📋 Shiur Overview
Summary of the Shiur — Rambam Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh Chapter 5, Halachos 4-5 (and further)
General Overview
The shiur deals with the second part of Chapter 5 in Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh, beginning from Halacha 4. The main topic is Yom Tov Sheni shel Galuyos — its foundation in our time, how one determines which places observe one day or two days, and the foundation of calendar calculation in our time.
The chapter has two halves. The first half (Halachos 1-3) dealt with the two halacha l’Moshe miSinai: (a) when there is a Sanhedrin/Beis Din HaGadol — mekadshin al pi hare’iyah; (b) when there is no Sanhedrin — kov’in lefi cheshbon through the Beis Din in Eretz Yisrael. The second half (from Halacha 4 onward) deals with the practical nafka mina of both statuses — specifically, what Jews in distant places do. During the re’iyah period, whoever received the sheluchei Tishrei observed one day, all others two days. During the cheshbon period, the law is different — and this is the topic of the second half.
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Halacha 4 — The Foundation of Yom Tov Sheni shel Galuyos in Our Time
The Rambam’s Words:
In our time, when there is no Sanhedrin, and everyone — both bnei Eretz Yisrael and bnei chutz la’aretz — rely on one calculation, it would be logical that in all places they should observe one day of Yom Tov, even the most distant places in chutz la’aretz like bnei Eretz Yisrael, since everyone relies on and establishes according to one calculation. However, it is a takanas chachamim that they should be careful with the minhag avoseihem that is in their hands.
Explanation:
In our time, where everyone follows the calculation (not re’iyah), the reason for two days of Yom Tov (doubt about which day is Rosh Chodesh) is technically no longer present. Therefore, the Chachamim enacted that one should maintain the minhag avoseihem.
Chiddushim and Explanations:
1) The Status of Yom Tov Sheni — Takanas Chachamim, Not Safek:
The Rambam’s position is that in our time, Yom Tov Sheni is no longer a matter of doubt — because everyone knows according to the calculation which day it is. Rather, it is only a custom — a takanas chachamim that one should maintain the minhag avoseihem. The Rambam’s language in Hilchos Yom Tov is “osin bagolah bazman hazeh midivrei sofrim shetiknu davar zeh” — he places it in a formal enactment, not just a loose custom. This means: the old custom (which was based on a real doubt) is now maintained through a takanas chachamim.
2) Dispute Between Rambam and Ramban:
The Ramban disagrees and holds that Yom Tov Sheni is even in our time a safek — not just a custom/enactment. The Rambam holds it is clearly no longer a doubt, rather an enactment to maintain the custom. The difference is fundamental: according to the Rambam, one knows that the second day is not Yom Tov min hadin — one is “playing” Yom Tov, as it were; according to the Ramban, it is a real safek.
3) Rosh Hashanah — Even in Yerushalayim:
The Rambam brings that Rosh Hashanah is different from all other yamim tovim — even in Yerushalayim itself, which is the place of the Beis Din, during the time of re’iyah they observed two days of Rosh Hashanah. The reason: messengers could not go out on Yom Tov itself, and even in Yerushalayim they didn’t always know which day it fell on, because if witnesses didn’t come until minchah, they already made both days holy. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai enacted that witnesses are accepted the entire day, but from minchah onward they no longer did work.
[Digression: What did they do earlier in the day — did they daven, blow shofar? Perhaps they waited until the witnesses came. Perhaps that’s why they made so many piyutim — so they would have what to do until they were informed what the status is.]
4) In Our Time — Rosh Hashanah in Eretz Yisrael:
If in Eretz Yisrael they even during the time of re’iyah observed two days of Rosh Hashanah, then in our time the law of two days of Rosh Hashanah is also based on minhag avoseinu b’yadeinu — the same takanas chachamim as with all other yamim tovim in chutz la’aretz.
5) “Minhag Avoseihem Shebiydeihem” — Question on Bnei Eretz Yisrael:
A question is raised: the Rambam says “sheyizharu b’minhag avoseihem shebiydeihem” — but bnei Eretz Yisrael don’t have a custom of two days! Their custom was one day. The answer: “biydeihem” means that each place maintains its custom — bnei Eretz Yisrael maintain their custom of one day, and bnei chutz la’aretz maintain their custom of two days. “Minhag avoseihem” doesn’t mean simply maintaining an ancestral custom in a personal sense, but rather it is more like a “minhag hamakom” — the tradition of the place. But one cannot really call it “minhag hamakom” because minhag hamakom usually means there is continuity, a continuation. Here we’re talking about a new community arriving. It is more “minhag avoseihem” — as if the ancestors of the city.
