Recap of our discussion, 8th of Adar I, 5774 (Parsha Tetzaveh)

This week we have our Kiddush and learning of Parsha Tetzaveh, and a special Kiddush for the Yahrzeit of Norm’s father, Baruch ben Yitzhak.  May his memory be a blessing.  Norm offers up some torah, that unlike the other parshas, Moshe’s name is not included in this week’s parsha.  The reason for this being that Moshe tells Hashem to erase his name from the Torah, if the Jewish people are not going to be forgiven for their sins, the main sin being the sin of the Golden Calf.

David leads discussion of this week’s parsha Tetaveh.  Hashem’s instructions for the menorah seem to be out of place in the week’s parsha.  We discussed how in general the Torah may not be written in chronological order when Hashem wants us to learn something related to the current parsha.  We discussed how in this week’s parsha, the menorah symbolizes the light which the Torah beams onto a dark world, and how the menorah symbolizes the foundation that we need before we can start offering sacrifices in the temple.  

This foundation is the mitzvahs as conveyed in the Torah that Moses receives and transmits to us.

We discussed how there is a “curtain” between the menorah, which represents this foundation, and the arc, which represents Hashem’s role in the world.  David pointed out how we need to focus on what we are suppose to be doing – the mitzvah – and not worry so much about Hashem and what his role is.  We also discussed how we need to practice spirituality by doing mitzvah and following commandments, before we start practicing spirituality by wearing jewelry and offering sacrifices.

We discussed how Moses wants so much to be spiritual and carry out the will of Hashem, he is unhappy that the temple roles are assigned to his brother Aron.  It isn’t so much that Moses is jealous, he just wants so  much to reach the next level.  Moses does not realize the huge importance of his own role, receiving the Torah, being our leader, and transmitting the Torah to us.  It is interesting how Aron is actually assigned the job of lighting the menorah, which symbolizes that our foundation must come first.

This Shabbos we also continue our discussion of our calendar.  Our months are normally 29 or 30 days, although sometimes there are extra days to ensure that holidays fall on certain days.  The result is that our years (non-leap year) are usually 354 days, with some 353 and 355 day years.  Our calendar still uses the solar year, of approximately 365.25 years, so that we need to make up the short fall of approximately 11 days by having leap years, which will increase the length of the year by 30 days.

In ancient times we would add the extra month whenever it appeared that Pesach in Israel would be coming too early.  This extra month is called Adar II, and becomes the main month.  Purim occurs on the 14th of Adar II during leap years, and occurs on the 14th of Adar I during non leap years.  During leap years, we observe Purim Katan on the 14th of Adar I.

In modern times,  we add this month on the 3^rd, 6^th, 8^th, 11^th, 14^th, 17^th, and 19^th year, of a 19 year cycle.  Every 19 years we need to make up approximately 19 times 11 equal 209 days.  We make up this shortfall by adding in 7 months of 30 days, every 19 years.  There are some complexities with the calendar and the total number of days per year can vary which is why 209 divided by 7 is not exactly 30.  

We discussed how with the solar calendar, a year is approximately 365.25 days.  We have a leap year every 4 years, so that 3 years are 365 days and a 4rth year is 366 days.  Having said this, it actually is more complicated and we do have to make adjustments every 100 and 400 years, because a year is not exactly 365.25 days, it is actually approximately 365.2422 days, and this is still aproximate!

This is a summary of what we discussed this past Shabbos.  No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.