Jewish Francophone Culture and Literature - France with Simone

FRANCOPHONIE JUIVE SELECTED TOPICS IN FRENCH LITERATURE
and CULTURE
Jewish Francophonie: Culture and Literature
From the Nineteenth Century to the Present
Simone Monnier Clay Ph.D. Fall 2007 Copyright: 1999-2005-2007
CHAPTER ONE
Following a Different Beat Section one: Cultural differences (Calendar, alphabet, religion, dietary
laws) The word 'Juif' (in old French: Juiu, Juieu), derives from the Latin
word 'Judaeus' (in Greek, 'Ioudaiov'), and it comes from the Hebrew
word 'Yehudi'. The word 'Juif' identifies people who came from the
kingdom of Judea (940 to 586 B.C.E.)
Today, there are about 13 to 14 million Jews out of a world population
of over six billion people. The lunar calendar: The calculation of the Jewish calendar was established for the
Diaspora by rabbi Hillel in the 4th century C.E.
The rhythm of the Jewish calendar is ruled both by the sun and
by the moon and is a lunisolar calendar. The basic unit of time is
governed by the day. However, if for the western world a day begins in
the middle of the night and lasts until the next midnight, as far as
the Jewish calendar is concerned, a day begins after sundown and lasts
until the following sunset. In this aspect, the Jewish day is ruled by
the sun and the question arises concerning how to define the exact
moment when one day ends and the next begins.
According to the rabbis, the new day begins at the moment when
the sun sinks below the horizon. As a result, all Jewish holidays
begin in the evening before the first day of the observance. This sets
the evening preceding the day the beginning of the new calendar day.
The next unit of time in the Jewish calendar is established in
the story of creation in Genesis 1:1-2:4, namely the seven-day week.
According to Genesis, the week is firmly governed by a divine plan, in
which a six-day workweek is followed by an ordained day of rest, the
Sabbath. The week is meant to correspond to the four phases of the
moon and four weeks make roughly a month. Then, twelve months make a
year. However, the number of days counted in the twelve-month lunar
year and the 365-day solar calendar do correspond exactly. In the
Gregorian calendar, months have unequal numbers of days that do not
correlate with the phases of the moon. As a result, in the Gregorian
calendar, an extra day is inserted every four years (the leap year) in
order to have the calendar reflect the solar year. In the lunar
calendar, in order to coordinate the traditional lunar year with the
solar year, a system of 19-year cycles has been organized, in which
there are seven leap years. This means that approximately every three
years an intercalary month is inserted.
The new month is determined with the observation of the new moon
(Rosh Hodesh).
The Jewish calendar sets the rhythms of the Jewish holidays and
is followed by Jews all over the world. It is also the official
calendar of Israel.
Unlike the Jewish calendar, the Chinese calendar, the Tibetan
calendar and some Hindu calendars, the Islamic calendar is strictly
based on lunar months and is not coordinated with the solar year (it
is not lunisolar). Consequently, holidays such as Ramadan occur at
different seasons over the course of time.
To the Gregorian years 2005-2006 correspond the Jewish year 5766
(which begins with Rosh Hashanah in fall 2005).
(S.M.C. May 2005)
The Jewish calendar: All Jewish rites observe the Jewish calendar: the Ashkenazic[1] rite, the
Sephardic[2] rite, the rite of the Jews of Yemen, Ethiopia and other
African countries.
The Jewish week centers around the Sabbath (Shabbat, the seventh day of the
week, the day of rest), which begins before sundown on Friday evening and
ends after sundown on Saturday night. |Name |Length in a |Length in a |Length in a |
| |deficient year |regular year |complete year |
|Tishri |30 |30 |30 |
|Heshvan |29 |29 |30 |
|Kislev |29 |30 |30 |
|Tevet |29 |29 |29 |
|Shevat |30 |30 |30 |
|Adar I |30 |30 |30 |
|Adar II |29 |29 |29 |
|Nisan |30 |30 |30 |
|Iyar |29 |29 |29 |
|Sivan |30 |30 |30 |
|Tammuz |29 |29 |29 |
|Av |30 |30 |30 |
|Elul |29 |29 |29 |
|Total: |353 or 383 |354 or 384 |355 or 385 | The month Adar I is present only in leap years.
In non-leap years, there is no Adar II, and the month is simply called
"Adar." In a regular year the numbers 30 and 29 alternate; a complete year is
created by adding a day to Heshvan, whereas a deficient year is created by
removing a day from Kislev. The alteration of 30 and 29 ensures that when the year starts with a new
moon, so does each month.
The Calendar of Jewish Holidays:

|Rosh Hashanah |Tishri 1 |Thurs-Friday |
|Jewish New Year |Seventh month of the |September 13-14, 2007 |
|festival |year. | |
|book of Ezekiel | | |
|Yom Kippur |Tishri 10 |Saturday, |
|Dedicated to atonement| |September 22, 2007 |
|and abstinence. | | |
|Leviticus 23:27 | | |
|Succoth: Festival of |Tishri 15 |Thurs Sept 27 |
|Booths | |-Wed. October 3 |
|Third of pilgrimage | | |
|festivals | | |
|Sh'mini Atzeret |Tishri 22 |Thursday, October 4, |
|end of Succoth | |2007 |
|Simchat Torah |Tishri 23 |Friday, October 5, 2007 |
|Giving of the Torah | | |
|Hanukah: Festival of |Kislev 25 |Wed., December |
|lights | |5-12, 2007 |
|Liberation in the face| | |
|of oppression | | |
|Tu B'Shevat |Shevat 15 |Tuesday, January 22, |
|Planting of trees | |2008 |
|Purim |Adar II 14 |Friday, Mar 21, 2008 |
|Book of Esther. Story | | |
|telling how the Jews | | |
|of Persia were saved | | |
|from destruction | | |
|Passover |Nisan 15 |Sunday, Apr 20-27, 2008 |
|Festival of freedom | |Sun-Sun |
|Yom Hashoah |Nisan 27 |Friday, May 2, 2008 |
|Holocaust | | |
|commemoration | | |
|Yom Haatzmaut |Iyyar 3 |Thursday, May 8, 2008 |
|Israel's Memorial Day | | |
|Lag B'Omer |Iyyar 18 |Friday, May 23, 2008 |
|Break during weeks of | | |
|semi-mourning. | | |
|Shavuot |Sivan 6 |Mon-Tues, Jun 9-10, 2008|
|Festival End of 7 | | |
|weeks after Passover. | | |
|Book of Ruth | | |
|Tisha B'Av | Av 9 |Sun, Aug 10, 2008 |
|Destruction of the | | |
|Temple. | | |
|Erev Rosh Hashanah |Elul 29 |Tues-Wed, Sep 30, Oct |
| | |1st, 2008 | The Hebrew alphabet: The Hebrew alphabet is a set of 22 letters written from right to left
and it is used by the Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino and Judeo-Arabic languages.
The origins of the characters of the Hebrew Alphabet are derived from the
so-called Phoenician or Old Semitic letters which influenced all other
alphabets, since the Greeks and the Romans adopted their alphabets from the
Semites. The Torah, the Talmud, the Jewish prayer book (the Siddur[3]), a
number of religious books and studies are written in the Hebrew alphabet.
The Hebrew alphabet is sometimes identified by its first two letters and
called the "alefbet". Religion and beliefs: Are Jews members of a race or of various ethnic groups? Or, is Judaism a
religion?
In the 1980s, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Jews
are a race. The purpose of this declaration was supposed to serve as a
basi