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Halacha 5 — How One Determines Which Places Observe One Day or Two
The Rambam’s Words:
“Observing one day is not dependent on proximity of place. How so? If there was a place between it and Yerushalayim a journey of five days or less… we do not say that the people of this place observe one day of Yom Tov, lest they tell us that the messengers used to go out to this place.” One must know what the minhag avoseihem actually was — whether messengers actually came. “Any place that is more than ten complete days’ journey from Yerushalayim” — if a place is more than ten days from Yerushalayim, it is certain that sheluchei Tishrei did not arrive, and the minhag avoseihem must have been two days.
Explanation:
One cannot simply calculate how far a place is from Yerushalayim and decide from that. One must know the historical reality — whether messengers actually reached that place.
Chiddushim and Explanations:
1) Great Chiddush — Not Dependent on Distance:
The Rambam says a great chiddush: even if a place is close enough that messengers theoretically could have arrived, that doesn’t matter. It could be that in that place no Jews lived, or there was a gentile country in between that didn’t allow passage. Therefore, one must know the actual history of each place.
2) The Example of Egypt:
Egypt is only eight days (via Ashkelon) from Yerushalayim — sheluchei Tishrei could have arrived. Therefore, if one only went by distance, Egypt should have observed one day. But in practice, in Egypt they observe two days — because the custom shows that in actuality messengers did not arrive in Egypt, either because it was difficult to get there, or for another reason. The custom is the proof. The same with Eretz Surya and Eretz Bavel.
3) The Rule — More Than Ten Days:
If a place is more than ten days from Yerushalayim, it is certain that sheluchei Tishrei did not arrive, and the minhag avoseihem must have been two days. But if it is less than ten days, one must check whether messengers actually arrived.
4) Examples of Places Where Messengers Arrived:
The Rambam lists places where we know messengers arrived: Lod, Teverya (and others). Of all the cities mentioned, today only Lod and Teverya are well-known cities — others like “Yavneh” etc. are historical places.
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Halacha (Continuation) — New Settlements and Places Without a Known Tradition
The Rambam’s Words:
“Similarly, a place that is between Yerushalayim and a place that the messenger reaches, which was ten or less than ten from Yerushalayim, and Surya is chutz la’aretz and they have no custom, or it is a settlement that was newly established in the wilderness of Eretz Yisrael, such as Be’er Sheva, or a place where Jews now settled, these observe two days like the custom of most of the world.”
Explanation:
In a place where there is no known tradition of what the custom was — whether a new settlement in Eretz Yisrael, or a place in chutz la’aretz without a custom — one must observe two days of Yom Tov like the custom of most of the world.
Chiddushim and Explanations:
1) The Rambam’s Great Stringency Regarding New Places:
The Rambam says a tremendous stringency — that even in Eretz Yisrael, if one establishes a new city (like Be’er Sheva), and one doesn’t have a tradition that there they previously observed one day, one must observe two days like most of the world. This applies even if the place is less than ten days from Yerushalayim. Even in Bnei Brak, if one would establish a new city without a tradition, according to the Rambam one would have to observe two days.
2) Precision in “Shenischadesh”:
“Yishuv shenischadesh” means a place that one knows for certain was never a settlement — this is not a doubt whether it’s an old settlement or a new one, but a definite new settlement. The Rambam says clearly that even in Eretz Yisrael, such a new settlement must observe two days — one cannot say that Eretz Yisrael automatically follows the majority of Eretz Yisrael.
3) Surya — The Law of Chutz La’aretz:
Surya (Damascus, Ashkelon and the like) has the law of chutz la’aretz, not Eretz Yisrael, even though it was conquered during the second conquest. Ashkelon has no status of Eretz Yisrael. Jews settled there, but it remains chutz la’aretz.
4) What Is the Foundation of “K’minhag Rov Ha’olam”?
The question is asked: what is the halachic mechanism? One cannot say “rov” in the classical sense, because “kol kavu’a k’mechtzah al mechtzah” — each city is fixed in its place. It is suggested that perhaps it is out of doubt — a safek d’rabbanan. But then the question is asked: by safek d’rabbanan we go l’kula, why should one be stringent? Perhaps the foundation is “lo sisgodedu” — one wants more Jews to have the same custom as most of the world, in order not to make separate groups. The foundation remains unclear.
