JYAR, in Hebrew "rll:. is the eighth month of the Jewish year. It coincides, when earliest, with our April ; but when the year is lengthened by the addition of a thirteenth month, it may be as late as our May. In the present year (1960) it begins on the 23rd of April. Wo usually pronounce the word Jyar, but it should be sounded Lear, curiously like the Greek 'Eap, "the spring," with which some ety mologists believe the word to be connected. Josephus, in the eighth book of his c. 3, § 3, writes it '14. In the two scripts containing the old calendar of Heliopolis (Balbek) wo find it lapap and Apop.
The Jewish almanac. mention several fasts in this month, but they do not appear to be all generally observed : one of three days' duration is set down for the commencement of Jyar, to be observed as an expiation by any persons who .insy have committed excesses during the celebration of the Passover in tho preceding month ; another, on the 10th, is held in memory of the death of Eli, and of the seizure of the Ark by the Philistines (1 Samuel iv. 18); another is kept for the death of Samuel on the 27th. The festivals in this month are only partially celebrated : one, on the 7th, in comme moration of a second consecration of the Temple by the Maccabees ; one, on the 23rd, for the capture of Gaza (1 Mace. sill. 43), or else for the capture of the tower of Jerusalem (ibid, v. 51) ; and a third is attributed, on insufficient authority, to the 27th, in memory of the expulsion of the Gehl:cane (1) by the Maccabees, but this would clash with the fast-day above mentioned, instituted to commemorate the death of the prophet Samuel. It appears from the 6th chapter of the
14 book of Kings, v. 1, that the ancient name of this month was Zif ; it is called there "tile second month," that being its place in the calendar before the commencement of the year was transferred from the spring to the autumn, or from Nisan to Tiari. (BcL.] The name occurs again in the 37th verso, Jyar has 20 days only.
has the same sound which C has before the vowels a, o, g. A reference to that consonant will therefore suffice for the power of the letter ; its various forms may be seen in ALPHABET. Although this letter is now superfluous, it was not so when the characters of an alphabet were syllabic in power. Thus the letter k appears to have denoted at one time the syllable ka, while another character represented ko, and so on. Hence in the Greek and Hebrew alphabets the former was called kappa, kaph : the Latter kappa, koph. This accounts for the fact, that in Latin the letter k was never used except before the vowel a, precisely as q is found only before u, and the Greek koppa only before o. Even our own alphabet seems to imply such a limit in the use of this consonant, when it gives it the name ka, not ke; though the latter name would better agree with be, ce, de, &c.