[Avodah] Birkas haChama

[Micha Berger]

On Sat, Aug 30, 2008 at 11:41:07PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
: 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.

But it's not a minhag. It's a din derabbanan described by the beraisia on
RH 11b, as explained by Abayei (with no choleqim).

I don't know what calendar was in use in EY when the beraisa was written,
but Abayei's 4th cent CE Bavel was not using the Julian calendar. OTOH,
Shemu'el wasn't born yet when the din was already recorded. So, making
the argument that the beraisa was using his tequfah because it was
his (IOW, one of Jewish use) is non-trivial. One would have to argue
that the computation based on the 365-1/4 estimate predated the rav
who expounded/advocated it and got his name associated with it. (Like
"Rashi" and "Rabbeinu Tam" tefillin.) Admittedly, a dochaq.

But if Abayei was defining a way to fulfill the beraisa, it's far more
likely his Talmidim were aware of tequfas Shemu'el than kept track of
the Julian calendar.

Aside from the fact that assuming they thought it was okay to use the
Julian calendar makes much of subsequent halachic discussion about whether
or not one may celebrate a secular date is permissable (to be revisited
here in November, it's part of the annual pre-Thanksgiving disscussion)
somewhat difficult to fathom.

Tangent:
The Zorastrians and Parsis had their own calendar, established by Ardashir
I (who was establishing a new dynasty, the Sassanid; early 3rd cent CE),
which was 365 days exactly, with seasons drifting by 1/4 day per year. In
the 12th cent CE they added the lost month as a one-time effort, and in
1745 there was a split over the innovation by the Qadmi of a calendar
with Julian-style leap days. (Culling from wikipedia.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "Man wants to achieve greatness overnight,
micha at aishdas.org        and he wants to sleep well that night too."
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