Monday, May 29, 2006

Hebrew calendar quiz questions

Without looking at a calendar, how many times a year can Rosh Chodesh fall on Shabbat? Give the minimum and maximum possible in a single Hebrew year (Tishrei through Elul). I'm looking for the reasoning here, not primarily whether or not you have the right answer.

Bonus question: How many times a year is the "Machar Chodesh" haftarah recited?

2 comments:

Soccer Dad said...

Bonus answer: Machar Chodesh is probably recited 1 to 2 times a year. I suppose there could be years where that one time would be Parshas Hachodesh so it may be possible that there are years that it is not recited at all.
As far as the main question, let's take the next 12 months. (I don't know if this is correct or not.)

Sivan - Sunday
Tamuz - Mon and Tues
Av - Wed
Elul - Thurs and Fri
R"H - Shab and Sun
Cheshvan - Mon And Tues
Kislev - Tues
Teves - Wed and Thur
Shvat - Fri
Adar - Shab and Sun
Nissan - Mon
Iyar - Tues and Wed

Obviously there's a mistake in here, because R"C Nissan can't be Mon (Lo BD'U Pesach.) So the one (or more) of Kislev, Teves or Shvat is likely wrong.

And I must change my bonus answer too. Likely not more than once a year.

Zman Biur said...

Nice try - thanks for playing!

See the first answer here.