Mi Yodeya is a question and answer site for those who base their lives on Jewish law and tradition and anyone interested in learning more. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
The Torah commands that we celebrate Pesach in the spring time so how can Australia celebrate Pesach at the same time of year as other countries?
While I suspect the answer is that they celebrate at the time it is spring in Israel how does this fulfill the idea of celebrating during the spring time if in fact for a person living in Australia it isn't spring time?
We have learned that whenever the Torah deals with relative times, the time expressed in the Torah is that of Eretz Yisrael. For example, the molad announced is Yerushalaim Solar Time (not even Israeli clock time which is 20 minutes later). Similarly, there is a commentary when Moshe Rabbeinu said "about midnight" he was speaking of Midnight Yerushalaim time rather than midnight in Egypt.
Kehillas Yitzchak says:
Hashem's 'clock' is set to Jerusalem. The plague of the first-born took place at exactly midnight, Jerusalem time. But because Egypt is west of Jerusalem, midnight there occurs later. When Moshe said the plague would be at 'approximately midnight,' he was referring to local, Egyptian time.
(Kehillas Yitzchak; thanks to Rabbi Sholem Fishbane)
See When is “vesain tal umotor” said in Australia? which shows how seasonal changes follow Eretz Yisrael.
Similarly, since leap year is based on Aviv in Eretz Yisrael, this shows that Australia would also have leap year based on the same calender and the circumstances in Eretz Yisrael.
