Laws of Sanctification of the New Month, Chapter 1 (Auto Translated)

Laws of Sanctifying the New Month: Introduction and Law 1

Introduction to the Laws of Sanctifying the New Month

Good. Yes, we’re learning Sefer Zemanim, we’re going to begin Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh. Yes, Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh is the mitzvah of sanctifying months, establishing months. The first four chapters are proper scholarly ones, discussing the laws of how, with God’s help, one sanctifies the month, the mitzvah. Later one enters into deep astronomical knowledge.

And yes, many people are frightened by Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh, because the subject of astronomy is foreign to many, but it’s a part of the Torah, and we’re going to do it, God willing. Rabbi Yitzchak will help us get through even the difficult parts, but in any case, the first four chapters are certainly like everything else in the entire Torah, it’s not deep astronomy, it’s the basics of the mitzvah.

Digression: Why People Are Frightened by Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh — A Revelation About the Entire Torah

Yes, we’re going to learn it plainly, and the truth is that one must know, I want to say a secret, people come to it like they’ve learned. I don’t remember which chapter, chapter 5, 6, 7, later it becomes even more complicated with some of the chapters. He says, I have no idea what’s going on here, and so on.

I hold that this is a revelation about the entire Torah. It appears that when one learns Hilchos Pesach chapter 7, whatever it’s called, chametz and matzah, one also doesn’t know what’s happening. We’ve become more accustomed. I mean the subjects that we’ve learned more times, one learns in cheder, every year one learns a bit about Hilchos Pesach, one knows the concepts a little more. One learns it through, one comes to know it.

Afterwards one comes to something that first of all one isn’t introduced to learning, so one doesn’t know it. And secondly, it seems difficult, it seems difficult to keep one’s head. Yes, astronomy and math is actually simpler than scholarly learning, to understand the distinction of mitzvos tzrichos kavanah (commandments requiring intention), because it’s not a concept, it’s not something that one needs to put into one’s head. It’s plain, one needs to keep one’s head, yes, it’s like arithmetic.

Look at the moon, it’s here, it’s there, calculate two times four, and the time is divided, and so on. It’s actually very simple things. Simple I mean it’s… yes, you understand? There’s no reasoning in this. There are many times children, they understand math much easier. But not just children, many fathers too. Math or astronomy stands easier than scholarly learning or philosophy or Chassidic books. A Chassidic book is much more difficult than all of Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh.

But what? First of all, one is accustomed, one has also become accustomed not to understand. And when one comes to the halachah one sees that one must plainly keep one’s head. To understand a basic calculation, a certain concentration is needed, a certain clarity, and most people or many people grasp that they can’t keep their head, and here is a revelation that they never kept their head. He plays with all other things, because he plays.

I have a proof, because very many people say that when it comes to Kodashim or Taharos, there it’s very difficult. Kodashim isn’t harder than Hilchos Shabbos, but it has to do with familiarity. Hilchos Shabbos you’re familiar with, therefore you need to think less, because you already know all the concepts, and you can go with the flow, and the Creator helps one with Kodashim and Taharos. Today, you didn’t learn it when you were in cheder, you need to apply more head, but it’s not harder. And here is a different kind of level of applying head. At least one who has learned basic math should be able to survive these laws.

Two Points: Revelation of Lack of Concentration, and That Math Is Actually Easier

Right, so I mean to say, two things come out that I claim. One claim is that in the entire Torah there’s true anxiety, imagine if you would apply the attention, the sharpness that’s needed, to understand something you can’t, something you can, but it turns out much more clarity that you don’t have, because one is accustomed to play like that. That’s one thing. Do the calculation fresh, you’ll do the calculation again each time when learning. Not just the calculation, even the understanding. Understanding, that’s the second thing.

Right, it’s a different sort. It’s a different sort, perhaps a different sort of thought, but it also requires much concentration. Yes, one is in the middle of doing a math calculation, and he gets a phone call, he grasps that he’s become confused, he must start fresh. But when he’s in the middle of a reasoning, many times he doesn’t grasp that he must start fresh, because he’s not thinking now truly, he’s playing.

And the second point that I would claim is that actually it’s easier. On the contrary, to keep one’s head in a reasoning is harder than to keep one’s head in numbers, because numbers are actually simple things. One needs to be familiar, it’s true, no faith at all, there’s no introduction. It’s simple, you can do it yourself and prove it the whole time. It makes other things. You need to understand how the other one thought, not how I think. It’s also true, true, there’s much less that the other one thought here. So, but anyway, all this is relevant for later what we’ll discuss.

The Place of Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh in Sefer Zemanim

But now learn the first, about half of Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh almost I mean, is more or less simple, I’ll do it properly. Unlike for example the laws, what are we learning now Hilchos Shekalim, where the Rambam basically writes over the Mishnah with the Gemara more or less, there aren’t any new concepts, no new ways that he understands.

Here yes, there is in Maseches Rosh Hashanah, there is in Maseches Sanhedrin, all the places that the Rambam is based on, but it is yes one of the laws that the Rambam very strongly worked over and gave his… yes, I don’t know if now means, I mean just one thing, there aren’t any laws. There is yes in Maseches Rosh Hashanah, there are Mishnayos, but I mean to say more, the Rambam has a certain approach with him. How he understands the law that he innovates. The Ramban disagrees, and there’s a great dispute among the Rishonim with his entire understanding of what is the mitzvah of Kiddush HaChodesh, how it works, how it connects with the calculation, etc. But here there’s also an innovation.

Yes. One must also speak about this, how does it come in here in Sefer Zemanim, how does it belong? They spoke about this. Yes, one understands that all the festivals depend on Kiddush HaChodesh, just as indeed the verse “hachodesh hazeh lachem rosh chadashim” (this month shall be for you the beginning of months) stands as an introduction to Pesach. But since it’s a mitzvah that is handed over to the court, he placed it after the festivals, but before the rabbinic festivals. Ah, because the same rabbis they make the months. Without the Kiddush HaChodesh people, there won’t be any Chanukah and fast days. Ah, I don’t know for what reason.

But perhaps interesting, as if the last Torah mitzvah that he says, can you say it? Or one before the last? Fast days? It’s not clear. Not clear why he places it here.

Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh as an External Composition

I remember that there are proofs, perhaps not the law part, more the science part. There are proofs, I remember, that the Rambam wrote Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh external to his entire book. The years don’t match up, I remember he brings, because the Rambam in Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh says which year it is today, one of his examples, and this is a year after, I remember, when he writes that he finished Mishneh Torah, or the opposite, something like that. It turns out that the Rambam looked at it as an external composition.

There’s even another edition of the calculations of the Rambam. Yes, it could be that he edited it several times, and corrected, and rewrote, which he did in the entire Mishneh Torah. It could be that the fact that it’s not in its place, could be because the Rambam looked at it a bit like an external composition. Yes, it belongs to the mitzvah, but it’s actually a composition in itself, and the Rambam took it very seriously, he worked very hard on this chapter, on these laws.

Discussion: Did the Rambam Publish the Mishneh Torah in Booklets?

When the Rambam first published the Mishneh Torah, did he publish it in a manner that everything was finished? Did he publish it in booklets?

No, it was completely finished. But I’m speaking of during his work.

Okay, fine.

The Count of Mitzvos — One Positive Commandment

Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh. The Rambam says, the laws of Kiddush HaChodesh is one mitzvah, one positive commandment. “Vehu” (and it is), it says in Sefer Zemanim there are very few negative commandments, at least in the second part of the festivals and onward. “Vehu”, the positive commandment is “lachshov” (to calculate), to calculate, “velidah” (and to know), and to know, “velikboa” (and to establish), and to establish. Three things. “Be’eizeh yom hi techillas kol chodesh vachodesh mechodshei hashanah” (on which day is the beginning of each and every month of the months of the year). He should know and establish which day is the first day of the month of all the months. He should know when Rosh Chodesh is.

Analysis: Lachshov, Lidah, Likboa — Three Elements or One Mitzvah?

Interesting, here he says three things: lidah, lachshov, and likboa. It looks like three things: yes, likboa is apparently the court that sanctifies, they are establishing. And lidah and lachshov is the one who does the entire math calculation, and lidah is the one who knows. I know, when one knows that one knows that Rosh Chodesh is, he does a mitzvah. Is the calculator in order to know, or knowing after a calculation, after a calculation, or is knowing, the knowing itself is a mitzvah? We’ll know truly more inside, because it’s not clear if one can be precise, but the main place that one must establish is inside, how the Rambam writes what the mitzvah is.

Why Doesn’t It Say “Lekadesh”?

But first of all, he doesn’t say here lekadesh (to sanctify). Sanctify. That is, its very name is Hilchos Kiddush. The name of the chapter of the entire law is Kiddush HaChodesh, but he doesn’t say lekadesh.

Right. First of all, also that years are missing here, it says here only months. But perhaps indeed about this, because it’s from the Torah? It’s a problem with chapter 1 it’s implied that it’s still part of the law, it’s still a law in the mitzvah. But perhaps because it’s called Kiddush HaChodesh, therefore he brings indeed only that, because everything depends, it’s connected.

I think that the simple meaning, the lekadesh means for the Rambam lachshov and likboa, perhaps that’s the meaning. Because lekadesh technically means to say mekadesh (sanctify). We’ll see anyway, not always does one say mekadesh mekadesh, it depends on different laws. This is just one way how one announces to the world. The language of sanctification isn’t holy, technically it’s not holy.

Upon Whom Is the Mitzvah? Only the Head of the Court?

Rosh Chodesh, it’s not just simple that only the head of the court has the mitzvah, for example, the head of the court has the mitzvah. One must speak about this externally, one second, but I want to say that not the language lekadesh means that one says that today is Rosh Chodesh, apparently from this it’s called lekadesh, one sanctifies the sanctity, Rosh Chodesh has some sanctity, one brings sacrifices and the like.

But apparently, the essence isn’t that which you say, the essence isn’t to make the month. That’s not the mitzvah, the mitzvah is to make when the month begins. What is, how does one do this? Through the fact that one calculates the calculation and figures out, sometimes through seeing perhaps through sighting, one must soon see the relations to sighting and the calculation. Because it appears that the Rambam holds that all this is part of it.

