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Adar I - The Leap Month (1)

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Translated and adapted by Rav Eliezer Kwass

          The second Adar, essential to the Jewish calendar system, is the subject of a number of halakhic discussions.  Some of them were dealt with in Rav Yair Kahn's article, sent out through the VBM several weeks ago.  Whereas Rav Kahn's article focuses on the mitzvot relating specifically to Purim, Rav Tabory's also relates to other halakhot that could be affected by the leap year (contracts, bar mitzva, yahrzeit, etc.). 

INTRODUCTION

          The Jewish calendar year is based on the movements of both the moon and the sun.  Months are naturally measured by the cycle of the moon, while years and seasons follow the sun.  Whereas a purely solar calendar must arbitrarily chop up a 365-day year into twelve pieces in order to create months, and a purely lunar calendar must arbitrarily pick some quantity of months to measure years, the Jewish calendar balances lunar months with solar years.

          This fulfills the biblical command to ensure that Pesach always comes out in the spring: "Keep the holiday of the spring."  If a purely lunar calendar were followed, the season within which Pesach falls would gradually drift away from spring, moving from season to season about every nine years (a twelve lunar-month year falls eleven days short of a 365-day solar year).  Periodically adding an extra month to the year aligns the lunar calendar with the solar. 

          The first Adar is this extra month.  When the months were sanctified monthly (kiddush ha-chodesh) by the Sanhedrin, the Sages would convene before Nisan and decide (based on seasonal indicators) whether to add a month to the year.  In a permanent calendar system (whose foundations were set up by the amora Hillel the Third - 359 CE), an extra Adar is added in seven out of every nineteen years.

          In years with two Adars, a number of questions naturally arise.  In which of the two Adars is Purim celebrated?  When does someone born in Adar become a bar mitzva?  When is the yahrzeit of one who passed away in Adar commemorated?  Does the technical term "year" (in contracts, vows, etc.) include both Adars or finish after twelve months? 

PURIM

          The mishna (Megilla 6b) deals directly with the laws relating to Purim during a leap year:

"If the Megilla was read in Adar I and then the year was declared a leap year (another month was added), it is read again in Adar II.  The only difference between Adar I and Adar II is with regard to reading the Megilla and giving presents to the poor (matanot la-evyonim)."

The gemara quotes a dispute among the tanna'im about whether the obligation to read the megilla can be fulfilled in Adar I or only in Adar II (and therefore, as the mishna says, must be read again in Adar II even though it was already read in Adar I). 

          The mishna refers to a leap year declared by the Sanhedrin after the megilla had already been read in the first Adar.  What is the halakha now that we work with a fixed calendar?  Both tanna'im in the gemara agree that one who reads the megilla in Adar II has fulfilled his obligation.  The whole discussion there is whether one who has already read it in Adar I has fulfilled his obligation post facto.  Therefore, in a situation where we have a choice between the two Adars, it is clear that Megilla reading and matanot la-evyonim should be done in Adar II.

          The dispute between the tanna'im about when to read the megilla when there are two Adars stems from how they each understand the verse "[to keep the fourteenth ... and the fifteenth ...] every year" (Esther 9:21).  The basic implication of this verse is that a year that has two Adars should be similar (based on "every year") to the rest of the years.  The tanna'im argue about HOW they should be similar.  One tanna understands that just like every year the Megilla is read in the month that immediately follows Shevat, so too in a leap year it should be read in Adar I.  The other holds that just like every year the Megilla is read in the month immediately preceding Nissan, so it should be read during a leap year.

          The gemara then proceeds to put forward a further rationale for each of the two opinions.  It should be read in Adar I, they say, because a mitzva should be done at the first possible opportunity. According to the other opinion, Purim should be juxtaposed, as much as possible, to Pesach, based on the principle that the two holidays of redemption should be adjacent to each other.

          If there is already a way of supporting each opinion based on halakhic principles, why must the gemara also bring  their proofs from the verse?  Apparently, without the verse "every year," we would have thought that we are obligated to read the Megilla TWICE during a leap year, to fulfill both of the halakhic principles.  Based on the verse, we only read once; the question which the gemara then answers is: which month?

          What about the prohibition against fasting (ta'anit) and eulogies (hesped) on Purim?  What about the mitzva to be joyous (simcha) on Purim?  Do these also apply only to Adar II or do they apply to Purim in Adar I (what we call Purim Katan) too? 

          Three opinions appear in the rishonim about the status of Purim Katan:

1.  The Tosafot say that there is a prohibition against eulogies but no mitzva to be joyous.

2.  The Rosh says that the mitzva of joy and the prohibition against eulogies are linked and both do NOT apply to Adar I.

3.  The Ran takes the opposite approach.  He agrees with the Rosh that simcha and hesped go hand in hand, however he holds that both DO apply in Adar I.

          By examining other laws which are affected by the leap year, we will gain a better understanding of its nature and consequently the dispute regarding Purim Katan will become clearer too.

