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Jan

1

What Jews do: A New Year’s Story

Filed Under Politics | 3 Comments


If you don’t know much about Judaism, chances are that why Chanuka falls on Christmas and New Years in one year but within a week of Thanksgiving in another year mystifies you as much as it mystifies a lot of Jews.

I’ve only got a Reform Jew’s sense of time about these things, but the gist of the reason behind this phenomenon is as follows:

Halachic law (which is the basis for what Jews can and can’t do) says that Jews don’t follow the Gregorian calendar – we follow the Hebrew calendar. So, for example, when Jews celebrated Rosh Hashana early in October, which translates literally into Head of the Year, that was our New Year. And we say L’Shana Tovah Tikatavu – A good sweet year to you. The current Hebrew calendar year is 5766.

Now, here’s where the difference in when the holidays occur comes in: The Hebrew calendar coordinates itself in an unusual and complex manner:

The Jewish calendar is based on three astronomical phenomena: the rotation of the Earth about its axis (a day); the revolution of the moon about the Earth (a month); and the revolution of the Earth about the sun (a year). These three phenomena are independent of each other, so there is no direct correlation between them. On average, the moon revolves around the Earth in about 29½ days. The Earth revolves around the sun in about 365¼ days, that is, about 12.4 lunar months.

The Gregorian calendar used by most of the world has abandoned any correlation between the moon cycles and the month, arbitrarily setting the length of months to 28, 30 or 31 days.

The Jewish calendar, however, coordinates all three of these astronomical phenomena. Months are either 29 or 30 days, corresponding to the 29½-day lunar cycle. Years are either 12 or 13 months, corresponding to the 12.4 month solar cycle.

What this means to the average human (Jew or non-Jew) who takes a moment to learn just a bit more about Judaism, is that every three or four years, the Hebrew calendar adds a month (so in that leap year, there would be two months called Adar, Adar I and Adar II).

This year, for example, the calendar contained two Adars and therefore, Chanuka, and most of the other holidays, came “late.”

This explanation should help folks understand even more than they might already as to why, like me, someone might not be a big fan of combining Christmas and Chanuka. They absolutely positively have ZERO to do with each other. Yes, they both occur when there’s less light and colder weather. Yes, they are joyous occasions. But Chanuka celebrates victory in a war and Christmas celebrates the birth of a person who is seen as extraordinary in Christianity but not extraordinary in Judaism. They did not occur temporally anywhere near each other nor do their celebrations have any nexus (except if you’re the kind of person who wants to say that Jesus couldn’t have existed if Jews weren’t here first – although, as most people who know me could anticipate, I am not that kind of person).

Putting all that information aside, last night, we had a family over for an intimate festive evening and celebrated the seventh night of Chanuka as well as New Years. The picture at the top of this post is of my son and his future wife, well, one of his options for a future wife. We would be incredibly pleased to have her parents be our in-laws. But seeing as how we won’t let him marry for at least 20 years, we don’t know how their love interest will weather the next couple of decades.

So, what do Jews do on the Gregorian calendar’s new year, if the Hebrew calendar’s new year is at a different time?

All the Jews I know, every where except in Israel, celebrate the Gregorian calendar’s new years. In Israel, they celebrate Sylvester on the same day as the Gregorian calendar’s new year. I’ve yet to find a good explanation for why Sylvester is celebrated there, but there’s some interesting background here, here and here. After reading these explanations, I can only surmise that since there are so many European Jews who made aliyah to Israel over the years, they continued the tradition. But when you link the holiday to forcing Jews to exchange their traditions for Roman ones, I just don’t get it. If anyone has better info, please share.

In any case, no matter how I write out the search words, I’ve yet to learn how or why Americans developed the tradition of eating all day long on the day before and the day after New Years. But I can certainly see why so many of us decide on January 2nd that we’re going to lose weight.

