Dear Friends,
Sometimes we find incredible genius in the simplest matters, like the calendar!
This week in the Torah, we have the privilege of reading a double portion—two Torah portions on one Shabbat instead of only one. We read the final two sections of the Book of Exodus, respectively titled VaYakhel and Pekudei.
Why? Let’s start with some mathematics.
In short, in a normal year such as this, there are more Torah portions than there are weeks in the year. Customarily, there are 54 Torah portions – not including special readings for certain festivals – and there are 52 weeks in a solar year and fewer in a lunar year, which comprises only 154 days, not 165. Furthermore, the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, so it is already a bit condensed. Thus, the rabbinic sages, who designed the system of Torah reading 2000 years ago without the aid of a computer, just with brilliant astronomical calculations, determined a system to keep the Torah readings in sync with the Jewish year. They figured out which months needed 30 days, which needed more or fewer, and how to add an extra, thirteenth month in seven out of 19 years, to intercalate the system so that the lunar and solar calendars would align. And, they did this 1500 years before Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler revolutionized astronomy and launched the heliocentric solar system! In fact, they determined 14 calendrical paradigms through which any given year would fall into one paradigm, hence allowing that, in the first century, the sages could design the Jewish and Torah reading schedule for any year in any century or millennium. Pretty cool! And it has worked for 2000 years and is going strong!
This year, 5783, is a normal year, a Paradigm I year, and is short on weeks for the requisite number of Torah readings. Thus, the rabbis assigned that a number of weeks have doubled-up Torah portions, and they selected this week, when we read the construction details of the ancient Tabernacle, to conjoin a couple portions. In truth, the construction details are rather uninteresting to the modern reader, unless one is a contractor or architect, so it made sense, content-wise. But, structurally, it is a window into the incredible genius of our sages.
To contrast their calculations with our Muslim neighbors, who also live with a lunar calendar but who do not correct and intercalate their calendar, we see that their months migrate backwards two weeks every year. Hence, for instance, Ramadan may fall in the summer or in the winter, either lengthening or shortening the Islamic worshipper’s sacred fast, dependent on the season.
Yet, by the Jewish calendar, Rosh Hashanah is always around September and Pesach in April, though there is a 30-day swing in which the festivals may fall (which is why some might say, "The Holy Days come early – or late – this year!"). Actually, they come right on schedule, every year!
So, this week, we can take our time and read the instructions and dimensions for building the ancient Tabernacle. And, if we have extra reading time, go ahead—it’s a double portion!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
Sometimes we find incredible genius in the simplest matters, like the calendar!
This week in the Torah, we have the privilege of reading a double portion—two Torah portions on one Shabbat instead of only one. We read the final two sections of the Book of Exodus, respectively titled VaYakhel and Pekudei.
Why? Let’s start with some mathematics.
In short, in a normal year such as this, there are more Torah portions than there are weeks in the year. Customarily, there are 54 Torah portions – not including special readings for certain festivals – and there are 52 weeks in a solar year and fewer in a lunar year, which comprises only 154 days, not 165. Furthermore, the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, so it is already a bit condensed. Thus, the rabbinic sages, who designed the system of Torah reading 2000 years ago without the aid of a computer, just with brilliant astronomical calculations, determined a system to keep the Torah readings in sync with the Jewish year. They figured out which months needed 30 days, which needed more or fewer, and how to add an extra, thirteenth month in seven out of 19 years, to intercalate the system so that the lunar and solar calendars would align. And, they did this 1500 years before Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler revolutionized astronomy and launched the heliocentric solar system! In fact, they determined 14 calendrical paradigms through which any given year would fall into one paradigm, hence allowing that, in the first century, the sages could design the Jewish and Torah reading schedule for any year in any century or millennium. Pretty cool! And it has worked for 2000 years and is going strong!
This year, 5783, is a normal year, a Paradigm I year, and is short on weeks for the requisite number of Torah readings. Thus, the rabbis assigned that a number of weeks have doubled-up Torah portions, and they selected this week, when we read the construction details of the ancient Tabernacle, to conjoin a couple portions. In truth, the construction details are rather uninteresting to the modern reader, unless one is a contractor or architect, so it made sense, content-wise. But, structurally, it is a window into the incredible genius of our sages.
To contrast their calculations with our Muslim neighbors, who also live with a lunar calendar but who do not correct and intercalate their calendar, we see that their months migrate backwards two weeks every year. Hence, for instance, Ramadan may fall in the summer or in the winter, either lengthening or shortening the Islamic worshipper’s sacred fast, dependent on the season.
Yet, by the Jewish calendar, Rosh Hashanah is always around September and Pesach in April, though there is a 30-day swing in which the festivals may fall (which is why some might say, "The Holy Days come early – or late – this year!"). Actually, they come right on schedule, every year!
So, this week, we can take our time and read the instructions and dimensions for building the ancient Tabernacle. And, if we have extra reading time, go ahead—it’s a double portion!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
