[Avodah] Birkas haChama

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Micha Berger wrote:
> Rather, Shemu'el happened to use the same 365-1/4 estimate
> that the Romans did. It's a logical enough estimate. Common
> cause with the Julian calendar, not ancestry from it.

R' Zev Sero responded:
> The advantage of cheshbon Shmuel is that you don't need to
> calculate it, you just need to look at a goyishe calendar,
> or ask a goy what date it is.

Not exactly. If one chooses to "just look at a goyishe calendar", he has to be aware of how goyishe leap years work. It is far too easy for us (who lived in the 1900s and 2000s) to forget this, but the year 1900 was NOT a leap year.

I'm sure there were many people in the very early 1900s, who relied on what was printed in their late-1800s siddur, and ended up messing up Tal Umatar by one day.

Akiva Miller

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