[Search for users]
[Overall Top Noters]
[List of all Conferences]
[Download this site]
| Title: | BAGELS and other things of Jewish interest |
| Notice: | 1.0 policy, 280.0 directory, 32.0 registration |
| Moderator: | SMURF::FENSTER |
|
| Created: | Mon Feb 03 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Thu Jun 05 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1524 |
| Total number of notes: | 18709 |
511.0. "more on Jewish calendar" by TAVIS::SID () Thu Jul 28 1988 15:46
<Re: 508.1 - ... calendar trick>
This is not exactly related, so it calls for a new note,
but I was reminded of this item because of the phrase
"calendar trick". The most interesting calendar trick I
know goes like this. Since Pesach is considered the first
holiday, its days determine on what weekdays the of the rest
of the holidays of the year fall.
[Warning: If you don't know the Hebrew alphabet, skip the
rest of this note.]
This is done using the gematriya-related method known as
"at-bash" in which each letter of the alphabet corresponds
with a letter starting from the other end (aleph-tav, bet-
shin, etc.) -- hence the name.
Now each day of Pesach correponds to a holiday beginning
with the at-bash equivalent letter. For example, the first
day of Pesach, aleph, falls on the same day as the holiday
beginning with tav, i.e., tisha b'av.
1 = aleph - tav: Tisha b'av
2 = bet - shin: Shavuot
3 = gimel - resh: Rosh hashana
4 = dalet - kuf: Kriat hatorah (= simhat torah. I admit this
one is a little forced. But _I_ didn't make this up.)
5 = heh - tzadi: Tzom (another name for Yom Kippur)
6 = vav - peh: Purim (i.e., the purim of one month previous)
7 = zayin - ayin: Atzmaut. (Israel Independence Day).
The last one is the most interesting of course, since this little
game was known for centuries before the State of Israel existed. And
the ayin was always missing. There wasn't even an "erev something"
that worked. I'm not saying this proves the divinity of Yom Atzmaut.
Probably just coincidence...
| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 511.1 | couple of more | 32291::FRANCUS | In Xanadu did Kubla Khan | Fri Jul 29 1988 11:27 | 17 |
| Some other tricks are:
The first day of Rosh Hashanah can never be Sunday, Wednesday, or
Friday.
First day of Pesach can never be Monday, Wednesday, Friday. This
actually leads to whn Rosh Hashana can't fall out (look at .0).
The reason is that if Rosh Hashana began on Wednesday Yom Kippur
would be Friday, if it began on Friday Yom Kippur would be on Sunday
and we don't want Yom Kippur and Shabbat back to back. If Rosh Hashana
began on Sunday, Hoshana Raba would be on Shabbat and we wouldn't
be able to do the hoshanot with the lulav/etrog and beating the
reeds.
yossi
|