Adar

 

Adar (Hebrew: אֲדָר, Standard Adar Tiberian ʾĂḏār ; from Akkadian adaru) is the sixth month of the civil year and the twelfth month of the religious year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a winter month of 29 days. In leap years, it is preceded by a 30-day intercalary month named Adar Aleph (Aleph being the first letter of the Jewish alphabet), Adar Rishon (First Adar) or Adar I and it is then itself called Adar Bet (Bet being the second letter of the Jewish Alphabet), Adar Sheni (Second Adar) or Adar II. Occasionally instead of Adar I and Adar II, "Adar" and "Ve'Adar" are used (Ve means 'and' thus: And Adar). Adar I and II occur during February–March on the Gregorian calendar.

Based on a line in the Mishnah declaring that Purim must be celebrated in Adar II in a leap year (Megillah 1:4), Adar I is considered the "extra" month. As a result, someone born in Adar during a non leap year would celebrate his birthday in Adar II during a leap year. However, someone born during either Adar in a leap year will celebrate his birthday during Adar in a non-leap year, except that someone born on 30 Adar I will celebrate his birthday on 1 Nisan in a non-leap year because Adar in a non-leap year has only 29 days.

Holidays in Adar

• Fast of Esther (תענית אסתר‎) – 13 Adar (II) (or 11 Adar when the 13th falls on Shabbat, e.g. in 2007)
• Purim (פורים‎) – 14 or 15 Adar (II)
  • Purim Katan (פורים קטן‎) – 14 or 15 Adar I

Adar in Jewish history

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1 Adar - (1313 BCE) - Plague of Darkness

• The 9th plague to strike the Egyptians for their refusal to release the Children of Israel from slavery -- a thick darkness that blanketed the land so that "no man saw his fellow, and no man could move from his place" (Exodus 10:23) -- commenced on the 1st of Adar, six weeks before the Exodus.
  

1 Adar - (1164) - Death of the Ibn Ezra

• The highly regarded Biblical commentator, Rabbi Avraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra (1089?-1164), died on Adar 1.
  

1 Adar - (circa 1663) - Death of the Shach

• Adar 1 is also the yahrtzeit (anniversary of the death) of the great Halachist Rabbi Shabtai Hakohen Katz (1621-1663?), author of the Siftei Cohen commentary on Rabbi Yosef Karo's Code of Jewish Law. He is known as "Shach" -- an acronym of the name of his work, which serves to this day as a primary source of Halachah (Jewish law).
  

3 Adar - (515 BCE) - Second Temple Completed

• The joyous dedication of the second Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash), built by Ezra on the site of the 1st Temple in Jerusalem, was celebrated on the 3rd of Adar of 515 BCE, after four years of work.
  

4 Adar - (1307) - Maharam's Body Ransomed

• The tragic saga of the imprisonment of Rabbi Meir ben Baruch ("Maharam") of Rothenburg came to a close when his body was ransomed, 14 years after his death, by Alexander ben Shlomo (Susskind) Wimpen.
  

4 Adar - (1796) - Death of R. Leib Sarah's

• Adar 4 is the yahrtzeit (anniversary) of the death of Rabbi Leib Sarah's (1730-1796), a disciple of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov. One of the "hidden tzaddikim," Rabbi Leib spent his life wandering from place to place to raise money for the ransoming of imprisoned Jews and the support of other hidden tzaddikim.
  

7 Adar - (1393 and 1273 BCE) - Moses' Birth & Death

• Moses was born in Egypt on the 7th of Adar of the year 2368 from creation (1393 BCE) and died on his 120th birthday -- Adar 7, 2488 (1273 BCE)
  

13 Adar - (522 BCE) - War against enemies of the Jews in Persia

• On the 13th of Adar of the year 522 BCE, battles were fought throughout the Persian Empire between the Jews and those seeking to kill them in accordance with the decree issued by King Achashveirosh 11 months earlier. (Achashveirosh never rescinded that decree; but after the hanging of Haman on Nissan 16 of the previous year, and Queen Esther's pleading on behalf of her people, he agreed to issue a second decree authorizing the Jews to defend themselves against those seeking to kill them.) 75,000 enemies were killed on that day, and 500 in the capital, Shushan, including Haman's ten sons (Parshandata, Dalfon, Aspata, Porata, Adalia, Aridata, Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizata), whose bodies were subsequently hanged. The Jews did not take any of the possessions of the slain as booty, though authorized to do so by the king's decree. (The Book of Esther, chapter 9).
  

13 Adar - (161 BCE) - Maccabee victory

• The Maccabees defeated the Syrian General Nicanor in a battle fought four years after the Maccabee's liberation of the Holy Land and the miracle of Chanukah.
  

