“The Origins of the Jewish Calendar,” Interview with Lilly Gelman, Moment Magazine, Summer 2020 Issue, pp. 53, 93 (original) (raw)
Living With a Lunar Calendar in Mesopotamia and China
in J. Ben-Dov, W. Horowitz and J. M. Steele (eds.), Living the Lunar Calendar (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2012), 373-387
True lunar calendars which base the beginning of the month on the observation of a particular phase of the moon (generally the first sighting of the new moon crescent) are subject to an inherent uncertainty in the length of each month caused by unpredictable variations in atmospheric conditions, cloud cover, and the eyesight of the observer. These factors prevent members of a community who use a lunar calendar knowing in advance the precise number of days between an event in one month and a planned event in the next month. In addition, different observers may first see the new moon crescent on different nights (sometimes because of false sighting of an expected new moon, a phenomenon well attested among historical and modern observers from many cultures), 1 leading to the possibility of two individuals using calendars which are out of sync by one or more days. For a true lunar calendar to operate effectively within a community, therefore, it is necessary for there to be an agreed 'observation' of the new moon crescent, either arising from a consensus of the members of that community or, more commonly, an observation made by an individual or small group charged with the authority to proclaim the beginning of a new month. 2 But although this process leads to an 'official' calendar, used by all members of a particular community, it still does not solve the problem of lack of foreknowledge of the length of any particular month. Furthermore, whilst it is possible to agree on when an observation of the moon has defined the beginning of a new month within a small community-for example a town or, conceivably, a city-communicating that information to a larger community-a country, for example, or even an empire-is nearly impossible and so it is difficulty to ensure that everyone in that large community has a calendar which is exactly in sync with everyone else's.
Murphey’s “Reconstructed Jewish Calendar of the Late Second Temple Period” was posted in March of 2023 on Academia.edu. The key finding which allowed the Jewish Calendar to be reconstituted was the salvaging of the Jewish Calendar’s unique 19-year Metonic Cycle from descriptions found in the Talmud. Confirmation of the identified Metonic Cycle was further substantiated with several proofs. However, the original presentation of the Reconstructed Jewish Calendar did not employ an astronomically rigorous method to determine the first day of each Jewish month. Specifically, a fixed time of 23 hours for the moon’s transition to the Jew’s so-called “horned moon” phase was assumed. This approximation failed to account for the fact that the moon’s orbit is not perfectly circular, but eccentric, such that the actual time for this transition varies. By leveraging recently composed astronomical calculations, the original Reconstructed Jewish Calendar can now boast accuracy to the specific day, along with its associated weekday. This results in the new “Refined Reconstructed Jewish Calendar of the Late Second Temple Period.”
Asian Journal of Research in Social Sciences and Humanities, Ambedkar University Agra U.P (INDIA). Volume 4 Issue 11 pp.114-130, ISSN 2249-7315., 2015
Nations all over the world have sought different ways and methods to monitor, track and keep time in sequence with happenings around them. The Calendar serves as one of the greatest inventions of man to achieve this noble objective. A calendar therefore serves as a tool for man to keep records of events around them, to monitor changes in the environment, to keep themselves abreast with the dynamic weather conditions. As Nations have distinct characteristics, the evolution of Calendars all over the world was based on the movement of the astrological symbols such as the stars, moon and the sun in different regions of the world while having unique beliefs, cultures and traditional undertones of such nations at hand. This work sets to examine the development of Calendars in different nations of the world with an aim of understanding the factors that have shaped the development of calendars worldwide.
Studies in the Prehistory of the Jewish Calendar
This is a dissertation (NYU, 1989) on time-telling in the Bible: how to tell time and what time tells; how time was determined by natural phenomena such as sunrise, sunset, and the phases of the moon, and how these phenomena were used to construct the ritual calendar. The significance of the sun explains, for example, why the Jewish calendar begins at sunset. Further, significance morphs into symbolism: the cardinal points of location that derive from sunrise and sunset; their symbolism, that appears in square and cubic structures from the Jerusalem temple to the priest’s breastplate; in the layout of the tribes in the wilderness; in medical practice; and, above all, in the symbolic associations of light and darkness, rebirth and resurrection, life and death.
On The Biblical “Hidden” Calendar
ZAW 124 (2012), p. 583-597
The Cairo Document claims that Israel has lost the true Biblical calendar, but a new community, called the Covenant, has been able to restore it. A Book of the division of Times (Jubilees) is cited as an authority. It displays a “solar” calendar of 52 weeks or 364 days. The year begins on a Wednesday of full moon and equinox, and the days are reckoned from the morning. This matches the Creation week and most Biblical dates, with numbered, unnamed months. However, the natural year contains ca. 365.25 days, but since nothing is said of the necessary adjustment for a perpetual system, we conclude that it was just a literary device, somewhat hidden. The Covenanters were able to restore it in awkward ways. The starting point was on Wednesday, March 23rd, 156 BCE, with equinox and full moon, an exceptional occurrence.
The Islamic Lunar Calendar as a Civilizational Imperative
The Islamic Lunar Calendar as a Civilizational Imperative - The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences Vol. 9, No.4, 1992
It is He Who made the sun a radiance, and the moon a light, and determined it by stations, that you might know the number of the years and the reckoning (of time) . . . ( Qur’an 10:5).