Vidro, Nadia (Author)
Aleph: Historical Studies in Science and Judaism
Volume: 22
Issue: 1
Pages: 125-156
One of the most salient divisions between medieval Rabbanites and Qaraites was in the field of calendar. Qaraites and Rabbanites disagreed on how to determine which years to intercalate (i.e., to extend with the insertion of a thirteenth month) in order to keep up with the seasons. While the Rabbanites used a fixed nineteen-year cycle of intercalation, the Qaraites maintained that intercalation must be based on the state of ripeness of barley crops in Palestine. This created problems for Qaraite communities outside of the Land of Israel, many of whom found it impossible to receive information about the state of crops in Palestine in time to celebrate Passover. This article investigates how medieval Qaraite Diaspora communities made a decision to intercalate. Based on a wide range of sources many of which were not previously discussed, it studies the Diaspora communities' approaches to empirical intercalation and provides an in-depth analysis of the Qaraites' attitude toward and use of mathematical methods, such as the method of the vernal equinox and the Rabbanite nineteen-year cycle of intercalations. The article also reflects on the attitude of Palestinian Qaraite ideologists toward the calendar situation in the Diaspora and argues that the division between Qaraites as adherents of an empirical intercalation vs. Rabbanites as followers of a fixed calculated scheme was never clear-cut when considered in the context of the entire Qaraite Jewish community, and of lived practice rather than ideology.
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