Re: CHAT: Jewish calendar

James Campbell wrote:
> Many thanks for the detail, Steg. Would I be correct in thinking that the
> two methods might occasionally result in slightly different leap years?
Yes, and the frequency increases with time.  For obvious reasons, "as
needed" keeps the months always in line with the seasons.  However, a
fixed schedule of leap years does not have that advantage.  19 solar
years is NOT exactly 235 lunations, specifically, 235 lunations is
slightly longer than 19 solar years.  Currently, the average date of
Jewish festivals is about eight days later than it was in 359, when the
current rules were published.  After a sufficiently long period, in
fact, the year would be perceptually a month ahead of the seasons (this
would take over 6 millennia, however)

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