Clio/Established 5757

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"Established 5757"

Clio, like the other Muses, spends a large amount of her time among mortals. Although, unlike the other Muses, her role is mostly that of an observer, this offers her more liberty than her sisters to sample mortal pleasures - primarily food. (Olympian food and drink is delicious, but curiously unsatisfying.)

Clio recently became acquainted with what she will describe as a nouvelle deli, a Jewish establishment traditional enough to serve the usual standbys and irreverent enough to tease at the same time. Above the restaurant's logo lies the inscription, "Established 5757." Clio enjoys watching humans stare at the sign, obviously attempting to do the calculations in their head.

The Jewish calendar is something of a difficulty in modern times even for the Jewish people. Perhaps especially for the Jewish people. Where those of other faiths mostly ignore the Jewish calendar or treat it as a curiosity, the Jews themselves are forced by circumstance to mark their days using two separate, completely incompatible calendars. One for affairs of the body, as it were, and another for affairs of the spirit.

Sun vs. Moon

Clio has discussed elsewhere the difficulties which came about when humans learned that the lunar cycles and the solar cycles did not quite keep pace with each other.

A pure lunar calendar, being some days shorter than the solar year, will "float" - the various months of the year will not always arrive during the same seasons, but will cycle around. The Islamic calendar uses this system.

The Christians eventually abandoned the lunar year entirely. The Gregorian calendar is synchronized to the solar year; its divisions of "months" (that word itself derives from "moon") do not sit well with the fact that the divisions are now by fiat and have little relation to the lunar cycles.

Despite this, the calendar was an improvement upon its predecessors, and has achieved an amazing degree of popularity, passing beyond its original purpose for religious events and becoming a marker for the events of everyday life for most humans. Therein lies the problem for the Jewish people.

By the time the Gregorian calendar was being instituted, the Jews had long since established a stable and satisfactory system. This system used the findings of a Greek astronomer named Meton. Meton observed that in a "floating" lunar year, the phases of the moon resynchronized (as far as his naked-eye observations could determine) with the solar year every nineteen years. This is called the Metonic cycle.

In fact, the lunar calendar "loses" almost exactly seven months on the solar year in a nineteen-lunar-year period. So if seven months were added for every nineteen-year cycle, the lunar and solar years could be kept in synch. More or less.

This was very important to the Jews, whose festivals were seasonal in nature. To the Jews it was less important which month a holiday occurred in than what time of year (a pagan sentiment, Clio feels the urge to point out). Adjusting the calendar by adding extra months might be arbitrary, but at least Sukkot would always fall in the fall.

God is in the Details

The rules for the present-day Jewish calendar were codified around 4120 in Jewish reckoning (about 360 CE). They have needed very little adjustment since then.

The months are Tishri, Cheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat, Adar, Nisan, Iyyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Av, and Elul. (See Clio's notes on spellings.) In a normal, unmodified year, the months have thirty or twenty-nine days in strict alternation - that is, Tishri has thirty days, Cheshvan twenty-nine, and so forth.

However, there are several complications.

First one must take the "leap years" into account. On the third, sixth, eighth, eleventh, fourteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth years of the cycle, an extra twenty-nine-day month is added after Adar. This is Adar Sheni, generally just written Adar II. Also, on those leap years, an extra day is added to Adar itself, making it thirty days long.

Second, there are common-sense reasons why certain holy days should not fall adjacent to the Jewish Sabbath (which is from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday). For example, it would be difficult to segue from a day of fasting (Yom Kippur) directly into the Sabbath, where restrictions on doing work would prevent one from cooking the meal to break one's fast ... and having Yom Kippur directly after the Sabbath would prevent one from making preparations for the fast properly.

Some lesser holy days can and do have their dates moved in order to avoid conflicting with the Sabbath, but in the case of Yom Kippur, it is absolutely vital that it take place on Tishri 10 (the time span from Rosh ha-Shanah, Tishri 1, is important). So the Jews alter their calendar instead: Tishri 1 must not fall on a Wednesday, a Friday, or a Sunday. To accommodate this, the previous year is adjusted by one day, resulting in a sort of bookkeeping where days are subtracted from some years in the cycle and added to others. The affected months are Cheshvan, which sometimes gets an extra day, and Kislev, which sometimes loses one. Under no circumstances is a month ever more than thirty days long.

Riches of Ritual

Clio hates to belabor the pagan aspects of the Jewish calendar, but as she studies the matter, she is increasingly reminded of one of the inescapable aspects of pagan ritual - when cycles interact with each other. There is a "normal" ritual for worship, plus a ritual for, say, the full moon ... and then one must take into account what happens when the regular ritual and the full moon ritual collide. And what if it also happens to be a major holy day?

These matters of timing, it seems to her, are even more a factor in the Jewish calendar, where ritual is everywhere. The weekly Sabbath rituals are restrictive enough that they demand major accommodations in one's lifestyle, and the day of the new moon/month, Rosh Chodesh, is a minor monthly ritual. All events, all seasons, must be noted and duly honored. This, too, is a very pagan sentiment, which may be why Clio has a fondness for the Jewish calendar.

Clio, being verbose, almost always has more words than available space, but the difficulty is even more pronounced with this topic. The Jewish people are fond of introspection, and have had a very long time in which to speculate on their rituals. So there is an especially large body of human words to draw upon in this case. Clio will attempt to restrict herself to the essentials.

Even deciding which holy days to discuss is a problem. Clio saw a list of twenty Jewish holy days in one of her sources, but she considers some of those to be indivisible (for example, Shemini Atzeret and Sukkot), and some of them are still not widely observed, due to their comparative newness and/or controversial status (such as Yom ha-Shoah).

Yom Tov Sheni

Before their calendar was standardized, the beginning of a month was based on observation. A certain number of witnesses were required to confirm that the new moon had indeed arrived, and Rosh Chodesh, the new month, was proclaimed in Jerusalem.

The problem was that certain holy days could fall on either of two days, depending on the new moon, and as the Jewish people spread further apart geographically (the Diaspora), it became difficult to communicate that the new month had begun in a timely fashion.

As usual, a practical solution was reached: certain yom tov (festival days) were extended to a two-day period: Shavuot, Rosh ha-Shanah, Shemini Atzeret, the first-day seder and seventh-day celebration in the Pesach period, and the first-day ritual of Sukkot were all extended in this way. (Yom Kippur was exempted, again for practical reasons, since it would be unhealthy to fast for forty-eight hours.)

When the calendar was codified, the rationale for these two-day celebrations was gone, and the continuation of this practice was open to question. As it stands, Shavuot is celebrated for one day in Israel, but still most often two days elsewhere; Rosh ha-Shanah is mostly celebrated for two days, except by Reform Jews; and the Passover seder occurs on the first night only in Israel, while those outside of Israel hold seder for one night or two depending on their orthodoxy (and, Clio imagines, their circumstances - putting together a seder is often arduous).

Days of Awe

The Jewish year begins with Rosh ha-Shanah ("head of the year") on Tishri 1 (and 2). The period of anticipation prior to Rosh ha-Shanah during the month of Elul, the period from Rosh ha-Shanah to Yom Kippur (Tishri 10), and the two holy days themselves are collectively referred to as the Days of Awe.

These two holy days, Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur, reflect a holiday theme which Clio discusses several times in these pages - that of the two-faced new year. A new year, as noted elsewhere, is both a time for celebration, and repentance, a time to celebrate the fresh start while simultaneously rooting out and removing the previous' year's faults.

In the Jewish system of holidays, this dichotomy is rather literal: Rosh ha-Shanah to celebrate, Yom Kippur to repent. It could be said that the Jews stretch their "new year's festivities" over a ten-day period - although calling Yom Kippur a festivity does not fit the normal human definition of the word.

