Customer Reviews

Understanding the Jewish Calendar

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3 star:		(1)
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Rabbi Bushwick has done an excellent job of showing how the Jewish calendar solves a very complex and thorny problem; i.e., how does one piece lunar months of 29.5 days into a solar year of 365.25 days without causing the summer solstice to occurr on the shortest day of the year?

It is definitely not a bedside table book. It is, however, a book that rewards diligent study with a vastly improved appreciation for the creativity of the ancient Jewish priesthood.

The Jewish calendar is one of the most complicated calendars in use today.Most explanations of its works are either highly technical,or rely on intimate knowledge of intricate Jewish customs.But this book is a welcome exception: It does a greatjob of introducing all aspects of the Jewish calendarin easy to follow gradual steps; one does not needto be Jewish, nor know any math beyond elementaryschool level, to understand it all, includingthe astronomical and religious aspects of the calendar --and all that fits in 114 pages!

The beginning of this book is spent explaining the physical and astronomical background of what we on the gorund observe. Although anyway with a physics or astronomy background can probably skip this part, those of us who never took an astronomy class will find it useful. The author does a good job of explaning the intricacies of what is a very complex calendar system, although he does spend a little bit too much time walking the reader through his math, which isn't really necesarry. Some background on Judaism is assumed, and the author clearly expects his reader to have a much firmer grasp of the Jewish holidays than of basic mathematics, but given the informativeness of the book, it is a forgiveable sin.

The book is exactly what I was looking for. It goes into the astromical background to the calendar as well as the religious requirements for setting of the holidays. It also goes into the math behind the calendar calculations. A must for anyone wanting to understand the Jewish calendar. I highly recommend it.

This is a very nice presentation of the Jewish calendar system known as "Sod Ha'Ibur". I beleive that the FIRST part of the book (dealing with astronomy) may be seen as "basic" and "unnecessary" by many readers. However, once you get past that, the discussion of the Calendar is clear and easy to follow.
What I especialy liked is the well-described explanations for the so-called "deferments" in the Calendar. I also especially liked how the author connects the "secular calendar" with the Jewish one. I also liked how the Torah Readings are clearly elucidated.
However, this is aimed at the Reader who wants to understand the Jewish Calendar and how it relates to the observance of the Jewish holidays. It is NOT [primarily] a "scientific" treatise on Astronomy and Calendar calculation. So, if that is one's primary focus, then this may not be an appropriate text.
However, if you want to understand how the Jewish Calendar "works"... if you want to understand how this year (5771) ends up being the longest possible year (385 days)... if you want to uhderstand how Jewish Holidays fall out on the Secular Calendar -- then this is the book for you!

I bought this book after it had been recommended to me as a good source for understanding how astronomical calculations (sunrise, sunset, dawn, dusk, etc) are made. While the book does go into some basic astronomy, the sought after calculations were not there.

Still, for someone seeking to understand the Jewish calendar on the month level, this is a good text, well written and accurate. While I personally already had this knowledge and so it was not useful to me, anyone looking to understand the structure of the Jewish year would find it very helpful.

I found this little book handy and very useful, especially some of the references, the author uses. It begins with a basic overview of the realities of astronomical phenomena and moves on to more specific calendarical issues as the book progresses. The author moves methodically from more simple information, adding information and complexity as the book continues. Overall I felt it an excellent primer to begin my calendrical research. However, it is simplistic in places, and its use only applies to calculating the calendar on a simple level. The diagrams are hand-drawn and are sometimes unclear.

I found the book easy to read and actually enjoyed the review of astronomy. I have other books on the Jewish Calendar but they are not as interesting to read.

I have to admit, I am a bit disappointed by this book, but that's mostly because this book was written for a different kind of reader. It is targeted to jewish people to teach them about the calendarical aspects of their religion - however I read it from a astronomical background with interest in the calendarical aspects. Thus the first third of the book giving the astronomical basics of calendars - day, month, year, seasons - was nothing new to me, more a repetition what I learned at high school already. The other parts of the book introduce the calendar, adding more and more complexity in each chapter, however this part was very hard to read as the author uses a lot of hebrew technical term like the names of the jewish holidays. For those who have their background in judaism these are of course nothing special, but for me a glossary would have been great help.

Once again great service, a professional web site and good prices. Always a good experience shopping for books on your site.