New Month or New Year?!
I was a bit troubled by a derasha on Sanhedrin 11b, that intercalation at night doesn’t work.
תָּנוּ רַבָּנַן: אֵין מְעַבְּרִין אֶת הַשָּׁנָה אֶלָּא בְּיוֹם, וְאִם עִיבְּרוּהָ בַּלַּיְלָה – אֵינָהּ מְעוּבֶּרֶת. וְאֵין מְקַדְּשִׁין אֶת הַחֹדֶשׁ אֶלָּא בַּיּוֹם, וְאִם קִידְּשׁוּהוּ בַּלַּיְלָה – אֵינוֹ מְקוּדָּשׁ.
אָמַר רַב אַבָּא:
* מַאי קְרָא: ״תִּקְעוּ בַחֹדֶשׁ שׁוֹפָר בַּכֵּסֶה לְיוֹם חַגֵּנוּ״.
** אֵיזֶהוּ חַג שֶׁהַחֹדֶשׁ מִתְכַּסֶּה בּוֹ?
*** הֱוֵי אוֹמֵר: זֶה רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה.
**** וּכְתִיב: ״כִּי חֹק לְיִשְׂרָאֵל הוּא מִשְׁפָּט לֵאלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב״.
מָה מִשְׁפָּט בַּיּוֹם – אַף קִידּוּשׁ הַחֹדֶשׁ בְּיוֹם.The Sages taught in a baraita (Tosefta 2:7): The court may intercalate the year only during the day; and if the court intercalated it at night, it is not intercalated. And the court may sanctify the month only during the day; and if the court sanctified it at night, it is not sanctified.
Rav Abba says: What is the verse from which this halakha is derived? “Sound the shofar at the New Moon, at the concealed time for our Festival day” (Psalms 81:4). On which Festival is the new moon concealed? You must say it is Rosh HaShana, which occurs on the first of the month, before the moon is visible, whereas the moon is visible during the other Festivals, which occur later in the month. And it is written in the next verse: “For it is a statute for Israel, a judgment of the God of Jacob” (Psalms 81:5). Just as all civil judgment is done during the day, so too is the sanctification of Rosh HaShana, and the sanctification of the month in general, done during the day.
First off, I’d just note in passing the מַאי קְרָא, “what’s the verse”, might be different from mai ta’ama we saw in the preceding segment. The mai ta’ama pointed to a derivation from Torah, while this points to a derivation from Tehillim. Generally speaking, we don’t deduce Biblical law from Nach.
Regardless, it feels like the derasha takes a wrong term. The pasuk of תִּקְעוּ בַחֹדֶשׁ שׁוֹפָר on a peshat level is already talking about about months, and so a derasha that is targeting either / both declaring a new month (and perhaps thereby adjusting days) or adding an extra month would do well to stay within this month context. Why in the world would you then redirect it to speak about Rosh HaShanah?!
I suspect that that aspect of the derasha, at least, is a haavara, a transferred sugya, and doesn’t belong here. There are two parallel sugyot, so let’s digress to them for a bit.
In Beitza 15b-16a:
תָּנֵי רַב תַּחְלִיפָא אֲחוּהּ דְּרַבְנַאי חוֹזָאָה:
§ The Gemara returns to the previous issue: Rav Taḥlifa, brother of Ravnai Ḥoza’a, taught:
כׇּל מְזוֹנוֹתָיו שֶׁל אָדָם קְצוּבִים לוֹ מֵרֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה וְעַד יוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים, חוּץ מֵהוֹצָאַת שַׁבָּתוֹת וְהוֹצָאַת יוֹם טוֹב וְהוֹצָאַת בָּנָיו לְתַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה, שֶׁאִם פָּחַת — פּוֹחֲתִין לוֹ, וְאִם הוֹסִיף — מוֹסִיפִין לוֹ.
A person’s entire livelihood is allocated to him during the period from Rosh HaShana to Yom Kippur. During that time, as each individual is judged, it is decreed exactly how much money he will earn for all his expenditures of the coming year, except for expenditures for Shabbatot, and expenditures for Festivals, and expenditures for the school fees of his sons’ Torah study. In these areas, no exact amount is determined at the beginning of the year; rather, if he reduced the amount he spends for these purposes, his income is reduced and he earns that much less money in that year, and if he increased his expenditures in these areas, his income is increased to ensure that he can cover the expense. Therefore, one may borrow for these purposes, since he is guaranteed to have enough income to cover whatever he spends for them.
