הלכות קידוש החודש פרק ד

Rambam Hilchot Kiddush HaChodesh Chapter 4 – Intercalation of the Year

Introduction

Good, dear Jews. Today we are learning Rambam Hilchot Kiddush HaChodesh. Actually, Hilchot Kiddush HaChodesh regarding intercalation of the year, Chapter 4, which has more to do with intercalation of the year specifically.

And the shiur (lecture) has been dedicated by Rabbi Yoel Wertzberger and all the other Jews who contribute the money and the honor and the listening and the divrei Torah (words of Torah) and the respect and the answers so that it can continue. And one is very grateful. Not too grateful, so that one shouldn’t become accustomed to it. Okay. You see, I’ve already inserted a bit of humor too.

Review: Foundations of Year and Month

Anyway, what will I teach? I will teach. So, here the Rambam goes to state the halacha (law) of intercalation of the year. That is, they have already learned, apparently, apparently this is the progression, yes? They have already learned in Chapter 1 the Rambam said that there is in the basic thing of the calendar, there is a thing called a shanah (year). Shanah, he says, goes with the shanat hachamah (solar year). And there is a thing called chadashim (months), which goes with the levanah (moon).

This is simple. The year, the sun, the truth is, one must speak about this a bit more precisely when it comes in the next chapters when we will learn the calculations after Chapter 6, we will see. The sun has a yearly cycle. The truth is that it’s not so easy to see the cycle. It’s not simple that you see the cycle, but there are seasons that one can see. Seeing the cycle of the sun is not a simple wisdom, it’s only relative to the constellations, one must be able to stand and calculate, not so simple. But the sun has a cycle, the yearly seasons.

The Concept “Shanah” – Agricultural Foundation

And I think that shanah, the word shanah originally means like, how does it say? “Ki mispar shnei tevuotecha mocha lach” (for the number of years of produce he counts for you). Shanah means, it grows every year a new, from the language of shinui (change), I know, from the language of a new thing. So the year is an agricultural concept, as it were. It has to do with the sun, but the sun is already in the sky. We’re talking about the earth, one sees how it grows. Every time it rains one also calls it according to the yoreh umalqosh (early and late rains), it’s according to the rain that makes the beginning produce grow, and the second produce grow. Like aviv, aviv is what grows. And this is the year.

Besides this there are chadashim, which chadashim means the levanah. Yes, the Rambam brings a proof that chadashim is the levanah. The Rambam said there that there is a thing called shanat halevanah (lunar year). This, I want to elaborate on this a bit in a minute, I want to ask.

In any case, there is the levanah, and we have already seen then that if the Rambam said that there is a thing called shanat halevanah, shanat halevanah plain means twelve times the levanah, and if one calculates that, what comes out? A bit shorter than the shanat hachamah, therefore one must add every certain time one year, which is called chodesh ha’ibur (intercalary month), shanah me’uberet (leap year), so that the calculation should match more or less.

Halacha 1: Shanah Me’uberet – Adding the Month of Adar

Now one can learn the halacha of adding more, and the Rambam goes to state essentially the reasons why one must add and which one adds.

Is Ibur HaShanah a Separate Mitzvah?

Interesting, it’s not a part of the mitzvah, yes, the Rambam puts everything into a mitzvah. He didn’t say that there is a mitzvah on beit din (rabbinical court) to calculate months and years, like to intercalate years. And the other he does say yes, mitzvat aseh min haTorah sheyachshvu (a positive commandment from the Torah that they should calculate) this. Afterwards he says, umachshvin kovavim chadashim im me’abrin shanim (and they calculate stars, months if they intercalate years). When it comes to the halachot, he puts, mekadshin chadashim im me’abrin shanim (they sanctify months if they intercalate years).

It’s interesting, because he could have learned it as a mitzvah from the shamor et chodesh ha’aviv (observe the month of Aviv). It seems that the shamor et chodesh ha’aviv is not a d’oraita (Torah law), it’s only something a… No, I think it is yes. They spoke about this in Chapter 1. I think that in other places we saw it in the Sefer HaMitzvot, and in other places it does say yes. And one cannot be medayeq (precise), it makes no difference whether this is called a mitzvah or not. There is a nafka mina (practical difference) the matter of counting the number of mitzvot. The number does count yes. When he says kiddush hachodesh (sanctification of the month), he means everything that it does. And soon we will see that the whole thing is called chochmat hasiba (wisdom of calculation), because later it’s called soon in Chapter 6.

