Year

Extra Month

In order to keep the lunar-month cycles synchronized with the solar-year cycles, the Bible calendar adds a full 13th lunar month to the year every 2 or 3 years.

The extra month, called Adar II, is added directly after the 12th month, which is called Adar.

The Jews called the years that had the extra month an “intercalated year.”

“[If he said,] ‘I vow that wine shall be forbidden to me if I taste it this year,’ and the year received an intercalated month, he is prohibited during the year and the added month. [If he said,] ‘Until the beginning of Adar,’ it applies until the beginning of the First Adar [not the intercalated one]. [If he said,] ‘Until the end of Adar,’ it applies until the end of the First Adar.”
——Mishnah, Nedarim, Chapter 8, Verse 5, Written c. 200 AD.

“He who rents out a house to his fellow for a year, [if] the year was intercalated [and received an extra month of Adar], it is intercalated to the advantage of the tenant. [If] he rented it to him by the month, [if] the year was intercalated, it is intercalated to the advantage of the landlord. In Sepphoris a person hired a bathhouse from his fellow for 12 golden [denars] per year, at the rate of 1 golden denar per month [and the year was intercalated]. The case came before Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel and before R. Yose. They ruled, ‘Let them divide the month added by the intercalation of the year.'”
——Mishnah, Bava Metzia, Chapter 8, Verse 8, Written c. 200 AD.

“He who sells a house among the houses in walled cities, lo, this one redeems [the house] forthwith. And he redeems it at any time in 12 months. Lo, this is a kind of usury which is not usury. [If] the seller died, his son may redeem [it]. [If] the purchaser died, he may redeem it from the domain of his son. He reckons the year only from the time that he sold it to him, since it is said, ‘Within the space of a full year’ [Lev. 25:30]. And when it says, ‘Full,’ it means to encompass the month added in an intercalated year. Rabbi says, ‘One allows him a year and its intercalated days.'”
——Mishnah, Arakhin, Chapter 9, Verse 3, Written c. 200 AD.

“[If] they read the Scroll [of Esther] in the first Adar, and then the year was intercalated, they read it [again] in the second Adar. There is no difference between [the 14th or 15th of] the first Adar and [the same dates in] the second Adar except for the reading of the Scroll and giving gifts to the poor.”
——Mishnah, Megillah, Chapter 1, Verse 4, Written c. 200 AD.

“[The decision to] intercalate the year is before three [judges], the words of R. Meir. Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel says, ‘With three do they begin, with five [more] they debate the matter, and they reach a final decision with seven [more] [judges]. But if they reached a decision [to intercalate the year] with three [judges], [the year is] intercalated.'”
——Mishnah, Sanhedrin, Chapter 1, Verse 2, Written c. 200 AD.

“Said R. Aqiba, ‘When I went down to Nehardea to intercalate the year, Nehemiah of Bet Deli came upon me. He said to me, I heard that only R. Judah b. Baba permits a wife in the Land of Israel to remarry on the evidence of a single witness [to her husband’s death].'”
——Mishnah, Yevamot, Chapter 16, Verse 7, Written c. 200 AD.

“They gave testimony that they intercalate the year at any time in Adar. For they had said, ‘Only up to Purim [14th of Adar].’ They gave testimony that they intercalate the year conditionally. Rabban Gamaliel went to ask for permission from the government in Syria, and he did not come back right away, so they intercalated the year on the condition that Rabban Gamaliel would concur. And when he came back, he said, ‘I concur.’ So the year turned out to be deemed to have been intercalated.”
——Mishnah, Eduyot, Chapter 7, Verse 7, Written c. 200 AD.