Leapin' Lizards, a Double Leap Year!

Feb. 29 meets Adar 1 and 2 THIS WEEK. What does all this leaping mean? Enjoy it now - it won't happen again until 2052!

Someone forgot to tell this supermarket that Passover is still nearly two months away, thanks to the Jewish leap year. And do they really eat knaidels on Ramadan? Photo by Rabbi Tzvi Pittinsky from “X”

It's rare that Jewish and secular leap years coincide, as they do on Thursday.  The last time was 2016.  The next won’t be until 2052, so enjoy this week’s giant leap for (hu)mankind.

While it might seem complicated to be navigating two leap years simultaneously, this need not become the year of leaping dangerously.   It can become a year of leaping meaningfully, if we take advantage of that extra day AND that extra month.  

Adar 2 is allows me to double the pleasure of this most joyous Jewish month while giving me more time to prepare for Purim and Passover.  I’ve written extensively about how Judaism's Mulligan Month fits into the rhythm of Jewish time. I’ve also put together a packet giving some background for both the secular and Jewish leap years, including ideas on how to make the most of that gift of an extra day - and extra month - in our lives.  

What the two leap years share is both the desire to achieve mathematical perfection in the calculation of time, and the admission that such perfection is ultimately beyond our grasp. So we make compromises. The solar year is 365 1/4 days long, but not exactly. It takes 365.2422 days for the Earth to complete one orbit of the Sun. And the lunar month is 29 1/2 days long - but not exactly, so the lunar year will consist of twelve lunar months, with a thirteenth month added seven times in every nineteen year cycle.

But not exactly.

The rabbis embraced the messiness and understood that the calendar will need a more significant reform some day - say, in 10,000 years - or Passover will end up landing in June. But they were willing to put off that concern for now. They were willing to live with imperfection and compromise as we and God strive in full partnership with the goal of working things out as best we can.

Prof. Moshe Benovitz writes:

In contrast with the divine purity of the solar calendar advocated by the Jews of Qumran, and in contrast with the divine purity of the lunar calendar ordained by God according to Islam, classical rabbinic Judaism seeks spiritual significance in the partnership between God and Israel implicit in the intercalated lunisolar calendar. In this sense, the calendar can be seen as a metaphor for the religious life in general: for rabbinic Jews, the spiritual life is not always about conforming to an ideal of divine purity – sometimes it is about striking a balance between ideals, in a human partnership with God. The sun and the moon are two ideals, two manifestations of the divine will, and both are meant to serve as "signs, ordained times, days and years" according to Genesis 1:14. It is up to Israel to find the balance between them, encountering the divine Presence in the process and proclaiming God's glory.

We strive for balance in how we count our days and in how we make our days count. The extra Adar, when it happens, gives the Jewish calendar a long breather, doubling the time between Tu B’Shevat (Jewish Arbor Day) and Purim. Often as a rabbi, I’ve used this time to plan special events, like retreats or trips - or just a little down time. I can actually feel my inner clock slowing down as I look at my calendar in anticipation of the next big event - and it’s weeks away. By the time Purim comes, followed one month later by Passover, I am as ready as I can possibly be. So is nature, which is in full bloom by the time Elijah comes through the door. This extra month is a true gift. And this year, we get an extra day as well.

Now if someone could just break the news to Stop and Shop, which put out the Passover food this week, apparently completely unaware that the seders are still nearly two months away.

The joke is on them. The breather is all ours.