Hebrew Bible Study
Hebrew Bible Study

Halakhah for Joel 2:23

וּבְנֵ֣י צִיּ֗וֹן גִּ֤ילוּ וְשִׂמְחוּ֙ בַּיהוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֔ם כִּֽי־נָתַ֥ן לָכֶ֛ם אֶת־הַמּוֹרֶ֖ה לִצְדָקָ֑ה וַיּ֣וֹרֶד לָכֶ֗ם גֶּ֛שֶׁם מוֹרֶ֥ה וּמַלְק֖וֹשׁ בָּרִאשֽׁוֹן׃

Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God; For He giveth you the former rain in just measure, And He causeth to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain, at the first.

The Sabbath Epistle

Know that the Chaldeans do not have a second Adar, because their months are not lunar months.108 See Evans (p. 187) where he describes the Babylonian calendar as also a lunisolar calendar with a second Adar. Also see Otto Neugebauer, The Exact Sciences in Antiquity, p. 102. Instead they divide the solar year into twelve parts. The meaning of the verse “In the first month, the month of Nisan” (Esther 3:7), is that in that specific year it was so, for in an intercalated year the first month would have been Iyar. Therefore, it is not correct to translate “in the first” (Joel 2:23) as “ in Nisan.” 109 This is how the term is rendered in the Aramaic translation of Jonathan ben Uziel. This was done so that people at that time would understand.
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