VOWS - NEDARIM

          The gemara (Nedarim 63a) deals with one who vowed in Adar not to drink wine "for a full year."  If the year was subsequently made into a leap year, must he keep his vow for only twelve months (a "year" = 12 months, ending in Adar I) or must he keep a full thirteen months (a "year" includes the leap month) ending in Adar II.  The mishna says that it depends on the terminology he uses in his vow.  The term "year" includes the leap month; "until Rosh Chodesh" means until Rosh Chodesh of the FIRST Adar, and "until the end of Adar" implies until the end of the SECOND Adar. 

          The gemara also asks about one who, in formulating his vow, says "Adar," yet does not specify which Adar he is referring to.  The same passage deals with a parallel issue in the writing of contracts - does "Adar" (unspecified) refer to the first or the second Adar?

          The gemara concludes by distinguishing between a case when the person using the word Adar knows about the leap year and when he does not.  People who know about the leap year refer to Adar II by just using the word Adar without specifying; those who do not are referring to Adar when it first appears - Adar I. 

          To understand this, it is crucial to differentiate between two separate issues:

1. Which Adar is, objectively, the real Adar of the calendar.

2. What people mean when they use the word "Adar" without specifying. 

          Only this second question is the focus of the gemara in Nedarim.  The content of a vow is totally dependent on what a person's intention is.  This is the foundation of the Talmud's axiom to follow the commonly understood meaning of human speech (and not necessarily a word's biblical or halakhic meaning) when determining what a person's vow means.  The rules of vows and contracts can therefore be viewed independently of some of the other issues that we will discuss.

SELLING AND RENTING

          The mishna in Bava Metzia 102, discussing rental for a year during a leap year, seems also to be based on subjective criteria - when a rental agreement states "a year," do the two parties intend to include the second Adar or not?

          Another issue, the sale of homes in walled cities, might shed light on whether the halakha objectively defines a year to include the leap month or not. One who sells a home in a walled city has one year within which he can force the buyer to sell it back to him at the same price.  The mishna (Erkhin 31a) rules that in a leap year the seller has THIRTEEN months to do this.  The gemara bases this on the Torah's expression, "a complete year" (shana temima - Vayikra 25:30). 

          This does not necessarily solve our problem.  Perhaps a year in halakha does not, in general, include the leap month, but the special expression, "temima," indicates that the rule of sales in walled cities is unique.  Consequently, the Rashba (Nedarim 63a) infers that the Torah's year in general is only twelve months, even in a leap year.  The Ran explores the possibility that the Torah's year during a leap year is indeed thirteen months long and offers an alternative explanation for the special need to indicate this in the law of walled cities. (See his comments on Nedarim 63a.)

BAR MITZVA

          Several rishonim discuss how the leap year affects the date of a child's bar mitzva.  There are three possible situations which need to be examined: 

1. The child is born in Adar of a regular year and he becomes bar mitzva in a leap year;

2. He is born in a leap year and becomes bar mitzva in a normal year; 

3. Both the year he is born in and the one within which he becomes bar mitzva are leap years.

          1. The Shulchan Arukh (OC 55:10) states that the leap year is considered thirteen months long with regard to bar mitzva.  The Rema (OC 55:11) quotes the Mahari Mintz who explicitly rules that a child born in Adar of a regular year becomes bar mitzva in Adar II of the leap year.  [As a prooftext, the rishonim quote the Yerushalmi at the end of Ketubot 1:2 which implies that a young girl's basic physical maturity (after three years old) will naturally modify itself in order to fit in with the leap year.  The gemara's solution to the conflict between the physical and the calendar reality is a supernatural one: the physical reality models the calendar one.  The same thing must be true of bar mitzva, for thirteen years old is the default age for a boy's maturation.] 

          The Peri Chadash quotes a dissenting opinion, that in Adar I the boy physically matures.  Some, in order to account for this opinion, make sure that a child in such a situation already keeps mitzvot a month earlier than his real bar mitzva.  [See Responsa Beit Shlomo, Even Ha'ezer # 56.] 

          2. If a child is born in Adar II and his bar mitzva takes place in a year with only one Adar, he becomes bar mitzva in Adar and not Nisan.  A curious outcome of this halakha (Shulchan Arukh OC 55:11) is that a child who is "younger" can become bar mitzva before an older one.  A child born on 6 Adar II will become bar mitzva earlier than one born on 7 Adar I of that same year, since in their bar mitzva year there is only one Adar.  [On Erkhin 31b there is a similar discussion with regard to redeeming houses in walled cities.]

          3. Where both the year a child was born in and the year he becomes bar mitzva have two Adars, we would expect a child to become bar mitzva in the same Adar he was born in.  Even if Adar I is considered a second Shevat, it would be inconsistent not to relate to both Adar I's the same way - either both are Shevats or both Adars.  This is the opinion of most acharonim, except for the Magen Avraham.  According to him, no matter which Adar the child was born in, he becomes bar mitzva in Adar II.

          This article continues here.

[This article originally appeared in Daf Kesher #323, Adar I 5752, vol. 4, pp. 30-33.]

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