So, I think that… In short, because for example, the Rambam said that one may even be mechalel Shabbat (desecrate the Sabbath), because on this depends the yamim tovim (holidays). Also in intercalating the year depends the yamim tovim. Yes, but it’s not relevant that one should need to be mechalel Shabbat. No, that’s not an argument. I’m just saying yes. Okay.

The Rambam’s Language

Okay, so in any case, here he goes to explain again when one does it. And the main thing, I think here he doesn’t say mainly that one does it. That one does it he stated in Chapter 1, he only repeats it because he goes… The details that he explains, when, on which month, and why. The Rambam goes to explain.

Shanah me’uberet, that’s the thing. You have a chodesh me’ubar (full month), which means that the moon came a day later, even a month has thirty days. And you have a thing called shanah me’uberet, this is a shanah shemosivin bah chodesh (a year in which we add a month), that the year has thirteen months instead of twelve months of a shanah chaseirah (deficient year) or peshutah (simple year), I don’t know how one calls it.

Which Month Does One Add?

Now you’re going to learn, when does one add a month? You’ve already learned why one adds a month essentially. Now one goes which month one adds. The answer is, “Ve’ein mosivin le’olam ela Adar” (And we never add except Adar). You already know. How do you know? The Rambam doesn’t say, but every Jew knows that there are twelve names for the twelve months, which come from the Babylonian names, as is known. Yes, the Rambam didn’t bring that there are twelve, this is basic, it’s something that everyone knows.

And the month called Adar, Adar Adar Adar, I don’t know, this month one adds, “ve’osin otah shanah shnei Adarim, Adar rishon ve’Adar sheni” (and we make that year two Adars, first Adar and second Adar). It gets two. The ibur (intercalation) is like the year has a baby. What’s called the baby? Adar Sheni. Just nonsense. I don’t mean to say it doesn’t have a name, it becomes two Adars.

One doesn’t say that there should be two Tevets, it’s not relevant. What is relevant? How will you call? No, what it means to say here is mainly that at that time one adds. It does make a difference. I’ll say later that once one has begun Nisan one no longer adds. See, see, Adar one can add. This is mainly what it means to say. That is, there are halachot, Kislev has Chanukah, and Shevat has Tu B’Shevat. There could be a difference. Nu, when does Adar also make? There is indeed a question when one makes Purim and the four parshiyot (Torah readings). There is a halachic meaning to what one calls Adar, but mainly the halacha means that one adds it at the end of the year, that is in the month of Adar.

The main thing means not in the month of Elul. I think perhaps like then there would be a time when one should add. Then one may, but Nisan one may no longer. Right right, but I say, why doesn’t one add a thirteenth month between Kislev and Tevet? Because so, one would see why.

Why Does One Add This Month?

Mah mosivin chodesh zeh? Why does one add this month? Why not another month? Mipnei zman ha’aviv (Because of the time of Aviv).

Ah, one must know, this reminds me of a chiddush (novel insight), sof chodesh zeh (end of this month), I think it means why this month and not another month. Another can interpret that he means to say why at all. Ah, he means both apparently. You see nothing, he means in general. It means both, but I think it means both.

In general, because the other thing he says later more clearly about this month. Yes, but that one adds in general, was already stated in Chapter 1 truly. So apparently means, in this comes out both.

The Verse “Shamor Et Chodesh Ha’aviv”

Why? Mipnei zman ha’aviv, kedei sheyihyeh Pesach be’oto hazman, shene’emar “shamor et chodesh ha’aviv” (Because of the time of Aviv, so that Pesach should be in that time, as it says “observe the month of Aviv”).

Be’oto zman means every year at the same time. No, be’oto zman ha’aviv. It’s not consistent, it’s in the time of Aviv, sometimes it’s after thirteen. Be’oto zman means that in those times, and it should always be in zman ha’aviv. Right, right.

Shene’emar “shamor et chodesh ha’aviv”, and interprets, the Sages interpreted, that the simple interpretation doesn’t mean this, right? Simple interpretation means guard that in the month of Aviv “ve’asita Pesach” (and you shall make Pesach), that’s the next word. But the Sages interpreted that one must also guard that the month of Aviv should be Pesach. The month, chodesh zeh, I don’t know which is chodesh zeh, the month of Nisan as it were, the month when one makes the holiday, yes, should be in the time of Aviv.

