Page 62 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

CHAPTER 2 CASES OF DESIGN IN THE HEBREW LANGUAGE
CHAPTER 2 CASES OF DESIGN IN THE HEBREW LANGUAGE 41 41

by 0.36707 days per year (about a third of a day per year). This “missing” time
is added to the Islamic calendar by adding one day to the last month of the year
(the month of Dhu al-Hijjah). This is done for eleven “leap years ” in a cycle of
thirty years. The leap years—when the year is 355 days long—are when year mod
30 (the residual obtained by dividing the year by 30) is one of the following: 2, 5,
7, 10, 13, 16, 18, 21, 24, 26, and 29. For a cycle of thirty years, such a calendar
would give average month duration of

[(354*19+355*11) / 30] / 12 = 29.53056 days

This is quite close to the synodic month of 29.53059 days (the mean length
of the month of the thirty-year tabular calendar is about 2.9 seconds less than the
synodic period of the moon). So on average, this answer would be quite accurate,
but in any given month, it is still just a rough estimate.
Note that in the Islamic calendar, even with leap years, there is still a difference
between the solar year, which is 365.242 days, and the lunar year, which is 354.367
days. This is a difference of about eleven days per year, which causes Muslim fes-
tivities to keep pace with the yearly moon but not with the annual seasons, which
are related to the tropical year (based on the sun).

The Jewish calendar is essentially based on the moon. Therefore, it is, on aver-
age, 354 days long. Every month starts (approximately) on the day of a new moon.
The months of the Jewish calendar and their durations are given in Table 2.2.
There are three types of non-leap years in the Jewish calendar: “deficient” (353

days), “regular” (354 days) and “complete” (355 days). In a regular year, durations
of the months alternate between 30 and 29 days, and the year is 354 days long. A
complete year is created by adding a day to the month of Cheshvan, and a defi -
cient year is created by removing a day from the month of Kislev. The alternation
between 30 and 29 days ensures that when the year starts with a new moon, so
does each month. Rules regarding whether a non-leap year is 353, 354, or 355
days long are somewhat complex, and will not be given here.
The interested reader may find these rules detailed at http://webexhibits.org/

calendars/calendar-jewish.html.
An ordinary year has twelve months. A Jewish leap year has thirteen months,
where an extra month, Adar I, is added to the calendar (in addition to the regular
Adar, which then becomes Adar II). This extra month aims to “mind the gap”
between the solar year and the lunar year. The month Adar I is only present in
leap years. In non-leap years, Adar II is simply called “Adar.”
What are leap years?
A year becomes a leap year if the number year mod 19 is one of the following:
0, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, or 17, where year mod 19 refers to the residual number obtained