“The Secret of Inter-collation” by Dr. Yossi Cohen Meidan refers to re-collating the calendar during leap years.
He posits that the inter-collation of an extra month in the Hebrew leap year can be a symbol for the inter-collation of the self at the psycho-spiritual level. The sages suggest an exciting symbolic connection linking the 10 day difference between the solar and lunar years to the ten days of the Jewish High Holidays that occur every year.
Seven times every 19 years the Hebrew calendar adds an extra month (Adar “b”). This is the Jewish new year (an inter-collated year). This inter-collation preserves the connection between the dates of the holidays and the seasons of the year – Passover in the Spring and Rosh Ha’Shana in the Fall.
Leap year in Hebrew is Shana Meuberic from the word Ibur (inter-collate). The word has the same root as Ubar (fetus). Might we not conjecture from this that the added month implies a period of incubation leading to a rebirth? Can we postulate that the added month of the leap year leads us into a fetal situation in which we experience darkness and uncertainty as we progress towards a process of rejuvenation and rebirth?
The Christian calendar is solar and its fundamental measurement is a year of 365 days in which the months are but arbitrary divisions with no real relationship between the Sun and the Earth. The Moslem calendar is solely lunar and since it takes but 29 days for the moon to go around the earth the year itself is arbitrary (the reason why Moslem holidays slide over different seasons from year to year).
The Hebrew calendar on the other hand is a collation between the solar and the lunar cycles. In this it is similar to the Chinese calendar. The months are measured according to the lunar cycle and the year according to the solar cycle. The lunar year is 355 days – as in the numerological translation of the Hebrew word Shanna (year).
Why is all this significant in the eyes of the sages? The sun represents the laws of nature imposed upon life itself and is indifferent to individual life. For someone who lives only according to the Sun then “nothing is new under the sun” (as in Kohelet) – a situation of complete dependence on the circumstances of life. The moon on the other hand represents change and renewal and thus the word “Hodesh” (month) from the word “Hadash” (new). “Hodesh” can also be pronounced “Hoodosh” (renewed). The moon hides and reveals its face alternately and thus symbolizes unique individuality contrasted to arbitrary nature. The moon has no light of its own and its being observed is a function of the reflection of the light of the sun according to the relationship of the earth with the sun at any given time. Someone who lives only according to the moon loses touch with the source of life and lives according to “I only and others nothing”.
The Hebrew calendar tries to balance between what is special to us as individuals and what is common to all living things. In the course of a year many of us are only concerned with ourselves and fail to relate to our environment or others around us. The price is a terrible loneliness. On the other hand we are also divorced from our own individual experience and only react to the changing vagaries of life. We judge our own happiness by things outside of ourselves. The balance between the moon and the sun in our souls is out of sync over most of the year.
During the 10 days of the High Holidays, representing the ten day difference between the lunar and the solar cycles, we are encouraged to engage in soul searching, the purpose of which is to balance the circumstances of our external life with our own individual internal selves – between the sun which unites us all and the moon which expresses our individuality; between stagnation and renewal.
