Thanks for the clarification/expansion!Mike

2008-03-24T08:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the clarification/expansion!
Mike

You wrote: "The timing was an actual attempt to fi...

2008-03-23T21:50:00.000-07:00

You wrote: "The timing was an actual attempt to figure out an actual date of the Last Supper, for which there is some indication that it was slightly before Passover. Passover, in the Hebrew calendar, occurs on the 15th day of Nisan."

The Last Supper was a Passover seder -- the celebratory dinner at the beginning of Passover. Passover does, indeed, begin on Nisan 15. The seder is celebrated after sundown on Nisan 14. Why? Because of a quirk of the Hebrew calendar: each day is considered to start at sundown. So Nisan 15 actually commences as the sun sets on Nisan 14. The seder, by being held after the sun sets on Nisan 14, is being held just as Nisan 15 begins by the Hebrew calendar.

By tradition, Jews in North America celebrate two seders -- one on the evening of Nisan 14 and one on the evening of Nisan 15. Why? Because they wanted to hold the seder on the same day it was being held in Israel, and they couldn't decide which evening, North American time, was closer to the time of the seder in Israel. This predates such modernities as standardized time zones. And math was apparently not much of a rabbinical specialty.

Cheers,

Greg

Comments on Mike Brown's Planets: Tiny Bunnies

Thanks for the clarification/expansion!Mike

You wrote: "The timing was an actual attempt to fi...