Wednesday, December 23, 2009

8 weeks of not missing Tachanun on a weekday

An interesting phenomenon occurs in any year containing two Shabb'tot Chanukka, such as this year: From after the end of Chanukka until the end of Shvat is a period of 8 consecutive weeks in which there is no calendrical reason for omitting Tachanun on any weekday. This is the longest consecutive period of not missing Tachanun.

As we will not have two Shabb'tot Chanukka again until 17 years from now (5787), so too we will not again have 8 consecutive weeks of Tachanun until 17 years from now.
Thanks to Shtikler, Rabbi Heber, and Tzvi Goldman for discussing this issue with me 3 years ago.