Adar
Adar is the sixth month of the civil year and the twelfth month of the religious year on the Hebrew calendar, roughly corresponding to the month of March in the Gregorian calendar. It is a month of 29 days.
Names and leap years
The month's name, like all the others from the Hebrew calendar, was adopted during the Babylonian captivity. In the Babylonian calendar the name was Araḫ Addaru or Adār.In leap years, it is preceded by a 30-day intercalary month named Adar Aleph, also known as "Adar Rishon" or "Adar I", and it is then itself called Adar Bet, also known as "Adar Sheni" or "Adar II". Occasionally instead of Adar I and Adar II, "Adar" and "Ve'Adar" are used. Adar I and II occur during February–March on the Gregorian calendar.
Sources disagree as to which of the two Adar months is the "real" Adar, and which is the added leap month.
Customs
During the Second Temple period, there was a Jewish custom to make a public proclamation on the first day of the lunar month Adar, reminding the people that they are to prepare their annual monetary offering to the Temple treasury, known as the half-Shekel.Holidays
- 7 Adar – 7th of Adar – some fast on this day in memory of the death of Moses
- 13 Adar – Fast of Esther – on 11 Adar when the 13th falls on Shabbat – '
- 14 Adar – Purim
- 14 Adar I – Purim Katan
- 15 Adar – Shushan Purim – celebration of Purim in walled cities existing during the time of Joshua
- 17 Adar''' – Yom Adar celebration feast
In Jewish history
- 1 Adar – Death of the Ibn Ezra
- 1 Adar – Death of the Shach
- 2 Adar – Jerusalem falls to Nebuchadnezzar and Jeconiah is captured.
- 2 Adar – Death of Rabbi Yaakov Yehezkiya Greenwald of Pupa
- 3 Adar – Second Temple completed
- 4 Adar – Maharam's body ransomed 14 years after his death by Alexander ben Shlomo Wimpfen.
- 4 Adar – Death of Rabbi Leib Sarah's, a disciple of the Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov. One of the "hidden tzaddikim," Rabbi Leib spent his life wandering from place to place to raise money for the ransoming of imprisoned Jews and the support of other hidden tzaddikim.
- 4 Adar Death of Menachem Begin
- 5 Adar – Lulianos and Paphos voluntarily gave themselves up to be killed, to save innocent Jewish lives in Laodicea.
- 7 Adar – Birth of Moses
- 7 Adar – Death of Moses
- 7 Adar – Death of Rebbe Isaac Taub of Kalov, founder of the Kalover Hasidic dynasty, and a student of Rabbi Leib Sarah's.
- 9 Adar – Academic dissension between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai, erupted into a violent and destructive conflict over a vote on 18 legal matters leading to the death of 3,000 students. The day was later declared a fast day by the Shulchan Aruch, however, it was never observed as such.
- 11 Adar – Death of Reb Eliezer Lipman, father of the prominent Chassidic Rebbes Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk and Rabbi Zusha of Hanipol.
- 13 Adar – War between Jews and their enemies in Persia.
- 13 Adar – Yom Nicanor – The Maccabees defeated Greek Syrian general Nicanor at the Battle of Adasa during the Maccabean Revolt.
- 13 Adar – Death of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein
- 14 Adar – Purim victory celebrated in the Persian Empire
- 15 Adar – Purim Victory Celebrated in Shushan
- 15 Adar – Jerusalem Gate Day – King Agrippa I began construction of a gate for the wall of Jerusalem; the day used to be celebrated as a holiday.
- 17 Adar – Yom Adar – the day the Jewish people left Persia following the Purim story
- 18 Adar – Death of Josef Stalin; brings to a stop the Doctors' Plot
- 20 Adar – Choni the Circle Maker prays for rain
- 20 Adar – 'Purim Vinz': downfall of Vincenz Fettmilch and triumphant return of the Jews of Frankfurt under Imperial protection. The day was established as a community Purim for generations and to this day the Washington Heights community does not recite Tachanun on this day.
- 20 Adar – Death of the "Bach"
- 21 Adar – Death of Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk
- 23 Adar – Mishkan assembled for the first time; "Seven Days of Training" begin.
- 23 Adar – Death of Yitzchak Meir Alter, first Rebbe of Ger
- 24 Adar – The Blood Libel, the accusation that Jews murdered Christian children for their blood, declared false by Czar Alexander I. Nevertheless, nearly a hundred years later the accusation was officially leveled against Mendel Beilis in Kyiv.
- 25 Adar – Death of Nebuchadnezzar.
- 25 Adar – Death of Rabbi Abraham Gershon of Kitov the brother-in-law and leading foe-turned-disciple of the Baal Shem Tov.
- 27 Adar – Death of Zedekiah in Babylonian captivity. Meroduch, Nebuchadnezzar's son and successor, freed him on the 27th of Adar, but Zedekiah died that same day.
- 28 Adar – Talmudic holiday to commemorate the rescinding of a Roman decree against Torah study, ritual circumcision, and keeping the Shabbat. The decree was revoked through the efforts of Rabbi Yehudah ben Shamu'a and his colleagues.
- 28 Adar – the Jews of Cairo were saved from the plot of Ahmad Pasha, who sought revenge against the Jewish minister Abraham de Castro who had informed Selim II of Ahmad's plan to cede from the Ottoman Empire. To this day, Adar 28th is considered the Purim of Cairo, with festivities including a special Megilah reading.