So far, no comments. I don't know if people are reading the blog and have nothing to say, are shy, or what? So, please comment or post when you can.
Next week is the last class. I will delve into Keviyot and a few statistics. If possible, I will explain how Keviyot affect the annual Torah reading, and perhaps, other related items. If there are any specific topics or questions that you'd like me to answer, please post.
I hope that in a sense, we can continue some of the class ideas via the blog. I'm thinking, perhaps, of publishing a monthly newsletter to include some "fun facts" about the calendar. It will depend on my time and learning curve.
Happy Chanukah to you and your family.
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Reminder about how to locate files
It appears that people are having trouble locating the class files. Click this link to view the files. I have placed files related to each session in their own session folders. There are additional files in the top-level folder.
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Subscription box added to Blog
I am a bit new to Blogger. As I have time, I disscover some useful simple gadgets that I can add to the site.
So, you will notice near the top just above all the posts, there's a box where you can type your email address. That will subscribe you to the list, and you will get a daily digest of all posts for that day (if there are any. It's quick and simple. You can always opt out of the posts, whenever you decide.
So, you will notice near the top just above all the posts, there's a box where you can type your email address. That will subscribe you to the list, and you will get a daily digest of all posts for that day (if there are any. It's quick and simple. You can always opt out of the posts, whenever you decide.
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Folders for Session 1 and Session 2 files
If you have been viewing the Shared drive since Sat. night, you may have noticed some changes. I have created separate folders for each session and moved files into these folders. Look for them, there.
Session 2 is quite comprehensive! There are 2 slide files. Part 1 includes some left-over topics that we did not have time to view last week. Part 2 contains new information.
I will be adding several tables (Excel files) to supplement some of the slides, and they will be used in class. If you can print and bring these, that helps. Otherwise, I will try to have copies available on Thursday.
Session 2 is quite comprehensive! There are 2 slide files. Part 1 includes some left-over topics that we did not have time to view last week. Part 2 contains new information.
I will be adding several tables (Excel files) to supplement some of the slides, and they will be used in class. If you can print and bring these, that helps. Otherwise, I will try to have copies available on Thursday.
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Question - When Sanhedrin officially declares Rosh Hodesh, they declare once - "Sanctified", and the people say "Sanctified" twice. - Why twice for the people's respnse?
This declaration and its rules are mentioned in Talmud Rosh Hashannah Chapter 2, mishnah 6. I am paraphrasing from Art Scroll's Mishanh Rosh Hashannah Yad Avraham commentary:
The verse in Leviticus 23:4, that discusses the Biblical holidays says in Hebrew:
אֵלֶּה מוֹעֲדֵי יְהוָה, מִקְרָאֵי קֹדֶשׁ, אֲשֶׁר-תִּקְרְאוּ אֹתָם, בְּמוֹעֲדָם
These are the appointed seasons of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their appointed season
Keep in mind, that in the Torah, words have no vowels. (In Hebrew, vowels appear, mostly, under the letters.) Therefore, the 2nd to last word, shown above, which is read "Otam" - meaning "their", could be read as "atem" - meaning "you" - in plural. This teaches that the people must also declare Rosh Hodesh - not just the Sanhedrin.
So, that explains why the people need to make any declaration. The reason they have to say it twice is because the 4th word in the above verse, מִקְרָאֵי, is written in plural form - meaning "Declarations." This teaches that the people have to declare it twice.
For more detailed information, read Talmud Rosh Hashannah page 24a.
Personally, I am curious as to how this verse applies to the declaration of Rosh Hodesh, specifically. The verse itself is an introduction to the "holidays". Shabbat is mentioned in the list, but Rosh Hodesh is not! Hmmm ....
Stay tuned. This requires a bit more research. If you find an answer, please comment!
The verse in Leviticus 23:4, that discusses the Biblical holidays says in Hebrew:
אֵלֶּה מוֹעֲדֵי יְהוָה, מִקְרָאֵי קֹדֶשׁ, אֲשֶׁר-תִּקְרְאוּ אֹתָם, בְּמוֹעֲדָם
These are the appointed seasons of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their appointed season
Keep in mind, that in the Torah, words have no vowels. (In Hebrew, vowels appear, mostly, under the letters.) Therefore, the 2nd to last word, shown above, which is read "Otam" - meaning "their", could be read as "atem" - meaning "you" - in plural. This teaches that the people must also declare Rosh Hodesh - not just the Sanhedrin.
So, that explains why the people need to make any declaration. The reason they have to say it twice is because the 4th word in the above verse, מִקְרָאֵי, is written in plural form - meaning "Declarations." This teaches that the people have to declare it twice.
For more detailed information, read Talmud Rosh Hashannah page 24a.
Personally, I am curious as to how this verse applies to the declaration of Rosh Hodesh, specifically. The verse itself is an introduction to the "holidays". Shabbat is mentioned in the list, but Rosh Hodesh is not! Hmmm ....
Stay tuned. This requires a bit more research. If you find an answer, please comment!
Question - Why does the earliest candle lighting time not coincide with the shortest day of the year (approx. Dec. 20)?
Between Mincha and N'eilah on Yom Kippur (Yom Kippur has 4 services during the day, whereas, there are usually 3. Ne'ilah is the additional service and occurs just before sunset and is the final service of Yom Kippur) Rabbi Ginsburg of Cong. Sons of Israel conducts a 15- 30 min. "Ask the Rabbi" session. Pretty much anything is fair game. People can (and do) ask the rabbi any type of question. Most of the time the rabbi answers them. Occasionally, he is stumped.
