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month calendar. However, when
Palestine became a Roman prov
ince, the conquerors very often in
terfered with the observance of
Jewish laws and customs. They
even prevented the Sanhedrin from
carrying out its duties and func
tions.
Because of these handicaps, Jew
ish communities outside of Pales
tine were left on many occasions in
doubt as to the time of festivals
and fasts. For example, during the
patriarchate of Rabbi Judah I, sur-
named “the Holy” (163-193), the
Samaritans, in order to confuse
the Jews, set up fire-signals at im
proper times and thus caused the
Jews to fall into error with regard
to the day of the New Moon. Since
the observance of all the holidays
was calculated from Rosh Chodesh
(New Moon), Rabbi Judah decided
to abolish the use of fire-signals
and employed messengers.
Doubts still arose in many in
stances and the custom was then
introduced to add an extra day to
the observance of the various fes
tivals. Hence, although the Bible
commands that Passover be ob
served for seven days, it was de
cided to celebrate the festival for
eight days. In this way, it was
hoped to correct any miscalculation
that might have been made. In
cidentally, this system has pre
vailed up to the present time, al
though we now have a systematized
Hebrew calendar.
It was becoming apparent that
there was need for a permanent
calendar table. One of the first
rabbis whose studies helped in the
final creation of the Jewish calen
dar, as we know it, was Samuel,
who was born in Nehardea, Baby
lonia, about 165 and died there
about 257. It was said of him that
he was as familiar with the paths
of the heavens as he was with the
streets of his native city.
Besides being a noted rabbi,
Samuel possessed a thorough
knowledge of medicine as it was
known in his times, being especial
ly skillful in the treatment of the
eye. He devoted himself to that
branch of applied astronomy which
deals with calendric science, which
he taught to his pupils and col
leagues. His astronomical studies
of the revolutions of the moon en
abled him to predict the beginning
of the month as determined in
Palestine, and he claimed to be able
to remove the necessity of cele
brating the extra day of festivals
in the Diaspora. He also computed
a sixty-year calendar. Samuel was
also known by the surname of
Yahchina’ah, from the Hebrew
“yerech,” meaning “month” be
cause of his familiarity with calen
dric science.
Under the patriarchate of Judah
the Prince (300-330), astronomical
calculations began to be used and
the testimony of witnesses regard
ing the appearance of the New
Moon was listened to only as a for
mality. The idea of utilizing as
tronomic calculations was viewed
with disfavor by some members of
The Southern Israelite
the Sanhedrin, especially Rabbi
Jose, who communicated with the
Jewish communities of Babylonia
and Alexandria, urging that they
continue to follow the custom of
celebrating an extra day on festi
vals, advice which is still being fol
lowed by Orthodox and Conser
vative Jews but which has been
abrogated by the Reform move
ment.
Finally, in the fourth century,
the patriarch Hillel the Second,
wrote down definite rules and had
them adopted by the Jewish com
munities of the world. Hillel’s cal
endar was not new or different
from that observed by Jews up to
his time. All he actually did was
to commit to writing the customs
and regulations governing the cal
endar of the Jewish people.
A basic rule of Hillel’s calendar
5710 ROSH HASHANAH 1949-1950
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