אָמַר רַבִּי אֲבָהוּ, מַאי קְרָאָה: ״תִּקְעוּ בַחֹדֶשׁ שׁוֹפָר (בַּכֵּסֶא) לְיוֹם חַגֵּנוּ״, אֵיזֶהוּ חַג שֶׁהַחֹדֶשׁ מִתְכַּסֶּה בּוֹ — הֱוֵי אוֹמֵר זֶה רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, וּכְתִיב: ״כִּי חֹק לְיִשְׂרָאֵל הוּא מִשְׁפָּט לֵאלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב״.
Rabbi Abbahu said: What is the verse from which this dictum is derived? The source is: “Blow the shofar at the New Moon, at the concealed time for our Festival day” (Psalms 81:4). On which Festival is the new moon concealed? You must say that it is Rosh HaShana, which occurs on the first of the month, when the moon is not yet visible, while the moon is visible during the other Festivals, which occur in the middle of the month. And it is written in the next verse: “For it is a statute [ḥok] for Israel, a judgment of the God of Jacob” (Psalms 81:5).
So the context is different, where we need rosh hashanah, which the first verse is interpreted to mean, and we need mazon, which is read into the word chok. This is not Rabbi Abba, but rather Rabbi Abahu. But all the components I labeled above with asterisks, from * until ****, are present.
It thus seems like a transferred sugya. Similarly, in Rosh Hashanah 8a (which a shorter invocation on Rosh Hashanah 34a), we have Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak, followed by what I think is the Talmudic Narrator supplementing it with this (earlier) Rabbi Abahu derasha. Thus:
רַב נַחְמָן בַּר יִצְחָק אָמַר: לַדִּין, דִּכְתִיב: ״מֵרֵאשִׁית הַשָּׁנָה וְעַד אַחֲרִית שָׁנָה״, מֵרֵאשִׁית הַשָּׁנָה נִידּוֹן מָה יְהֵא בְּסוֹפָהּ.
§ Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: When the mishna says that the first of Tishrei is the New Year for years, it is with regard to judgment, as on that day God judges the world for the whole year, as it is written: “A land that the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year” (Deuteronomy 11:12); from the beginning of the year judgment is passed as to what will happen at the end of the year.
מִמַּאי דְּתִשְׁרִי הוּא? דִּכְתִיב: ״תִּקְעוּ בַחֹדֶשׁ שׁוֹפָר בַּכֵּסֶה לְיוֹם חַגֵּנוּ״, אֵיזֶהוּ חַג
The Gemara raises a question: From where is it known that the day of judgment is in Tishrei? As it is written: “Blow a shofar at the New Moon, at the covered time for our Festival day” (Psalms 81:4). Which is the Festival day
שֶׁהַחֹדֶשׁ מִתְכַּסֶּה בּוֹ — הֱוֵי אוֹמֵר זֶה רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה. וּכְתִיב: ״כִּי חֹק לְיִשְׂרָאֵל הוּא מִשְׁפָּט לֵאלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב״.
on which the moon is covered, i.e., hidden? You must say that this is Rosh HaShana, which is the only Festival that occurs at the beginning of a month, when the moon cannot be seen. And it is written in the next verse: “For this is a statute for Israel, a judgment of the God of Jacob” (Psalms 81:5), implying that this is the day of judgment.
So again, we have from * until ****, as a unit. Still, Beitza is the primary sugya.
It seems that once we were going to cite these pesukim, even taking it in a different direction, the scribe decided to repeat the middle part, namely ** and ***.
As to the actual derasha, it is just as I said above, that we are interpreting the first verse to refer to doing month-based proclamations, and then, associating it not with chok but with mishpat.
I’d add that once we have interference with the actual derasha, it might be something entirely different, or incorporate aspects of the verse we didn’t initially consider. Recall that the first verse reads תִּקְעוּ בַחֹדֶשׁ שׁוֹפָר בַּכֵּסֶה לְיוֹם חַגֵּנוּ which includes the word yom. A yom = daytime as opposed to yom = calendrical day derasha could fit in here.