5) The Ra’avad Disagrees:
The Ra’avad disagrees with the Rambam on this matter, though it is not elaborated in detail what his position is.
6) Dispute Between Rambam and Ritva Regarding Chutz La’aretz:
The Ritva (and others) hold that all places in chutz la’aretz must observe two days, even if one knows that messengers arrived there. His reasoning is that messengers to chutz la’aretz were not made to eat there at all — “sheluchei chutz la’aretz lo hayu asuyim le’echol” — therefore the custom of two days is a general enactment for all of chutz la’aretz. The Rambam holds that in chutz la’aretz, if it is “yadu’a haminhag” that they observed one day (because messengers actually arrived), one observes one day. Only if one doesn’t know the custom does one observe two days.
The Ritva learns that the Rambam’s law of “k’minhag rov ha’olam” applies only in chutz la’aretz (because most of chutz la’aretz observes two days), but in Eretz Yisrael one follows the majority of Eretz Yisrael. The Ritva learns that the Rambam says that halacha only about chutz la’aretz — but the Rambam’s words “yishuv shenischadesh b’midbar Eretz Yisrael” clearly show that he is also speaking about Eretz Yisrael.
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Halacha (Continuation) — “Zeh She’anu Mechashvin Bazman Hazeh” — The Foundation of Calendar Calculation
The Rambam’s Words:
“That which we calculate today, each and every one in his city, and say that Rosh Chodesh is on such-and-such a day and Yom Tov on such-and-such a day, it is not by our calculation that we establish and not on it do we rely… and we rely only on the calculation of the bnei Eretz Yisrael and their establishment… and according to the establishment of bnei Eretz Yisrael, that is what will be Rosh Chodesh and Yom Tov, not from the calculation that we calculate.”
Explanation:
Our calculation is not what makes the Rosh Chodesh or Yom Tov. We only calculate in order to know what bnei Eretz Yisrael have established. The calculation is “l’galos hadavar bilvad” — only to reveal what bnei Eretz Yisrael are doing. The establishment comes from them, not from our calculation.
Chiddushim and Explanations:
1) The Rambam’s Position as in Sefer HaMitzvos:
The Rambam repeats here his foundation from Sefer HaMitzvos — that kiddush hachodesh can only be done by bnei Eretz Yisrael. In chutz la’aretz one cannot be mekadesh months, “she’ein me’abrin shanah umekadshin chadashim b’chutz la’aretz, she’eino k’lum.” Our calculation is only a mirror of their establishment.
2) The Promise “Shelo Tichleh Zo Ha’umah Klal”:
The Rambam brings that there is a promise in the Torah that there will always be Jews in Eretz Yisrael. The question is asked: from where does the Rambam derive that “shelo tichleh zo ha’umah” means specifically in Eretz Yisrael? The Rambam’s logic is: without kiddush hachodesh there can be no Torah (no Shabbosos, no yamim tovim), and kiddush hachodesh can only be done by Jews in Eretz Yisrael — therefore there must always be Jews in Eretz Yisrael. “Ha’umah” here means: the people who have the power of kiddush hachodesh.
3) The Circular Reasoning:
A logical circularity is pointed out in the Rambam: he says (a) kiddush hachodesh can only be in Eretz Yisrael, (b) therefore there must always be Jews in Eretz Yisrael, (c) because without kiddush hachodesh there can be no Torah. But the law that “ein kov’in ela b’Eretz Yisrael” is itself the foundation of the entire structure — it is circular reasoning. The Rambam assumes that the law is a foundation, and builds upon it the structure of the promise.
4) The Ramban’s Disagreement:
The Ramban says that one doesn’t need the promise that Jews will always be in Eretz Yisrael, because kiddush hachodesh is not dependent on Eretz Yisrael. The Ramban holds that there was a period when Jews were absent from Eretz Yisrael. According to the Ramban, Hillel HaZaken already sanctified in advance for all generations, and the essence is that Jews should agree — not that they must physically be in Eretz Yisrael. This is a fundamental dispute between Rambam and Ramban.
5) Kiyum HaTorah and Eretz Yisrael:
According to the Rambam, the existence of Jews in Eretz Yisrael is connected to the promise of “lo tishkach mipi zar’o” — that Torah will always have existence. Only Jews in Eretz Yisrael have the right to establish months, and without months there is no Torah.
