Kiddush HaChodesh in the Geulah - Rabbi Menachem Cohen shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to the Lema’an Yishme’u podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 Hello and welcome. Today we’re going to talk about one of the central subjects in Judaism generally, and in Chassidus and Geulah and Moshiach in particular: sanctifying the new month. It’s an important subject that today we’re hardly familiar with. Today everything is laid out for us. We have a calendar, and we can know right now when a month will begin. Already in Tishrei or Cheshvan, we can know exactly when Rosh Chodesh Tammuz or Rosh Chodesh Sivan will fall—not just this year, but next year and even two years from now. There are even calendars for 120 years ahead. Everything is neatly arranged, and that’s all well and good, but the truth is that this is a state of exile. It isn’t the normal state of affairs. The normal state is what Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded the Jewish people in Parshas Bo. You could say that the first mitzvah the Jewish people were commanded as a nation was sanctifying the new month. So much so that Rashi says at the beginning of the Torah that the Torah should have begun with “This month shall be for you the first of the months,” because it was the first mitzvah the Jewish people were commanded. The first mitzvah given to the Jewish people as a nation is the mitzvah of sanctifying the months. That means going to beis din and testifying that you saw the new moon. Then beis din says, “Sanctified, sanctified.” Now it’s Rosh Chodesh; now it’s the first of the month. When the Beis Hamikdash stood—and the same will be true in the true and complete Geulah, very soon indeed, when the Rebbe shlita, Moshiach, is revealed and redeems us immediately—we’ll all find ourselves in a very interesting situation: there will be no calendar. It won’t be possible to know. No one in the world will be able to know when

02:23 Speaker 2 the next month will begin, what the date will be next month, whether it will fall on 20 Sivan, or whether Pesach will fall on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday. You can’t know. Why? Because everything depends on the ruling of the great beis din. When will they declare Rosh Chodesh? Will next month’s Rosh Chodesh come after 30 days? Say we’re now in Kislev, and the next month is Teves. Will it begin after 30 Kislev or after 29 Kislev? Beis din decides. Only they can determine it, and even then, only when witnesses come and testify that they saw the new moon. You can’t decide in advance and say, “Listen, I know what day of the week a date two months from now will fall on.” No. There’s no calendar; you can’t make one. That’s what it will be like in the true and complete Geulah. Be ready! No calendars. You’ll only be able to make a calendar after the year is over. Then you’ll be able to know exactly when each month began, which months were short and which were full, all according to what beis din decided on each Rosh Chodesh. Another interesting point: this process is called sanctifying the new month based on sighting the moon. Today, we establish the months according to a fixed calendar, based on what Hillel—one of the great sages toward the end of the Talmudic era—established. Abaye already says in the Gemara that nowadays we determine the new moon by calculation. Toward the end of the Talmudic era, they no longer sanctified the month based on a sighting, but according to the system established by Hillel, the last Nasi, a descendant of Rabbeinu

04:27 Speaker 2 Hakadosh. He established and arranged it by calculation, as it’s called—not by sighting, but by reckoning. That makes it possible to know when every Rosh Chodesh will be. That’s how we do it now: by calculation. But when the Beis Hamikdash stood, and likewise with the Third Beis Hamikdash in the true and complete Geulah, the month is sanctified based on sighting the moon. For that, the great beis din would sit together. If a person saw the new moon, halacha permitted him to violate Shabbos to testify. To put it in present-day terms, say he’s in Be’er Sheva and sees the moon. He can call a taxi and go straight to Jerusalem to report, “I saw the moon at the proper time.” This is one of the things for which it’s permitted to violate Shabbos. The Mishnah discusses traveling by boat, carrying a person from a place without an eruv, and taking sticks in case someone might endanger the group on its way. These concerns don’t stop them. You might say, “But perhaps everyone else saw it too, and they’ll all come.” That doesn’t matter. If you saw it, you’re obligated to come to the great beis din, and you have to get there promptly—overnight. If you need to travel by car or do anything else that would normally violate Shabbos, you’re permitted to do it so the month can be properly sanctified based on sighting the moon, as halacha requires. You can see just how

