Jewish calendar - myths & maths

[Moongazer]

I am not sure if this forum is the right place for this discussion, but I can't find a better one. This discussion relates to some obscure points about the Jewish calendar and Jewish chronology. They have no practical bearing on the calendar's use or on its mathematical structure or on our understanding of its astronomical underpinnings (which is why I am not sure that a discussion of this matter really belongs here), but if there are any on this list who nevertheless enjoy investigating the matters mentioned below, I am hoping they may be able to help with my own investigation of it.

I have written a paper which I believe may contain the first explanation (and likely the first credible one) of an obscure piece of calendar arithmetic contained in an Aramaic translation of the bible. The translation is Targum Pseudo Jonathan. The relevant verse is Genesis 1:16, part of the biblical account of creation - specifically, day four in that account, on which the Sun, Moon and stars are created. My explanation of the Targum Pseudo Jonathan on that verse was not the the main purpose of the paper, but it may turn out to be its most important feature.

Also discussed in the same paper are two Jewish legends about the creation of the Sun and Moon whose original sources I am seeking. If anyone knows something about this, particularly if you have heard of the second legend before, please let me know.

The legend about the Sun is that it was created on a Wednesday at zero hours (Jewish time) of the day (which is Tuesday 18:00, civil time). The source for the day is the bible itself (Gen. 1:16), but the original source for the time of day is more obscure.

The legend about the Moon is that when it was first created (at about the same time as the Sun), it was shut up in darkness (i.e. she was not permitted to shine) for a period of 47 hours. The mathematics of the present Jewish calendar presumes that a mean lunar conjunction occurred on Friday, Julian Day 348,352 (the last day of Jewish year 1) at 08:00 civil time (14:00 Jewish time) at the meridian of Jerusalem. Traditional Jewish chronology (based on the chronology of the bible) supposes that that day was the sixth day of creation and that the Sun and Moon were created two days earlier on Wednesday. This legend about the Moon is intended to explain the apparent anomaly that the Moon was already about two days old at the time of her first conjunction with the Sun. This version of the legend (the Babylonian Talmud, Hulin 60b, has a different version of it) appears in S.B. Burnaby, "Elements of the Jewish and Muhammedan Calendars …" (London, 1901), article 35, pp 42-45. He cites Scaliger and Petavius as secondary sources for this legend. The references to Scaliger and Petavius cited by Burnaby are given in detail in the article.

The article is entitled "On the search for a source for the Jewish tradition that the Sun was created at zero hours (Jewish time) on Wednesday." It is available in pdf form at: http://www.geocities.com/calendar.luchot

[Irv Bromberg]

On 2009 May 31, at 01:48 , Moongazer wrote:

The legend about the Sun is that it was created on a Wednesday at zero hours
(Jewish time) of the day (which is Tuesday 18:00, civil time). The source
for the day is the bible itself (Gen. 1:16), but the original source for the
time of day is more obscure.

This legend about the Moon is intended to explain the
apparent anomaly that the Moon was already about two days old at the time of
her first conjunction with the Sun.

Irv replies:  On my web page entitled "Rambam and the Seasons", I have carefully tried to account for these traditions, and cited the sources, see if you are satisfied:

<http://www.sym454.org/hebrew/rambam.htm>

See in particular the bulleted points listing the traditional accounting for method #1 and method #2.

-- Irv Bromberg, Toronto, Canada

<http://www.sym454.org/hebrew/>

[Irv Bromberg]

On 2009 May 31, at 16:06 , Irv Bromberg wrote:

On 2009 May 31, at 01:48 , Moongazer wrote:

This legend about the Moon is intended to explain the apparent anomaly that the Moon was already about two days old at the time of her first conjunction with the Sun.

Irv adds:  I also have a similar list of bulleted points in the following section of my web page about the Moon, molad and Hebrew calendar, which looks at the traditional derivation of the epoch moment for the molad:

http://individual.utoronto.ca/kalendis/hebrew/molad.htm#calc

The discussion first explains how to calculate traditional molad moments, and after that you will find the bulleted list that I am referring to.  (Much of the same information appears in the "Rambam and the Seasons" web page that I previously referred you to, but the way that it is organized at the above cited section, with a specific focus on the molad, may perhaps be more helpful to you.)

-- Irv Bromberg, Toronto, Canada

<http://www.sym454.org/hebrew/>

[MIKE OSSIPOFF]

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 For the Subjective Seasonal Calendar, the months have the lengths that I specified in my earlier postings, except that, for the nonfixed version, I"d previously made a 1-day error, which I correct here:
 
(season names refer to Northern Hemisphere--for international use, numbers or letters would be substituted)
 
Nonfixed:
 
Summer & winter: 117 days
Spring: 65 days
Autumn: 66 days
 
Fixed:
 
Summer & Winter: 17 weeks
Spring & Autumn: 9 weeks
 
By definition, June 1 is the first day of calendric summer.
 
But that needs more specificness:
 
If we keep the Gregorian leapyear system:
 
Then continue using it without any interruption or change. In the first year of the new calendar's use, the first day of the Summer calendric season is June 1. Then, using the Gregorian leapyear system, let things fall where they may.
 
If we don't keep the Gregorian leapyear system:
 
Apply a leapday or (for the fixed version) a leapweek at such times so as to minimize the maximum drift in the tropical year, as measured by the Sun's ecliptic longitude, of noon GMT on the first day of calendar Summer, away from the Sun's ecliptic longitude that was the middle of the cyclical drift of noon GMT, June 1, for the 2004-2008 leapyear cycle, in our current Roman/Gregorian calendar.
 
Mike Ossipoff
 
 
 

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[MIKE OSSIPOFF]

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I posted a more complete specific definition because it seems that a proposal should have one. However, that doesn't mean that it's essential that every detail of an eventual adopted calendar be as specified in that definition. Minor changes in the definition, regarding such things as leapweek or leapday timing aren't considered to be in contravention of the definition. The most specific, most fine details of the definition are to be regarded more as a suggestion.
 
I want to emphasize that, in keeping with the point and purpose of posting a proposal, anyone should feel free to distribute it, or anything I've posted or written on the subject, entire or in part, by any medium and in any forum.
 
Mike Ossipoff
 
 

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