Book of Days Tales

The current Jewish calendar’s reference date, 1 Tishrei AM 1, is equivalent to Monday, 7 October 3761 BCE in the proleptic Julian calendar.  In other words, the Jewish calendar begins on this date in the equivalent of 3761 BCE. Calendars in general are created for a variety of uses, secular and sacred, such as planning agricultural activities, celebrating annual festivals, marking anniversaries, and the like.  They also help record historical events. 

Before the days of global communications, cultures used their own calendars based on their own needs. All of them, however, rely on astronomical phenomena in one way or another, and there are not too many variations in how they do it.  Obviously the period of a day is universal in all cultures, although there are slight differences in what counts as a day (sunset to sunset, or midnight to midnight, for example). The month may be either roughly or exactly one lunar cycle, and a year may be determined by the sun or the moon.  Lunar years are usually 12 moon cycles (months) long, which makes a year about 354 days long, and means that lunar calendars constantly drift away from solar calendars which are roughly 365 days long (marked from one summer/winter solstice to the next). 

The Jewish calendar is called lunisolar because the months are reckoned according to 12 moon cycles, but then a month (called an intercalary month) is added every few years to keep it meshed with the solar year.  Jewish festivals, such as Passover, are linked to agricultural and pastoral activities and so need to stay synchronized with the solar year.  Passover does not have to be exactly the same day every year, but it must be in the spring when lambs are butchered.  Otherwise it loses its meaning. The Islamic calendar which is mostly lunar (with some odd wrinkles), is not synchronized with the solar year at all, hence important ritual dates, such as the holy month of Ramadan, wander all over the solar calendar.

The other big calendric question concerns the date that anchors the whole system.  The Gregorian calendar uses the putative year of Christ’s birth, the ancient Roman calendar dated from the supposed year of the founding of Rome, and so forth.  The Jewish calendar is tied to the creation as described in Genesis, but, rather curiously, year 1 is not the year of creation, but the year before. Creation occurred in year 2. I’ll leave you to figure out how the first year worked given that the sun and moon were not created until the second year.

Picking a recipe for today was exceptionally difficult. I finally decided on something associated with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, given that we are talking about the calendar, and the beginning of it all.  In the Ashkenazi tradition it is customary to eat something sweet, such as apples with honey, on this day to symbolize the hope for a sweet coming year.  Tzimmes, with carrots, seems like a suitable recipe choice because it is traditional for Rosh Hashanah.  The simplest recipe involves nothing more than carrots in a honey glaze.  Others add dried fruits, such as dates or raisins, and occasionally braised meat.  Tzimmes is a tad sweet for my tastes, but I find that it works well as a side dish alongside other more savory ones. The combination of orange juice and carrots is particularly felicitous. Make sure you cut the carrots into rounds to look like coins, symbolizing wealth in the coming year.

Tzimmes

2 lbs carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons brown sugar
½ cup dried fruit such as golden raisins, apples, or cherries (or a combination)
½ cup orange juice
kosher salt to taste

Instructions:

Put all the ingredients in a pot and add water to just cover.

Bring to a simmer and cook uncovered until the carrots are tender, about 25 minutes or less.

Remove the carrots and bring the liquid to a rapid boil. Reduce until it makes a thick glaze.  Pour the glaze over the carrot slices and mix.

Yield: 6-8 servings