It appears that you’re asking that the mitzvah is on the head of the court. In general, the Rambam inside will say explicitly that the mitzvah is on the court. But it’s not clear if he means to say that the mitzvah is only on the court. Or it’s incumbent upon the court that one must follow what they establish when it’s Rosh Chodesh, you can already do it yourself.

Apparently there are places where it’s implied that all Jews who have a part in this it’s a mitzvah, and they learned that one may go out. Yes, we’ll learn later on Shabbos, but I remember in Maseches Shabbos, various tools that one may take on Shabbos in order to be able to go. Yes, but I don’t know if that’s a… And one makes a meal, it’s called a seudas mitzvah (festive meal for a mitzvah). Okay, but that could be, because certainly you help the court. I agree, it certainly looks like that. Soon we’ll see.

The Verse “Ki Hi Chachmaschem Uvinaschem” — The Dispute Between Ramban and Behag

The Rambam didn’t bring this, there is indeed another mitzvah that’s called “ushmarten va’asitem ki hi chachmaschem uvinaschem” (you shall keep and do them for this is your wisdom and understanding). It says in the Gemara that this is calculating seasons so there are two, three interpretations in the statement. That is, the Ramban claimed that the verse means the mitzvah of making a leap year. The Ramban says that there are two mitzvos, the Behag counted it as two mitzvos. The Ramban has, the second mitzvah that the Behag counts… the Behag counted as the mitzvah of knowing astronomy, yes? No, it doesn’t say there a month, it says seasons, constellations. So that’s what I’m saying, there’s a dispute. The Ramban understood that what the Behag means to say is not to know astronomy, but to… that is, one must know astronomy for this. For Kiddush HaChodesh? Not Kiddush HaChodesh, for leap year. To know which… that’s the meaning.

And the Ramban has claims against this Rambam, why does he count one mitzvah in Kiddush HaChodesh? What happened to the mitzvah of making a leap year? The Rambam says that it’s one mitzvah, and in Sefer HaMitzvos he says clearly, “months and years”. Right. Here it’s missing, but it’s still in the chapter he says it yes clearly. Right. That this is one.

The Rambam’s Approach: Calculating Seasons Is Part of Torah Study

There are others who learn this Rambam, that apparently so he learned, and others also learn in the Behag so, that there’s an external mitzvah of calculating. The mitzvah isn’t to… that is, here we’re speaking of the mitzvah of saying when is Rosh Chodesh, in order to say. All these various details of laws you can say how one knows. But I would perhaps be able to say that the Rambam doesn’t need to learn the Behag, because the Rambam looked at it as it’s a part of Torah. Just as he said, that knowing all wisdoms, especially wisdom that has connection to things in Torah, is a mitzvah of Torah study. When one learns astronomy, it’s not an external mitzvah from Torah study, it’s a part of the mitzvah of Torah study. So here it will be the first time when it will be relevant, when it’s practical. When one carries it out practically, but one learns it like a topic, you don’t need to have an extra “ushmarten”, it’s a mitzvah of Talmud Torah, no?

You’re saying according to this… yes, I hear. You’re saying that it’s a dispute whether it’s part of the Torah. Right, according to the Behag you don’t have part of the Torah, because the Behag will make a clear distinction between Torah and wisdom. But the Rambam, for whom all wisdoms that have to do with Torah is a part of Torah…

The Rambam’s Response — Calculating Seasons Is for Love of God

Moon Months, Sun Years, and the Source for the Intercalated Calendar

Halacha 1 (Continued) — Moon Months: The Source That Months Follow the Moon

The Foundation: Chodesh = Renewal of the Moon

Speaker 1:

What are we talking about here? The months of the moon. Each month is from when the moon begins to be renewed. The word “chodesh” means from the language of chidush (renewal), yes? From chidush halevana (renewal of the moon). As it says, “zot olat chodesh bechodsho lechodshei hashana” (this is the burnt offering of the month in its month for the months of the year). So the Sages interpret, “olat chodesh bechodsho,” the olah offering that must be brought each month, each Rosh Chodesh, has to do with “lechodshei hashana,” the times when the month is renewed. “Chodesh bechodsho,” the month is renewed. Yes? It has to do with the month being renewed.

Because the sun is not renewed. If one makes twelve months according to the sun, there is no chidush on the sun. The sun is only renewed each day, it doesn’t have a monthly or any other cycle. The only thing that has a monthly cycle is the moon.

Why Do We Need a Source? The Problem with the Torah’s Language

Speaker 1:

Let me explain what I mean that this is what’s going on here. What’s going on here is that there is the Ramban in the parsha who says the thing that every boy knows, that a month Jews, the Torah, yes, counts from the moon, and a year is counted with the sun. Then there is ibur (intercalation) which connects the two things.

But the problem is that we need to have a source for this. In the entire Torah, the Torah mentions months many times, as you say, but it never mentions the moon. The truth is that it does say, in this week’s parsha it says, “uvechta et aviha ve’et ima yerach yamim” (and she shall bewail her father and her mother a moon of days) – a moon of days. “Yerach” means a moon, right? But it doesn’t say that yerach is a month.

The Possibility of a Sun-Based Calendar

Speaker 1:

So in other words, if someone will be stubborn – I remember the Ibn Ezra brings in Parshat HaChodesh, there were Karaites who were stubborn about this – if someone will be stubborn, he will say that there is no source whatsoever in the Torah that a month has to do with the moon. Perhaps a month has to do with the sun?

But if one goes with the sun, one also doesn’t need to make twelve months. One can just make it once, that each year becomes winter and summer again. Right? There are four seasons of the year. But that there are… It says like this, the minute there is “bachodesh hashevi’i” (in the seventh month), we must know that there is something more than the sun. One can divide it into twelve if one wants. One can do what one wants. But it’s random, because we want to divide it more than into four seasons. One could have made four seasons. It would have been.

I’m just saying, one could be stubborn like this. Not only could one, there is famously Rachel Elior who argues that there was a four. She has some shitat Tzedokim (theory of the Sadducees), I know, Qumranites, some people who claim that they had a calendar, entirely a calendar of the sun. And they have months, but yes, some Torah, some way. They argue a bit differently, that is, they make the ibur differently. They make, and it works out, I remember they also connect it with the days of the week. So he makes each month of four days, and then two empty days, and each month, something like that. It comes out, it matches his calculation precisely according to the sun. And he argues that it doesn’t say in the entire Torah “ulevana” (and to the moon).

The Complication of Our Calendar

Speaker 1:

And the truth is, one must make this clear, our calendar is very complicated because it’s a combination of the two other calendars. When one goes entirely with the sun, one can make a very simple calendar. You’re right, that the moon won’t come in, one will make some calculation how it comes out approximately twelve months a year, or precisely. That is, it should be even more precise, that’s messy, it should be more precise actually, it should be clear. One can even make Shabbat also match, because with our calendar sometimes Pesach comes out on Shabbat, sometimes Sunday, sometimes Tuesday, and so on. One can make everything one hundred percent precise if one only calculates with the sun, and for this the Rambam seeks as if a source.

The Simple Meaning of “Chodesh”

Speaker 1:

I think that the truth is that one doesn’t need a source, simply the plain meaning, whoever learns chodesh in the Torah, as you say, chodesh means that it becomes a new thing. Chodesh even means often the day of Rosh Chodesh, like machar chodesh (tomorrow is the new month), yes? Machar chodesh doesn’t mean Rosh Chodesh, machar chidush hachodesh (tomorrow is the renewal of the month), chidush hayerach (renewal of the moon). Chodesh means the time when there is a renewal in the moon.

Like we see other times it says yerach. “Yerach yamim” is indeed a very clear proof. “Liyerach hashana” also says by Shmuel. I don’t know. “Liyerach hashana”? I don’t know. Okay. “Ki zeh chok leYisrael hu mishpat le’Elokei Yaakov” (For this is a statute for Israel, a law of the God of Jacob). Okay.

Discussion: “Shlosha Yerachim” — A Proof or a Question?

Speaker 2:

I would have asked from “shlosha yerachim” (three moons), perhaps one could say the opposite, if it says here yerachim, it implies that a chodesh is not a yerach.

Speaker 1:

I don’t know. We see that one makes periods of time based on the yerach, and the other periods of time that we know are the seven months. So the seven months is the same as the three yerachim that we’re talking about. Could be.

Historical People Who Argued

Speaker 1:

If someone wants to be stubborn, I say, there were historical people who were stubborn about this, and they said that a month doesn’t have to do with the moon.

The Rambam’s Proof from “Asa Yerach Lemo’adim”

Speaker 1:

The Rambam brings an interesting proof which I don’t understand so well. “Asa yerach lemo’adim” (He made the moon for appointed times) is also a verse that is clearly there, yes? “Asa yerach lemo’adim,” a verse in Tehillim. Lemo’adim is dependent on the yerach. Let’s say, mo’adim doesn’t necessarily mean yamim tovim, lemo’adim means to count.

There is a verse in Melachim, “beyerach Bul hu hachodesh hashemini” (in the month of Bul which is the eighth month), or “beyerach ha’Eitanim bachag hu hachodesh hashevi’i” (in the month of Eitanim at the festival which is the seventh month). So in short, Sefer Melachim certainly didn’t hold like that person, but one always knows advice. Anyway, that’s what he probably meant, right?

Discussion: The Meaning of “Olat Chodesh Bechodsho Lechodshei Hashana”

Speaker 2:

“What is a year? From the number of moons.”

Speaker 1:

Yes, I think it’s clear, but we’re looking for a source. This is somehow the source. I don’t understand so well the meaning of “chodesh bechodsho,” but that’s how one must interpret it as you said. Chodesh means the time of chidush hayerach (renewal of the moon), and only then it says “lechodshei hashana,” that the year is divided into the months. “Olat chodesh bechodsho lechodshei hashana” it says.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, we’re not yet holding by that verse, but what is the hint? It says “olat chodesh bechodsho.” He doesn’t bring the end of the verse, but “lechodshei hashana.” It’s just also been in the months of the years. Each year, there are years.