📝 Full Transcript
Yom Tov Sheni of the Diaspora in Our Time — Laws of Sanctifying the New Month, Chapter 5
Introduction — Overview of the Second Half of Chapter 5
Speaker 1: Yes, and we’re recording now a bit of the second half of Chapter 5. We forgot to record the beginning, but in short, they’re holding in Halacha 4. Here begins the topic of… so basically, the rest of the chapter is only laws of Yom Tov Sheni of the Diaspora.
The Connection Between the Two Halves of This Chapter
Speaker 1: Look, how now we learned, very interesting how the two halves of the chapter connect. How now we learned just this, that there is a concept of two types of times. There are two halacha l’Moshe miSinai’s. One is that when things are in order it’s Moshe and Aharon, and that is the Sanhedrin who are establishing, and one is they sanctify based on testimony. Both times when the Sanhedrin exists, the Beit Din HaGadol exists. And when there is no Sanhedrin or Beit Din HaGadol, the Beit Din, whichever Jews perhaps, establish according to calculation. Beit Din that is in Eretz Yisrael, it must be all Beit Din in Eretz Yisrael, because if not, it establishes according to calculation. These are the two halachot.
Now it comes out, regarding the two states, one needs to know laws with the Jews who live far away. This is certain that in one state one cannot make Kiddush HaChodesh here, except if there is “lo nityashev kavod” outside the Land, they make it in Bavel. But generally speaking, always the Beit Din of Eretz Yisrael establishes. Now, when it was based on testimony, it was simple, whoever the messengers of Tishrei reached, they should make one day, all other places make two days.
Halacha 4 — The Foundation of Yom Tov Sheni in Our Time
The Words of the Rambam: In Our Time, According to the Law It Would Have Been One Day
Speaker 1: Today, in our time there is no Sanhedrin, the people of Eretz Yisrael could actually do the same as them. And they don’t need to wait for their testimony, because they themselves don’t wait for their testimony. It cannot be different from the calculation, because the calculation is the same as every time. It would have been correct, “that in all places they should observe one day of Yom Tov, even the distant places in the Diaspora like the people of Eretz Yisrael, since everyone relies on and establishes according to one calculation.” That means, now the people of Eretz Yisrael and the people of the Diaspora are the same thing, both will go with calculation. “And it is a decree of the Sages that they should be careful with the custom of their forefathers that is in their hands.”
Discussion: The Rambam’s Language in Hilchot Yom Tov
Speaker 1: It’s interesting, he wrote in Yom Tov, he also spoke about Yom Tov Sheni. Let’s see his language there. Yes, he didn’t say. He said, there he only brought the law that he’s going to bring here, if I remember. He noted here, if I said. In our time, already the manner of a Yom Tov. But he said there, let’s see everything about Yom Tov. I think here is the main place, and there he notes to it. If I remember, he noted there, if I said, but something like that.
Speaker 2: He says there that when the people of Eretz Yisrael sanctified based on testimony it was in doubt, but now it’s not a matter of doubt, rather custom alone.
Speaker 1: Okay, let’s take. In our time, here is the main place. There, actually, he doesn’t note there where it says, sanctifying the month, something like that? I won’t make a comparison. Okay.
Dispute Between Rambam and Ramban: Doubt or Rabbinic Decree?
Speaker 1: So, I say the difference is that we don’t do it anymore with doubt, rather we don’t do it anymore with a concept of a rabbinic decree. That’s what you’re saying.
Speaker 2: That’s what he said there.
Speaker 1: There’s a dispute. The Ramban says that it’s a doubt. He says it here too. The law of “nolad” between them and so forth continues further. The Ramban wanted to make some distinction, but the Ramban says that it’s completely different. The Ramban says that it’s a doubt. He says there’s no distinction.
Speaker 2: You love to say that very much, but he doesn’t say that.
Speaker 1: Now let’s learn what it says here.
