THE NEW JAMAICA ALMANACK, AND REGISTER, CALCULATED TO THE MERIDIAN OF THE ISLAND FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1797, SAINT JAGO DE LA VEGA AND KINGSTON: DAVID DICKSON FOR THOMAS STEVENSON, [1796]

The present lot comprises a complete copy of the Jamaica almanac of 1797, including information useful especially to those involved in the maritime trade that served as the basis of much of the Jamaican economy. One of the pages contains a “Kalendar of Months, Sabbaths, and Holidays, which the Hebrews or Jews observe and keep, for the Years 5557 and 5558 of the Creation.” As with the previous lot, this was presumably intended to serve the many Jewish residents of the island who required accurate information about important dates on the Jewish calendar when planning and making their business voyages.

One particularly interesting date included here is December 3, corresponding to “Barach Aleno” on the calendar. This is a reference to the practice of Jews living outside the Holy Land to begin reciting the prayer for rain (whose initial words, according to the Sephardic rite, are barekh aleinu) sixty days after tekufat tishrei (the autumnal seasonal turning point, as calculated according to Talmudic calendrical rules), which in the eighteenth century always fell on either the third or fourth of December, depending on whether or not the following year was a leap year. Since 1797 was the first year after a leap year, Jews would begin asking for rain on December 3 (really, the night of December 2) that year.