Chiddush: “Shamor” Makes It Into a Mitzvah

And the Rambam says, he is explaining, this is just missing, to say that shamor means this, that one should be me’aber (intercalate), is just missing if one should make it into a mitzvah. If not, we could learn from the word chodesh ha’aviv itself to understand that one must add. Because if Pesach is always the month of Aviv, one must add. Shamor makes it for us here a mitzvah.

We learned earlier, the Rambam already spoke in Chapter 1 about the verse “shamor et chodesh ha’aviv”, and he says that this is the source in general, that there is such a thing as shanat hachamah that one must align it with. It seems, I think this is just kula apika (all the same), something more. One, this is a mitzvah in order to make a mitzvah, I think it’s also in order to read a source in the Torah.

One will say, who says? Perhaps, I know, perhaps chodesh ha’aviv, only that year was chodesh ha’aviv. No, it doesn’t make sense, I don’t know. Perhaps Pesach is the first month. Whatever it is, with the month of Av it indeed wouldn’t match, but I do understand indeed. That which one calls the month of Av itself is already apparently enough, like to learn that then when Pesach must be, I don’t know if one must say shamor, guard it by being me’aber, if yes it makes it truly into a mitzvah d’oraita.

No, the chiddush is that one adds another… that one makes an ibur. Who gave the right to add another month? Who gave the right to add another month? You should know that the Torah wants that Pesach itself will be Pesach itself Pesach. Shamor, this is the interpretation of shamor. Shamor says that there is a certain action. Right, exactly, that although shamor is a lav (negative commandment), I don’t think so, but it’s a new thing that one adds something. This is as it were the chiddush which is difficult for which one seeks a source.

Ulei Ibur HaChodesh

And the Rambam explains, ve’ulei ibur hachodesh hazeh hayah haPesach pe’amim bimot hachamah ufe’amim bimot hageshamim (and were it not for the intercalation of this month, Pesach would sometimes be in the summer days and sometimes in the rainy days), it wouldn’t always be in Aviv.

Question: Where Does It Say That Pesach Is Every Twelve Months?

Nu, I must say that I, as we have begun to hint, I don’t understand what he says. Because why? That is, I just want to emphasize that there comes here like an assumption that isn’t really stated. That is, there comes some assumption that isn’t stated anywhere, in the Torah it certainly isn’t stated. I don’t know where it would be stated, what said that Pesach comes twelve months, say thirteen months after the previous Pesach. I don’t know where such a thing is stated in the entire Torah.

In the Torah it says in the first month, and it says in the month of Aviv. I can say simple peshat (plain meaning), every year when Aviv comes one begins to count months, and the first month is Pesach. When does Aviv come? Look, look at the sun, look outside, to see when it comes.

We are told that there is such a thing as a lunar year of twelve months, and Pesach is apparently according to that calculation thirteen months precisely after the previous Pesach, and therefore it becomes a question, one must make an intercalation. One doesn’t need to make anything.

On this we were taught that it says “chodesh bechodsho” (month by its month), every time when the moon is renewed, a new month becomes. So, once we know this, and we know that people live according to this calculation, how does one not give advice with this Pesach? Every year one will make Pesach when… when is Pesach? The fifteenth of the month of Aviv, every single year is Pesach. But what happens with the fact that we learned “chodesh bechodsho”, that our months we count according to the moon? One does count indeed, what is the problem? And people shouldn’t have orderly years. Where does it say more months will be in one year will be fewer months? Yes, so one will indeed.

Anyway, I’m not trying to see how there is such a hava amina (initial assumption). Yes, now one does make an order, but without an order, one gives an order, and one doesn’t need to live with an order. What is the hava amina? That months is something an orderly amount of months which is every year the same. In the Torah this isn’t stated. I say, one doesn’t need to have the verse “bachodesh ha’aviv”. We don’t need at all the special chiddush called ibur.

Again, does it say somewhere in the Torah that it’s seven months after Rosh Hashanah? After Sukkot? When it says when Nisan is the first month, it says after the first month, yes? Because it says that the first month will come out at other times. I don’t understand anything, I don’t know from when one begins to count the first month. I didn’t mean that when one counts according to the sun and according to the moon, yes? What is there from me? One cannot count, there are no years of the moon, the whole thing is fake. It’s not stated in the Torah, not in reality.