Learning the Language of the Rambam
Speaker 1: And what it says here is, let’s first learn what it says here. “In our time” when there is no Sanhedrin, according to the law it would have been that everyone should make a branch, “everyone relies on and establishes according to one calculation. But it is a decree of the Sages that they should be careful with the custom of their forefathers that is in their hands.” It’s a new decree of the Sages. It continues. “This Yom Tov Sheni is not to remove doubt but custom alone.” This is a language there. Yes, not more than a custom, less. It’s less than not more. It didn’t become more, not a new decree. It’s a custom, when there’s a concept of “lo yatza midei safek,” it’s more than a decree. We do it because perhaps today is Yom Tov. Because it’s a decree, we know that today is not Yom Tov, but we’re playing, I mean, whatever, we’re making Yom Tov.
Speaker 1: But “this decree is beloved that they should be careful with the custom of their forefathers that is in their hands. Therefore,” automatically, “every place that the messengers of Tishrei used to reach, and where the messengers used to go out, they should make two days even in our time, and they should not make like the people of Eretz Yisrael who establish based on testimony.”
Question: What Does “In Their Hands” Mean Regarding the People of Eretz Yisrael?
Speaker 1: And the people of Eretz Yisrael, the people of Eretz Yisrael is “with their testimony blessed be our teacher Shimon who was careful about everything.” It comes out that the people of Eretz Yisrael don’t have a custom, what does “in their hands” mean? They have that, they make their custom based on it.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1: Can one say such a…
The Language in Hilchot Yom Tov: “From the Words of the Scribes Who Decreed This Matter”
Speaker 1: Take, in Yom Tov it doesn’t say, “they observe in the Diaspora in our time from the words of the Scribes who decreed this matter.” From the words of the Scribes who decreed this matter. The Rambam wanted that it shouldn’t remain just like a custom. He puts it in that it’s a decree of the Sages “that they should practice according to the custom of our forefathers.” The old decree exists that one should maintain the old decree. The old custom. The custom that was based on something more… It was a doubt, a means, that one had to conduct oneself that way. Today one doesn’t need to conduct oneself that way, but one does as one conducted oneself. It’s a mitzvah apparently, because there was a reason. Now it’s a different dispute.
Speaker 2: Already, yes, what about the Mishnah?
Rosh Hashanah — Even in Jerusalem Two Days
The Distinction of Rosh Hashanah
Speaker 1: Yom Tov of Rosh Hashanah, this is not because messengers don’t go out on Yom Tov. Why? Because Yom Tov… ah, “they don’t know Yom Tov in the Beit Din of the month,” because one already had to send messengers in the morning, the first strong one in the morning one already had to begin, ah, send messengers going out on Yom Tov. Yom Tov in general, only the one who sits right there, and the one right there can know.
Speaker 1: “Not only that, but even in Jerusalem itself, which is the place of the Beit Din, you should say many who didn’t sit on Yom Tov of Rosh Hashanah two days of Yom Tov, and it came that witnesses came every thirtieth day, they practiced making that day half holy and tomorrow holy.”
The Decree of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai
Speaker 1: Just as we learn even from Mincha and onwards, even the witnesses they began then, from the morning they didn’t do any work, and they waited to see what would happen.
Speaker 2: Because they davened and blew the shofar too?
Speaker 1: I don’t know. Perhaps with that they waited until the witnesses would come. It says. I’ve already taken and made so many piyutim. He made a decree that Shimon the witnesses from Mincha and onwards that “lo mekabel edut alav nitkalkelut.”
Speaker 2: Before that, what did they do with the other things? What about the previous things?
Speaker 1: And before that they made so many piyutim. Perhaps we should be in one place and sing until they come to inform us what today’s status is.
Speaker 2: Very good. Perhaps yes.
Rosh Hashanah in Our Time
Speaker 1: In short, automatically, “they used to make two days of Yom Tov even in the time of testimony,” so there’s no testimony for this. “They always make two days of Yom Tov in our time when they establish according to calculation.”
Further with the concept of the custom of our forefathers in our hands, although the same reasoning was also there, and then they didn’t know, the same reasoning that is here in all of Eretz Yisrael, that all Yamim Tovim would have actually been in Eretz Yisrael, even Rosh Hashanah, even in Jerusalem, but in Eretz Yisrael they made mostly two days.
Speaker 2: Very good.
Speaker 1: But that’s because they didn’t know. Today one knows yes.
Speaker 2: Even yes, we don’t understand Rosh Hashanah, because we’re only with the same words of the Scribes of the custom of our forefathers in our hands.