Speaker 1:

Yes, but that the year is dependent on the “chodesh bechodsho.”

Speaker 2:

No, the year is not dependent on this. He means each month is the year.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, in short, that it’s not an external thing, which when one can say that the year is counted with the sun and then there is something an external thing called months.

Sanctification of the New Month — The Solar Year, the Lunar Year, and the Concealment of the Moon

Law 1 (continued) — “Observe the month of spring”: The proof that years are calculated according to solar years

Speaker 2:

Okay. That’s exactly what we’re saying.

Speaker 1:

No, but later we’re going to say that the two things are connected. He says, here itself you can already bring some proof that the two things become somewhat connected.

The Ibn Ezra’s Question on the Rambam’s Interpretation

Speaker 1:

In short, the Rambam interpreted “olat chodesh bechodsho” – every Rosh Chodesh when the moon is renewed. The Ibn Ezra already says that this is not the simple peshat, it’s more like “Shabbat beShabbato”, meaning every single month. Anyway, I could also have interpreted “Shabbat” when it is resting perhaps. In any case, this is the Rambam’s interpretation.

The Rambam’s Second Proof: “HaChodesh HaZeh Lachem” with the Midrash

Speaker 1:

“Kach amru chachamim”. He has another proof. No, “vene’emar”. Ah, “vene’emar”. It says in the verse by the first mitzvah of the Torah, before Moshe Rabbeinu gives over to the Jews the mitzvah of Pesach, it says like this: “HaChodesh hazeh lachem rosh chadashim”. This month shall be the first of the months.

“Kach amru chachamim”. The sages said, “He’ra lo HaKadosh Baruch Hu”. And here it doesn’t yet say what the month is, that it depends on the moon. But the sages say like this, “kach amru chachamim”. The sages say where? It’s a midrash? Braita, tana rabanan, “He’ra lo HaKadosh Baruch Hu leMoshe bemar’eh hanevu’ah demut levanah”. The Almighty showed Moshe Rabbeinu bemar’eh hanevu’ah the form of the moon, that when we speak of a month, we mean this. Amar lo kazeh re’eh vekadesh. He showed a new moon, he showed a small moon, and he said that when you see such a moon, it becomes Rosh Chodesh.

The Midrash’s Inference from “HaZeh”

Speaker 1:

The midrash makes an inference. The Rambam is looking for a source that the month comes from the moon. The Rambam has no problem bringing a midrash, the midrash is accepted. So, he brings, the midrash interprets the word “hazeh”. What does “hazeh” mean? The simple interpretation means “the month”, as we said. But the midrash interpreted differently: not that this should be the first month, but “hachodesh hazeh”, that which I am showing you. Like several times where it says “zeh”, and the Almighty showed with a finger. The midrash interprets several times like this. So this is the Rambam’s proof that it means the moon.

Discussion: Why does the Rambam write “bemar’eh hanevu’ah” instead of “be’etzba”?

Speaker 2:

Now, we noticed earlier – why am I telling the Rambam what we did earlier? But you asked me earlier why the Rambam wrote “bemar’eh hanevu’ah”. In the midrash it says, “He’ra lo HaKadosh Baruch Hu be’etzba”.

Speaker 1:

We understand ourselves that the Rambam couldn’t write such a language “be’etzba”, the Almighty doesn’t have a finger. So the Rambam explained, he removed the word “etzba”, he said he saw something.

Speaker 2:

No, but I’m saying it. It could be that the Rambam understood that “etzba” is a metaphor for mar’eh hanevu’ah. The Almighty doesn’t have a finger that He points with. The Almighty shows in the way that He shows things to prophets. Or like this, in prophecy one sees pictures, one sees mar’ot.

Speaker 1:

I agree that he saw the mar’eh hanevu’ah. Did he see a picture of a finger, as if? Did he see that a finger is pointing?

Speaker 2:

No, he saw… The Rambam doesn’t say that he saw a picture of a finger. He saw the moon. So the Rambam holds that one cannot see the finger. So this was the mar’eh hanevu’ah.

Speaker 1:

It doesn’t seem so, because the Rambam never says, or almost never says, that the prophets saw mar’ot that show like this about the body of the Almighty, even when the prophecy was the Almighty’s finger, it shows a finger. Let’s understand. The interpretation of the midrash is, the Almighty showed with His finger. According to the Rambam “etzba’o” means “be’etzba”. That’s the interpretation, correct. Like a simple title, always when one wants to make a circle with your finger. That’s the interpretation. The Rambam couldn’t write like that, so he wrote that the Almighty showed.

Speaker 2:

I think that perhaps we understood that etzba is a term of the sages for mar’eh nevu’ah. I have a proof for you, it says a verse “beyad hanevi’im adameh”. Beyad doesn’t mean the hand of the prophets, but in any case, there is also like by the miracles that it’s yad Elokim, or etzba Elokim. Etzba Elokim means the action of Hashem, yes? It doesn’t mean to be a metaphor. Like it says “ki er’eh shamecha ma’aseh etzbe’otecha”, doesn’t mean that the Almighty has fingers, it means that this is the work of Hashem. “Kazeh re’eh vekadesh” means he showed him that at this size it’s already called a moon, even if it’s only a sliver. Or the very thing that when I say “hachodesh hazeh lachem”, I mean this, I mean the moon’s renewal.

Perhaps the Almighty Showed More — All the Laws of Sanctifying the New Month

Speaker 1:

It could be, the Rambam didn’t cut short the questions. It could be that the Rambam showed him more, he showed him all the laws about the moon. You have to remember that the Rambam says that Torah she’be’al peh the Almighty as if showed to Moshe. In other places it says “nitkasheh Moshe”, right?

It could be that the secret is that… he brings, I saw in the introduction of the Rambam Ha’aruch, he brings that the Rambam writes a responsum, and it’s obvious to everyone who learns that there are laws like the laws of sanctifying the new month, meaning the astronomy, it’s very hard to learn from written text. One makes an example, there are even such, what’s it called? A structure, a three-dimensional, such a table. One sees it, it’s very hard to understand without it. A paper and words are not enough. So presumably the midrash says that it was difficult, what does that mean? The Almighty had to show Moshe, look, see the moon turns. And so he will be able to see what one is talking about.

But the Rambam here doesn’t mean that. The Rambam here only means to show a proof that it was the moon.

Summary: Months = Moon, Years = Sun

Speaker 1:

Okay. What stands further, this is the months. But perhaps, months still don’t have to mean that twelve form a year, because one could have made, I don’t know, it should run multiple months. But the months depend on a year.

Vehashanim, shanim mechashvin, shnei hachamah. It’s still not dependent, we’ll still see how it connects. Vehashanim, when we say the… in the year. What is a year? Shnei hachamah is the year.

Sanctification of the New Month — The Solar Year, the Lunar Year, and the Concealment of the Moon

Law 1 (continued) — “Shamor et chodesh ha’aviv”: The proof that years are calculated according to solar years

Speaker 1:

The Rambam here only means to show a proof that it was the moon. Okay. What the Rambam says further, this is the months. But perhaps months still don’t have to mean that twelve form a year, because one can make, I don’t know, it should run multiple months. But the months depend on a year. Vehashanim, shanim mechashvin, one has shnei hachamah. It’s still not dependent, we’ll still see how it connects. Vehashanim, when we say the… in the year. What is a year? Shnei hachamah, the years of the sun. Shene’emar, “shamor et chodesh ha’aviv”. On this there is such a proof, shene’emar, “shamor et chodesh ha’aviv”. The month when it’s Pesach, we call it chodesh ha’aviv, the month when it’s spring, when it’s spring, when the sun is in its strength, when the sun comes out.

Aviv doesn’t mean spring. Aviv means when the grains begin to grow. As it says in the verse, “ki hase’orah aviv”. And now, in the growing it certainly has to do with the sun. No, the moon doesn’t do anything with the season of the year, the sun. It comes out that it says here that the Torah reckons with the order of the sun.

No. The same month, it says “hachodesh hazeh lachem rosh chadashim”, the month of Nissan is what should teach us the moon, and here we say that it’s aviv, chodesh ha’aviv. I say that I wouldn’t have interpreted like that, because it doesn’t say here that it’s the same month. Let’s remember, it doesn’t say at all at all about the moon in the Torah. So I think it seems, he brings from the… what we see here in total in this “shamor et chodesh ha’aviv” is that one must go, the Torah reckons with years of the sun. Years are from the sun. How to fulfill both we’ll already see?

Here becomes a contradiction, the Rambam says, he doesn’t say the contradiction, but how can it be that one counts the months by the moon and the sun for the years? That’s the fact. He says, “vechama yeteirah…” I just want to make clearer, because one must clarify the order of the language of the Rambam. But the Rambam brings in the first two laws is only a source for the two facts, because one could have argued and people indeed argued. There is no clear source in the Torah neither that the month means the moon, nor that year means the sun. He brings a proof from two proofs that moon means moon, and the sun means the sun, as it says “chodesh ha’aviv”. “Chodesh ha’aviv” is a thing of the sun, a number. It doesn’t say in the law more than that.

Law 2 — A Leap Year: The Difference Between the Solar Year and the Lunar Year

Speaker 1:

Now, vechama yeteirah, he says, now we see that we know that it becomes somewhat difficult. He asks is vechama yeteirah shnat hachamah al shnat halevanah. How much longer is the solar year than the lunar year? If one were to calculate twelve months of thirty days, it will come out karov me’achad asar yom. That’s less than eleven days. The solar year has nothing with the moon. How long does it take for the sun to return to the same place in the constellations? And how long does it take for the moon to go around the world twelve times? Yes. That means, the difference you’ll see is a bit less than eleven days. Close to eleven days, yes. Yes.