06:22 Speaker 2 important and central this is. Even today, we have several customs intended to preserve a remembrance of this mitzvah of sanctifying the new month. There are two main customs. One is that on the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh, we announce exactly when the new moon will appear and when Rosh Chodesh will be. Of course, we also ask for the Geulah: “May He Who performed miracles for our ancestors redeem us soon and gather our dispersed people from the four corners of the earth.” The other custom comes after the beginning of the month: Kiddush Levanah, the blessing over the moon. There too we ask, “May it be Your will that the light of the moon be like the light of the sun, and may the verse be fulfilled in us: ‘They will seek Hashem their G-d and David their king.’ Amen.” This too is connected with the true and complete Geulah and our anticipation of it: seeking David their king, seeking Moshiach and his revelation immediately. Now we’ll discuss when they stopped sanctifying the months this way and when they’ll resume. As we said, a beis din whose judges have semichah is obligated by a positive mitzvah to sanctify the months: “See it like this and sanctify it.” The Rambam rules that the months of the year are lunar months, as it says, “The offering of each month in its month,” and, “This month shall be for you the first of the months.” The sages said that Hakadosh Boruch Hu showed Moshe, in a prophetic vision, what the moon looks like as it renews itself, and told him, “See it like this and sanctify it.” That’s what the Rambam writes in the first halacha of Hilchos Kiddush Hachodesh, and this is the first mitzvah the Jewish people were commanded. It is a positive mitzvah incumbent on a beis din whose judges have semichah. So,

08:33 Speaker 2 We need to understand that as long as there was a beis din of ordained judges, they sanctified the new month specifically on the basis of sighting the new moon, as was required. That was how it had been throughout the years, as described in Tractate Rosh Hashanah, which gives the detailed laws of when and exactly how the new month is sanctified. Now, at a certain point, as we said, people began—the Gemara already says that all of the Jewish people began to calculate according to Hillel the Elder’s calculation. The Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, points out that, apparently, at that time the new month was established both by sighting the moon and by calculation. Why? What is the evidence? First of all, it’s clear that both existed at that time. Why? Because when the beis din sanctified the new month on the basis of a sighting, they sent messengers to the Jewish communities, to those in Eretz Yisroel. Now, how did people know when to observe the festivals? Wherever the messengers reached, they observed one day of Yom Tov: they knew exactly when Pesach was, exactly when Sukkos was, and so on. But in all the places the messengers did not reach—because they did send messengers, right? At first, it says, they would light fires from one place to the next. But at a certain point, the heretics interfered. They saw that the system wasn’t working: people were lighting fires in other places too, unrelated to the announcement, and that created a great deal of confusion and disorder. So they began sending messengers. The beis din’s messengers would go from place to place in Eretz Yisroel or its surrounding region, wherever there were Jews, and announce: “The date has been set; Rosh Chodesh Nissan, the first of Nissan, falls on such-and-such a day,” or “The first of Tishrei falls on such-and-such a day.” These were places with Jews that the messengers managed to

10:39 Speaker 2 reach during the two weeks from the first of Nissan to the fifteenth of Nissan, or from the first of Tishrei to the fifteenth of Tishrei. In places the messengers didn’t reach, people observed two days because of the uncertainty. That is why, to this day, we observe two days of Yom Tov outside Eretz Yisroel: because of the uncertainty, you don’t know exactly when Sukkos falls, so you observe both the fourteenth—both the fifteenth and the sixteenth. The same goes for Simchas Torah and Pesach. As for Shavuos, even in distant places they already knew when it fell, because word had spread about the date of Pesach, and Shavuos is fifty days from Pesach. Nevertheless, so as not to distinguish between festivals, the Sages instituted that any place the Tishrei messengers did not reach would observe two days. Why specifically the Tishrei messengers? Because they had the least time to travel. They could set out only after Rosh Hashanah; Rosh Hashanah is two days, and Yom Kippur falls in between, when they couldn’t travel either. So there weren’t many days available. All the places the messengers managed to reach between Rosh Hashanah and Sukkos—not counting Yom Kippur or the intervening Shabbosos—were places that knew the date. The messengers’ travel does not override Shabbos. Establishing the date of Rosh Hashanah, of Rosh Chodesh, does override Shabbos: going to the beis din to testify does override Shabbos, because that testimony made it possible to establish the correct dates of the festivals. But going to publicize the date does not override Shabbos; the messengers’ journey does not override Shabbos. So the Tishrei messengers did not have many days—about ten

