Aviv barley and calendar diversity among Jews in eleventh-century Palestine

Abstract

One of the most salient medieval Qaraite practices was setting the calendar by observation of natural phenomena. While the Rabbanites followed arithmetical schemes, Qaraites set months by sighting the new moon and intercalated years on the basis of the state of ripeness of barley crops ( aviv ). Multiple Qaraite treatises on the aviv are preserved, but documentary evidence of empirical intercalation is scarce, making it difficult to learn how it was performed in practice. This article examines two Qaraite calendar chronicles that document barley observations and decisions regarding intercalation in a range of years in the eleventh century. They shed important light on how the Qaraite calendar operated over periods of time and attest to frequent calendar difference within the Qaraite movement and between Qaraites and Rabbanites. The chronicles make it clear that the Qaraite calendar of the period was not a monolithic system counterposed to that of the Rabbanites.