The Jewish calendar is primarily lunar based: the Passover and other religious festivals are governed by lunar phases. There are, however, a small number of solar cycles within the Jewish calendar which ensure that the lunar cycles are properly balanced to enable the accurate calculation of a solar year. Among these balancing cycles there is one, which relates to the tilt of the earth realigning every 28 years, so that at the end of the cycle sunrise occurs on a Wednesday in early April at the same precise latitude. The end of this 28-year cycle, which is celebrated with a prayer known in Hebrew as “Birkat Hahama” (The Blessing of the sun).
Jewish history, as related in the Bible, stretches back nearly 6000 years. In this time there have been more than two hundred of these solar cycles but there have only been two occasions when the 28-year cycle coincides with the eve of Passover. Both of these occasions have had a special significance because they occurred in the year of the two great deliverances of the Jewish people and the events are recorded in the Bible. The first of these is better known as the Exodus.
The story of Exodus, as related in the Bible, is an account of the escape from Egypt of the Jewish people. Exodus is also the story of Moses, a man of God, who came to lead the Jewish people to freedom.
The Bible recounts how the children of the Jews were slaughtered by Pharaoh’s soldiers to defeat a prophecy which foretold the birth of a great leader. The infant Moses escaped the Pharaoh’s assassins. He floated down the Nile in a reed cot. The cot was found by the daughter of the Pharaoh who took pity on the boy and raised him as her own. In time Moses became the leader of the Jewish people. He sought in vain to obtain the Pharaoh’s consent to the release of the Jewish people from slavery and captivity. Exodus relates how the Pharaoh was eventually humbled when confronted by a succession of plagues all of which were prophesied by Moses and were intended as a punishment from God.
The plagues started with all the fresh water turning to blood. This was followed by an invasion of frogs. One by one the plagues unfolded as Moses had warned until the tenth plague, which was the death of all Egyptian first-born males. Not until the night of the fulfilment of the prophecy did the Pharaoh, in fear of his own life, finally succumb and grant the Jews their freedom.
The Jews left Egypt only to be pursued a short while later by the Pharaoh’s army. The Bible tells of the Jews reaching the shores of the Red Sea, cornered and defenceless with the Pharoah’s mighty army close on their heels. Moses appealed to God and the sea parted allowing the Jews to walk across to safety. The Egyptian army, which followed in their wake, was destroyed as the seas closed over them.
The second deliverance, which also occurred in a year when the solar cycle ended on the eve of Passover, was Purim. This took place about almost 800 hundred years after the Exodus, approximately 500 BC.
Purim is the story of Esther, a beautiful Jewish woman who was taken to Ahasuerus, King of Persia, to form part of a parade of maidens from which he would choose his queen. Esther was the one chosen. Her Jewish identity however was kept secret. Esther became established in the Persian court but all around her was intrigue and a growing sense of menace which threatened the King’s Jewish subjects. Ahasuerus had allowed his principal adviser Haman free rein with the running of the kingdom. Haman planned to exterminate the Jewish people, but on the eve of their destruction Queen Esther managed to turn the tables on Haman by appealing directly to King Ahasuerus. Her action exposed her to great risk and her bravery is celebrated in Purim.
The current 28-year solar cycle of Birkat Hahama will end on the 8th April 2009, which also coincides with the eve of Passover. This therefore presages what may be a momentous year for the Jewish people. We will have to wait and see, but eventful or otherwise Gibraltar will proudly celebrate both the astonishing wealth of history incorporated in the Jewish tradition and the enduring and harmonious coexistence between Jews, Christians, Muslims and Hindus alike.