Yom Kippur ("atonement day") is marked by a complete twenty-four-hour fast - no eating or drinking, from sundown to sundown. During that time, work (including cooking) is not permitted, as on a Sabbath - the intent (and the practice, for the orthodox) is that the whole day be spent in prayer and contemplation. Certain physical pleasures (such as sex) are also prohibited.

Yom Kippur is unusual, from Clio's perspective, because it has no exact parallel in other religions. The Christians have the Lenten period, and the nations of Islam have Ramadan, but these are longer periods of partial fasting (i.e. in Ramadan you can eat after sundown), as opposed to what might be described as a shorter, condensed period of absolute abstinence.

Rosh ha-Shanah itself is primarily of interest to someone not of the Jewish faith because of its food customs - for example, eating fish with the head still attached (it's the head of the year), and eating sweet foods (the wish for a sweet year to come is literal). This is no odder than, for example, the Southern American custom of eating greens on New Year's Day to bring money.

Rosh ha-Shanah, and the days of Elul before it, are marked by blowing a shofar (ram's horn). Rosh ha-Shanah is also called Yom Teruah (shofar-blowing day). It is not the only "new year" in Jewish tradition - there are four, in fact. See the description of Tu Bishvat below.

Another day which is sometimes mentioned in lists of Jewish holidays is Tzom Gedaliah - the fast of Gedaliah, on Tishri 3. See "Three Weeks," below, for more on this day.

Sukkot (and Simchat Torah)

Sukkot (usually translated as "tabernacles") is a harvest celebration. It occurs over seven days, from Tishri 15 to Tishri 21 (or perhaps eight - see below). In the Gregorian calendar this generally falls in early October.

The sukkot themselves (singular, sukkah) for which the celebration is named are temporary huts built outdoors, with roofs of leaves and branches. The holiday also represents a time when the Jewish people were wandering the desert for forty years, hence the transience; the huts themselves remind one of the huts which field hands would build to live in during the harvest. Celebrants eat their meals (and sometimes sleep) in these huts for the entire seven days of Sukkot.

In biblical times, Sukkot was the most important of the holidays. This has parallels with other traditions; as humans move from a predominantly agrarian society to an industrialized one, harvest ceases to be the focus of the year.

The primary foci of Sukkot are the first day and the seventh. During the first, it is especially important to take at least one meal in the sukkot, even a token meal. (The weather often makes sukkot meals difficult - and it is specifically noted that you must not eat in the sukkah if it is raining; the holiday is supposed to be joyous, not an ordeal.) The seventh day is also called Hoshanah Rabbah ("great Hosanna") and carries its own special rituals.

Important throughout Sukkot are "the four species" - branches of palm, myrtle, and willow, and the fruit of the citron. Only the palm is actually specified by name (in Leviticus); why the other three species were chosen is a matter of much myth and symbolism.

The day immediately after Sukkot, Tishri 22, is Shemini Atzeret. Historically there has been much debate over wither Shemini Atzeret is the last day of Sukkot or a distinct holy day. Shemini Atzeret has no clearly-defined rituals of its own, save a prayer for rainfall which dates back to agrarian times.

However, around the tenth century, the Jewish world was beginning to standardize on a pattern of liturgy, and Shemini Atzeret took on a new meaning as a Torah celebration - Simchat Torah. On this day, the "end" of the annual Torah readings is reached - the next Sabbath will begin again with Genesis.

Since Shemini Atzeret was something of a void to begin with, Simchat Torah has grown to eclipse it, and in some places is in fact celebrated as a separate day, on Tishri 23, leaving everyone free to debate again whether Shemini Atzeret is really part of Sukkot.

The Feast of Lights

Chanukkah (most often translated as "dedication"), is an eight-day period beginning upon Kislev 25. It celebrates the victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks (actually hellenized Syrians) which enabled them to reclaim their defiled temple ... and specifically a miracle wherein they only had enough oil to burn in the temple menorah for a single night, but the oil burned for eight nights. Or so the story goes.

