Letter to His Disciples about the Calendar Controversy (II)

This letter from Se‘adya is addressed to four of his students, who had asked the exilarch for news about the calendar controversy. Se‘adya chides them for not asking him directly and explains the basis of the controversy, condemning Aaron ben Meir’s views. Aaron ben Meir had calculated the calendar based on the idea that if the new moon took place more than 641 “parts” (fractions of an hour) after noon, then the beginning of the month should be pushed one or two days later. In the opening section here, Se‘adya writes mostly in Hebrew before switching to Judeo-Arabic.