This morning, probably inspired by the rain, someone in shul asked if
they've started saying ותן טל ומטר in חו"ל yet. Turns out the rain
didn't wait for them this year, as they begin the night of December 4.
Then I remembered that tomorrow night is a Friday, so they actually
begin Saturday night. Then I remembered that next year is a leap year,
so they would have begun December 5 anyway. It's all very confusing,
not to mention quite inaccurate. I prefer the Israeli schedule.
That reminded me of my eleventh grade rebbe in MTA, R' Isaac Suna, זצ"ל.
We were having a hard time understanding all this- I suppose this would
have been twenty-four years ago exactly, also the eve of a leap year-
so the two of us went into the library, pulled down the Encyclopaedia
Judaica and other books, sat down, and hashed out the whole astronomical
calculation. He was quite the teacher, in many different ways.
At the end of the school year, he gave me an inscribed copy of his book, on the perush of a Rishon on Nedarim, published by Mossad HaRav Kook. One day I shall tackle it...