Very good. So a month is approximately a thirty-day thing, it holds a whole cycle. Besides this there are years. Every year, Pesach is not a thing that one makes every twelve months, it’s not a thing that one makes every year. So every year, by the month that is closest to Aviv, one will make Pesach. Sometimes to be a bit before Aviv, afterwards. I don’t know, one can wake up it can be a bit before or a bit after, I don’t know. But what is the problem?

The Parable of Shabbat Teshuvah

Like I said here, like one says, every year the Shabbat after Rosh Hashanah is Shabbat Teshuvah. He asks, but sometimes Shabbat Teshuvah is two days after Rosh Hashanah, sometimes four days, sometimes six days. So what? They are two different systems. They don’t need to calculate together. One doesn’t need to make that Shabbat or months must completely come together.

The “Contradiction” in “Chodesh Ha’aviv” – And Why It’s Not a Contradiction

But months themselves, chodesh ha’aviv. Yes, it can be that in the word chodesh ha’aviv there is something of a bit of a contradiction. Chodesh we learned means when the moon is renewed. Nu, what is indeed chodesh bechodsho? Chodesh, which this is something that has to do with the moon, and Aviv is something that has to do with the sun?

No, it’s not any problem. Like the Shabbat after Rosh Hashanah there is also a contradiction, because Rosh Hashanah goes with the moon, and Shabbat goes with the days of the week. It’s the first time that is the Shabbat after the moon. The first time that there is a moon after Aviv.

Critique of the Muslim Calendar

So let’s think, what would have happened if one wouldn’t have added once in three years an extra month? Why wouldn’t it have come out like for example the Muslims who… Ramadan is sometimes in winter, sometimes it was. Because they are foolish people, they decided. They only go with the months of the… Not only they go only, they don’t go with the months either, they go with a new Torah, they decided that there is only a certain number of months, and it begins again every twelve times. Why? I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense.

Just Wonderings

Just wonderings, I already told you that I think that the Arabs of old themselves understood that this isn’t right, and Muhammad came with a crazy idea that one shouldn’t do it. There’s no calendar in the world that does this. I mean, unless it doesn’t matter at all, you could say, every thirty days begins a new cycle, you can count, why aren’t there forty months? I mean, why is something twelve? In general, why is there only once?

Why Intercalation Would Have Made It So There Are No Months

We could have thought, if with God’s help we didn’t add a thirteenth month once every three years, what would have been how many months and how many days would each month have had and how many months would there have been? There wouldn’t have been any months. It’s not a thing that has an amount. How many weeks are there in a year, do you know? How many weeks are there in a month, do you know? When there’s no end point, it doesn’t even make sense.

If we didn’t do it, why don’t we make a week intercalation so the weeks should match? Because there’s no problem at all, it doesn’t fall in, these two things don’t need to meet up.

Why Would the Rambam Say That Pesach Would Come at the Summer Solstice?

Why would the Rambam, when he says, Pesach would come at the summer solstice? I have no idea why, it doesn’t make a drop of sense to me. Pesach isn’t… if it would have said in the Torah, Pesach is thirteen months after the previous Pesach, then it’s correct. But it doesn’t say such a thing, it says in the first month. So? When is the first month? The month of spring. When it begins. What’s the problem? I don’t see why there should be such a thing.

I don’t understand what… not only do I not understand, but the Sages also don’t understand. They actually make intercalation. And we look at intercalation… I mean, the halacha looks at intercalation as something a whole thing. It could be that this is simply so that it should be consistent for everyone. When… because as you say, if you would simply look at the month according to the spring, it could be sometimes perhaps the month before the spring, perhaps after the spring. It wouldn’t be clear. The Beit Din evens it out for everyone that the year has thirteen months. The year has seven months between Pesach and Sukkot.

I don’t see that it’s a novelty that needs some source. It looks the opposite, that whoever says that there’s some number of months in a year, he is innovating. Months have nothing to do with years. There’s no such thing as a lunar year. Simply there’s no such thing. Why should there be such a thing? We see that the moon doesn’t have any yearly cycle.

Discussion: There Are Cycles of the Moon

No, there’s something… I don’t know, just as there is that the sun has some sort of cycle of twenty-eight years. There are cycles. Yes, everything comes. Doesn’t come. There are differences. There are differences. There are differences. No, why should one reckon with it? There’s no connection. One must reckon with it. When one calculates when the molad is, one needs to know which part of the year it is. There are things, it’s about the sun, not about the moon.

