Five years ago I was surprised, not to say ambushed, by the Jewish New Year in early September, when I expected it in October. What the heck? Honestly, even with all that I’ve done since then, the Jewish calendar is still a mystery to me.
I know *something* about it, of course. I know (because I just looked it up again) that it’s a calendar with 12 months of 29 or 30 days. I know that it’s somehow based on both the moon and the sun, although I haven’t cared enough to learn exactly how it does that. I know that it syncs with the Gregorian calendar only once every 19 years. Well, sort of syncs:
- A 19-year Jewish cycle can span 6,939 to 6,942 days, while a 19-year Gregorian span is almost always 6,940 days. (Ed’s note: Almost always 6,940 days? Truly, this whole calendar thing seems dodgy to me.)
- The Jewish day begins at sunset/nightfall, while the Gregorian day begins at midnight, creating a built-in partial-day shift. (Ed’s note: So, like, if you were born after sunset but before midnight, your Jewish and Gregorian birthdays would start off on different days, never mind what happened every year after that.)
- Because of these minute daily adjustments, a complete, flawless mathematical lock of both exact systems takes millions of years, but for practical human life, it resets every 19 years.
Now, I would normally hold out for the complete flawless mathematical lock of both exact systems–I mean, why not?–but when that option entails waiting for millions of years I can absolutely live with a rule-of-thumb. (At my age, waiting for the whole 19-year cycle might be just as out of the question.) As for the practical aspects, I’ve settled nicely into Acceptance Mode, where I just wait for someone to tell me when (Jewish) things happen this (Gregorian) year.
Acceptance, however, does not prevent surprise, as when some big Jewish thing pops up where I wasn’t particularly expecting it. When things coincide in the world that weren’t stored together in my head. Hello! On Friday, for instance, for the first time since I’ve been paying attention, September 11 memorial observances in the morning were followed by the start of Jewish New Year celebrations at sunset. My slight disorientation is akin to how I’d feel if the mid-June anniversary of my mother’s death were to land on Canada Day next year.
It got me to thinking about different ways of being in the world but not entirely of it. For me, it’s a Jewish-year cycle wandering through the standard calendar in predictable-to-some but obscure-to-me ways. For some–shift workers, remote workers, long-haul truck drivers, farmers–it’s a work schedule with a rhythm not aligned to the Monday-to-Friday work week, two-day weekend, and fixed statutory holidays.
Being a little off the norm isn’t a bad thing; it’s not necessarily a good thing, either. It’s what we make of it. We can feel disoriented or excluded, or we can appreciate our different perspective: different from last year or different from other people’s as the case may be. Appreciation starts, I think, with being open to surprise.
Hello!
Ahhh! The pleasure of Acceptance Mode. My efforts to fix the world have diminished to not quite zero.
Judith – 🙂 I like to understand things, but am gradually coming to accept that there are (many) things that I just won’t. Oh well.
When my dad, in his retirement, dug into biblical prophecy and calendars, he spent years at it. I definitely have better things to do. This year, thinking of you, I read up on the High Holy Days with a sense of wistfulness because I have slipped a long way from the rituals of my Christianity. I can see how rituals bind families and communities together in wonderful ways. I rejoice when I see the Jewish and Christian traditions coming closer together. Jesus was and is in every sense a Jew, after all ‘s said and done. Wishing you a honeyed year (in every way you count it) and richest blessings.
Laurna – I believe the whole calendar thing is almost its own field of study – hence my reaction of withdrawing from said field. Too complicated for me, and there are easy workarounds these days when I really need to know a date/season. But it is fun to gradually get the feel of it. Thanks for the New Year wishes – right back at ya. 🙂
Isabel -do you suppose the fact that planet Earth wobbles slightly on its axis has anything to do with this calendar(s) being out of kilter thing?
It certainly affects the tides, but calendars are person-made constructs so probably not.
John – “I feel the Earth move under my feet” per Carole King? I think our calendar woes are from us trying to impose a fixed human-scale order on slightly wobbly celestial-scale events. For some rude reason, the Earth’s annual transit around the sun is not an exact number of Earth days or an integer number of lunar cycles. It’s almost as if we’re not the centre of the universe, but that can’t be right . . .
Very interesting, Isabel.
Thanks!
Tom
Tom – Thank *you*.
re: “I feel the Earth move under my feet” per Carole King?
I thought that was from For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway
🙂