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calculating the beginnings of the seasons and did so by considering traditional astronomical figures, the religious requirements of Passover, and the natural conditions of the country, such as the ripening of barley in the fields, the state of the winter rains, etc. |
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Political conditions in Judaea, however, became a major complication. The Roman occupation of the area provoked an interminable series of terrorist acts and revolts, which culminated in a Roman expedition that destroyed Jerusalem and the second Temple and scattered Jews from the country. The Jews had established the synagogue system during the Babylonian Captivity as a parallel means of maintaining cultural contact and political control and used it again. |
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The observationintercalation system continued to be used for the next three centuries, with the Sanhedrin acting as before, while the synagogues played a greater role in distributing and collecting information. |
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Conditions in the Roman empire, however, continued to deteriorate as politics became increasingly a religious matter. By the fourth century A.D., the continued existence of the Sanhedrin itself was in question. |
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At this time, the patriarch Hillel II made a revolutionary decision. To prevent the celebration of Jewish days of observance from being fragmented without central control, Hillel made public the system of calendar calculation, which had been a closely guarded secret. In a manner reminiscent of the evolution of computer networks, control passed from the Sanhedrin mainframe, to become realized as a uniform protocol, distributed through the synagogue nodes. |
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This decision had a number of far-reaching consequences. First, all months were sanctified in advance, and all future leap years were intercalated in advance. Hence, in order to maintain control, the calendar was forced to become completely computational and no longer relied on direct observation. |
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It is important to note, however, that the decision to switch from an observational to a computational calendar was made as a consequence of political duress, not from any desire to improve the calendar for scientific reasons. Thus, this distribution of control was explicitly made on a conditional basis. The calendar exists in its current form until a new, recognized Sanhedrin should be established in Israel and resume its former role. |
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Thus, the second major consequence of this decision is the fact that the calendar is, in one sense, only a provisional construction. In practice, this provisional status has meant very little for many centuries. The establishment of the state of Israel in A.D. 1948, however, has renewed argument, particularly among conservatives, that the issue of calendar reform should be considered once again. The fact that the calendar is drifting out of synchronization with the seasons lends astronomical weight to the religious argument. |
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The degree of urgency of calendar reform is a matter of individual perception and interpretation. Passover continues to be celebrated in spring and will be for several thousand years to come. The issue, therefore, revolves around religious issues and politics, which is a volatile mixture at best. |
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