מכתב: T-S AS 160.96

תיאור

This text is preserved in one very fragmentary folio, T-S AS 160.96. What survives indicates that it is about the midday calendar limit, whereby the New Year is postponed if the molad of Tishri occurs after midday. Babylonians and Palestinians are not explicitly mentioned, but the text contrasts the Babylonian limit of midday with the Palestinian limit of midday and 641 parts. An original feature of this text is the distinction it makes between an ‘astronomical’ month, which begins on the astronomical conjunction (presumably, the true conjunction), and a ‘numerical’ month (lines 9-10, 15-16). The latter probably means that its dates are calculated, and refers to the (Rabbanite) calendar month.The text is too fragmentary to be understood with certainty.