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Adar
Adar ( he, אֲדָר ; from Akkadian ''adaru'') is the sixth month of the civil year and the twelfth month of the religious year on the Hebrew calendar, roughly corresponding to the month of March in the Gregorian calendar. It is a month of 29 days. Names and Leap Years The month's name, like all the others from the Hebrew calendar, was adopted during the Babylonian captivity. In the Babylonian calendar the name was Araḫ Addaru or Adār ('Month of Adar'). In leap years, it is preceded by a 30-day intercalary month named Adar Aleph ( he, אדר א׳, Aleph being the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet), also known as "Adar Rishon" (''First Adar'') or "Adar I", and it is then itself called Adar Bet ( he, אדר ב׳, Bet being the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, also known as "Adar Sheni" (''Second Adar'' or "Adar II"). Occasionally instead of Adar I and Adar II, "Adar" and "Ve'Adar" are used (Ve means 'and' thus: And-Adar). Adar I and II occur during February–March o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Purim
Purim (; , ; see Name below) is a Jewish holiday which commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, an official of the Achaemenid Empire who was planning to have all of Persia's Jewish subjects killed, as recounted in the Book of Esther (usually dated to the 5th century BCE). Haman was the royal vizier to Persian king Ahasuerus ( Xerxes I or Artaxerxes I; "Khshayarsha" and "Artakhsher" in Old Persian, respectively). His plans were foiled by Mordecai of the tribe of Benjamin, and Esther, Mordecai's cousin and adopted daughter who had become queen of Persia after her marriage to Ahasuerus. The day of deliverance became a day of feasting and rejoicing among the Jews. According to the Scroll of Esther, "they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor". Purim is celebrated among Jews by: *Exchanging gifts of food and drink, known as *Donating charity to the poor, known as *Eating a celebrato ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hebrew Calendar
The Hebrew calendar ( he, הַלּוּחַ הָעִבְרִי, translit=HaLuah HaIvri), also called the Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today for Jewish religious observance, and as an official calendar of the state of Israel. It determines the dates for Jewish holidays and the appropriate public reading of Torah portions, '' yahrzeits'' (dates to commemorate the death of a relative), and daily Psalm readings, among many ceremonial uses. In Israel, it is used for religious purposes, provides a time frame for agriculture, and is an official calendar for civil holidays, alongside the Gregorian calendar. The present Hebrew calendar is the result of a process of development, including a Babylonian influence. Until the Tannaitic period (approximately 10–220 CE), the calendar employed a new crescent moon, with an additional month normally added every two or three years to correct for the difference between the lunar year of twelve lunar months and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fast Of Esther
The Fast of Esther (', he, תַּעֲנִית אֶסְתֵּר) is a fast from dawn until dusk on Purim eve. This fast, unlike other fasts is a custom. Unlike the other fasts in Judaism, it is not mentioned in the Talmud, but only in the Midrash and later sources from the days of the Gaonim therefore it is considered less severe than the other fasts. Origin and purpose The fast commemorates one of two events in the Book of Esther: either Esther and the Jewish community of Shushan having fasted for 3 days and 3 nights before she approached the king (), or a fast which is presumed to have occurred on the 13th of Adar, when the Jews fought a battle against their enemies. It is a common misconception that this fast dates to the time of Esther. states "They had established for themselves and their descendants the matters of the fasts and their cry", but this refers instead to the fasts mentioned in . The first mention of the fast of Esther is as a minhag that is referenced in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leap Year
A leap year (also known as an intercalary year or bissextile year) is a calendar year that contains an additional day (or, in the case of a lunisolar calendar, a month) added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical year or seasonal year. Because astronomical events and seasons do not repeat in a whole number of days, calendars that have a constant number of days in each year will unavoidably drift over time with respect to the event that the year is supposed to track, such as seasons. By inserting (called '' intercalating'' in technical terminology) an additional day or month into some years, the drift between a civilization's dating system and the physical properties of the Solar System can be corrected. A year that is not a leap year is a common year. For example, in the Gregorian calendar, each leap year has 366 days instead of 365, by extending February to 29 days rather than the common 28. These extra days occur in each year that is an integer multi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babylonian Calendar
The Babylonian calendar was a lunisolar calendar with years consisting of 12 lunar months, each beginning when a new crescent moon was first sighted low on the western horizon at sunset, plus an intercalary month inserted as needed by decree. The calendar is based on a Sumerian (Third Dynasty of Ur) predecessor preserved in the Umma calendar of Shulgi (c. 21st century BC). Months The year begins in spring, and is divided into ''reš šatti'' "beginning", ''mišil šatti'' "middle", and ''qīt šatti'' "end of the year". The word for "month" was ''arḫu'' (construct state ''araḫ''). The chief deity of the Assyrians is assigned the surplus intercalary month, showing that the calendar originates in Babylonian, and not later Assyrian times. During the 6th century BC Babylonian captivity of the Jews, the Babylonian month names were adopted into the Hebrew calendar. In Iraq and the Levant the Gregorian solar calendar is used with these names replacing the Latin ones as Arabic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babylonian Captivity
The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile is the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon, the capital city of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, following their defeat in the Jewish–Babylonian War and the destruction of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. The event is described in the Hebrew Bible, and its historicity is supported by archaeological and extra-biblical evidence. After the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem, which resulted in tribute being paid by the Judean king Jehoiakim. In the fourth year of Nebuchadnezzar II's reign, Jehoiakim refused to pay further tribute, which led to another siege of the city in Nebuchadnezzar II's seventh year (598/597 BCE) that culminated in the death of Jehoiakim and the exile to Babylonia of his successor Jeconiah, his court, and many others; Jeconiah's successor Zedekiah and others were exiled when N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shevat
Shevat (Hebrew: שְׁבָט, Standard ''Šəvaṭ'', Tiberian ''Šeḇāṭ''; from Akkadian ''Šabātu'') is the fifth month of the civil year starting in Tishre (or Tishri) and the eleventh month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar starting in Nisan. It is a month of 30 days. Shevat usually occurs in January–February on the Gregorian calendar. The name of the month was taken from the Akkadian language during the Babylonian Captivity. The assumed Akkadian origin of the month is Šabātu meaning strike that refers to the heavy rains of the season. In Biblical sources, the month is first mentioned by this name in the book of prophet Zechariah ( Zechariah 1:7). Holidays in Shevat * 15 Shevat – Tu Bishvat Shevat in Jewish history and tradition *1 Shevat – Moses repeats the Torah (Deuteronomy 1:3) *2 Shevat (circa 1628 BC) – Asher born *10 Shevat (1950) - Death of the Previous Rebbe, the 6th Chabad Rebbe. *10 Shevat (1951) the Lubavitcher Rebbe formall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nisan
Nisan (or Nissan; he, נִיסָן, Standard ''Nīsan'', Tiberian ''Nīsān''; from akk, 𒊬𒊒𒄀 ''Nisanu'') in the Babylonian and Hebrew calendars is the month of the barley ripening and first month of spring. The name of the month is an Akkadian language borrowing, although ultimately originates in Sumerian ''nisag'' "first fruits". In the Hebrew calendar it is the first month of the ecclesiastical year, called the "first of the months of the year" (Book of Exodus 12:1-2), "first month" (Ex 12:14), and the month of '' Aviv'' (Ex 13:4) ''ḥōḏeš hā-’āḇîḇ''). It is called Nisan in the Book of Esther in the Tanakh and later in the Talmud, which calls it the "New Year", Rosh HaShana, for kings and pilgrimages. It is a month of 30 days. Nisan usually falls in March–April on the Gregorian calendar. Counting from 1 Tishrei, the civil new year, it would be the seventh month (eighth, in leap year), but in contemporary Jewish culture, both months are viewed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sabbatai Ha-Kohen
Shabbatai ben Meir HaKohen ( he, שבתי בן מאיר הכהן; 1621–1662) was a noted 17th century talmudist and halakhist. He became known as the ''Shakh'' ( he, ש"ך), which is an abbreviation of his most important work, ''Siftei Kohen'' ( he, שפתי כהן) (literally ''Lips of the Priest'') on the Shulchan Aruch. Biography Shabbatai HaKohen was born either in Amstibovo or in Vilna, Lithuania in 1621 and died at Holleschau, Moravia on the 1st of Adar, 1662. He first studied with his father and in 1633 he entered the yeshivah of Rabbi Joshua Höschel ben Joseph at Tykotzin, moving later to Cracow and Lublin, where he studied under Naphtali Cohen. Returning to Vilna, he married the daughter of the wealthy Shimon Wolf, a great-grandson of Moses Isserles, and shortly after was appointed to the Beit Din as one of the assistants of Moses ben Isaac Judah Lima, author of '' Chelkat Mechokek''. In 1655, during fighting between Polish forces and the invading Swedish arm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Temple
The Second Temple (, , ), later known as Herod's Temple, was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem between and 70 CE. It replaced Solomon's Temple, which had been built at the same location in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited by the Kingdom of Judah in and then destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in . Construction on the Second Temple began some time after the Neo-Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Achaemenid Persian Empire; it followed a proclamation by Persian king Cyrus the Great (see Edict of Cyrus) that ended the Babylonian captivity and initiated the return to Zion. In Jewish history, the Second Temple's completion in Persian Judah marks the beginning of the Second Temple period. According to the Bible, the Second Temple was originally a relatively modest structure built by Jews who had returned from exile in Babylon under the authority of Persian-appointed governor Zerubbabel, the grandson of penulti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shekel
Shekel or sheqel ( akk, 𒅆𒅗𒇻 ''šiqlu'' or ''siqlu,'' he, שקל, plural he, שקלים or shekels, Phoenician: ) is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly —and became currency in ancient Tyre and ancient Carthage and then in ancient Israel under the Maccabees. Name The word is based on the Semitic verbal root for "weighing" (''Š-Q-L''), cognate to the Akkadian or , a unit of weight equivalent to the Sumerian . Use of the word was first attested in during the Akkadian Empire under the reign of Naram-Sin, and later in in the Code of Hammurabi. The ''Š-Q-L'' root is found in the Hebrew words for "to weigh" (), "weight" () and "consideration" (). It is cognate to the Aramaic root ''T-Q-L'' and the Arabic ''root Θ-Q-L'' ''ثقل'', in words such as (the weight), (heavy) or (unit of weight). The famous writing on the wall in the Biblical Book of Daniel includes a cryptic use of the word in Ara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Exodus
The Exodus (Hebrew: יציאת מצרים, ''Yeẓi’at Miẓrayim'': ) is the founding myth of the Israelites whose narrative is spread over four books of the Torah (or Pentateuch, corresponding to the first five books of the Bible), namely Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The majority of modern scholars date the composition of the Torah to the Middle Persian Period (5th century BCE). Some of the traditions contributing to this narrative are older, since allusions to the story are made by 8th-century BCE prophets such as Amos and Hosea. The consensus of modern scholars is that the Bible does not give an accurate account of the origins of the Israelites, who appear instead to have formed as an entity in the central highlands of Canaan in the late second millennium BCE from the indigenous Canaanite culture. Most modern scholars believe that the story of the Exodus has some historical basis, but that any such basis has little resemblance to the story told in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
