Modern searches for "aviv" barley in the context of the Hebrew calendar: a first description of the Israeli barley observation data
The Hebrew calendar is lunisolar, with some years having 12 months and some 13. In both Biblical and Talmudic times, the calendar was observational. Essentially, when barley in Israel was observed to be close to full harvest-ready ripening, in a state called “aviv”, that was the last month of the ye...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Center
2017
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| In: |
The Jewish bible quarterly
Year: 2017, Volume: 45, Issue: 3, Pages: 179-189 |
| Further subjects: | B
Barley
B Environmental aspects B Passover; Israel B Jewish calendar; History B Religious Aspects B Gordon, Nehemia |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | The Hebrew calendar is lunisolar, with some years having 12 months and some 13. In both Biblical and Talmudic times, the calendar was observational. Essentially, when barley in Israel was observed to be close to full harvest-ready ripening, in a state called “aviv”, that was the last month of the year, with the next month being the first month of the next year. Thus, to determine the timing of the new year, searches for aviv barley were undertaken. In modern times, such searches are being performed by teams lead by Nehemia Gordon. Every year, the teams examine barley growing throughout Israel until they find sufficient quantities of aviv barley. For each year, we record (1) the date of the latest search during which aviv barley was not found; and (2) the date of the earliest search during which aviv barley was found. This is the first time that all of this data is being presented in one place. We give summary statistics for these dates and compare the date of Passover under the “fixed” version of the calendar, which is commonly used today, with the date under an aviv-based observational calendar. Seventeen years of data are available (2000 to 2016). During these years, the date of the latest search during which aviv was not found ranged from February 27 to March 22; the date of the earliest search during which aviv was found ranged from March 8 to April 4. Typically, Passover on the fixed calendar was one day before Passover on the aviv-based calendar. However, in one year, the difference was one month. The earliest date when aviv barley was found (March 8) is well before the latest date in a different year when it was not found (March 22), eliminating the possibility of a simplistic estimate of the date when barley becomes aviv. In three of the years, if the date of Passover was set according to the March equinox, it would have been a month early relative to both the observational and the fixed versions of the calendar. There is evidence to support the idea that the fixed calendar would be more aligned with an aviv-based calendar if, instead of adding a 13th month in the 8th year of the Metonic cycle, which is what the fixed calendar does, it would add it in the 9th year of the cycle. |
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| ISSN: | 0792-3910 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The Jewish bible quarterly
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