Vidro, N; (2018) Calendar tables in manuscript and printed Arba̔ah Ṭurim: Ṭur Oraḥ Ḥayyim, chapter 428. Journal of Jewish Studies , 69 (1) pp. 58-85. 10.18647/3351/jjs-2018.

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Abstract

This article is a case study in the creation, transmission and evolution of calendar tables in medieval and early modern Jewish sources. It looks at calendar tables in Arbaʿah Ṭurim by Jacob ben Asher (early fourteenth century), one of the most influential rabbinic codes of law. Calendar tables in printed editions of Arbaʿah Ṭurim (Ṭur Oraḥ Ḥayyim, chapter 428) deviate from the normative rabbinic calendar and can lead to celebrating religious holidays at wrong times. The inclusion of non-standard tables in an authoritative code of law has long raised questions about their authenticity. This article examines the history of calendar tables in Ṭur Oraḥ Ḥayyim by investigating all extant manuscripts and fifteenth–sixteenth-centuries printed editions of the code. The article highlights the unstable connection of calendar tables with authorial compositions and the lack of calendar expertise among copyists and users of calendar tables.

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