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Does anybody know of a reason why Adar was was chosen to have a Beis during leap years as opposed to any other month?
The Torah designates the beginning of the year of counting months from Nissan, so Adar is the end of the year 12th month. We must make Pesach in the spring as it says Chag Haaviv, so when they noticed that Pesach did not come out in the spring, at the time when Rosh Chodash was designated through witnesses, another month was added, see Rambam Hilchas Kidush Hachodash (4,1). On Purim Katan we don’t say למנצח which is interesting since we don’t find too many times when we don”t say it, but ‘זה הקטן גדול יהי there is a potential for it to be Purim Gadol by not adding a leap year month.
There are a variety of meforshim who offer similiar explainations that adding the extra month during Adar in a lunar calendar cycle is because chodesh Nisan is the “beginning” of the months making chodesh Adar the last, and chodesh Tishri the seventh month. Thus, logically, given the need to keep the lunar calendar in cycle with the seasonal cycles of the Gregorian calendar, we add the “extra” month after the last month (aka Adar rishon and the extra Adar sheni).
GH, correct. Although one thing I would correct. We don’t “keep the lunar calendar in cycle with the seasonal cycles of the Gregorian calendar”. We keep the lunar calendar in cycle with the actual sun or solar year. The Gregorian calendar is only around 500 years old, so is relatively new, and tries to keep in sync with us.
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