[Avodah] Birkas haChama

[Zev Sero]

kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
> 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.

In the Julian calendar it was.  The minhag developed when the goyim used
the Julian calendar, and so relying on cheshbon Shmuel made things easy.
Nobody predicted that the goyim would change their calendar.


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas