewish people, this is a reminder that the redemption of the Jewish people must come alongside, and not at the expense of, the redemption of other peoples. And similarly, we are mindful that redemption of other peoples must not come at the expense of the Jewish people.

We pray that just like the lunar and solar calendars, eventually there will be alignment. And where there is difference, we can correct.

The rabbis, in having to decide when to put Purim during leap years, are not only providing us with a practical solution to a matter of Jewish “doing”. They are providing us with a spiritual solution to a matter of Jewish “being.” Joining redemptions is not just preferred, but required.

[Part of the commentary on the above midrash I copied from a previous post I wrote, https://rabbi360.com/2022/03/08/juxtaposing-redemptions-is-preferred/]