This Shabbat, we not only begin a new book of Torah – Vayikra, Leviticus – but also observe Shabbat Zachor – the Shabbat of Remembering, when we read the commandments
Judaism connects Passover with spring, as follows: “Observe the month of Abib and offer a Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, for it was in the month of Abib, at night, that the Lord your God freed you from Egypt” (Deut. 16.1). Because the word “Abib” is used in scripture to describe the ripening of the barley crop (see Exodus 9.31, which speaks of the hail plague as destroying the barley crop because the barley was “Abib” “in the ear”), and because barley ripens in the spring, it is clear that Passover is to be observed in the spring (no surprise to modern Hebrew speakers, as “Aviv” means “spring” in Hebrew). Just how to ensure that Passover is in the spring is mentioned in the Talmud, which speaks about tinkering with the month of Adar with this end in mind (see Tractate Sanhedrin 13.b). In practice Adars are doubled, and so Jewish leap years have 13 months, the last two being Adar I and Adar II. There are about 354-and-a-third days in a lunar year and ab
Ever since Iran started seeking nuclear weapons, Israel obviously made itself the most prominent player in opposing this aspiration. According to foreign reports, it did