The problem, as with most legends, is a severe lack of facts. Clio was around then, and she can vouch for the fact that the Maccabees did indeed reclaim their temple - for all the good it did them. (They became hellenized themselves, and their leaders, particularly Judah, became oppressors. Clio has seen this film before.) But even the two Apocrypha books on the Maccabees - which could, in some ways, be considered pro-Maccabee propaganda - do not mention the miracle of the oil.

Clio favors the theory that Chanukkah lasts eight days because it was a Sukkot substitute for the fugitive Maccabees, unable to celebrate Sukkot properly while hiding in the mountains of Judea. She believes that the miracle of lights has come to take on additional significance as the Maccabees fade from the record, buried by their inglorious later history.

The important ritual of Chanukkah, of course, is the lighting of a menorah on the eight nights, in honor of the miracle. Playing games is common practice - the dreidel-spinning game in particular. Giving gifts, especially Chanukkah gelt - money - to children, is also part of the holiday, although not nearly as important as it has been made out to be. Chanukkah has been influenced strongly by its coincidental proximity to Christmas (which is a subject for another day).

On the other hand, in Israel, in the face of very real threats, the holiday has begun to regain significance as a military victory. This attitude is abetted, perhaps, by a minor fast - Tzom Tevet - shortly after Chanukkah, on Tevet 10. See "Three Weeks," below, for more on this day.

New Year for Trees

Properly speaking, the Jewish calendar has four new years. There is an ancient debate over whether the world was created in Nisan or Tishri. (This relates to the pagan discussion over whether the year begins with the light half or the dark half - spring or autumn.) With the usual practicality, the Talmudic answer is that both are correct.

Nisan, when Pesach occurs, begins the new year for kings and months - Nisan is the first month, despite Rosh ha-Shanah being on Tishri 1. (Clio has departed from custom by beginning this list of holidays with Rosh ha-Shanah; most sources would begin with Pesach.) Tishri begins the new year for years. Elul begins the new year for tithing of animals, and Shevat begins the new year for agricultural tithing - or, as it has come to be known, the new year for the trees.

Tu Bishvat, whose name refers to the month of Shevat, is the holiday of trees. It may have been on Shevat 1 at some point, but has been Shevat 15 for quite a while. This day is also an early harbinger of spring (as is Imbolc, which occurs around the same time - the beginning of February).

Tu Bishvat also took on significance (during Jewish exile) as a day to memorialize the Jewish connection to Israel. One long-held custom is to eat fruit associated with Israel. Another, especially in Israel, is to plant trees. Jews outside Israel frequently give money to a fund for planting trees in Israel. (There is, however, no historical connection between this holiday and the American Arbor Day, which is a holiday by fiat.)

Purim

Purim, on Adar 14, is possibly the strangest of the Jewish holy days. Like Chanukkah, it is a rabbinic holiday - its story is not part of the Torah (the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible). Like Chanukkah, it celebrates a historical incident whose authenticity is dubious.

Unlike Chanukkah, it doesn't really matter. Most Jews have always recognized that the story of Esther is pure fun and games, and the day is generally given the Carnival spirit it deserves.

The brief version of the tale: Mordechai, protector of the lovely Esther, hears that the king Ahasuerus (Xerxes) has banished his proud queen Vashti and will hold a beauty contest for a new bride. (It has been noted by a reader that "beauty contest" is something of a euphemism; the contest most likely included a talent portion, to be held in the bedroom.) Mordechai disguises Esther's Jewishness and puts her in the contest; she is picked as queen. The villainous Haman is made grand vizier; when Mordechai refuses to bow to him, Haman throws a fit and persuades the king to decree that all the Jews in the kingdom will be killed. ("Purim" means "lots" - Haman drew lots to determine when the Jews would die.)

Esther reveals to Ahasuerus that she is Jewish, and pleads for her people, suggesting a sneaky way in which Ahasuerus can counteract his earlier decree. Haman ends up hanged on the gallows meant for Mordechai, who gets his job, and Mordechai and Esther - and the Jews - live happily ever after.

