Page 56 - HaMizrachi02-04( #12)2019RoshHaShanaYomKippurUSA

PLACES IN ISRAEL

Eve Harow

• TISHREI • Why Rosh Hashanah

1 Isn’t Late This Year

he first day of 5780 isn’t till harvest. Figs is רֹואְי, pomegranates persecution of the Sages, who as
September 30, 2019. So is ףי ִ ט ָ ק.) Sukkot, the holiday of booths well as teaching Torah and meting
TRosh Hashanah ‘late’? with palm-frond roofs and a lulav out justice also, as mentioned, were
as one of the designated species, is critical in setting the calendar.
The classic western summer and at the time of the date harvest, the Setting time meant power and
school year cycles are based upon די ִ ד ָּג. To round out our seven species, control over the holidays and lives
the calendar named for Pope of a Torah-based nation, which
Gregory XIII. But we’re talking Chanukah (25 Kislev) is all about was exactly what the Romans were
about the Jewish New Year. What the olive oil – and the קי ִ ס ָ מ ,the olive trying to destroy. So now, every 19
does the Catholic Church have to do harvest, finishes at just that time. years, our calendar repeats, with
with it? Let us first understand the What a great stroke of luck for the leap years at 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17 and
key to the Jewish calendar. Chashmonaim that just when they
needed the oil, the fruit had been 19 and an occasional day added to
In Exodus 12:2-18 and Numbers picked and freshly pressed! Kislev or Cheshvan.
28:16, G-d commands us This past spring we had an Adar
commanded to celebrate The point is, when you celebrate a Bet, but even with the extra winter
Pesach during Nissan, which in Jewish holiday anywhere the world weeks, we had a hailstorm on the
Deuteronomy 16:1 is called the you’re celebrating a harvest in the first day of Chol Hamoed Pesach.
month of spring (בי ִ ב ָ א): Land of Israel. (We joke, but it really
is all about the food.) While everyone ran for cover from
' ּ ה ָ ל ח ַ ס ֶּ פ ָ תי ִ ׂש ָ ע ְ ו בי ִ ב ָ א ָ ה ׁש ֶ דֹח ת ֶ א רֹומ ָ ׁש the sting of the ice pellets, my
ָ
ָ
םִי ַ ר ְ צ ִּ מ ִ מ 'ה ך ֲ אי ִ צֹוה בי ִ ב ָ א ָ ה ׁש ֶ דֹח ְּ ב י ִּ כ ךי ֶ קלֹ ֱ א In days of yore, months were heart went out to the grain growers
.ה ָ לְי ָ ל declared when two witnesses saw whose fields were getting flattened,
the New Moon and the Sages destroying months of work in 20
A purely lunar calendar rotates and/or Sanhedrin endorsed their minutes.
without any seasonal consideration. testimony, building bonfires on the
For example, on the Muslim peak of the Mount of Olives and on Only in the Land of Israel can you
calendar, Ramadan falls in February into the Diaspora. feel the literal nature of the chagim.
one year, November another, and On Sukkot, I take people to make
sometimes May. Because they are So how do we keep the lunar silan (date honey) under palm trees
originally a nomadic people without calendar from shifting out of its in the Jordan Valley; on Chanukah,
a religious connection to a land and needed agricultural season? By to taste fresh olive oil right out of
its harvests. factoring in the solar calendar and the press. We live our chagim the
synchronizing them. way our forefathers did in the time
Not so Judaism. Pesach, as of the Tanach. Connected to the
mentioned, must be in the spring, The Sages would walk the Land Land. Nourished and grateful to
specifically during the רי ִ צ ָ ק – at the end of winter, the month of G-d for our sustenance and rain in
the grain harvest in Israel. The Adar, to check whether the grains its time.
backdrop of Shavuot’s Megillat Rut were ripe. Had it stopped raining?
story are the barley and wheat fields Were the sheep fat and ready to be It’s bad enough that in our
of Beit Lechem (literally “House sheared? i.e. was winter over? If yes, Christian-dominated world our
of Bread”), the period of the Omer bring on Nissan and Pesach. If no, cottage cheese spoilage date is based
in the Land. The Sin of the Spies then drop in Adar Bet to push off on Jesus. Let us know our Hebrew
of 9 Av finds our scouts bringing Pesach another month until spring calendar. It’s the connector between
grapes, pomegranates and figs back arrived. It was done on a year-by- Am Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael and Torat
to the desert, which are Israel’s year basis until the calendar was set Yisrael.
summer fruits; Tu B’Av (15th) is the in the 4th century. There are many Eve Harow is a licensed Israeli tour guide
grape harvest רי ִ צ ָּ ב. (An agricultural reasons for this seminal decision and member of the Mizrachi Speakers
people have a specific word for each but a poignant one is the Roman Bureau

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