A run of Jewish posts
February 25th, 2008 by adminA riddle commonly asked of young (Jewish) children is to identify a shabbat on which 3 torahs are removed from the ark. (Simchat torah doesn’t count). The common answer is when rosh chodesh chanukkah falls on shabbat. In a few weeks we’ll have another one – March 8 will be rosh chodesh parshat shekalim. In the same vein it occurs to me that when rosh chodesh nissan (my birthday) falls on shabbat, it would be parshat hachodesh, and again 3 torahs would be taken out. (Although for some reason, these later two are never provided as an answer to the riddle). I wonder if there are any more times I’ve missed.
February 25th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Gabbayim do not talk of these days…..
February 25th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
One of my favorite jokes:
What do you get when it’s Rosh Chodesh Tevet, Shabbat Channukah and Pearl Harbor Day all on one day? You get Tora(h), Tora(h), Tora(h).
BTW, I’ve checked and it’s never happened and won’t happen for at least the next 50 years. There’s been a non-Shabbat (Friday), and December 8th, but never all the three.
February 28th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Rosh Chodesh Nissan last fell on Shabbat in 1995 and 1998, and will next do so in 2012. The reason it is rare has to do with the fixing of the calendar and the that when 1 Nissan is Shabbat, 1 Tishrei is Tuesday.
Anyway, my father’s favorite was to ask us when we said the longest possible birkat hamazon. Here the answer is only Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Channukah, although Dad always pointed out that it would be longer still when SRCC fell out on Sukkot……..
February 29th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Actually, it’s when there’s a brit on SRCC which is attended by a couple in their sheva bracha week.