Intercalation: In its own time? (San 12)

Today’s daf includes a heated debate about questions related to “intercalation.” Who can determine a leap month? Where? When? For what reasons? One of the overriding themes of this elaborate discussion is that intercalation must take place in its own time. In other words, there is a time and a place for determining a leap year…

The place: Judea (11b3)
The time: After Rosh HaShanah and before the 30th of Adar

Of course, there are exceptions...If, for instance, you are concerned that the ruling government in your land might outlaw intercalation proceedings in the coming year, you may determine a leap year before Rosh Hashanah. If this is the case, it is advisable to send a message in a secret code so that the government doesn’t figure out what’s going on… An example of such a secret code may be:

“a pair was returning from Rakas and an eagle captured it” (12a2).

This obviously means that this year should be a leap year. Duh.

Joking aside, some of the reasons for determining the calendar “in its own time” are both practical and compelling. If, for example, the community were experiencing a famine one should not declare a leap year, for such a decision would force the people to delay the harvest of Passover an extra month (12a1)

Additionally, we are taught that we should not determine a leap year this year for the benefit of a future year (12a2 footnote 30). In other words, we shouldn’t declare a leap year in order to “fix” the future calendar for matters of convenience or personal preference.

These reasons actually make a lot of sense to my modern mind. It goes without saying that we should put the needs of the hungry in our midst before issues of the calendar. The “convenience” argument discussed in 12a2, however, is one that I think many Reform Jews are struggling with today. In the process of determining what elements of Jewish tradition are relevant in our lives, there is a great temptation to fall into the trap of “convenient Judaism.” I often wonder if some of the practices I have adopted are meaningful and mindful attempts to bring Judaism into the modern world, or if they are just more convenient.

Shockingly, or not, today you can simply ask Google what the calendar will be like, in oh, lets say the year 9999 (6238 on the Gregorian calendar). Note: you can also export this calendar to Outlook, Apple Ical, Google, etc… In creating this calendar, we have actually done exactly what the Rabbis in Sanhedrin are warning us not to do!

Though I am not advocating going back to the method suggested in Sanhedrin, I think the Rabbis have a lot to teach us about mindfulness and the value of making decisions “in their own time.” Though we might be able to determine the lunar cycle years in advance, we have no way of determining when there will be hunger in our midst or a bad agriculture season. Today, the rabbis taught me to make an effort to step outside my own prescribed calendar of Jewish practice, and try to live and experience each moment.