Q: I looked at my BINA Calander and noticed that Pesach is very late this year, all the way to the end of April! Did someone want more time to Pesach clean, so they pushed it off a full month?

 

A: You are right. Pesach is a lot later this year. This is because there are two months of Adar. Every few years we have a Jewish leap year when we add an additional month to the calendar. We do this because our calendar system follows the lunar cycle, but the Torah says that Pesach should always be full out in the spring (in Israel that is). Because the lunar year is shorter than the solar year by around 11 days, if we were to continue with 12 lunar months indefinitely, Pesach would shift to other seasons. We therefore add an additional month of Adar to make sure that our calendar and the seasons remain in sync. The bad news is that the pre-Pesach anxiety is extended for a month this year. The good news is that we have 60 days of Adar which means 60 days of increased joy which is exactly what the Jewish people need right now.

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