Halacha 5 — How to Determine Which Places Make One Day or Two
The Foundation: Not Dependent on Proximity of Place
Speaker 1: The Rambam says, now, how do you know which place is like what? Which place is like what? Yes? “The making of one day is not dependent on proximity of place,” it has nothing to do with how close to Jerusalem. “How so? If there was a place between it and Jerusalem a journey of five days or less, that certainly it’s possible that the messengers could reach them, we don’t say that the people of this place should observe Yom Tov one day, lest they say to us that the messengers used to go out to this place?”
I don’t know what I said, I want to know what was once the custom of our forefathers. What is the place? He says, I don’t know what the… Not Rosh Hashanah, Rosh Hashanah one makes everywhere. In which places? How does one decide the places? There would have been a reasoning that one goes by how far. How far is it that one can travel. We don’t know though, because perhaps they won’t arrive and perhaps they weren’t.
The Innovation: We Don’t Go According to Distance
Speaker 1: So very interesting, but we don’t go with whom the Jews could have come. If it happened that once there weren’t any Jews in that region, what did the Ramban want to know that Eretz Yisrael was further. In that town, Bnei Brak is a new city. The question is, we don’t know the history of every city. So automatically, it’s very interesting. It comes out, what does he say, he brings three times?
The Example of Egypt
Speaker 1: “And if,” yes? Simply one would have said, let’s say, the Rambam goes here… oh, or… or they didn’t come. The Rambam says thus: messengers, when they say messengers they don’t mean… when they say that until a place where messengers don’t reach one makes two days, they don’t mean that messengers didn’t come, because there were no messengers, because there was no town. Or there were Jews then, they couldn’t arrive, there was then a gentile in between, they didn’t let them.
Speaker 1: “And if the matter were dependent on the people of Egypt observing one day, since it’s possible that the messengers of Tishrei reached them, for there is between Jerusalem and Egypt via the way of Ashkelon only a journey of eight days or less.” This is the language of Chazal, but this is calculated. I don’t know. Via Ashkelon, and there goes the highway called via Ashkelon, and there one travels from Jerusalem to Egypt in about eight days. “And so the land of Syria and the land of Bavel that the matter is not dependent on the settlement of the place being close.”
A great innovation. If one would have gone, where do messengers come here? There would be no place at all, it has to do with how far, and one is certain about Egypt that one will be able to arrive. So automatically, one must make, why today in Egypt must one make two days? Because one must make one day.
The Rule: More Than Ten Days
Speaker 1: “It is found,” he brings out, it comes out, what? “It is found, the essence of this matter in this way is thus. Every place that has between it and Jerusalem a journey of more than ten complete days,” if it’s a place that is more than ten days, however many days there are in Tishrei, the messengers of Tishrei, one must certainly make two days, because the messengers of Tishrei couldn’t have been otherwise. It must be that the custom of their forefathers was to make two days.
Places Where Messengers Arrived
Speaker 1: If… if there was a place that between it and Jerusalem was less, and a place that between it and Jerusalem was less, and “it’s possible that messengers reach it, they see.” We know that Jews lived there, there were “Usha and Shefaram and Lod and Yavneh and Beit and Tiberias.” Interesting of all these today we know, we mean only of Lod and Tiberias are cities. Yavneh is also a city, Shefaram is a city. Its name, what is the old city, yes? That I don’t know.
Speaker 2: Who knows how it is?
Speaker 1: Who knows? Because we know that messengers arrived there. About it would already be a place in Syria, such as Syria from Damascus and Ashkelon and the like. Cities that were originally Syria, that were only taken in the second conquest.
Speaker 2: Ah, did Jews settle there?
Speaker 1: Jews would live there.
Speaker 2: I don’t understand. Yes. Cities, Ashkelon doesn’t have the law of Eretz Yisrael?
Speaker 1: No, it should be said. Outside the Land in Egypt and Ammon. And what comes out with you from the custom of the day that is in your hand, if one day one day and two days two days. It has nothing to do with holiness with the topic that we are.
Speaker 2: Would it do?
Speaker 1: If it’s a place that we know that actually messengers came there. There’s something, because the custom of our forefathers in our hands, we don’t mean to say that one should maintain the custom of the fathers, it’s more like the custom of the place something. Defect, one can’t call it the custom of the place, because the custom of the place usually means there’s a continuation. Here we’re talking about a new community arriving. But it’s the custom of their forefathers as if their forefathers of the city. The Raavad disputes.