Then, on Sanhedrin 12a, we have this brayta:
תָּנוּ רַבָּנַן: אֵין מְעַבְּרִין אֶת הַשָּׁנָה לִפְנֵי רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, וְאִם עִיבְּרוּהָ – אֵינָהּ מְעוּבֶּרֶת. אֲבָל מִפְּנֵי הַדְּחָק מְעַבְּרִין אוֹתָהּ אַחַר רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה מִיָּד, וְאַף עַל פִּי כֵּן אֵין מְעַבְּרִין אֶלָּא אֲדָר.
§ The Sages taught in a baraita (Tosefta 2:3): The court may not intercalate the year before Rosh HaShana. And if the court intercalated it this early, it is not intercalated. But if there was a need to intercalate it early due to exigent circumstances, e.g., religious persecution, they may intercalate it immediately after Rosh HaShana. Even so, they may intercalate it only by adding a second month of Adar.
Rashi explains that the concern is forgetfulness, that if they convene / announce early, the nation might forget and there will be a mess-up with chametz on Pesach. Perhaps, and the resolution at the end of the sugya distinguishing between convening and announcing may support that.
However, I’d have another read. There were two competing calendar systems, namely the one that starts in Tishrei (and that’s what “Tishrei” indeed means) and the one that starts in Nissan. They enumerate years for different purposes from those months. The pasuk declares hachodesh hazeh lachem rosh chodoshim, so Nissan should really be the start of the new year. And there was a difference between the Kingdom of Yehuda and Yisrael about which month starts the year.
We can read the beginning of this brayta as follows. If they intercalate before Rosh Hashanah which is Tishrei, that is, in Elul, then we might think that we are adding a second Elul. The practical effect would be to push of Rosh Hashanah and Succot by one month, and we could imagine seasonal reasons for wanting that. Such an intercalation by adding Elul II would be adding an additional month to the very end of this preceding year. Instead, we say that we add an Adar II, right before Nissan. Effectively, this is adding a 13th month to the Nissan-based year, starting the next Nissan year a month later. That, by the way, is why we don’t intercalate once Nissan has begun, to turn it into an Adar II. Because the new Nissan-year has already begun.
So we are initially imagining adding a different month, say Elul II, when declared before Rosh Hashanah, and are told that it is not allowed. However, because of pressing need, מִפְּנֵי הַדְּחָק, they can wait until just after the cutoff point, Rosh Hashanah. Then, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Succot won’t be moved. Or even more than that. We aren’t talking about adding a month other than the end of the Nissan-based year, so that is Adar II.
The gemara then challenges this, but it isn’t immediately clear what it is challenging, point 1 that they wouldn’t intercalate even in pressing need before Rosh Hashanah, or point 2 that when doing early intercalation, it would only be Adar and not, say Shevat or, I would say, Elul.
The gemara:
אִינִי? וְהָא שְׁלַחוּ לֵיהּ לְרָבָא: זוּג בָּא מֵרַקַּת, וּתְפָשׂוֹ נֶשֶׁר, וּבְיָדוֹ דְּבָרִים הַנַּעֲשִׂים בְּלוּז. וּמַאי נִיהוּ? תְּכֵלֶת. בִּזְכוּת הָרַחֲמִים וּבִזְכוּתָם יָצְאוּ בְּשָׁלוֹם.
The Gemara asks: Is that so, that intercalation may be determined only after Rosh HaShana? But the Sages of Eretz Yisrael sent the following encoded message to Rava during the time of Roman persecution: A pair of Torah scholars came from Rakkath, the biblical name for Tiberias (see Joshua 19:35), which was the seat of the Sanhedrin in Rava’s time. They meant to reach the Diaspora community, but the pair was apprehended by the eagle, i.e., Roman soldiers, whose symbol was the eagle; and in their possession were precious items made in Luz. The Gemara interrupts the story to explain: And what are those items from Luz? Sky-blue dye, which is necessary for ritual fringes. The message continued: In the merit of divine mercy and in their merit, they were spared execution and emerged in peace. Nevertheless, they did not reach their destination.