12:28 Speaker 2 days in all—to travel and announce when the first of Tishrei was. Any place they managed to reach before Sukkos could observe one day, and that covered roughly the area of Eretz Yisroel. In places the messengers did not manage to reach, people observed two days—not only of Sukkos, but also of Pesach, Shavuos, everything. Why? So as not to distinguish between festivals. They did not want a situation where one festival was observed for one day and another for two, so they observed two days. Now the question arises: what did they do in places so far away that it took a whole year to reach them? You might say, “Perhaps there were no Jews at such a great distance?” Yes, there were. Already in the time of the Mishnah and Gemara, Jews lived in places that far away. A Mishnah says: “They prescribed three years for establishing a presumption of ownership so that a person could be in Aspamya, while another occupies his property for a year; people would travel and inform him over the course of a year, and he would return the following year.” In other words, people lived in Aspamya, a place a year’s journey away. It took a year for someone to reach a person there, and then another full year for that person to return to Eretz Yisroel. That is why a presumption of ownership is established only after three years. If someone occupied a particular piece of land, it was only after three years; with less time, the owner might have gone far away and simply not been informed. So for him to have a chance to find out as well—one year for the occupation, and that is why three years are needed to establish a presumption of ownership. After three years, even someone a full year’s journey from Eretz Yisroel

14:22 Speaker 2 could have found out. The person in Eretz Yisroel had occupied his property for a year, and there was time to inform the one in Aspamya: “Listen, someone is on your land.” Then he could make the journey back to Eretz Yisroel, which took another full year. So if three years have passed and he has not come, apparently no one has a claim to the property. But that is specifically after three years. Before that, there is no presumption of ownership. Why not? Because the owner might be far away. So we see that people lived as far as a full year’s journey from Eretz Yisroel. Today you can get to all sorts of places in no time, but back then it was a year’s journey—by ship, by whatever means. It was a full year of travel. Now the question is, those Jews in Aspamya surely didn’t eat chametz on Pesach, and they surely fasted on Yom Kippur. The laws of presumption of ownership mattered to these Jews, right? They were upright people who observed halachah; monetary law was very, very important to them. We see that the Mishnah and Gemara discuss at length how to make sure the rules are properly followed. They were Torah-observant Jews, so they certainly would not eat chametz; they certainly observed the laws of Yom Kippur and Pesach. But how did they know when Yom Kippur fell? On what day did Pesach fall? How did they know? We have to say that they also established the dates by calculation. This calculation was known even when the dates were established by sighting the moon in most places. In addition to relying on a sighting, the beis din would calculate

16:18 Speaker 2 whether the moon would be visible. They had the ability to make the calculation. That is why, when witnesses arrived, they would question them and see whether their account was accurate. In other words, the beis din could tell from its calculation whether those witnesses were lying, because it could know whether the moon could actually have been seen that night. So the beis din was capable of making all the calculations; in that sense, it did not need the witnesses. But since the Torah prescribed that it be done through witnesses—“See it and sanctify it”—they established the dates on the basis of the witnesses and the sighting. Still, they could also determine them by calculation. Accordingly, those Jews who lived a great distance from Eretz Yisroel, a full year’s journey away, established all the dates by calculation alone, just as we calculate them today. Today the entire Jewish people uses the calculation, but back then Jews living far from Eretz Yisroel used it. Now we understand what happened in the time of the Beis Hamikdash, when there were ordained judges: in most places, the months were established by sighting the moon, while in certain places they were established by calculation. Later, though, at a certain point the situation was reversed. How so? There were places where ordained judges remained—not only in Eretz Yisroel, but also outside it. The Rambam says that if a person of great wisdom was ordained in Eretz

18:06 Speaker 2 Eretz Yisroel and went abroad, he would calculate and establish the months and intercalate years abroad. So there were places where ordained judges remained, but in most places they began determining the months by calculation—rather than by sighting, right? Toward the end of the Talmudic period, the Rambam writes that “all of Israel began using this calculation when Eretz Yisroel was devastated.” Most Jews used the calculation we follow today. But there were still certain places where they sanctified the new month based on sighting the moon. So when, exactly, and why did sanctifying the months by sighting cease? As long as ordained courts existed, they continued to sanctify the new month by sighting, even if most people followed the calculation. As we said, there was Hillel’s enactment. Hillel, the last Nasi, a descendant of Rabbeinu Hakadosh, established the months according to calculation. He did not merely calculate when each new month should begin; he sanctified the months for all future generations, until the coming of Moshiach, when sanctification by sighting will resume. That has halachic force, of course, but it was a measure adopted out of necessity. Ideally, one does not intercalate a year on behalf of a later year, so sanctification by a court based on sighting is certainly preferable. It has greater force than Hillel’s one-time sanctification for all generations. Therefore, even after sanctification by the central court ceased, ordained judges continued to sanctify the months by sighting in their own locales. They could not send messengers throughout the Jewish people, and they also

