[Avodah] bavel leadership

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 12:07:51AM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
> AIUI the Tzeduki (and Kara'i) rule is that the Omer is brought on the
> first Sunday of Chag Hamatzos, even if that is the first day...

Naniach the Qaraim. They are /still/ meqadeish al pi re'iyah rather than
a calculated calendar. Some of their "new moon reports" are archived at
<http://www.karaite-korner.org/kknmr.shtml>. (There is also an "Abib
Report" that one could get emailed when someone in Israel reports seeing
yellow barley -- aviv.)

We have evidence of the Tzeduqim having a 364 day calendar. Schiffman
discusses it when discussing the Qumran calendar in "Reclaiming the
Dead Sea Scrolls". (The idea, aside from being Tzeduqi and (?) Qumrani,
is also in the apocryphal Sefer haYovelim.)

Also (more authoritative, but informationally just "indicative"), in Mes'
RH, all the stories about tzeduqim trying to change the date of rosh
chodesh by sending false witnesses early. It's because they had their
own calculations, designed to divide up the months among 264 days.

Perhaps the Tzeduqim still believed that if the Sanhedrin "erred" and
forced another size year, they would have to follow it. That would explain
a rule like the one you describe, but since I learned that the way the
gemara was taught to me when I was a kid doesn't fit their calendar,
I didn't think it was real.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A person must be very patient
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