Ulechach, says the Rambam, sheyitkabetz min hatosafot hazeh kemo sheloshim yom, from the eleven. We still do nothing when we remain with eleven days. But when it comes from the eleven days, it comes three times eleven days, which is further three times eleven days, kemo sheloshim yom, o pachot me’at o yosef me’at. That means this happens approximately once in three years. Let’s say, approximately, yes. Mosifin chodesh echad one adds a month, ve’oseh otah shanah shelosh esreh chodesh. And that year one makes different from all years that there are twelve months, one makes thirteen months. Vehi nikre’et shanah me’uberet. This is called a leap year. Like me’uberet is a woman. What one adds that she carries still in her body another body. Me’uberet, yes? Added an extra.

Speaker 2:

I think that me’uberet is more like… full. A woman who is me’uber is full.

Speaker 1:

Me’uber is a language of full? Yes. Aha. I don’t know where it says in the language over, over, he goes over, it goes out from her. No, I don’t think it means that she gave birth to a baby, there’s still another thing. There’s nothing wrong with the year. There are years of twelve, there are years of thirteen. The year has more fullness. There’s also a chodesh me’uber. It didn’t come from anywhere.

Discussion: Why Not Empty Days Instead of a Whole Month?

Speaker 1:

Says the Rambam, why indeed do we do like this? One could have made that at the end of the year there should be eleven empty days, one could have also done that. Or that there should be days that don’t hold any month. Says the Rambam, one cannot do like that. Why? She’i efshar liheyot hashanah shneim asar chodesh vechach vechach yamim. It cannot be that the year should have twelve whole months, and afterwards should remain a few empty, naked days. Shene’emar, “lechodshei hashanah”. They learn from this that chadashim atem monim leshanah, the way how we count a year is when it goes through enough months, ve’ein atem monim yamim. If we had made that the year becomes when twelve months finish plus more days, it would have been “chodshei hashanah vehayamim” something, “lechodshei viyemei hashanah”. There would have been such a thing as “yemei hashanah”. There’s no such thing as “yemei hashanah”. Every day must be in a month, and a month can go in a year.

Speaker 2:

Apparently, this is also such a practical thing. One wants that one should always have months. The moment you’ll do that, you won’t have any months. It will ruin the months. In other words, there will be months, but there will be an order that every year the moon won’t follow your order. That’s the problem, right? Ah, you mean that you would have stopped, because afterwards chodesh Nissan wouldn’t have been at the new moon.

Speaker 1:

Ah, that’s the point. But why doesn’t the Rambam say that? The Rambam could have said that. It’s not a problem. That’s the reason. That’s what he says. Months means moon, not… what does months mean?

Speaker 2:

That means, make extra, and the next month… who told you to say that the year must begin the same Rosh Chodesh? It could be that the year begins in the middle of the month. May it not happen to us. And where is chodesh ha’aviv? I don’t know, the first Rosh Chodesh of that year. What can’t be? It could have been.

Speaker 1:

But from this we say… I’m sure that the reason is true about the calculation would indeed be about this, because we want that every year…

Speaker 2:

But why does the Rambam say that the reason is about “shamor et chodesh ha’aviv”, that Nissan should always come out when it’s the law? That would have all come out. If one had us… ah, you mean it would have come out with the eleven days? It doesn’t say in the names of the moon.

Speaker 1:

But one means to say, that we shouldn’t do like the Muslims, shouldn’t at all reckon with the solar year, that we know from “shamor et chodesh ha’aviv”. Yes, yes, certainly. But how does one know that one shouldn’t just… because it would have come out the right time. It would have come out the same time. It would have said, the first Rosh Chodesh… let’s say it must be a certain day in the month with the moon. Very good. The first Rosh Chodesh after the new year, then it’s Rosh Hashanah, then it’s… the month of Nissan, whatever you want to call it. Then is Pesach on the fifteenth day of that month. There wouldn’t have been any problem. The only problem would have been that the beginning of the year wouldn’t have been on the beginning of a month. That’s not a claim, but from this the verse says that a year has months, a year doesn’t have days. It must be that it was a mitzvah, it cannot be that a year should go directly to the day. Okay, this is still an introduction.

Further, there are tens, thousands, tens, every thing has such a… the days are subordinate under the weeks, and weeks under the moon, under the month. I didn’t say weeks under the moon, but whatever, that’s from the discussion.

Says the Rambam further. Now you understand, in short, law 1 explains that there is a division of years, and law 2 explains that it comes out here solar year and lunar year, and consequently there is a regular year and a leap year. Now one can explain about this what sort of months there are.

Law 3 — The Concealment of the Moon and the Beginning of the Month

Speaker 1:

Says the Rambam like this: “Halevanah nistarah bechol chodesh vachodesh ve’einah nir’it”. The moon conceals itself, and is not seen. How many days? “Kemo shnei yamim o pachot o yoter”. About two days is from when the old small piece of the moon one no longer sees, and the new small piece of the moon one doesn’t yet see. It doesn’t really mean that the moon becomes covered, but it means that the sun doesn’t shine on the… we don’t see how the sun shines on the part of the moon that is illuminated, is not at an angle that we should be able to see this. Yes, that’s the meaning that the moon conceals itself. All concealments are like this, it’s a problem of ours, not of the moon. The moon always has a half that sees the sun, and a half that doesn’t see the sun. But we don’t always see a half that also sees the sun. Every hester, hester panim is also like this, we don’t see.

“Kemo yom echad”, this helps it, because we see that in practice it’s still all the narrower thing. So that’s the meaning of concealment. Yes, the two less or more is because it depends on different things, we’ll see perhaps later will come to the calculation exactly. It’s about two days, “kemo yom echad kodem shetidabek bashemesh besof hachodesh”. Before the moon becomes attached. This is a technical, let’s… it’s not good to translate it, because this is exactly the term that was used a thing later. Devuk means when the moon is exactly opposite the sun, exactly together with the sun, that means from the perspective of the world. The moon is exactly… one cannot see the moon because it’s in front of the sun, consequently it’s not light. One cannot see it if it’s not… if it’s dark. Whatever, one can say it, yes, by us it’s hard to see. In places where it’s more dark one can presumably see it.

Speaker 2:

No, you can’t even see it. Almost… no, I mean that you can never see it.

Speaker 1:

But the point is, I mean that you can never say it. It’s not that it says… the problem is, in short, the dark side of the moon is completely exactly opposite us. In other words, the moon is closest to the sun. Closest is a bit… yes, you can say closest. It’s exactly between us and the sun, but closest to the sun. That’s called dibuk (conjunction). We’ll see later that there are many types of dibukim. Dibukim means exactly when the moon and the sun are one opposite the other, and then you can’t see it at all. And also a bit the day before, and a day after, one day. “Tidbak bashemesh v’teira’eh ba’ma’arav ba’erev” (It clings to the sun and will be seen in the west in the evening). The first day of chidush halevana (renewal of the moon), when we don’t yet see it. A bit before the day when we’ll be able to see it ba’ma’arav (in the west). We’ll see it yes in the western side. Exactly. The Rambam says, what we’ll see later. Why exactly on the first day do we always see it ba’ma’arav, and why exactly ba’erev (in the evening)? All these things… we’ll see later the process of how it goes. “Baleil sheteira’eh ba’erev achar shenistara” (On the night when it will be seen in the evening after it was hidden), the night when we’ll begin to see it after it was hidden, it will be seen again, “hi techilat hachodesh” (this is the beginning of the month), this is the chidush hachodesh, this is the new month.

Discussion: Molad is Not Rosh Chodesh

Speaker 2:

We need to emphasize here, what’s called the molad, which is the same thing as the dibuk, there are different types of moladot, we’ll see it, but the idea is the same idea. This is not Rosh Chodesh, right? The molad is always approximately a day before Rosh Chodesh. It doesn’t come out approximately…

Kiddush HaChodesh — Establishing Rosh Chodesh Based on Sighting and the Court’s Authority

Halacha 2 (Continued) — Counting 29 Days and Establishing Rosh Chodesh

Speaker 1:

It’s not the same. They’re two different things. Rosh Chodesh becomes when we can begin to see it again. But as if, it’s all just a question. The moon has a cycle, you can begin to count from wherever you want. If we would have made Rosh Chodesh from the 15th to the 15th it would also have been fine.

So what we have, we calculated, that then it must begin to emerge from the shadow…

Speaker 2:

No. The molad is when you definitely can’t see it. At the time of the molad you can’t see the moon. But at the time of the dibuk…

Speaker 1:

By us the molad is a bit before Rosh Chodesh, when we already see it yes.

Speaker 2:

No, you don’t see it. Molad is… still a whole day until we’ll be able to see it, from the molad. Exactly, usually. A molad is… exactly, we’ll see precisely how much. But a dibuk, let’s say the word dibuk. What we call molad is a bit more complicated about this, for various reasons. But the dibuk is exactly when you can’t see the moon. Right? When you can’t… but Rosh Chodesh is when you can already see it yes. It’s approximately a day later.

Speaker 1:

And what do you do? Says the Rambam, “Umonin me’oto hayom” (and count from that day), from that day, from that techilat hachodesh, you count “tish’a v’esrim yom” (twenty-nine days), you count twenty-nine days. And then it’s like this, “v’im yeira’eh hayare’ach leil shloshim” (and if the moon is seen on the thirtieth night), if on one day, the thirtieth day you see the yare’ach, the moon, “yihyeh yom shloshim Rosh Chodesh” (the thirtieth day will be Rosh Chodesh), the next morning will be Rosh Chodesh. It’s already that night, yes, it’s now Rosh Chodesh.

I mean, before this there are by Rosh Chodesh distinctions, remember? That you say yes levana at night, because you don’t know. But ever, but you are yes mekadesh, but you don’t know. Because you see then. You have to wait for someone to come say that he saw… that there is someone who comes and so forth. It could be that you’re mekadesh at night, soon we’ll see, but I’m just saying, because it’s a different thing. It takes time. And also, I mean that it’s not a nafka mina, the main thing is the acceptance that’s done in the morning.

In any case, if you see that night the moon, then it’s Rosh Chodesh. If not, “im lo yeira’eh” (if it’s not seen), you don’t see it, but we know that Rosh Chodesh is going to happen, we just give it an extra day. “Yihyeh Rosh HaChodesh yom echad ushloshim, v’yihyeh yom shloshim bachodesh ha’avar” (Rosh Chodesh will be the thirty-first day, and the thirtieth day will be in the previous month).

