colector: [Karaite Korner Newsletter] #320: Purim and New Moons

Karaite Korner Newsletter #320

Purim and New Moons

This year the Days of Purim will begin February 21 at sunset and
continue for forty-eight hours until Feb 23 at sunset.

Some people have written asking why the Rabbinical calendar puts Purim
a month later in March, corresponding to the Thirteenth Biblical
Month. This is a good question to direct to a rabbi. As for the
Karaite Jews, we simply observe the celebration as described in the
Tanach which puts it in the Twelfth Biblical Month, known in the
Babylonian calendar as Adar (Esther 9:21). We can never know whether a
Hebrew year will have 12 or 13 months until searching for the Aviv
Barley at the end of the 12th month. If we were to postpone Purim
until the 13th month we might end up missing it in many years since
not all Hebrew years have a 13th month.

Another question we received was about the list of predicted New Moon
sightings at:
http://www.karaite-korner.org/holiday_dates.shtml
One gentleman wrote: "According to my Farmer's Almanac, the crescent
moon will not be old enough to be seen the evening of March 7th even
on the east coast of the United States. Is your date of 3/8/2008 in
error? Or do you mean that the crescent will be visible on the 8th
after sunset (Saturday evening)? Some of us are not sure what you are
telling us in your New Moons chart."

One cannot really predict New Moon visibility based on the "age" of
the moon so a Farmer's Almanac should be taken with a grain of salt.
Also, the visibility predictions on the website are for the Land of
Israel, not the United States. In any event, when we say the moon will
be visible on March 8 we mean at sunset on March 8, not at sunset on
March 7. The New Moon sighting is a short event which takes place in
the evening so we decided to give the actual Gregorian date on which
this event takes place. In contrast, the list with the Dates of
Biblical Holidays gives the Gregorian date when the bulk of holiday
takes place which is during the day, even though the holiday begins
the previous evening at sunset. So for example, assuming Aviv is not
found, Shavuot will begin at sunset on June 14 and continue until
sunset on June 15. It can be confusing dealing with Gregorian dates
but this is part of our Exilic condition. May Yehovah redeem us and
may the Temple be rebuilt speedily and in our days, Amen!

Nehemia Gordon
Jerusalem, Israel