Using the solar calendar

BTG Enterprises s.r.o. (btgpraha@terminal.cz)
Thu, 28 Nov 1996 14:23:38 +0100

While I always knew that my wife's secular birthday is on Dec. 4th, the
first day of reciting "vten tal"* outside of Israel, I did not realize that
within Israel, we begin saying "vten tal" on the seventh of Cheshvan, my
hebrew birthday. If anybody has any idea what this might signify (other than
coincidence) I would love to hear your ideas.

[* In Volume II, Danny Koffman wrote:
> In Chapter 3, Mishna 2 in Berakhot it says "(We) ask for the rains in the
> Blessing of the Seasons...". Kehati says in his commentary: (the
> insertion), 'and give dew and rain', is added from the 7th of [Mar] Cheshvan
> until the Mincha service of the day before Pesach. This is the custom in
> all of Eretz Israel. Elsewhere it is recited on the sixtieth day after the
> "tekufah of Tishrei" (i.e. the autumnal equinox). ]

Jeff Loewenthal
btgpraha@terminal.cz