What does “v’yihyeh yom shloshim bachodesh ha’avar” mean? It comes out that the thirtieth day belongs to the previous month. It was Tishrei, the 30th of Tishrei. Meaning that the difference for Rosh Chodesh becomes the thirtieth day or the thirty-first day is whether you saw it or you didn’t see it. If you saw it and you’re already kove’a the month, you make Rosh Chodesh from when we know that there’s already a new moon without seeing the calculation.

Says the Rambam, “v’ein nizkakin leyare’ach beleil echad ushloshim, bein shenira’eh bein shelo nira’eh” (and we don’t need the moon on the thirty-first night, whether it’s seen or not seen). The thirty-first day we don’t check, we’re not nizkakin. We don’t need the moon to tell us that there’s a new moon, we already know from the knowledge. Why? “She’ein lecha chodesh levana yater al shloshim yom” (because there is no lunar month more than thirty days), because it can’t be that a month of the moon should last more than thirty days. So once thirty days have already passed, the thirty-first day is certainly already the first day of the new month.

Halacha 3 — Chodesh Chaser, Chodesh Malei/Me’ubar

Speaker 1:

You can learn just take for all these things. “Chodesh shehaya” (a month that was), that the previous month was only “tish’a v’esrim” (twenty-nine), and the day after is already the new one, “v’nira’eh hayare’ach beleil shloshim” (and the moon is seen on the thirtieth night), the thirtieth day you already see the new month, “nikra” (is called), the previous month, the month that has now passed is called “chodesh chaser” (deficient month). It only has twenty-nine days, that’s why it’s chaser, it’s a bit smaller month than other months.

It’s interesting, it means that when they were mekadesh in Eretz Yisrael you only knew the day after whether the month was a chodesh chaser or a chodesh malei.

“V’im lo yeira’eh hayare’ach, vayehi hachodesh she’avar shloshim yom, nikra chodesh me’ubar” (and if the moon is not seen, and the previous month was thirty days, it’s called chodesh me’ubar), it’s a month that’s filled, “v’nikra chodesh malei” (and it’s called a full month). You see that me’uberet and mele’ah is the same thing. You even have a language “k’tzirim b’veten hamele’ah” (like pains in the full womb). A me’uberet and a mele’ah is the same thing. It’s full. He says that the woman is full with nothing, with herself. The woman is full with a baby. Perhaps the language me’uberet even means full, somehow, I don’t know.

“V’yare’ach sheyeira’eh beleil shloshim hu hanikra yare’ach shenira’eh bizman” (and the moon that’s seen on the thirtieth night is called the moon that was seen in its time). When it’s seen beleil shloshim, that’s a yare’ach shenira’eh bizman, meaning that shloshim becomes already the new month. “Im lo nira’eh beleil shloshim ela beleil echad ushloshim, hu hanikra yare’ach shenira’eh beleil iburo” (if it’s not seen on the thirtieth night but on the thirty-first night, it’s called the moon that was seen on the night of its intercalation). On the night when it’s already over, when the previous month already has thirty-one days.

Halacha 4 — Seeing the Moon is Given to Beit Din, Not Like Shabbat Bereishit

Speaker 1:

So until here this is like rules of… yes? Of what are all these things? Until halacha 4 was only what is a year, what is a month, what is a moon, what is a sun, what is a chodesh malei, a chodesh chaser, a shana me’uberet, a shana not me’uberet, peshuta, however you want to call it, yes? Simple things.

Now the Rambam is going to say the halacha. That is, until now we haven’t yet learned the mitzva, we only said facts. Now he’s going to say the mitzva that he called out in his introduction to mitzvot kiddush hachodesh, or yes? Such an interesting thing.

“V’reiyat hayare’ach mesura lechol adam k’Shabbat bereishit” (and seeing the moon is given to every person like Shabbat bereishit). The thing of looking at the moon and deciding whether it’s a chodesh malei, whether it’s a chodesh chaser and so forth, is not given over lechol adam like Shabbat bereishit. The knowledge of when is the seventh day, when is Shabbat, is not something that Beit Din needs to be kove’a, but something that all Jews keep with, “kol echad moneh shisha v’shovet bashevi’i” (each one counts six and rests on the seventh). No one needs to check whether the Beit Din has already declared, whether the rabbis have already declared that this week is Shabbat, you don’t check it.

“Ela leBeit Din hadavar masur” (but to Beit Din the matter is given over). This is not Shabbat bereishit. All Jews know when. There is what will present here the Rambam that if someone doesn’t know when it’s Shabbat he counts himself. I don’t know if that’s the meaning. The meaning is that it doesn’t need any establishment. That’s the word. All Jews know when it’s Shabbat, it has nothing to do with anyone being kove’a.

It’s funny, granted there’s no mitzva here of making your days. But I say that the language mesura lechol adam is a bit funny. Because they say this, because it’s actually the opposite. It’s the least comparable lechol adam. The month the Beit Din knows, must the Beit Din. The Shabbat the Ribbono Shel Olam, Hashem established at… leshum adam, as it were. Leshum adam, because each one is the same partner in this. Each one can he not.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. You asked earlier, what if someone will come and say he made a mistake? There’s no such thing. There is Shabbat. Shabbat is yes batel uvkarban.

Speaker 1:

Kol adam means he’s saying all Jews, not your Jew.

Speaker 2:

Okay. The Jews. One doesn’t know, he woke up, he doesn’t know which day today is. What all Jews do, that day is today.

Speaker 1:

Okay, but the main thing is not that. But what’s different about Rosh Chodesh? “Ela leBeit Din hadavar masur” (but to Beit Din the matter is given over), the thing of which day it is regarding the month is given over to Beit Din. “Ad sheyekadshu Beit Din v’yikbe’u et hayom Rosh Chodesh, hu sheyihyeh Rosh Chodesh” (until Beit Din sanctifies and establishes the day as Rosh Chodesh, that’s what will be Rosh Chodesh). And when the Beit Din is mekadesh, and they are kove’a that it’s Rosh Chodesh, then it becomes Rosh Chodesh.

“Shene’emar hachodesh hazeh lachem” (as it says “this month is for you”), there where Hashem says to Moshe and Aharon “hachodesh hazeh lachem”, we learn, they expound the word “lachem”, “edut zo tehiyeh mesura lachem” (this testimony shall be given over to you), it should be given over to you.

Rashi asked earlier a question, why do we say here that lachem means specifically for Beit Din? For example, we learned that lachem tam lachem means specifically for each individual, tehiyu lekicho lechol echad. But with this Chumash it was answered. It says in the Chumash like this: “Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe leimor, hachodesh hazeh lachem rosh chadashim” (And Hashem spoke to Moshe saying, this month is for you the first of months). After that it says, “dabru el kol adat Yisrael v’yomru” (speak to all the congregation of Israel and say). We see in the continuation of the verse that until here He spoke to Moshe and Aharon as the Beit Din, and from here and further we’re going to speak to Klal Yisrael. So the first part is relevant for Beit Din.

So this is a bit of derasha, but “hachodesh hazeh lachem”, for the… that is, “lachem” means, I don’t know, you can translate simply for you, I don’t know, for you. But the Arizal translates that you are in charge of it, you, Moshe and Aharon, that you are now the Beit Din.

Discussion: What If There’s No Beit Din?

Speaker 2:

Yes, but what’s actually truly the meaning that he just said that a month can’t be more than thirty days? If you haven’t yet seen it, the next day becomes Rosh Chodesh. And in a case when there’s no Beit Din, what will happen? What, it will remain the same month? It won’t move? There won’t be any new yamim tovim?

Speaker 1:

Perhaps yamim tovim won’t actually be. It’s very interesting, I agree. There’s a question.

Let’s understand what’s truly the difference between Shabbat bereishit and kiddush hachodesh. Let’s say, Shabbat bereishit is a fact.

Speaker 2:

Ah, you can’t see it?

Speaker 1:

In a certain sense you have to say that. It’s interesting, Shabbat bereishit in a certain sense is even more like emuna than Rosh Chodesh. Because Shabbat bereishit, no one remembers when the world began, from briat ha’olam.

I heard, my friend Rabbi Neriah Klein argued that it’s a mistake to say that we began to count Shabbat from the creation of the world, because Avraham Avinu kept Shabbat. It doesn’t say that he had a mitzva of Shabbat. It says “mitzva she’lo al haShabbat.”

Speaker 2:

Okay, the first week he didn’t keep Shabbat. It says explicitly that Shabbat was renewed at Marah.

Speaker 1:

He says that from then it began, from the first Shabbat in Marah, then you count from… okay, now you can now backtrack that when Hashem commanded that today becomes Shabbat in Marah, presumably Hashem is going to keep track. Hashem, it says that Hashem keeps Shabbat.

Okay, I say, okay, it’s not relevant. I only mean to say that it’s not a fact, but it’s a mesora, it goes… we’ve been counting seven days since the times of, at least from the times of Moshe Rabbeinu. I don’t believe there’s even any funny researcher like a Sadducee who argues that we once got mixed up, and truly Shabbat is Sunday. Except for the dateline question, I don’t know of such a thing.

But if someone will say that there was once a thing where there was no Klal Yisrael, all Jews died, but there’s no one who says that. There are those who argue that converts came, I don’t know, there are all kinds of theories, but no one says that there was a time in Klal Yisrael since the… since the… since the…

Kiddush HaChodesh — The Role of Beit Din, Difference Between Shabbat and Yom Tov, and the Obligation of Calculations

Halacha 4 (Continued) — The Rambam’s Position: Beit Din Delays the Taking Effect of Rosh Chodesh

Speaker 1:

Not just the Jews, our neighbors also calculated this way. So also other cultures, meaning the Aztecs or the… I don’t know how the Aztecs?

Speaker 2:

No, but let’s say the… I don’t know who… in our part of the world. The normal gentiles. Today in China we already count yes, but it could be once not.

