Celebrating Purim Katan, the occasional extra festival

With this quote from the words of King Solomon, the wisest of all men, the Rama, Rabbi Moshe Isserles (Cracow, 16th century), completed his glosses on the Orach Chaim, the first of the four books of the Shulchan Aruch, the Code of Jewish Law.

That first section of the Shulchan Aruch is concerned with laws of prayer and ritual applicable to the daily, weekly and annual cycles of our lives. Its last chapter (697) reminds us that in a leap year we have an extra festive date known as Purim Katan.

Purim normally occurs on the 14th (and 15th) days of the 12th month – Adar. However the Jewish calendar has an integral problem.

The law establishing Nissan as the first month of the Jewish year, prescribes that Nissan should occur at the anniversary of the time of year that Israel left Egypt – “b’chodesh ha’aviv – in the month of spring”.

Given that our calendar is lunar and the average length of a month is twenty-nine-and-a-half days, the Jewish year of 353 to 355 (gematriah SH/N/H) days is on average 10 days shorter than the solar year.

This is why the secular dates of all festivals generally move by some 10 or 11 days each year. And if there was no corrective mechanism in place, Rosh Chodesh Nissan would soon be in winter rather than spring – and from there it would move around the solar year (until it returned to spring after some 35 years had passed).

This reality, evident in the Islamic calendar which lacks any compensatory mechanism, is, of course, unacceptable given the seasonal relevance of so many of our festivals.

To solve the problem it is necessary to insert into the cycle a form of compensation for the 11 or so days missing each lunar year. Accordingly in a leap year, the Jewish calendar provides that compensation in the form of an extra month. Thus seven times in 19 years, we have a year of 13 months.

Because the original purpose of the extra month is specifically to ensure retention of Nissan in spring, the extra month is put in just in advance of Nissan. The month of Adar – the 12th month – is doubled.

This then raises a question. The Megillah states that the date selected by Haman for the annihilation of the Jews, which was subsequently transformed into the festival, was in “the 12th month, the month of Adar”. But in a leap year we have two months of Adar, one the 12th and one the 13th, so when should Purim be celebrated?

Accepted custom is to do so in the second Adar. The rabbinic rationale is that both Purim and Pesach commemorate aspects of redemption – and we connect one redemption with the other.

In fact, with Purim occurring on Adar 14 and Pesach on Nissan 14, it means that on Purim we move into the traditional 30-day preparation period that precedes each festival. (Hence the custom to collect charitable donations to enable the needy to celebrate Pesach and to commence studying the laws of Pesach even while at the Purim festivities.)

But in a leap year such as this year what do we do on the days in Adar Rishon corresponding to Purim? After all, Adar Rishon 14 actually is (using the words of the Megillah) the 14th day of the 12th month also called Adar.

Well, Jewish tradition has never allowed an opportunity for a celebration to slip past. In essence Purim celebrates the miracle of Jewish survival in an adverse and contradictory environment.

Throughout the Diaspora period Jews who were constantly reminded of their exilic status needed every excuse they could find to celebrate survival.

Hence the custom of also celebrating Purim Katan – “a small Purim” – on the 14th and 15th of Adar Rishon, which occurs this year on Tuesday, February 15 and Wednesday, February 16.

How is it celebrated? All we do is adjust the services by exclusion of Tachanun thereby giving them a festive air. But additionally as the Rama states, we add in a little extra as a seudah – festive meal.

And then, concludes the Rama, perhaps you are wondering what the basis is for this custom – after all it is not mentioned in the earlier halachic writings.

His answer: “A heart of feasting is always good.” After all – do you really need an excuse for an extra l’chaim?

Indeed in these troubled times maybe we would all be better off adopting that philosophy.

Shabbat shalom,
Yossi

Yossi Aron OAM is The AJN’s religious affairs editor 

Note: If a boy is born in an ordinary year and his bar mitzvah occurs in a leap year it is celebrated in Adar Sheni. Thus as 2009 was not a leap year no bar mitzvah will occur in Adar I this year. Similarly as 2010 was also not a leap year no bat mitzvah will occur in Adar I this year. Nevertheless it is possible to have a bar mitzvah in a leap year if a boy’s birth and bar mitzvah years are both leap years. However a bat mitzvah can never be in Adar I as two leap years are never 12 years apart.