מַכּוֹת, בִּשְׁלשָׁה. מִשּׁוּם רַבִּי יִשְׁמָעֵאל אָמְרוּ, בְּעֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁלשָׁה. עִבּוּר הַחֹדֶשׁ, בִּשְׁלשָׁה. עִבּוּר הַשָּׁנָה, בִּשְׁלשָׁה, דִּבְרֵי רַבִּי מֵאִיר. רַבָּן שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן גַּמְלִיאֵל אוֹמֵר, בִּשְׁלשָׁה מַתְחִילִין, וּבַחֲמִשָּׁה נוֹשְׂאִין וְנוֹתְנִין, וְגוֹמְרִין בְּשִׁבְעָה. וְאִם גָּמְרוּ בִשְׁלשָׁה, מְעֻבֶּרֶת:
6:
There is a major difference between our present mishnah and the previous one – a difference which is not immediately apparent, but becomes so after considered perusal. You will recall that all the cases referred to in the first mishnah were judicable in a "
Bet Din shel Hedyotot" – a court comprised of three lay people, provided one of them was learned. Our present mishnah refers to cases judicable only by a "
Bet Din shel Mumĥim" – a court comprising three fully qualified judges (of the kind that could deal by themselves with cases mentioned in the previous mishnah: see RMSG of 16th January last.)
7:
It is most appropriate that we should learn today concerning the "Intercalation of the Month" because it is relevant to today's Hebrew date. Our mishnah states that the Intercalation of the Month may only be judged and announced by a court of three fully qualified judges. We shall understand better the principles involved when we recall that the term "intercalation" is but a rather 'high falutin' rendition of the Hebrew "Ibbur ha-Ĥodesh", which means "declaring the month to be pregnant". In the days when the Jewish calendar was still fixed by actual observation of the heavenly bodies, it was the task of the President of the Sanhedrin, sitting with two colleagues as a "Bet Din shel Mumĥim", to judge exactly when the new month was to start. In order to understand this issue we must introduce a little astronomy to our discussions.
8:
In the solar year that we are used to from the secular calendar the fixed unit upon which everything else depends is a year (to be defined later), and the months are but twelve parts of a year each having an arbitrary length – not less than 28 days and not more than 31 days. The fixed unit of the Jewish calendar is the month, which is of a recognized length, and a year is a multiple of such months – not less than twelve and not more than thirteen. It is necessary for us to define a month.
9:
A month is the exact time that it takes the moon to make one complete revolution of the Earth's axis. This time was determined aeons ago as being 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and three and one-third seconds. (Modern astronomy determines this period as being 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.88 seconds. This means that there is a difference of something less than half a second between the two calculations. This works out on the average as an annual difference of just over 5 and one-half seconds. At this present time of writing such a residue is negligible.) If we could know the exact astronomic specifications of the start of the very first month all we would have to do is to add 29:12:44:3.333 to them and we would arrive at the start of the next month – and so on ad infinitum. The precise moment when a month starts is called in Hebrew "Molad" [birth], and the specifications of the very first Molad have been determined – even though everyone agrees that they are completely fictional. The Molad of Tishri in the Hebrew year 1 falls nearly 11 and three-quarters months before the presumed moment of creation (!) and it is therefore called "Molad Tohu" [pre-creation Molad]. This, more than anything else teaches us that this presumed starting point is a rabbinic extrapolation backwards from a particular (and undetermined) point in time.
10:
The problem is that 29:12:44:3.33 is not a complete number of days, but it is very near to 29 and one-half days (we shall return to the remaining 45 minutes at a later stage). Thus, Jewish months consist of 29 and 30 days alternately. However, the Torah is understood to establish the calendar in Exodus 12:2, and this verse reads "This month [of the spring equinox] shall be to you the first of the months; it shall be for you the first of the months [of the solar year]". The sages note that the phrase "for you" occurs in this sentence twice, and this means that the determination of the months is in "your" jurisdiction and not "Mine" – God's.
11:
The present permanent calendar was inaugurated in 358 CE. Prior to that time, even though the astronomical calculations were known, the Bet Din of the President of the Sanhedrin was required to interview the witnesses to the new moon and to declare the start of the new month according to acceptable testimony. (The veracity of the witnesses was determined by showing them various diagrams of the night sky and asking them to identify which diagram replicated the moon as they saw it [Mishnah Rosh ha-Shanah 2:8]. (In order to encourage witnesses to come forward the "successful" ones were treated to a "night out" at public expense!) The sages already knew the exact time of the Molad, but if no witnesses had come forward during the 29th day of the month a 30th day was added to the month, thus indicating that it was still "pregnant" and had not yet "given birth". If no witnesses came forward on the 30th day of the month either, the 31st day was declared to be the first day of the next month. Our mishnah teaches that all this was the prerogative of the "Bet Din shel Mumĥin".
12:
This practice fell into dissuetude, and during the 4th century CE, Hillel II, the President of the Sanhedrin, established the permanent calendar that is in use today and which is astronomically calculated.
To be continued.