Speaker 1:

What I want to say is, but on the other hand the moon you can see. So seemingly, if the moon is kevod hachodesh, it is yes masur lechol, but not everyone understands. There are the two days that it’s not not. It can make a difference of one day and two days, that’s the whole thing.

But it seems, and the Rambam says explicitly but, so you can actually learn, there’s certainly a place to learn that the role, there’s actually certainly everyone agrees that there is a din of the Beit Din to be mekadesh in certain ways, but you can learn that the role, the Beit Din is like an expert, is very important. To tell everyone when the month was seen, all Jews should be able to come to the Beit HaMikdash for the regalim at the same time, it makes a lot of sense.

But essentially, their role is only as an expert, and what do they know? If, let’s say, we have today for example a calculation, we don’t go at all with the sighting, or let’s say, that someone, there’s such a calculation, you can calculate precisely when the sighting will be, the Rambam is going to talk about this, he doesn’t need any establishment, any kiddush hachodesh, the Beit Din doesn’t fall out.

The Rambam doesn’t say so, even when there’s no calendar it’s all based on the last sages. The Rambam for some reason, perhaps he learned the gemarot this way, understood that it’s not correct. Only Beit Din makes like the taking effect of Rosh Chodesh, without Beit Din there isn’t.

The Rambam says clearly in Perush HaMishnah in Rosh Hashana that hypothetically there wouldn’t be any Jew.

Speaker 2:

What you’re saying?

Speaker 1:

The Rambam says that it can’t be, Hashem already didn’t say, but hypothetically there’s not a single Jew in Eretz Yisrael even, or not ten Jews, I don’t know not a single Jew. The moadim would be nullified, there wouldn’t be any Rosh Chodesh, because you need the Beit Din to stand and make Rosh Chodesh.

Why does the Rambam need this? All because of the one difference of one day that can happen? It’s a bit hard for me to understand.

It’s true yes, but what the Rambam always emphasizes the topic that the essence of Torah she’be’al peh is the Beit Din HaGadol, the whole thing, yes? It fits with the Rambam’s great emphasis that the Torah rests on the Beit Din.

But nevertheless, we gave a solution with this, right? We make safek yoma. And Rosh Chodesh we make one, we have a calculation.

Speaker 2:

Yes, but when we do with the calculation, we do ourselves something in place of the Beit Din as if, on behalf of the Beit Din, we continue a mesora from the Beit Din. It’s not random, it doesn’t happen by itself.

Speaker 1:

The Rambam says so, the Rambam says, whether the other Rishonim said that there’s a shlichut from the early ones, whatever it is.

I just want to bring out though, you don’t even need that. Why shouldn’t we be able to say? The reason why you need to know when the moon makes Rosh Chodesh, it’s hard sometimes to know. Okay, at most there’s a doubt of two days. If you don’t have a Beit Din, make two days, two early ones, if you went further.

Speaker 2:

No, then you wouldn’t need to make Yom Tov at all.

Speaker 1:

No, two early ones is when there’s a Beit Din it’s only a small…

Speaker 2:

The Rebbe, we have something an idea, like perhaps the Kabbala, perhaps he wants against the Karaites, the Rebbe has something very strong that the Sanhedrin without their…

Difference Between Shabbat Bereishit and Rosh Chodesh

Speaker 1:

This is the difference with Shabbos Bereishis, that’s what I mean to say. Shabbos Bereishis, to create that it becomes a doubt. Let’s say there is perhaps a tragedy, the whole world has gotten mixed up, today it could be because everything is computers, you have to input into the computer, they won’t know which day it is. The AI will confuse the head, and they’ll think it’s Sunday, a beis din will establish itself, they’ll decide when it’s Shabbos, they’ll take counsel. But it’s not the possessed one who determines. Just as someone who is in a desert determines, it also lies in this, it’s also in the halacha that it’s given over to your end, the most sense that when it should be Shabbos it should be Shabbos.

Yom Tov indeed won’t be. So I saw, I know, there’s some reformer who makes a yom tov minyan, an anti-anti-Israel, anti-Zionists. The anti-Zionists aren’t Satmar anti-Zionists, he doesn’t believe in Eretz Yisrael. But if he makes yom tov, he testifies that Jews have a connection with Eretz Yisrael from all the years. The Rambam, he doesn’t want to follow the Rambam.

I mean to say a simple thing, yes? If there’s a question in Shabbos Bereishis, it’s an inquiry into the reality. Okay, the beis din, whoever will decide, as you say, someone is in a desert, he has a decision from the halacha what to do, and he can indeed do it as a doubt, no problem.

But this is different from Rosh Chodesh, because Rosh Chodesh if there’s no beis din, it doesn’t exist. If “mi shenimatza bamidbar v’lo yada imasi Rosh Chodesh,” he has no Rosh Chodesh. Okay, when there’s a beis din he knows, but if there’s no beis din, it doesn’t exist.

Speaker 2:

And in London they also had to think that Shabbos would be different than yom tov.

Speaker 1:

Shabbos is one day that that day testifies to the Ribbono Shel Olam. Yom Tov you can’t say one day that that day will testify to Pesach. It has to be on that specific day.

Speaker 2:

Okay, you’re saying differently. I don’t know why it has to be.

Speaker 1:

No, what I mean to say is, you asked about tomorrow. It doesn’t have to say that the same day that all weeks will match up until Creation. The main thing is that we should do the action, the imitation, that just as the Ribbono Shel Olam worked seven days, so to speak, and rested on Shabbos, we do the same.

Which is not so with yom tov, we can’t say we’ll take a day and that should hint to the day of the Exodus from Egypt. It has to be the same day, according to the calculation.

Speaker 2:

Why actually?

Speaker 1:

That’s the thing itself. Okay, because it has to do with what it says that the Ribbono Shel Olam sanctifies the Shabbos, which is not so – the beis din sanctifies the month. What is the thing? As if the Ribbono Shel Olam gave that we are partners, so to speak, in the Torah. Half the Torah is from the Ribbono Shel Olam Himself, half the Torah has to do with people, with the beis din.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I say, this itself is something wondrous. It’s a novelty. Why should one need the beis din for the moon?

Why Does One Need Beis Din for the Moon?

Speaker 1:

One could say, once people didn’t know good calculations. The Rambam indeed knew very good calculations, but in the Gemara it’s much weaker, the calculations aren’t clear. One doesn’t know, one can’t derive from the Gemara the calculations. Perhaps because of this they needed a beis din, and today when there are good calculations one doesn’t need it. But the Rambam is very strongly against this thought.

But you could also think perhaps that the sun actually sets, it gets dark. Regarding the moon, the only difference is only that we can see it. We know that the moon is there.

Speaker 2:

I say, the whole renewal of the moon is “l’reias hanashim.” It’s that people see.

Speaker 1:

But it is, we also see a piece.

Speaker 2:

I say, we see a huge difference. It gets cold, it gets hot, it gets dark, it gets light. The moon is after all, in total, our eye sees it, our eye doesn’t see it. It’s dependent on people.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes. The way one has to say this is, the moon looks to us bigger and smaller. The sun always looks the same size. At night one doesn’t see it, but…

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

One does see it at night, through the moon.

Speaker 2:

Ah. The moon testifies that there’s a sun there.

Speaker 1:

Okay, fine. Up to here is Halacha 4.

Halacha 5 — Beis Din Calculates with Calculations

Speaker 1:

Now, further, the Rambam says, what does a beis din have to do with calculations? What does beis din do? How do they make the calculations?

The Rambam says that they don’t do it. That is, the beis din doesn’t only rely on the testimony, the beis din also has to make a calculation. He says that what it says “lachshov v’leidah,” he means that the beis din has to make the calculation.

So he explains here: “Beis din mechashvin b’cheshbonos k’derech shemechashvin ha’itztagninim”, just as the other scholars of astronomy, the astronomers, calculate things, “she’yod’im mekomo ha’kochavim u’mahalcham”, this refers to the itztagninim, that they know the places of the stars and their movements, “v’chokrimin u’medakdekim ad she’yed’u”, ah, “v’chokrimin u’medakdekim” goes back to beis din. The beis din is choker u’medakdek ad she’yed’u, they should know, “im efshar she’yeira’eh ha’yarei’ach bizman she’hi leil hashloshim o ein efshar”, according to their calculations they should know.

Later he’ll tell us how the calculations work, yes? Right, but he says that the beis din is obligated to calculate the same calculation that the astronomer calculates, which means itztagninim, yes?

What Does “Itztagninim” Mean?

And we usually say, the example from Avraham Avinu, “tzei mei’itztagninutecha,” we translate as astrology, star-gazers. But then, in ancient times there wasn’t any difference between star-gazers and astronomers. The Rambam already made a distinction, sky-gazers, hovrei shamayim.

Once, in the time of the verse you’re reading, the same people who made the calculation also said that therefore this says it’s his mazal. Because it was an “eiruv brei,” it was what they actually saw, and it was what they added their little theories.

But I say that when the Rambam says itztagninim he means the astronomy part, not astrology, the calculation.

Practical Difference from the Calculations

And the beis din needs to know if it’s possible that witnesses should come today. And what’s relevant to know? He says, it’s relevant practically.

“Im yad’u she’efshar she’yihyeh nir’eh”, they need to be ready for this. “Yoshvim”, they need to remain in beis din, they don’t leave beis din. “Metzapim al ha’eidim kol hayom kulo ad she’yihyeh yom shloshim”, they need to remain until when the witnesses can still come.

And what happens then? “Im ba’u eidim”, then they do what beis din does, they need to make drishos v’chakiros. In Hilchos Sanhedrin it says exactly how drishos v’chakiros work. “V’ne’emnu divreihem”.

Speaker 2:

Yes, here he says what, chakiros is this?

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, because there are certain drishos v’chakiros for kiddush hachodesh. Not just, it’s perhaps connected, but yes.

“V’ne’emnu divreihem iz mekadshin oso”. It’s interesting, because even after they know that it should come, one still has to be choker v’doresh the witnesses. They don’t know that it should come, let’s understand, they know that it can come. Because actually to see is dependent, I don’t know why, all kinds of things. They need to know that the calculation tells us that witnesses can come today.