וַעֲמוּסֵי יְרֵיכֵי נַחְשׁוֹן בִּקְּשׁוּ לִקְבּוֹעַ נְצִיב אֶחָד, וְלֹא הִנִּיחָן אֲדוֹמִי הַלָּז. אֲבָל בַּעֲלֵי אֲסוּפּוֹת נֶאֶסְפוּ וְקָבְעוּ לוֹ נְצִיב אֶחָד בְּיֶרַח שֶׁמֵּת בּוֹ אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן. חַשּׁוֹבֵי – מְחַשְּׁבִי, גַּלּוֹיֵי – לָא מְגַלּוּ.
The message continued: And the offspring of Nahshon, meaning the Sages of the court of the Nasi, who was descended from the prince of Judah, Nahshon ben Amminadab (see Numbers 7:12), sought to establish a pillar, i.e., they sought to add a month to the year. But that Edomite, the local Roman governor, did not allow them to intercalate the year. Nevertheless, the members of the assembly gathered, and they established a pillar, in the month in which Aaron the priest died, i.e., the Sages of Eretz Yisrael convened in the month of Av, which is before Rosh HaShana, and determined that the following year should be intercalated. Evidently, then, in exigent circumstances, intercalation may be done even before Rosh HaShana. The Gemara answers: The court may calculate the need for an extra month even before Rosh HaShana, but they may not reveal and publicize the decision until after Rosh HaShana.
There’s a difference between how, on the one hand, the Koren English translation under the direction of Rav Steinsaltz as well as the Artscroll have it; and on the other hand, how Rav Steinsaltz’s earlier Modern Hebrew translation had it.
The English above, together with Artscroll, render the objection as to point 1. After all, they convened in Av, which is before Rosh Hashanah. In contrast, in Hebrew, Rav Steinsaltz wrote about the insistence of Adar II ואף על פי כן אין מעברין ומוסיפים אלא את חודש אדר, ולא חודש אחר. This is immediately followed by ושואלים: איני [וכי כן הוא] שאין מעברים בחדשים אחרים? So, he thinks the objection is to other months than Adar II.
This doesn’t really work out with the conclusion of the gemara, that חַשּׁוֹבֵי – מְחַשְּׁבִי, גַּלּוֹיֵי – לָא מְגַלּוּ in other words, they convened and decided, but only announced after Rosh Hashanah. It would not make sense that they are targeting a different month for doubling. How would the announcement time matter? My guess is that Rav Steinsaltz retracted, between writing the Hebrew and the English.
Another thought about this sugya is that the message to Rava was all in code. So, in which month did Aharon die? We know it as Av, but the pasuk actually speaks about the fifth month. Bemidbar 33:
וַיַּ֩עַל֩ אַהֲרֹ֨ן הַכֹּהֵ֜ן אֶל־הֹ֥ר הָהָ֛ר עַל־פִּ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה וַיָּ֣מׇת שָׁ֑ם בִּשְׁנַ֣ת הָֽאַרְבָּעִ֗ים לְצֵ֤את בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם בַּחֹ֥דֶשׁ הַחֲמִישִׁ֖י בְּאֶחָ֥ד לַחֹֽדֶשׁ׃
Aaron the priest ascended Mount Hor at the command of יהוה and died there, in the fortieth year after the Israelites had left the land of Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month.
וְאַהֲרֹ֔ן בֶּן־שָׁלֹ֧שׁ וְעֶשְׂרִ֛ים וּמְאַ֖ת שָׁנָ֑ה בְּמֹת֖וֹ בְּהֹ֥ר הָהָֽר׃ {ס}
Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor.
The calculation as this being Av is that Biblical Pentateuchal months begin the year in Nissan, so then comes Iyar, Sivan, Tamuz, Av. The fifth is Av, which is a month before Elul.
However, if the five month count were to be from Tishrei, then next comes Cheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, and finally, Shevat. That’s exactly where is should be, right before Adar which they intend to double.
Since this was all in code, it doesn’t seem strange that they would use “month Aharon died” as code for “fifth month” based on Biblical usage, then applied to their own current calendar.
There’s another interesting dispute between Artscroll (who follow Rashi) and Rav Steinsaltz. Namely, who was the nesher that prevented them in the first place? Rav Steinslatz rendered it:
They meant to reach the Diaspora community, but the pair was apprehended by the eagle, i.e., Roman soldiers, whose symbol was the eagle;
Meanwhile, Artscroll interprets the reference as being to Persian soldiers. I supposed Persian soldiers can make sense if these talmidei chachamim are on route. But Teveriah was not under Persian control - it was under Roman control at the time.