A leap year in the Jewish calendar is called a Shana Me’uberet. According to ancient calculations, made by R. Hillel II around 670 CE and recorded in the Mishna, this is the way to celebrate every Jewish holiday in the right season as described in the Torah. Passover should be celebrated in spring and Sukkot in the fall. Just imagine how difficult it must have been to make calculations like this in a time without calculators or computers. This means that 7 times in every 19 years we add a whole month to adjust the Jewish calendar, based on the cycles of the moon, to the Gregorian calendar that follows the cycle of the sun.
Every 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th year gets an extra month Adar. When a leap month is added, just about every 2 or 3 years, we call it a leap year or Shana Me’uberet, a pregnant year. The Hebrew language is based on roots of mostly 3 letters. Me’uberet has the root Ayin-Beit-Resh. This is the root of the verb la’avor, which means to pass, cross or move from one place to the next. In the active or Pi’el form of this verb, it becomes le’aber, which means to impregnate, or make pregnant. That is why a Shana Me’uberet is often translated as a pregnant year.
The root Ayin-Beit-Resh is also the root of the word Ivri, that can be translated as Hebrew. And of the language Ivrit. The first Hebrew was Avraham Avinu, who left his land Ur and passed or crossed over to the land of Canaan. La’avor, can also mean “to move house”. In Hebrew grammar avar means past tense.
In a Shana me’uberet we celebrate Purim twice. In Adar 1 we celebrate Purim katan. You can celebrate it by having a meal with family and friends. In Adar 2 we read from the Megillah and celebrate Purim as we do every year. In the Talmud (Ta’anit 29a) is written that when we enter Adar our joy increases. Mishe nichnas Adar marbin besimcha. The deeper meaning of this text is that in the month of Adar we are connecting to the force of life. We see this also in the changes that take place in nature. It is our task to increase joy, to wipe out the negative and connect to the positive life force, just like a foetus inside a pregnant woman. We must keep negative forces outside. Everything that is the opposite of joy, like hate or illusion, may not enter our lives in this time. Everything is different, hafuch or turned around.
In a leap year our joy increases twice as much. Let’s hope that this Adar 2 will be a true turnaround for our people in the Middle East and worldwide, so we can experience real simcha.
-Marcella
