tagged: Psalms 139 • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶקְט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ

📄 מִדְרָשִׁים עַל אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן וּתְקוּפַת הַחֹרֶף | Midrashim on the Origin of the Winter Solstice and Kalends Festivals by Primaeval Adam

Contributor(s):

Devora Steinmetz and Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

A sourcesheet shared by Dr. Devora Steinmetz to accompany a shiur on the Winter Solstice in Jewish thought. . . .

תהלים קל״ט | Psalms 139, interpretive translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription) and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Psalms 139 in Hebrew with an interpretive translation in English by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z”l. . . .

תהלים קל״ט | Psalms 139, a mizmor by David with verses attributed to Adam haRishon for the Winter Solstice

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (translation), the Masoretic Text and David ben Yishai (traditional attribution)

A well-known midrash explaining the universality of the Kalends festival beginning after the Winter Solstice attributes this psalm to Adam haRishon, the primordial Adam, as they describe being knitted together within the Earth in Psalms 139:13-16. In the Roman calendar, the calends or kalends (Latin: kalendae) is the first day of every month. Named after Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, and derived from ianua, “door,” January began with the first crescent moon after the winter solstice, marking the natural beginning of the year. Marcus Terentius Varro, in his Res Rusticae (37 BCE) divided the agricultural year into eight parts. In the final part beginning on the winter solstice, no hard work was to be done outdoors. . . .