Adar

Adar (Hebrew: אֲדָר‎, Standard Adar Tiberian ʾĂḏār ; from Akkadian adaru) is the sixth month of the civil year and the twelfth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a winter month of 29 days. In leap years, it is preceded by a 30-day intercalary month named Adar Aleph (Aleph being the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet), Adar Rishon (First Adar) or Adar I and it is then itself called Adar Bet (Bet being the second letter of the Hebrew Alphabet), Adar Sheni (Second Adar) or Adar II. Occasionally instead of Adar I and Adar II, "Adar" and "Ve'Adar" are used (Ve means 'and' thus: And Adar). Adar I and II occur during February–March on the Gregorian calendar.

Based on a line in the Mishnah declaring that Purim must be celebrated in Adar II in a leap year (Megillah 1:4), Adar I is considered the "extra" month. As a result, someone born in Adar during a non leap year would celebrate his birthday in Adar II during a leap year. However, someone born during either Adar in a leap year will celebrate his birthday during Adar in a non-leap year, except that someone born on 30 Adar I will celebrate his birthday on 1 Nisan in a non-leap year because Adar in a non-leap year has only 29 days.

Naomi Shemer

Naomi Shemer (Hebrew: נעמי שמר‎; July 13, 1930 – June 26, 2004) was a leading Israeli musician and songwriter, hailed as the "first lady of Israeli song and poetry." Her song "Yerushlayim Shel Zahav" ("Jerusalem of Gold") written in 1967, became an unofficial second anthem after Israel won the Six-Day War that year and reunited Jerusalem.

Biography

Naomi Sapir was born in Kvutzat Kinneret, a kibbutz her parents had helped found, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. In the 1950s she served in the Israeli Defense Force's Nahal entertainment troupe, and studied music at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem, and in Tel Aviv with Paul Ben-Haim, Abel Ehrlich, Ilona Vincze-Kraus and Josef Tal.

Marriage and family

She first married actor Gideon Shemer and had a daughter, Lali. They were later divorced. She later married an attorney, Mordechai Horowitz, with whom she had a son, Ariel.

Songwriting career

Shemer did her own songwriting and composing, set famous poems to music, such as those of the Israeli poet, Rachel, and the American Walt Whitman. She also translated and adapted popular songs into Hebrew, such as the Beatles song "Let It Be" in 1973.