Adar (Hebrew: אֲדָר, ʾĂdār; from Akkadianadaru) is the sixth month of the civil year and the twelfth month of the religious year on the Hebrew calendar, roughly corresponding to the month of March in the Gregorian calendar. It is a month of 29 days.
Names and leap years
The month's name, like all the others from the Hebrew calendar, was adopted during the Babylonian captivity. In the Babylonian calendar the name was Araḫ Addaru or Adār ('Month of Adar').
In leap years, it is preceded by a 30-day intercalary month named Adar Aleph (Hebrew: אדר א׳, aleph being the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet), also known as "Adar Rishon" (First Adar) or "Adar I", and it is then itself called Adar Bet (Hebrew: אדר ב׳, bet being the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet), also known as "Adar Sheni" (Second Adar) or "Adar II". Occasionally instead of Adar I and Adar II, "Adar" and "Ve'Adar" are used (Ve means 'and' thus: And-Adar). Adar I and II occur during February–March on the Gregorian calendar.
Sources disagree as to which of the two Adar months is the "real" Adar, and which is the added leap month.[1]
Customs
During the Second Temple period, there was a Jewish custom to make a public proclamation on the first day of the lunar month Adar, reminding the people that they are to prepare their annual monetary offering to the Temple treasury, known as the half-Shekel.[2]
Based on a line in the Mishnah declaring that Purim must be celebrated in Adar II in a leap year (Megillah 1:4), Adar I is considered the "extra" month. As a result, someone born in Adar during a non leap year would celebrate their birthday in Adar II during a leap year. However, someone born during either Adar in a leap year will celebrate their birthday during Adar in a non-leap year, except that someone born on 30 Adar I will celebrate their birthday on 1 Nisan in a non-leap year because Adar in a non-leap year has only 29 days.
Holidays
7 Adar (II in leap years) – 7th of Adar – some fast on this day in memory of the death of Moses
13 Adar (II in leap years) – Fast of Esther – on 11 Adar when the 13th falls on Shabbat – (Fast Day)
4 Adar (1307) – Maharam's body ransomed 14 years after his death by Alexander ben Shlomo (Susskind) Wimpfen.
4 Adar (1796) – Death of Rabbi Leib Sarah's, a disciple of the Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov. One of the "hidden tzaddikim," Rabbi Leib spent his life wandering from place to place to raise money for the ransoming of imprisoned Jews and the support of other hidden tzaddikim.
7 Adar (1828) – Death of Rebbe Isaac Taub of Kalov, founder of the Kalover Hasidic dynasty, and a student of Rabbi Leib Sarah's.
9 Adar (1st century BCE) – Academic dissension between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai, erupted into a violent and destructive conflict over a vote on 18 legal matters leading to the death of 3,000 students. The day was later declared a fast day by the Shulchan Aruch, however, it was never observed as such.
11 Adar (18th century) – Death of Reb Eliezer Lipman (Elezer Lippe), father of the prominent Chassidic Rebbes Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk and Rabbi Zusha of Hanipol.
13 Adar (474 BCE) – War between Jews and their enemies in Persia (Book of Esther, chapter 9).
15 Adar (1st century CE) – Jerusalem Gate Day – King Agrippa I (circa 21 CE) began construction of a gate for the wall of Jerusalem; the day used to be celebrated as a holiday.
17 Adar (522 BCE) – Yom Adar – the day the Jewish people left Persia following the Purim story[citation needed]
20 Adar (1616 CE) – 'Purim Vinz': downfall of Vincenz Fettmilch and triumphant return of the Jews of Frankfurt under Imperial protection. The day was established as a community Purim for generations and to this day the Washington Heights community does not recite Tachanun on this day.[5]
24 Adar (1817) – The Blood Libel, the accusation that Jews murdered Christian children for their blood, declared false by Czar Alexander I. Nevertheless, nearly a hundred years later the accusation was officially leveled against Mendel Beilis in Kyiv.
27 Adar (561 BCE) – Death of Zedekiah in Babylonian captivity. Meroduch, Nebuchadnezzar's son and successor, freed him (and his nephew Jeconiah) on the 27th of Adar, but Zedekiah died that same day.
28 Adar (1524) – the Jews of Cairo were saved from the plot of Ahmad Pasha, who sought revenge against the Jewish minister Abraham de Castro who had informed Selim II of Ahmad's plan to cede from the Ottoman Empire. To this day, Adar 28th is considered the Purim of Cairo, with festivities including a special Megilah reading.
^No 24 WA21946, The Babylonian Chronicles, The British Museum
^Mordechai Margoliouth (ed.), Halakhot Eretz Yisrael min ha-Genizah, Mossad Harav Kook: Jerusalem 1973, p. 142 (Hebrew). The Scroll of Fasting places this event on the 12th day of the lunar month Adar.
^Rabbi Gershon's gravestone, which lists 25 Adar as his day of passing, was discovered in the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem after the Six-day War.