14 Adar - (1393 BCE) - Moses' Brit

• Moses was born on the 7th of Adar of the year 2368 from creation (1393 BCE); accordingly, Adar 14 was the 8th day of his life and the day on which he was circumcised in accordance with the Divine command to Abraham.
  

14 Adar - (522 BCE) - Purim Victory Celebrated

• The festival of Purim celebrates the salvation of the Jewish people from Haman's plot "to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in a single day." See Timeline.
  

15 Adar - (522 BCE) - Purim Victory Celebrated in Shushan
15 Adar - (1st century CE) - Jerusalem Gate Day

• King Agrippa I (circa 21 CE) began construction of a gate for the wall of Jerusalem; the day used to be celebrated as a holiday.
  

20 Adar - (1st Century BCE) - Choni the Circle Maker prays for rain

• "One year, most of Adar went by and it didn't rain. They sent for Choni the Circle Maker. He prayed and the rains didn't come. He drew a circle, stood in it and said: 'Master of The World! Your children have turned to me; I swear in Your great name that I won't move from here until You have pity on Your children.' The rains came down." (Talmud, Taanit 23a)
  

20 Adar - (1640) - Death of the "Bach"

• Adar 20 is the yahrtzeit (anniversary of the death) of Rabbi Yoel Sirkes (1560?-1640), author of the Bayit Chadash ("Bach") commentary on the great Halachic work, Beit Yosef.
  

23 Adar - (1312 BCE) - Mishkan assembled for the 1st time; "Seven Days of Training" begin.

• During the week of Adar 23-29, the Mishkan was erected each morning and dismantled each evening; Moses served as the High Priest and initiated Aaron and his four sons into the priesthood. Then, on the "eighth day" -- the 1st of Nissan -- the Mishkan was "permanently" assembled (that is, put up to stand until the Divine command would come to journey on), Aaron and his sons assumed the priesthood, and the divine presence came to dwell in the Mishkan.
  

23 Adar - (1866) - Death of 1st Rebbe of Ger

• Chassidic Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Altar (1799-1866), author of Chiddushei Harim (a commentary on the Talmud and Shulchan Aruch), was a disciple of the Maggid of Koshnitz and Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa, and the founder of the "Ger" (Gerer) Chassidic dynasty. All his 13 sons had died in his lifetime, and he was succeeded (in 1870) by his young grandson, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter (the "Sefat Emmet").
  

24 Adar - (1817) - Blood Libel Declared False

• On Adar 24, Czar Alexander I of Russia declared the Blood Libel -- the infamous accusation that Jews murdered Christian children to use their blood in the baking of matzah for Passover, for which thousands of Jews were massacred through the centuries -- to be false. Nevertheless, nearly a hundred years later the accusation was officially leveled against Mendel Beilis in Kiev.
  

25 Adar - (561 BCE) - Nebuchadnezzar died

• Death of King Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian emperor who conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the first Holy Temple 26 years earlier, died on the 25th of Adar. (Jeremiah 52:31)
  

27 Adar - (561 BCE) - Death of Zedekiah

• Zedekiah was the last king of the royal house of David to reign in the Holy Land. He ascended the throne in 597 BCE, after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia (to whom the kingdom of Judah was then subject) exiled King Jeconiah (Zedekiah's nephew) to Babylonia . In 588 BCE Zedekiah rebelled against Babylonian rule, and Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem (in Tevet 10 of that year); in the summer of 586 BCE the walls of Jerusalem were penetrated, the city conquered, the (first) Holy Temple destroyed, and the people of Judah exiled to Babylonia. Zedekiah tried escaping through a tunnel leading out of the city, but was captured; his sons were killed before his eyes, and then he was blinded. Zedekiah languished in the royal dungeon in Babylonia until Nebuchadnezzar's death in 561 BCE; Evil Meroduch -- Nebuchadnezzar's son and successor -- freed him (and his nephew Jeconiah) on the 27th of Adar, but Zedikiah died that same day.
  

28 Adar - (2nd century) - Talmudic holiday

• In Talmudic times, Adar 28 used to be celebrated to commemorate the rescinding of a Roman decree against ritual circumcision, Torah study and keeping the Shabbat. The decree was revoked through the efforts of Rabbi Yehudah ben Shamua and his fellow rabbis. (Megillat Taanit, Rosh Hashanah 19a)
  

External links

References

• Source for "This Month in Jewish History"

Months of the Hebrew calendar
Tishrei - Cheshvan - Kislev - Tevet - Shevat - Adar (I & II) - Nisan - Iyar - Sivan - Tammuz - Av - Elul

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