“V’im lo nir’eh”, if it wasn’t seen, “v’lo ba’u eidim”… There can be two things, this says, “v’im lo nir’eh,” it’s completely cloudy all over Eretz Yisrael, one can’t see. Or simply witnesses didn’t come, I don’t know, the people were sleeping that week.

Then “mashlimin shloshim”, one makes the thirtieth day still part of the previous month, “v’yihyeh hachodesh me’ubar”.

Discussion: The Beis Din Must Wait

Speaker 2:

They have to wait either way, as if. They have to wait. It’s actually, once a week they have to stay. It’s not a nine-to-five job, it’s a whatever late at night job.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I mean, because I remember a halacha that if the beis din has already gotten up, then one can no longer accept the month that week. I learned some mishna in Sluta.

Speaker 2:

The month you mean?

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

So that’s a matter that the beis din should remain “bimkom kevi’usam.”

Speaker 1:

Yes, I understand. I mean to say, it means that one waits, then one is ready to accept testimony. It could be that it’s correct that there’s a halacha that one actually has to wait, but not necessarily that what… There’s the language “she’hayah HaKadosh Baruch Hu yoshev u’metzapeh lo”… on…

Speaker 2:

No, it’s not Yetzias Mitzrayim.

Speaker 1:

Okay, “v’im yad’u b’cheshbon she’ein efshar she’yihyeh ra’ah”…

Kiddush HaChodesh: Calculation Contradicts Witnesses, Positive Commandment on Beis Din, and Fixing the Month in Eretz Yisrael

Calculation Contradicts Witnesses — The Rambam’s Position

That is, he saw something that looks like a moon, but it’s not the moon.

So, the Rambam learns that the calculation can actually contradict the witnesses. That is, even if clear witnesses come, two kosher Jews, they say, “I saw,” the beis din says, “You’re a liar or imagining things, and you can go to all directions.”

The Rambam will hold that what is certain from an intellectual perspective is more certain than when people have seen it. Although one needs witnesses in order to sanctify the month, the calculation itself doesn’t tell us that one saw it, and it’s for some reason a mitzvah that one should see it, this itself is a bit difficult to understand the reasoning, but that’s the Rambam.

But on the other hand, the Rambam is very certain about his calculation, he says that the calculation is good enough, and no other support. Witnesses come against the calculation, one doesn’t believe them.

Analogy to Laws of Prophecy

This is like the Rambam says regarding laws of prophecy. Testimony is good for a possible matter. If it could have been, I believe testimony. If it couldn’t have been, there can be all the witnesses in the world, there’s no matter to believe, one may not believe.

And this the Rambam says that if a prophet comes and he says against the Torah, one doesn’t believe him, because reason says so. And you can either say he’s wicked, or he’s a fool, you can always use one of the two, either falsehood or imagination.

Ah, the holy Torah says “b’zadon diber hanavi”, that he’s always wicked. Why can’t he be such an imaginer? Because one only took someone who is potentially a prophet, he’ll be a wise person, yes? If he’s a wise person, he can only be wicked. Because one took him to be a potential prophet, according to the Rambam’s calculation, yes?

I meant just so, because if one will say that it’s a mistake, the Torah won’t judge favorably, he says, don’t judge favorably. Also, he’s an honest Jew, he knows that one may not say against the Torah, he says the law of idolatry, so this can’t be imagination.

Fine, the Rambam says further.

Halacha 7: Positive Commandment from the Torah on Beis Din

Now the Rambam finishes with this: Mitzvas asei min haTorah al beis din. He finishes to repeat again a bit. Until now he said that it’s given over, now he says that this is actually a mitzvah.

A mitzvah both on the beis din, she’yachshvu v’yeid’u, they should make the calculations, and what should they know.

Novelty: Every Member of Beis Din Must Know Himself

It’s interesting to me – is it enough that one of the beis din should be someone who is good at this, or every one of the beis din must learn it himself. It looks here yachshvu, all of them.

He says that there are many times beis din, imagine, you know, a beis din of idlers? There’s someone who should take some accountant who learned Choshen Mishpat. Part of the beis din, he helps them out. He helps them out. Because if one needs a beis din, so what… If everyone relies on the other, it has to be three or twenty-three, but you can say that… that what? That the beis din trusts another? So what does the beis din do? That one explains, he helps them.

But this looks like every one of them needs to know. Im yeira’eh yareicho lo yareicho. I mean that every thing, the beis din that relies on one, isn’t a beis din, that’s one thing. It says so that the members of beis din one needs to know all wisdoms and the like.

The Three Steps of the Mitzvah

She’yachshvu v’yeid’u im yeira’eh hayarei’ach o lo yeira’eh. The lachshov v’lada’as is in order to know if it’s possible that there should be a sighting.

V’she’yidreshu es ha’eidim ad she’yekadshu es hachodesh, one should question the witnesses. And afterwards, the part of the mitzvah is still ad she’yekadshu es hachodesh, and afterwards the mitzvah is still further, v’yishlechu v’yodi’u es she’ar ha’am b’eizo yom Rosh Chodesh.

There are three steps. The mitzvah is all three steps together. Kedei she’yed’u b’eizo yom…

Novelty: The Main Point of Kiddush HaChodesh is to Inform

I mean that this explains a bit about kiddush hachodesh. That is, kiddush of the day is indeed important, but the point of the kiddush is to inform. No, perhaps the knowledge is missing for the entire people. It’s missing to know Rosh Chodesh when it was Hallel.

So the one who is close knows from the kiddush itself, and the one who is far one actually needs to send him a messenger that he should know. So Ya’aleh V’yavo and Hallel indeed only the close ones knew on the first day. Or thought, one said out of doubt, one has to see the Rambam in there later.

But what I mean to say is, it seems to me that the reason for the mitzvah of kiddush, but the idea of it is to inform. Because what is the idea of kiddush? Kiddush says that the beis din determines, and now everyone knows, and the one who is from far away receives this from a messenger.

Very good.

Verse: “Asher Tikre’u Osam”

She’ne’emar, from where do we know that the festivals depend on this informing? It says “asher tikre’u osam” — you shall call them mikra’ei kodesh. Meaning that the mikra’ei kodesh becomes mikra’ei kodesh based on the beis din that determined.

Which day do they actually have to call out? That is, seemingly they have to call out for each one. From this one learns that one has to call it out. It means that all people when they observe yom tov, it should be based on the proclamation that they received two weeks before that it became Rosh Chodesh.

It goes, but it seems to me that there’s a… this is the mitzvah. I mean that because of this Rosh Chodesh makes people. The proclamation “hachodesh hazeh,” Rosh Chodesh will be such and such. One already announces before Shabbos that one already knows earlier. This is something the the the verse.

V’shamarta es hachukah hazos, the law of Pesach one should guard l’mo’adah according to the appointed time, according to the fixing of the appointed time from Rosh Chodesh. Yes, does it mean that?

Ah, that is this is the continuation of the same verse, not exactly the same from that verse, but this he means to say asher tikra osam b’mo’adam, right? Eileh mo’adei Hashem asher tikre’u osam mikra’ei kodesh, eileh mo’adei, it says asher tikre’u osam b’mo’adam. That is to call the month beforehand, and actually make the law at the appointed time that one called.

L’mo’adah yamim yamimah, perhaps is the word yamim yamimah on the seventh day? No, yom yamimah means every year. L’mo’adah means l’mo’ed she’kara’u, that one declared mikra kodesh. Because mo’ed says eileh mo’adei shetikre’u osam, how does the mo’ed become? Through the beis din that sanctified and sent etc., and actually the Jews should make then Rosh Chodesh.

Halacha 8: Fixing Months Only in Eretz Yisrael

Ein mechashvin, one doesn’t make the calculations and the fixing of months and the intercalating of years, which he said earlier, one makes the extra month, ela b’Eretz Yisrael. This is something that is dependent on Eretz Yisrael, she’ne’emar, it says in the verse, ki miTzion teitzei Torah u’dvar Hashem miYerushalayim.

Question on the Verse

It’s interesting, that from this verse one could have learned that everything that has to do with Torah should have things according to Eretz Yisrael. So it’s actually so that the Beis Din HaGadol in Eretz Yisrael is many things, many laws that are dependent on the Beis Din HaGadol in Eretz Yisrael, but specifically here, from where do they know? Teitzei Torah means the Torah of fixing the months? I don’t know what the reason is.

Okay. Okay, also only the Beis Din HaGadol in general, one needs to have a beis din of twenty-three for fixing the month. No difference, but even if there’s such a beis din in chutz la’aretz it’s also not good. One will already see that there’s one solution against this.

A Great Person in Wisdom Who Went Out to Chutz La’aretz

Continuation of the Discussion of the Story of Chananya ben Achi Rabbi Yehoshua — The Matter of “Hinich Kamoho B’Eretz Yisrael”

The Story in the Bavli and Yerushalmi

You say, what does this mean? Rabbi Akiva also did so. He says, true, Rabbi Akiva did not leave kamoho (someone like him) in Eretz Yisrael. You say, well, I also didn’t.

He says, yes, you’re right, but “gedayim shehinachta na’asu teyashim ba’alei karnayim, v’hem shegruni yatzlichu” (the kids you left have become horned rams, and they sent me). You left behind small goats, they have become rams, they have already grown up. Not just that they grew up, they already have horns.

And do you know what their horns mean? They say this, go tell Chananya this: if he listens, it’s good, because he has whom to listen to. If he doesn’t listen, he should be in niduy (excommunication). And it’s terrible. And you tell the entire community this, that if he doesn’t listen, there’s a problem. Let Chananya go up on the mountain, let him make a mizbe’ach (altar), let Chananya sing and shout “ein lo chelek b’Elokei Yisrael” (he has no portion in the God of Israel). You are gentiles, you hold yourselves in your own structures, no problem, make a Beis HaMikdash, start doing what you want.

Ah, he understood, he actually stepped down, they said no, and they stopped.

The Yerushalmi’s Expanded Version — Three Letters

What do we see from this story? He brings a Yerushalmi also the same story of Chananya, and he brings it a bit differently. He says that Rebbi sent three letters for him, with Rabbi Yitzchak and Rabbi Noson.

