Rosh Chodesh Adar

Sundown Thursday February 26th begins Rosh Chodesh Adar for those of us here in the US.  The fast of Esther (a daylight fast) is on Wednesday, February 11th, and Purim starts at Sundown that night.

Also, the Aviv search will begin shortly after Purim and we will know within 2 weeks if a leap month will be declared or not.   The Rabbinic calendar has not scheduled a leap month for this year, but since they align their leap years using artificial and arbitrary methods instead of doing the aviv search every year, the Biblical calendar does not always coincide with the Rabbinic calendar.

Here is the email sent out by the Jerusalem Karaite new moon watch teams (recall, Jerusalem is 7 hours ahead of Eastern Standard time, so as you’re reading this, it’s already the middle of the night there, LOL):

Karaite Korner Newsletter #366

New Moon Report
February 2009
Twelfth Biblical Month

On Thursday February 26, 2009 the new moon was first sighted from
Jerusalem by Nehemia Gordon at 17:40 and then a few seconds later by
Rilla Auzolat, Johan Schutte, and Anayahu Newman.

The days of Purim will begin this year on March 11th at sunset and
continue until March 13th at sunset. This corresponds to the 14th and
15th days of the Twelfth biblical month.

Rosh Chodesh Sameach!
Happy New Moon!

Nehemia Gordon
Jerusalem, Israel