Chappy Seventh Night of Chanuka (last night) and Happy New Year.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 7:42 pm January 1st, 2006 in Politics | 3 Comments 

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Jan

1

What Jews do: A New Year’s Story

Filed Under Politics | 2 Comments


If you don’t know much about Judaism, chances are that why Chanuka falls on Christmas and New Years in one year but within a week of Thanksgiving in another year mystifies you as much as it mystifies a lot of Jews.

I’ve only got a Reform Jew’s sense of time about these things, but the gist of the reason behind this phenomenon is as follows:

Halachic law (which is the basis for what Jews can and can’t do) says that Jews don’t follow the Gregorian calendar – we follow the Hebrew calendar. So, for example, when Jews celebrated Rosh Hashana early in October, which translates literally into Head of the Year, that was our New Year. And we say L’Shana Tovah Tikatavu – A good sweet year to you. The current Hebrew calendar year is 5766.

Now, here’s where the difference in when the holidays occur comes in: The Hebrew calendar coordinates itself in an unusual and complex manner:

The Jewish calendar is based on three astronomical phenomena: the rotation of the Earth about its axis (a day); the revolution of the moon about the Earth (a month); and the revolution of the Earth about the sun (a year). These three phenomena are independent of each other, so there is no direct correlation between them. On average, the moon revolves around the Earth in about 29½ days. The Earth revolves around the sun in about 365¼ days, that is, about 12.4 lunar months.

The Gregorian calendar used by most of the world has abandoned any correlation between the moon cycles and the month, arbitrarily setting the length of months to 28, 30 or 31 days.

The Jewish calendar, however, coordinates all three of these astronomical phenomena. Months are either 29 or 30 days, corresponding to the 29½-day lunar cycle. Years are either 12 or 13 months, corresponding to the 12.4 month solar cycle.

What this means to the average human (Jew or non-Jew) who takes a moment to learn just a bit more about Judaism, is that every three or four years, the Hebrew calendar adds a month (so in that leap year, there would be two months called Adar, Adar I and Adar II).

This year, for example, the calendar contained two Adars and therefore, Chanuka, and most of the other holidays, came “late.”

This explanation should help folks understand even more than they might already as to why, like me, someone might not be a big fan of combining Christmas and Chanuka. They absolutely positively have ZERO to do with each other. Yes, they both occur when there’s less light and colder weather. Yes, they are joyous occasions. But Chanuka celebrates victory in a war and Christmas celebrates the birth of a person who is seen as extraordinary in Christianity but not extraordinary in Judaism. They did not occur temporally anywhere near each other nor do their celebrations have any nexus (except if you’re the kind of person who wants to say that Jesus couldn’t have existed if Jews weren’t here first – although, as most people who know me could anticipate, I am not that kind of person).

Putting all that information aside, last night, we had a family over for an intimate festive evening and celebrated the seventh night of Chanuka as well as New Years. The picture at the top of this post is of my son and his future wife, well, one of his options for a future wife. We would be incredibly pleased to have her parents be our in-laws. But seeing as how we won’t let him marry for at least 20 years, we don’t know how their love interest will weather the next couple of decades.

So, what do Jews do on the Gregorian calendar’s new year, if the Hebrew calendar’s new year is at a different time?

All the Jews I know, every where except in Israel, celebrate the Gregorian calendar’s new years. In Israel, they celebrate Sylvester on the same day as the Gregorian calendar’s new year. I’ve yet to find a good explanation for why Sylvester is celebrated there, but there’s some interesting background here, here and here. After reading these explanations, I can only surmise that since there are so many European Jews who made aliyah to Israel over the years, they continued the tradition. But when you link the holiday to forcing Jews to exchange their traditions for Roman ones, I just don’t get it. If anyone has better info, please share.

In any case, no matter how I write out the search words, I’ve yet to learn how or why Americans developed the tradition of eating all day long on the day before and the day after New Years. But I can certainly see why so many of us decide on January 2nd that we’re going to lose weight.

