[Avodah] Shaos Eretz Yisroel (EY zeiger) - offlist comments

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, May 01, 2008 at 02:42:34AM +1000, RSBA forwarded:
: L'koved yoshka pundera their mamzer god whom they claim was born at 12.00
: midnight. 

This is wrong in a number of ways.
- They don't have such a claim.
- Days started at midnight before Xianity.

Actually, they started counting hours during the day, when sundials are
usable. (The Mitzriyim were the first to have an hour of 1/12 of a day.)

On a sundial, there are three significant times: most easy are to
determine sunrise and sunset. But they vary a lot over the year.
Noon moves only due to the equation of time (the analemma, see
<http://www.analemma.com> which has both videos and math), and shifts
by the same amount regardless of where you are on the globe.

And so, sundials measured time in relation to noon. Thus creating
AM and PM, and when they went from having the day run from -6 (6 hours
AM), to -5.... 0, 1, 2... to having the hours go upward, they kept
noon at the origin.

In short, midnight is 12:00 because it's opposite noon. Nothing to do
with Yeishu.

Sort of.

There is a connection, I think.

I noticed the following correspondences between the start of the year,
and the start of the day.

The Jewish chol year starts in the fall, just as it starts getting
darker, and our day starts at sunset.

The sacred year starts in Nissan, and for avodas hamiqdash, the day
starts at sunrise.

The Gregorian year starts in the depth of winter (originally on the
solstice itself) and the day starts at midnight.

The Chinese year starts R"Ch Adar (and in shanos me'ubaros, usually
Adar II) give or take our dechuyos, and their day starts at dawn.

There se3ems to be a constant thread about the year and the day
starting at corresponding points in the day-night cycle.

The mythical date of Yeishu's birth is set to what was once the start
of their year, which I just related to the start of their day. So,
their use of midnight might not be a consequence of the time of day they
claim he was born, but perhaps it shares a common cause with the *date*
they claim he was born on.

:  RUBBISH When I was at Ponevez Yeshivah, a Yerushalmi Bochur, Yankl Seckbach
: (he is still around amve"sh), who still remembered its use, told me that the
: Etz Chaim Yeshiva switched to the European Zeiger in 1948.  The reason was
: that most of the homes had already changed and it was being used as an
: excuse for coming late.  The system (still used in Saudi Arabia!!!)...

You can find "arab time" on Google. It is still known, if not used as
the primary clock, in much of the Moslem world.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 12th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        1 week and 5 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Hod sheb'Gevurah: What aspect of judgment
Fax: (270) 514-1507                  forces the "judge" into submission?