The story has so many plot holes and oddities (for example, it never mentions God) that many regard it as parody. Since Esther and Mordechai can also be Ishtar and Marduk, there is the possibility that it is Babylonian myth. It is also, however, a metaphor for the fate of the Jews under a harsh ruler, something which happened many times in their history. So Purim remains in the canon of holy days - but as a tongue-in-cheek celebration.

The ritual of Purim involves reading the megillah, or scroll, of Esther. This scroll is handwritten for the occasion. When Haman's name is said, the congregation shouts or rattles noisemakers to drown out his name. Other verses are read in a very literal interpretation, or done call-and-response.

The other major feature of Purim is drunkenness. Not only is inebriation a major part of the story's plot, but is considered acceptable in the congregation as well. In fact, a phrase in the Talmud seems to imply that drunkenness is mandatory!

Carnival-like celebrations (with costumes and masks) frequently take place on or around Purim, and there is also a tradition of writing satires or parodies on the Torah for that day - unthinkable at any other time. Purim is the Jewish anti-holiday.

Purim is preceded, on Adar 13, by Ta'anit Esther - the fast of Esther - which marks the three-day fast by the Jews of Persia at Esther's request.

Pesach

It is possible to write an entire book about Pesach (Passover). In fact, books containing customized or interpreted versions of the special liturgy for the Pesach seder, the Haggadah, are not uncommon. Clio hopes that her Jewish readers will forgive her taking what is arguably the most important holiday on their calendar and giving it short shrift, but it is not her purpose here to describe seder ritual in detail.

Pesach, which lasts for seven (or eight) days beginning on Nisan 15, commemorates the Jews being freed from bondage in Egypt, the beginning of the Exodus. Specifically, its name "Passover" memorializes the tenth of the plagues inflicted on the Pharaoh - the slaying of all firstborn children. The angel of death "passed over" the Israelites, who had marked the lintels of their doorways with lamb's blood. Their children were spared. This event broke Pharaoh's will, and he permitted the Israelites to flee Egypt.

The fact that the Israelites left Egypt in a hurry is responsible for the most lasting and unusual aspect of the Pesach celebration. Because they took their bread dough and had to bake it without allowing it to rise properly, during the Pesach period Jews are not permitted to eat anything which is leavened, or which could possibly be self-leavening (which basically means anything that combines flour and water). A Jew may not own or possess foodstuffs of this type during Pesach; Jews must remove all traces of such things from their property prior to the holiday.

The seder itself - a group meal characterized by extensive rituals for the blessing and consumption of the food - is the focal point of Pesach. The seder is either held on the first night or the first two nights. Inviting others is encouraged, even strangers; this is a time of hospitality to all.

The other days of Pesach are mostly characterized by the food prohibitions, although the final day has rituals of its own. The day before Pesach begins is Ta'anit Bekhorim, the fast of the firstborn, where the firstborn children fast to commemorate having had their lives spared.

In addition to its historical significance, Pesach has many things in common with springtime festivals in general. In the Gregorian calendar, it generally occurs in the month of April.

Shavuot (and the Omer)

The date for Shavuot (Sivan 6, sometimes 7 also) is fixed now, ever since the calendar was codified ... but in the pre-standardized days, the time from Pesach to Shavuot was determined by counting days. On the second day of Pesach, an offering of a measure of new barley - an omer - was brought to temple. From that day, seven weeks were counted - the time until the barley harvest was complete. Shavuot is sometimes called the Feast of Weeks.

Shavuot is fifty days from Pesach. For this reason, Shavuot may also be called Pentecost, from the Greek for "fifty" - but it is seldom called that anymore, to avoid confusion with the Christian Pentecost (Whitsunday, fifty days from Easter).

However, the parallels are worth revealing, not obscuring. Shavuot is, in many ways, the Jewish holiday with the closest counterpart in Christian lore. The Christian Pentecost took its original aspects from the Jewish holiday (the original Whitsun miracle took place on Shavuot). Both are based on a pagan-style holiday of first fruits. With two customs in particular (garlanding with flowers and eating dairy foodstuffs) it is pointless to ask who stole from whom; the customs predate both holidays.