Chappy Seventh Night of Chanuka (last night) and Happy New Year.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:42 pm January 1st, 2006 in Politics | 2 Comments 

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Jan

1

What Jews do: A New Year’s Story

Filed Under Politics | Comments Off


If you don’t know much about Judaism, chances are that why Chanuka falls on Christmas and New Years in one year but within a week of Thanksgiving in another year mystifies you as much as it mystifies a lot of Jews.

I’ve only got a Reform Jew’s sense of time about these things, but the gist of the reason behind this phenomenon is as follows:

Halachic law (which is the basis for what Jews can and can’t do) says that Jews don’t follow the Gregorian calendar – we follow the Hebrew calendar. So, for example, when Jews celebrated Rosh Hashana early in October, which translates literally into Head of the Year, that was our New Year. And we say L’Shana Tovah Tikatavu – A good sweet year to you. The current Hebrew calendar year is 5766.

Now, here’s where the difference in when the holidays occur comes in: The Hebrew calendar coordinates itself in an unusual and complex manner:

The Jewish calendar is based on three astronomical phenomena: the rotation of the Earth about its axis (a day); the revolution of the moon about the Earth (a month); and the revolution of the Earth about the sun (a year). These three phenomena are independent of each other, so there is no direct correlation between them. On average, the moon revolves around the Earth in about 29½ days. The Earth revolves around the sun in about 365¼ days, that is, about 12.4 lunar months.

The Gregorian calendar used by most of the world has abandoned any correlation between the moon cycles and the month, arbitrarily setting the length of months to 28, 30 or 31 days.

The Jewish calendar, however, coordinates all three of these astronomical phenomena. Months are either 29 or 30 days, corresponding to the 29½-day lunar cycle. Years are either 12 or 13 months, corresponding to the 12.4 month solar cycle.

What this means to the average human (Jew or non-Jew) who takes a moment to learn just a bit more about Judaism, is that every three or four years, the Hebrew calendar adds a month (so in that leap year, there would be two months called Adar, Adar I and Adar II).

This year, for example, the calendar contained two Adars and therefore, Chanuka, and most of the other holidays, came “late.”

This explanation should help folks understand even more than they might already as to why, like me, someone might not be a big fan of combining Christmas and Chanuka. They absolutely positively have ZERO to do with each other. Yes, they both occur when there’s less light and colder weather. Yes, they are joyous occasions. But Chanuka celebrates victory in a war and Christmas celebrates the birth of a person who is seen as extraordinary in Christianity but not extraordinary in Judaism. They did not occur temporally anywhere near each other nor do their celebrations have any nexus (except if you’re the kind of person who wants to say that Jesus couldn’t have existed if Jews weren’t here first – although, as most people who know me could anticipate, I am not that kind of person).

Putting all that information aside, last night, we had a family over for an intimate festive evening and celebrated the seventh night of Chanuka as well as New Years. The picture at the top of this post is of my son and his future wife, well, one of his options for a future wife. We would be incredibly pleased to have her parents be our in-laws. But seeing as how we won’t let him marry for at least 20 years, we don’t know how their love interest will weather the next couple of decades.

So, what do Jews do on the Gregorian calendar’s new year, if the Hebrew calendar’s new year is at a different time?

All the Jews I know, every where except in Israel, celebrate the Gregorian calendar’s new years. In Israel, they celebrate Sylvester on the same day as the Gregorian calendar’s new year. I’ve yet to find a good explanation for why Sylvester is celebrated there, but there’s some interesting background here, here and here. After reading these explanations, I can only surmise that since there are so many European Jews who made aliyah to Israel over the years, they continued the tradition. But when you link the holiday to forcing Jews to exchange their traditions for Roman ones, I just don’t get it. If anyone has better info, please share.

In any case, no matter how I write out the search words, I’ve yet to learn how or why Americans developed the tradition of eating all day long on the day before and the day after New Years. But I can certainly see why so many of us decide on January 2nd that we’re going to lose weight.

Chappy Seventh Night of Chanuka (last night) and Happy New Year.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:42 pm January 1st, 2006 in Politics | Comments Off 

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