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@MonicaCellio is that an intentional parsha reference? :)

sefaria.org/Exodus.35.5?with=all

@IsaacMoses whistles innocently

Shavua tov, y'all.

What's a good English word for someone who stops being religious? The Israeli Hebrew term in חוזר בשאלה fwiw.

@Scimonster off-the-derech?

@Scimonster I realize it is not fully English but it is often used by English-speaking people in the context you ask

The context is a joke i heard over Shabbat: Two חוזרי בשאלה walk into a restaurant. They sit down, order, and get their food. One picks up his fork and starts saying ברוך אתה ה'... The other says, "What are you doing? We're חוזרי בשאלה!" So the first one quickly corrects himself: למדני חוקיך

@Scimonster then I think you'd write two "formerly observant Jews" - off the derech is a bit pejorative - and in the second part "we're not observant anymore"

@mbloch That would work - thanks.

@Scimonster The punchline only works for insiders. If you're moving to an English-speaking, non-Israeli context, you want to keep the language insider. So, "Two off-the-derech guys ..." "... We're not frum anymore!"

@DoubleAA Thanks for the direction to improve that answer about the calendar

I'd like to add some bonus material since the current calendar isn't actually the same one that was used in the 1st century

Did pesach always happen in the first month after the equinox when the leap-years were instituted by the courts?

@Daniel That's what we're here for...

@Daniel Seems unlikely, or else there would be no need for any non-calendrical rules for declaring leap years

@DoubleAA What do you mean?

or 4:3

It seems they would sometimes for other reasons (eg. weather) push off Pesach a month even if it wasn't necessary bc of the equinox. Those years Pesach wouldn't have been the first month after the equinox

@DoubleAA, why put up with the rudeness of the author of this post? judaism.stackexchange.com/a/68716/4504 I flagged comments as rude and downvoted the post, which is (as you were quick to say) patently false.

I suspect that he is reading the shoresh for Moshiach (anointed) improperly.