Also, in both cases, the holiday has come to acquire a religious significance apart from the seasonal aspects, and as humans become less agrarian, the religious aspect has become the more significant one. In the case of Shavuot, the holiday celebrates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Sinai (what Christians would call the Ten Commandments).

The first part of the Omer period between Pesach and Shavuot resembles a period of mourning in several ways. Lag B'Omer, on Iyyar 18, is generally held to mark the end of this mourning period. This day is traditional for picnics and outings.

Several new memorial days have sprung up in the Omer period, and they, too are rather somber in nature. Furthermore, they are controversial. The most disputed of the three is Yom ha-Shoah, Day of the Holocaust Remembrance, on Nisan 27. This day is debated both because it was established by secular, not religious authority - the government of present-day Israel - and because many do not believe that the Holocaust should have a special day of observance at all.

Even among those who do believe in the holiday, the date is open to dispute. At the moment, its date links it to both the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the founding of present-day Israel. Some resent both connections, especially the latter (the possible implication being that Israel could not have been created had the Holocaust not taken place). Some would like to move this memorial to Tisha be-Av (see below), or other historically significant dates they feel are more appropriate.

Yom ha-Atzma'ut, on Iyyar 5, celebrates the founding of present-day Israel in 1948. Although not "controversial" in the same sense as Yom ha-Shoah, it is not as widely celebrated as the older Jewish holidays (yet), and is mostly observed in Israel itself, and in places with an especially populous Jewish community, such as New York City.

Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, is on Iyyar 28. This day is generally observed only in Israel and not even consistently there. It commemorates the capture of Jerusalem during the Six-Day War. Some authorities object to the holiday for political reasons, and some on the very sound grounds that the matter is hardly settled enough for celebrations yet. See below.

Three Weeks, and the Winds of Change

The period from Tzom Tammuz (Tammuz 17) to Tisha be-Av (Av 9) is known as the Three Weeks. It begins with a minor fast and ends with a major one, and, like the beginning of the Omer, is similar to a period of mourning - especially the final nine days.

The two fasts above, plus Tzom Gedaliah (on Tishri 3) and Tzom Tevet (on Tevet 10), constitute a cycle of fasts marking the downfall of the original temple(s) in Jerusalem and the loss of Jewish sovereignty in that time period. Three of them are no longer much observed; the fourth, Tisha be-Av, is still important but its meaning is changing with time.

Tzom Gedalia marks the death of Gedaliah, the last governor of Judea. He was assassinated due to his political beliefs; his death marked the end of the last remnants of Jewish sovereignty. Tzom Tevet marks the onset of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. Tzom Tammuz marks several minor catastrophes, including the breach of the walls of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.

Tisha be-Av marks the date that both the first and second temples in Jerusalem were destroyed - the first by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and the second by the Romans in 70 CE. It is a major fast, similar in prohibitions to Yom Kippur. The Book of Lamentations is read.

Since 1948, some authorities have questioned the value of continuing to observe the loss of Israel, when in a very real sense Israel has been regained. This view has become especially strong since the recapture of Jerusalem during the Six-Day War. Others point out that the temple has not been rebuilt, peace is not fully at hand, and - taking the long view - that the Messiah has not yet come. To some, the Jews are still in a state of exile, although in a different, more spiritual sense. Yet another group would prefer to use Tisha be-Av to mark more modern catastrophes, such as Hiroshima and the Holocaust - times where a vast number of lives were lost.

These four fast days are merely the strongest reminder that all holidays become slightly obsolete the minute they are attached to a date, and more so over time. One school argues that it will always be necessary to mark an event so that we will never forget it; another school argues that some events may be allowed to fade, so that other milestones may replace them. (See also the discussion of war memorials).

This is not merely a Jewish issue, in short. It affects any culture which marks and celebrates its history. There will never be a simple solution.

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