[Avodah] What date was the Torah given?

[Lisa Liel]

On 1/2/2013 12:35 PM, Zev Sero wrote:
> On 2/01/2013 11:30 AM, Akiva Miller wrote:
>> Shtaros? The practice of dating all legal documents seems quite ancient.
>
> But no more ancient than the calendar itself, which was only two 
> months old
> at the time.
>
>> So if they knew Asher's birthday, the date of Matan Torah would
>> presumably be even more memorable, as R' Marty Bluke asked.
>
> They knew the date of matan torah with no less certainty than they knew
> the date of Asher's birth!

Why?  Matan Torah is dated relative to Pesach.  Asher's birth wasn't 
relative to anything.  So there'd have been a reason to remember the 
date of Asher's birth, and no need to remember the date of Matan Torah.

>
> On 2/01/2013 12:28 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
>> 8:4,5,14. I assumed, though, that dates before HQBH handed Benei Yisrael
>> control of the luach, there was an objective and automatic definition
>> of these dates.
>
> Or even that these dates are all arrived at by projecting the calendar
> backwards, just as we speak of dates BCE.  (Have you heard about the coin
> that was found, dated "50 BC"? :-) )

Encyclopedia Brown, yes?

Lisa