Speaker: Ari Belenkiy (Bar-Ilan University)

Title: A Talmudic Puzzle and the Jewish Calendar in the Late Third
Century

Abstract:
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A story in Talmud Yerushalmi about watches of priests in the Temple is
well known to be incompatible with the contemporary Jewish calendar. 
Beller (Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. 52 (1998)) discovered a solution that
requires a value for the length of the solar year that is otherwise
unknown to history.  While arguing the unlikelihood of Beller's solution
on historical grounds, we propose several alternative solutions to the
Talmudic puzzle. One was somehow missed by Beller, another uses Beller's
calendrical system slightly differently from the way he used it. Two
plausible solutions using 8-year or 30-year intercalation cycles are also
found. Some of our solutions require only year and month lengths attested
in the historical record.  However, neither the contemporary Jewish
calendar, nor another 19-year calendar known in antiquity, provides a
solution even if 7 days of variation from the rules is allowed. 

Joint work with Brendan D. McKay, Department of Computer Science,
Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.