So the Rambam says thus: a place that one knows, one knows. If one doesn’t know, one must rely on the custom, that means on the tradition that says that in this place one does thus. Because apparently, there were Jews in Syria it could be in the time of the Second Temple also, in the time of the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah. Automatically one must go according to the way that the custom is.
Why Egypt Makes Two Days
Afterwards, very interesting, the Rambam wants to answer as if why in Egypt one makes two days. Because apparently, if it would have gone with the messengers, one would have had to make one day. He says, the custom is thus, it appears that in the time when there were messengers they didn’t come to Egypt. Why not? One doesn’t know, it was difficult to come there, or for another reason. Okay?
Speaker 2: Yes.
The Language of the Rambam: Places Without Custom Observe Like the Custom of Most of the World
Speaker 1: “And this that they always observe two days of Yom Tov, two days like the custom of most of the world. And so a place that is between Jerusalem and the place that the messenger reaches it, that was from Jerusalem ten or less than ten, and Syria outside the Land and they have no custom, or it’s a settlement that was renewed in the desert of Eretz Yisrael, such as Be’er Sheva, or a place where Jews now dwell, behold these observe two days like the custom of most of the world.”
He says, “And all Yom Tov Sheni in our time is from the words of the Scribes.”
Great Stringency: Even in Eretz Yisrael — New Places Make Two Days
The Rambam says a great stringency, the Rambam says a huge stringency. If you have a new place, if you have a custom, you know that here is the custom that one makes one day, you know that the custom is that one makes one day, you’re mistaken. What the reason is, because then the messengers arrived. But a new place, or you don’t know, one must be stringent. That’s most of the world. One must be stringent according to most of the world. Even in Eretz Yisrael, you make a new city in Bnei Brak, one must make two days according to the Rambam, because one doesn’t know that there were messengers there, and there’s no custom.
Question: What Is the Basis of “Most of the World”?
Today there’s no longer with the majority. It’s not with the majority, because you can begin that it’s “kol kavua k’mechtzah al mechtzah,” every city is fixed. It’s something like, we don’t know what. That’s the majority. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what the Rambam’s permission is. Perhaps from doubt? He can simply say, make such a doubt. I have a rabbinic doubt, why should one make such a doubt? Perhaps the point is it should be as little “lo titgodedu,” one should make more Jews should be the custom of most of the world.
The world disputes this Rambam, no? The world disputes this. The Raavad already disputes. The Raavad says nothing at all. Hilchot Kiddush HaChodesh Chapter 5.
Speaker 2: Nu, who disputes?
Speaker 1: I don’t want to say that one agrees with the law. It’s not at all critical. Come, we’ll go look in the chapter, we’ll look in the Ramban first, what he can bring us.
Halacha: “Zeh She’anu Mechashvin” — The Foundation of Calendar Calculation in Our Time
Speaker 1: Zeh she’anu mechashvin, we will finish.
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: We will finish the last halacha, then we’ll see.
Speaker 2: Yes?
The Language of the Rambam: We Rely on the Calculation of the People of Eretz Yisrael
Speaker 1: An important thing that the Rambam says, yes? Here he’s going to say the thing that he said in Sefer HaMitzvos, he says:
“That which we calculate today, each and every one in his city, and we say that Rosh Chodesh is on such-and-such a day and Yom Tov on such-and-such a day, it is not by our calculation that we establish it and not on it do we rely, for if they intercalate the year and sanctify the months outside of Eretz Yisrael, it is nothing, and we rely only on the calculation of the people of Eretz Yisrael and their establishment, only to reveal the matter, what the people of Eretz Yisrael have calculated, and as if we know that on this calculation they rely, we calculate to know which day the people of Eretz Yisrael establish, and according to the establishment of the people of Eretz Yisrael that is what will be Rosh Chodesh and Yom Tov, not from the calculation that we calculate.”
Interesting.
The Promise: “That This Nation Will Not Be Completely Destroyed”
And he brings that the language of Sefer HaMitzvos is that there will always be Jews in Eretz Yisrael, “she’hivtichanu baTorah shelo tichleh zo ha’umah klal”, yes? He goes with the God forbid idea of Torah being forgotten from Israel.
Interesting, the Ramban who brings a verse that this doesn’t hold that there is such a promise? No, the Ramban says that we don’t need it. According to the Ramban he says that there was a period when Jews fell in Eretz Yisrael. But when it comes to the promise in Eretz Yisrael, he doesn’t need to dwell on it today, he needs to be in Yisrael, because if not he has no month. But the Ramban says one can have no month without that thing at that time.
