[Avodah] Vizhnitz Rebbe Asks Chasidim To Make Kiddush This Shabbos Between 6 And 7

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Dec 28, 2020 at 10:25:07AM -0500, Zev Sero via Avodah wrote:
> Actually we probably would, if the Gregorian adjustment had been in effect
> when we adopted this practice.

> The reason we do it this way, even though we have always known it to be
> imprecise, is probably because it's easy to keep track of via the Goyishe
> calendar.  We switch on Nov 23 (or 24 if it's going to be a leap year -- and
> remember that at that time the year didn't change until *after* February),
...

If this were so, wouldn't it be even easier to just make it a consistent
Nov 23, rather than knowing that later that year would be a leap day?

Not that it actually was the same year by around Hillel and Shammai's day.
The New Year in Rome was moved from a year that ended on Teminalia
(23 Feb) back in a time when Rome had 10 fixed months, leap months,
and a mess that contemporary theories disagree about the details of.
By the time we get to the Julian calendar, February was the following
Julian year from whenever we started saying vesein tal umatar.

Also, tequfas Shemu'el was named for a resident of Nahardaa and we are
talking about its use for when people in Bavel should change the nusach.
So, the relevant local non-Jews were using the Zoroastrian calendar,
not the Julian one. During Shemu'el's lifetime or so, Arashir I,
the founder of the Sasanian Empire, took the year from 360 days, 30
per month, to a 365 day year by adding 5 extra Gatha days not in any
month. No connection to leap days.

I think it's just that an error of 3 days or so every 400 years was good
enough for both the Romans and Shemuel. Common cause, rather than one
copying the other.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 The mind is a wonderful organ
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   for justifying decisions
Author: Widen Your Tent      the heart already reached.
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF