Why does the Jewish leap year always consist of two Adars? Why specifically Adar?
Menachem
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Synopsis: We cited several sources for the law that we intercalate only Adar, including the Bavli (Rosh Hashanah 7a and Sanhedrin 12a), Yerushalmi (Sanhedrin 1:2), and Rambam (Hilchot Kiddush HaChodesh 4:1). However, your question is a good one: Why?
Tosafot (Sanhedrin 12a) offers a scriptural reason: to ensure that Adar will remain the twelfth month, as it is referred to in Megillat Esther (3:7).
We noted the reason for any intercalation – the 11-day discrepancy between the lunar and solar years. The lunar year is 354 days, which is the approximate time it takes for 12 new moons to occur. The solar year is 365 days, which is the approximate time it takes for the Earth to complete one solar revolution. Thus, every several years, an extra month is added to the Jewish lunar year, allowing the lunar and solar years to be in sync and ensuring that the holidays are celebrated in their correct seasons.
The only logical month to intercalate is Adar. If Nissan or Iyar were intercalated, we would be presented with a problem when counting the omer. We count 49 days starting on the second day of Passover, Nissan 16, until the omer’s conclusion at Shavuot, the 6th day of Sivan. If we were to add a month anywhere between the two, Shavuot would no longer occur in Sivan, the third month. While Shavuot is not necessarily required to fall on a fixed day, parshat Yitro (Exodus 19:1) specifically states that the giving of the Torah is in the third month, and as such, the festival Shavuot – called z’man matan Torateinu, the time of our being given the Torah – must fall in Sivan.
Last week, we examined scriptural mentions of specific dates for the other holidays. Parshat Pinchas (Numbers 29:1-12) tells us that Rosh Hashana is on the first day of the seventh month [Tishrei], Yom Hakipurim on the tenth day of the seventh month, and Sukkot on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. If we were to intercalate any of the months preceding these festivals, they would not occur in the seventh month as the Torah mandates.
The Gemara (Rosh Hashana 7a) intimates that we only intercalate right before Nissan because the Torah instructs (Deuteronomy 16:1) that the Passover festival must occur in springtime. Rambam specifies that we make two Adars, Adar Rishon [first] and Adar Beit [second], to prevent Passover from falling sometimes in the winter and sometimes in the summer. Pirush Rabbeinu Ovadia adds that in Adar, the beit din examines the crops to see whether the wheat has already ripened, a sign that spring has arrived, thus negating any need to intercalate that year.
Thus, there are biblical citations and sources to rely upon. Why does Tosafot seek out a verse in Esther?
Finally, I questioned Tosafot’s citation of the verse where Adar is called the twelfth month, for it seems that the events of Purim happened in a shana peshuta – a simple year of just twelve months. The verse would not have specified that it was the twelfth month in the case of a leap year, in which case Adar would have been the thirteenth month.
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Answer: My understanding as to the year in question, with the events leading up to Haman’s evil edict against the Jews with the complicit approval of Ahasueros, the King of Persia, is that it was a shana peshuta, a simple year of twelve months, and not a shana me’uberet, a leap year with one extra month – Adar II. My reasoning for this assumption is that I did not find any indication anywhere in Megillat Esther or in the Talmud that it was a leap year.
I did find one source, Rabbi Yosef Grossman, zt”l, (Otzar Erchei HaYahadut p. 28 – “Adar Sheni”), who says the following: “The reason for the importance of Adar Sheni [as relates to the reason we celebrate Purim and observe the related mitzvot as well as read the special parshiyot during that month and not during Adar Rishon] is that Haman’s evil edict against the Jews was issued during Adar Sheni. This means that it was a leap year consisting of thirteen months.”
Yet, after a thorough search, I could not find the source upon which Rabbi Grossman based his conclusion. And as previously mentioned, I find Tosafot (Sanhedrin 12a, previously cited) problematic – specifically their statement that we are to intercalate only in Adar based on the verse in Esther (3:7) that the twelfth month is Adar. Perhaps this statement means that in that particular year the twelfth month was Adar, but not that this is a requirement for each year.
According to Rabbi Grossman, and based on the Gemara’s conclusion that Purim and the associated mitzvot are celebrated and observed during the Adar [sheni] closest to Nissan, Adar [Sheni] is actually the thirteenth month. Even so, Tosafot’s conclusion is that it is the twelfth month; they use this determination as proof that intercalation is to take place only in Adar so that it would remain the twelfth month. This reasoning differs from the Gemara (Rosh Hashana 7a), which states that we intercalate only right before Nissan because the Torah, in parshat Re’eh (Deuteronomy 16:1), instructs: “You shall observe the month of springtime and perform the paschal offering….” This verse is a clear indication that the Passover festival must occur in springtime – aviv.
(To be continued)