I mean to say, there are differences. The moon that we see, the moon is also with the sun. In any case, there are cycles. There are larger cycles. There are also cycles of five hundred years, that the sky does something. What’s the difference? You look at the moon, it’s a thing that turns every month. You don’t see anything.

The Arabs are funny, they have a problem. Imagine if there were only ten months, there’s no proof at all that there should be twelve months. The moment that the months and the season don’t match, make fifteen months, and every fifteen months is a Ramadan. Do me something. It has no…

In short, I actually think that I’m right. In other words, I’m only asking the question in order to be precise that it’s not really such a novelty, the intercalated month, it’s a normal thing. This is simply the plain meaning, there’s no exposition here, we don’t need any oral tradition, some special tradition that we make intercalation, and that’s how we actually make the intercalation.

That is, soon we’ll see that it is indeed a calculation. The calculation actually happens, but there’s Divine Providence that the Beit Din makes it orderly. And there are those who do it with a calculation. But let’s think about how just looking at it. How just it could have come out like this, that once people live indeed with an order that they love consistency, they want to know that the years have the months of the moon, there are twelve in a year, because that’s usually there. Would they have answered like the Muslims, is that what he says? Therefore the Sages said, no, that in order for it to always be the month of spring, one shouldn’t do so.

But I don’t know that people live that way. People love clocks and calendars, a matter of clear schedule. It shows the clear days. That people, or this day, live in different orders doesn’t disturb. A week with a month has no connection, not in the Jewish months, not in the gentile ones. Because there were once people, there were calendars that tried to match up the years. That there should be every year equal, or every month or every year equal in terms of weeks. But it doesn’t disturb anyone. We haven’t gotten used to it. We don’t make the schedules according to it.

So for example, by us we say Tuesday, parshat [portion], because usually people make the date, the English date, or the date. One continues. It makes a difference which day of the week something is. It’s still going, work. No, even if yes, one says the first Sunday in April. There’s no problem at all. It’s Sunday of April. No one counts which number week it is. There are months of which. But since both are on a yearly cycle, they are but not. The moon is not on a yearly cycle. Only after we made the intercalation. Certainly. The moon is not on a yearly cycle, and the intercalation makes it orderly. It’s not on a yearly cycle, it’s a bit close. It’s eleven days shorter than a yearly cycle, true. It’s almost really very strong.

I’m only saying that I don’t think there’s such a real hava amina [initial assumption], that we need a teaching. And actually this means intercalation that we don’t do this, the main thing adds that there’s a certain order. The main thing also adds… later we saw that there’s intercalation, that we go really with a calculation. What this one can no longer see just from looking whether the spring has come a bit deeper, and the Rambam holds that the calculation is actually the main thing, we’ll already see at the end of the chapter. But these are novelties.

The Rambam’s Teaching from “Days You Count and Months You Count”

The Rambam said earlier that we can’t make it so that we should just add the eleven days, because “months you count and days you count”. Perhaps there you see the word that people indeed wanted to have an orderly twelve months, and what they would have done is, when Adar ends they would have started counting the fiftieth month, they would have had some midget month, so that we shouldn’t do this, because on this there’s a teaching that “days you count and months you count”, the teaching is a basic thing.

In other words, there’s no way. What would you have done? You only make eleven days, because people had that there’s a mini month. One can’t make any mini month. Correct, a month one can’t play with, a month is the moon. You don’t have a clock, you mean that one can make… no one would have done that.

Why Festivals Are at the Full Moon

Study Partner:

Did the Chassid say earlier, why do we make all the holidays when the moon is full? Why?

Answer:

For the same reason why by us in the study hall one must always say nine o’clock on the round clock. Why? One speaks with a person, he looks, the first hour of the day, the sixth hour, an hour and twenty minutes, is already complicated. The same thing, when the moon is like this, I come back, you can’t add a few days, and you won’t be able to use the moon then at all. Actually it’s useful.

And so it actually is when people who used to travel on ships, they didn’t have any clocks. The moon was the thing that gave them the most order. The next time when there will be a full moon, they already need to hold closer to the land where they want to come near. It’s still like this. By whom? Look at the moon. You’ll see, every month we make Kiddush Levana [sanctification of the moon]. On this we make a blessing, I don’t understand. We live in a town and don’t look at the moon. This is a question on us.