The first letter said “lichvod kedushas Rabbi Chananya” (in honor of the holiness of Rabbi Chananya). Wow, this lichvod kedushas is quite an ancient thing. He was fearfully happy, wow, the Rebbi says lichvod kedushas.

The second letter he wrote “gedayim shehinachta na’asu teyashim” (the kids you left have become rams). This means that he was greater than Rebbi as well, yes? Initially, afterwards Rebbi became greater, or as great.

In the third he wrote you the sharp thing, you don’t want to accept this, make yourself a Beis HaMikdash.

He sent the first letter, and he stood up and said, wow, Rebbi is a great Jew. He says, the second one he started to think. The third one he already wanted to spit on Rebbi, and they say, but you can’t…

Innovation: The Mechanism of How One Makes the Other Admit

Apparently, why do we learn from here? You asked earlier a question, how does the other one admit that someone has become greater? We see that it’s not so simple.

The answer is, as everyone knows, first one praises the other, extols his wisdom, afterwards one makes him admit that you are something, afterwards he can no longer retract. So that’s the way how one can convince people.

I mean, it’s hard to know, how does one know that someone is as wise as you? It doesn’t have to mean this, one must be tested. If there is already a new authority in Eretz Yisrael, a good beis din of semuchim (ordained judges), it goes back to Eretz Yisrael. Apparently that’s the point.

I don’t believe how can one assess this? And also an older talmid chacham (Torah scholar) is apparently always wiser than the younger one, “gedolim ne’esfu yachdav” (the great ones gathered together). It could be this itself, that there is already in Eretz Yisrael a good beis din, it goes back to… because there must be the center.

Rabbi Yitzchak and Rabbi Noson’s Drashos (Sermons)

Let’s look further at the story from the Yerushalmi, it’s amazing. So Rabbi Yitzchak stood up, and it seems Chananya still didn’t give in. The Gemara says that he gave in, they all stood, and the Yerushalmi makes the story a bit longer.

So Rabbi Yitzchak stood up, he opened a Chumash and started to read, “eileh mo’adei Chananya ben achi Rabbi Yehoshua” (these are the festivals of Chananya ben achi Rabbi Yehoshua). He said, but it says “eileh mo’adei Hashem” (these are the festivals of Hashem). He says, “Yes, perhaps you think these are mo’adei Hashem, we hold that these are mo’adei Chananya.” Hello?

Rabbi Noson stood up and took another verse to read, “ki miBavel teitzei Torah u’dvar Hashem mehar Pakud” (for from Babylonia Torah will go forth and the word of Hashem from Mount Pakud) — it seems that’s what his place was called. To which he says, but it doesn’t say so. He says, “Yes, by us it says ‘ki miTzion teitzei Torah’ (for from Zion Torah will go forth), by you it seems it says ‘ki miBavel teitzei Torah’.” Oy, dear Father.

Chananya Goes to Rabbi Yehuda ben Beseira

He went… no, but there must be a chacham kamoho (a sage like him) in Eretz Yisrael. Look further in the story. He went, did he accept? He didn’t accept. “Kabel aleihem v’ga’asani” (accept upon them and they troubled me).

He went to Rabbi Yehuda ben Beseira in Netzivin. You remember, Rabbi Yehuda ben Beseira was a great one from Pesachim, yes, ben Netzivin? He was a great chacham. So he went and complained about them. He says, “They come, they disgrace me, they go against my approach.”

He said, “No. One must follow the emissaries of Eretz Yisrael.”

He asked them, “How do you know? Who tells us that they are actually kamosi (like me)?” This is what Chananya ben achi Rabbi Yehoshua actually asked. He actually asked the question, “How do you know that they can be mechashev (calculate)?”

He said, “If you say they can’t, people will follow you. But they say they can, follow them.” I don’t understand exactly what this means. “Keman d’lo yad’u machshavta d’chavrusi yishme’un lei, keman d’inun chachamim machshavta yishme’un lei” (As one who doesn’t know the calculation of his colleagues will listen to him, as they are wise in calculation they will listen to him). I don’t know. I don’t understand how they figured it out.

Innovation: What “Hinich Kamoho” Means — A New Interpretation

In short, he decided that indeed, he said to everyone they should follow as he says.

But it could be, I now understand that it could be that you say, it’s not the simple meaning that he must be greater. It seems here that he must know the calculation. It seems it’s a very difficult study, as we spoke in the beginning shiurim (lectures), not everyone understands hilchos kiddush hachodesh (laws of sanctifying the new month). So the beis din must know all the details of hilchos kiddush hachodesh, and usually only one person per generation knows it.

And kol haTorah kulah (all the Torah) more than him, I don’t know. Hinich kamoho means in this subject, he must know enough to be me’aber shanim v’chadashim (intercalate years and months). That’s how I understand the interpretation.

One doesn’t understand the story precisely, how they figured it out. You said an argument, Rabbi Yehuda b’mesira (with tradition). He says that they won’t follow you perhaps, forget about the story.

General Innovation: The Gadol HaDor Must Be in Eretz Yisrael

It seems there is an important matter that the gadol hador (greatest of the generation) should be in Eretz Yisrael. I mean that for recent years, since a large community lives in Eretz Yisrael, it’s also so, I don’t know that there is the gadol hador from Eretz Yisrael. It’s important this way.

Already wonderful, it should be a bright Shabbos for Jews. This is until here Chapter 1.

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Says the Rambam, v’im haya adam gadol b’chochma (and if there was a person great in wisdom), if there is a person who is great in wisdom, v’nismach b’Eretz Yisrael (and received semichah in Eretz Yisrael), and he received semichah, he was mekabel (received) from the chachmei Eretz Yisrael (sages of Eretz Yisrael), v’yatza l’chutz la’aretz (and went out to the Diaspora), that is, he was already a chacham in Eretz Yisrael, his wisdom is chochmas Eretz Yisrael, and afterwards he went out to chutz la’aretz, v’lo hinich b’Eretz Yisrael kamoho (and did not leave in Eretz Yisrael one like him), and there didn’t remain another chacham like him in Eretz Yisrael, harei zeh mechashev u’mekadesh chadashim u’me’aber shanim b’chutz la’aretz (behold he may calculate and sanctify months and intercalate years in the Diaspora), he can indeed be mechashev and establish months and intercalate years in chutz la’aretz, because it’s still a reality with an etzas haTorah (counsel of the Torah), it’s still the wisdom of Eretz Yisrael. But he can, even though he is in chutz la’aretz.

Innovation: One Adam Gadol B’Chochma Is Enough

This indeed implies that one adam gadol b’chochma is enough. That is, he shows there that he has with him a beis din, but perhaps it’s enough that one person understands. Ah, interesting. Yes, it could be.

When a New Chacham Grows Up in Eretz Yisrael

V’im noda lo shena’asa b’Eretz Yisrael adam gadol kamoho (And if it became known to him that there arose in Eretz Yisrael a great person like him), what happens when someone was the adam gadol in Eretz Yisrael and he went to chutz la’aretz and lo hinich kamoho, but meanwhile a new one grew up, some youngster grew up, and he became the chacham? V’im noda lo shena’asa b’Eretz Yisrael adam gadol kamoho, v’ein tzarich lomar im haya gadol mimenu (And if it became known to him that there arose in Eretz Yisrael a great person like him, and needless to say if he was greater than him) — for this it’s also necessary to be quite a great adam gadol b’chochma to realize that there is someone now who has become wiser than me. Okay, we’ll see. Interesting, how does one know this?

Harei zeh asur likbo’a u’le’aber b’chutz la’aretz (behold he is forbidden to establish and intercalate in the Diaspora), he may no longer establish and intercalate in chutz la’aretz, because now there is already in Eretz Yisrael one who has his own adam gadol b’chochma.

Law: V’im Avar V’kava V’iber — Lo Asa Klum

Says the Rambam, v’im avar v’kava v’iber (and if he transgressed and established and intercalated), if he did establish a month or intercalate years because there is already in Eretz Yisrael someone who can do it, lo asa klum (he has done nothing), he has done nothing, it goes back to Eretz Yisrael.

The Story with Chananya ben Achi Rabbi Yehoshua

This is built on a story. The story was like this, in the Gemara it says so, there was a… who was it? A Chananya was the Rosh HaGolah (Exilarch), he was ben achi Rabbi Yehoshua, he went into exile in Bavel, he was me’aber shanim. That is, even though there was kamoho in Eretz Yisrael he was me’aber.

Later they sent him two talmidei chachamim, and they told him, and what they did is, they gave him a bit, here one learns from the politics. He brings immediately that the Yerushalmi has a slightly similar version, the same story or another version of the same story.

They asked him, they sent for him two talmidei chachamim, Rabbi Yosi ben Kefar and ben beno shel Zecharya ben Kevutal, and they came to the yeshiva in exile. And the yeshiva asks him, what comes next? That is, they came to the great rabbi to learn Torah.

He was very happy, ah, you honor me, and you are great rabbinic grandchildren. As is known, Zecharya ben Kevutal still worked in the Beis HaMikdash, he is mentioned in Maseches Yoma.

In short, little by little they began to show him that they can learn better than him. He said tamei (impure), they said tahor (pure), the opposite. He began to dismiss them.

They said, hello, you said earlier that we are talmidei chachamim and rabbinic grandchildren. He asked, well, what do you want from me?

They say, that is, you are me’aber shanim b’chutz la’aretz. He said, what does this mean? Rabbi Akiva also did so.

They say, true, Rabbi Akiva didn’t leave kamoho in Eretz Yisrael.

He says, well, I also didn’t.

They say, yes, you’re right, but gedayim shehinachta na’asu teyashim ba’alei karnayim, v’hem shegrunu etzelcha (the kids you left have become horned rams, and they sent us to you). You left behind small goats, they have become rams who have already grown up. Not just that they grew up, they already have horns. And do you know what their horns mean?

They say this, go tell Rabbi Chananya this: if he listens, it’s good, because he must listen. If he doesn’t listen,