Discussion: What Does “That This Nation Will Not Be Completely Destroyed” Mean?
Speaker 2: No, is that itself the reason why the promise is so that there should be Torah, or is the promise for Eretz Yisrael?
Speaker 1: Shelo tichleh zo ha’umah klal. Interesting, the Rambam only says… I don’t know, from this “shelo tichleh zo ha’umah klal” means Eretz Yisrael? From where does he take it? “Shelo tichleh zo ha’umah klal.” Ha’umah means the people who have kiddush hachodesh, without kiddush hachodesh there can be no Jews. That’s what he means.
Circular Reasoning: Kiddush HaChodesh, Eretz Yisrael, and the Preservation of Torah
What’s very interesting, as if… it’s strange. Before this he says that there is another law in “ein kovein ela b’Eretz Yisrael.” Therefore there must always be in Eretz Yisrael a group with the chachamim who should be able to establish. It’s circular reasoning.
But Jews… it’s interesting, the existence of Jews in Eretz Yisrael has to do with the Torah which must have existence. What is “lo tishkach mipi zaro”? That there will always be Torah, and only Jews in Eretz Yisrael can have the right to establish months.
The Dispute Between Rambam and Ramban: Is Kiddush HaChodesh Dependent on Eretz Yisrael?
The Ramban argued, he said that the Torah is not dependent on Eretz Yisrael. And kiddush hachodesh is not dependent on Eretz Yisrael. It means it is dependent, but the Beis Din was sanctifying. It’s dependent that the Jews should agree fundamentally, and they decided, Hillel already made it in advance for all generations. Something like that, he sees that there is a dispute.
The Dispute Between Rambam and Ritva: Outside the Land — Does One Follow the Local Custom?
Speaker 1: Actually a place where there are places where the custom is, the Ritva and others say that no, that all of chutz la’aretz must make two days, even if we know that the messengers are not there such a custom.
I want again, a halacha comes out a dispute between the Rambam and the Ritva. Ah, he says that the Rambam says that one must do according to the custom of most of the world, that is only in chutz la’aretz, because it’s most of chutz la’aretz, in Eretz Yisrael he must go according to most of Eretz Yisrael from Eretz Yisrael. He says from Eretz Yisrael, so he learns it in, because the Rambam says that halacha specifically only about chutz la’aretz.
But he says yes that in chutz la’aretz a place where we don’t know, one must make two days. That is the dispute of the Rambam, that in chutz la’aretz a place where the custom is known one only makes one day in chutz la’aretz. Against this the Ritva is that no, that the whole dispute, chutz la’aretz lo natnu le’echol, the messengers of chutz la’aretz were not made to eat, they sent there they established the month. Because he says that there is a kol safek, what does the opinion of Rabbeinu say? He says a kol safek that perhaps in every place the messengers did come, and he argues that this is the opinion of Rabbeinu.
Precision in the Language of the Rambam: “Shenischadesh” Means Certainly a New Settlement
How does he see the opinion of Rabbeinu? That I don’t know. Let’s be more precise in the language. The language is, if it’s in Eretz Yisrael, we know, there was Yisrael making one day. If it’s in Syria, a place between them, then he says, and everyone knows it says, a place between them… other places, if it’s a place where we know that messengers can come, you can’t say simply, in places where we know that there is an old custom, one goes with the old custom. It means, Eretz Yisrael certainly had the old custom in the answer. And in Syria there certainly was an old custom.
He says, here, ah, a place would have no new custom, no old custom. It’s not true he says, it’s not true he says. Here it says specifically, a place that was newly settled in Eretz Yisrael now, even in Eretz Yisrael, even if it’s less than ten days from Eretz Yisrael, it’s not true he says. There isn’t here in the Rambam that an end can Eretz Yisrael go according to up Eretz Yisrael. As the Rambam says clearly, a place that was newly settled, a place that is settled in Eretz Yisrael now, even in Eretz Yisrael, even if it’s less than ten days from Eretz Yisrael, it’s not true he says.
Because the Rambam says if shenischadesh by settlement means to say what we know that it’s not new. He doesn’t say a city where it’s doubtful whether it’s an old settlement or it’s a new settlement. Shenischadesh means we know for certain that there once wasn’t a settlement. Shenischadesh means it was now made that Yisrael settled there.