This year, someone asked Rabbi Ginsburg why the earliest candle-lighting time of the year is always about two weeks before the shortest day of the year. Rabbi Ginsburg was stumped and knowing that I was researching part of the calendar, he asked me if I would answer the question.
I knew that it had nothing to do with the Judaic calendar and was strictly an astronomical process. Candle lighting always occurs 18 minutes before sunset - whenever that is in your local area. I explained that my best surmise was that it had something to do with how close your location was to the latitude of the time zone change. In other words, Boston, which is further east than New York has an earlier sunset than NYC. Similarly, Detroit's sunset is about 45 minutes to an hour later than NYC. So, this may affect the date of the earliest sunset and candle-lighting time, as well.
During Thanksgiving, I ran this question by Rabbi Grussgott, a close friend of my wife. He had a simpler analysis. He said that the earliest sunset, which is what candle-lighting is based on, does not necessarily mean that this is the shortest day of the year. Now, I figured that he meant that this has something to do with "Sha'ot Z'mani'ot" meaning "seasonal hours".
In brief - the "seasonal hours" concept is used in Judaism in many areas and it defines the latest time for certain prayers. For example, in Judaic Law, the latest time to say the morning prayer, Shacharit is approx. 4 hours of the day. The definition of "day" is not a constant 24 hours, but, rather, is the length of time between sunrise and sunset. Thus, to calculate what 1 hour is, you divide that length by 12. Depending on the time of year, then, an "hour" may be more or less than 60 minutes. That's what's meant by a "seasonal hour".
Regarding candle lighting, the calculation is far simpler than this analysis. As stated, above, candle lighting is a fixed 18 minutes before sunset. So, I looked up the sunrise / sunset table for Woodmere, NY. (You will have to fill in the form with the fields for your state and city.) I noticed that for 2014, the earliest sunset is at 16:28, meaning that candle lighting is 18 minutes earlier at 16:10 (4:10 pm). This occurs on Dec. 1, and stays at this time for about 2 weeks until Dec. 14, when sunset starts to get later.
As sunset stays the same, sunrise gets about 1 minute later each day. So, in fact, the day length is shrinking, indeed. As a matter of fact, on Dec. 1, the start of the earliest sunset whch is 16:28, sunrise is 06:59. On Dec. 20, the start of winter, sunrise is 07:15, while sunset is 16:30. So, in those 2 weeks, while sunset gained just 3 minutes, sunrise gained 15 minutes. And, in fact, Dec. 20 is the shortest day of the year, but not the date with the earliest sunset, which is the only thing that affects candle lighting.
Now, as to why this happens - I have to research further. I surmise the may have something to do with the tilt of the earth's axis, the plane of orbit, and the angle of the sun on the horizon, all of which are probably factors in sunrise and sunset. In short, though, candle lighting time is based on astronomical calculations and, of course, in this case are purely solar, not lunar.
This year, someone asked Rabbi Ginsburg why the earliest candle-lighting time of the year is always about two weeks before the shortest day of the year. Rabbi Ginsburg was stumped and knowing that I was researching part of the calendar, he asked me if I would answer the question.
I knew that it had nothing to do with the Judaic calendar and was strictly an astronomical process. Candle lighting always occurs 18 minutes before sunset - whenever that is in your local area. I explained that my best surmise was that it had something to do with how close your location was to the latitude of the time zone change. In other words, Boston, which is further east than New York has an earlier sunset than NYC. Similarly, Detroit's sunset is about 45 minutes to an hour later than NYC. So, this may affect the date of the earliest sunset and candle-lighting time, as well.
During Thanksgiving, I ran this question by Rabbi Grussgott, a close friend of my wife. He had a simpler analysis. He said that the earliest sunset, which is what candle-lighting is based on, does not necessarily mean that this is the shortest day of the year. Now, I figured that he meant that this has something to do with "Sha'ot Z'mani'ot" meaning "seasonal hours".
In brief - the "seasonal hours" concept is used in Judaism in many areas and it defines the latest time for certain prayers. For example, in Judaic Law, the latest time to say the morning prayer, Shacharit is approx. 4 hours of the day. The definition of "day" is not a constant 24 hours, but, rather, is the length of time between sunrise and sunset. Thus, to calculate what 1 hour is, you divide that length by 12. Depending on the time of year, then, an "hour" may be more or less than 60 minutes. That's what's meant by a "seasonal hour".
Regarding candle lighting, the calculation is far simpler than this analysis. As stated, above, candle lighting is a fixed 18 minutes before sunset. So, I looked up the sunrise / sunset table for Woodmere, NY. (You will have to fill in the form with the fields for your state and city.) I noticed that for 2014, the earliest sunset is at 16:28, meaning that candle lighting is 18 minutes earlier at 16:10 (4:10 pm). This occurs on Dec. 1, and stays at this time for about 2 weeks until Dec. 14, when sunset starts to get later.
As sunset stays the same, sunrise gets about 1 minute later each day. So, in fact, the day length is shrinking, indeed. As a matter of fact, on Dec. 1, the start of the earliest sunset whch is 16:28, sunrise is 06:59. On Dec. 20, the start of winter, sunrise is 07:15, while sunset is 16:30. So, in those 2 weeks, while sunset gained just 3 minutes, sunrise gained 15 minutes. And, in fact, Dec. 20 is the shortest day of the year, but not the date with the earliest sunset, which is the only thing that affects candle lighting.
Now, as to why this happens - I have to research further. I surmise the may have something to do with the tilt of the earth's axis, the plane of orbit, and the angle of the sun on the horizon, all of which are probably factors in sunrise and sunset. In short, though, candle lighting time is based on astronomical calculations and, of course, in this case are purely solar, not lunar.
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