20:06 Speaker 2 were not sure their authority would be accepted throughout the Jewish world, since there was no permanent central court. But in places that still had a court of ordained judges, they continued to sanctify the new month by sighting. So when the Rambam says that all of Israel began using this calculation, he means that there was no longer a central court determining the calendar for the entire Jewish people. That had ceased after the destruction. But in certain places with courts of ordained judges, they still sanctified the new month by sighting, because it is a mitzvah. It is the most ideal way to set the dates of the festivals and everything else. Why, then, did it cease over the generations despite its importance? The reason is simple. Most Jews were already following Hillel’s calculation to determine the months. There was no longer a permanent central court, so only the calculated calendar could bind all of Israel. What would happen otherwise? Some places would celebrate Pesach on a different date. That would create a situation contrary to the commandment “Do not form separate factions.” The Torah commands us not to divide into separate groups. So which takes precedence: sanctifying the month by sighting in places with ordained courts, or avoiding separate factions? Sanctifying the month by sighting also involves considerable effort: assembling three ordained judges, hearing testimony, and doing this every single month. It is

22:01 Speaker 2 a process that has to be repeated month after month. At the same time, it could lead to dispute—the very opposite of avoiding separate factions. So over time the practice diminished until it ceased entirely. There was, in fact, a period of intense disagreement. Manuscripts discovered in Egypt attest to a major dispute in the year 4682 between Ben Meir, the head of the yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel, and Rav Saadia Gaon, the leading sage in Babylonia. They disagreed about how to determine the calendar for the years 4682, 4683, and 4684—about a thousand years ago. According to Rav Saadia Gaon’s calculation, which is the one we follow, Rosh Hashanah in 4682 fell on Thursday and Pesach on Tuesday. But Ben Meir, the head of the yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel, announced on the Mount of Olives on Rosh Hashanah 4682 that, according to a tradition he had received from his forebears, Pesach would fall on Sunday, not Tuesday. The dispute continued for an entire year. Jews in Babylonia celebrated Pesach on Tuesday, while those in Eretz Yisroel celebrated it on Sunday. Ultimately, Ben Meir set aside his view in favor of Rav Saadia Gaon’s. Despite the tradition he had received, he saw that it was causing division among the Jewish people. Rav Saadia Gaon and the other sages of Babylonia did not accept his position, so he yielded, and they continued to follow Rav Saadia Gaon’s view. Why didn’t he persist, given the tradition he had received? Because the prohibition against forming separate factions took precedence, and he decided it was better to refrain from acting. We see something similar later on. Many years after semichah—rabbinic ordination in its original form—had ceased, leading Torah sages gathered

24:00 Speaker 2 to renew it. In the time of Mahari Beirav, a number of leading Torah sages gathered and ordained him, relying on the Rambam’s ruling that if all the sages in Eretz Yisroel agreed, they could appoint judges and grant them semichah. Mahari Beirav ordained four sages, among them the Beis Yosef. The Beis Yosef ordained Rabbi Moshe Alshich, and Rabbi Moshe Alshich ordained Rabbi Chaim Vital. But this semichah ceased because of the dispute with the Maharlbach. The Maharlbach opposed it, as is well known. The entire dispute is set out at length in Kuntres Hasemichah. He firmly maintained that semichah could not be renewed, so the sages of Tzfas and Mahari Beirav had no choice but to abandon the initiative. So much so that the Beis Yosef, who had himself received semichah from Mahari Beirav in Tzfas, did not mention it in the Shulchan Aruch. He even wrote in the Shulchan Aruch how to act nowadays when there are no ordained judges, although he himself had received semichah. Why? He saw that, because of the Maharlbach’s opposition, it had not been accepted throughout the Jewish world. Now, as for when sanctifying the new month by sighting and the institution of semichah ceased completely: according to many researchers, courts of ordained judges still existed until the period of the Geonim. We can also see an indication of this in what is recorded about the court of the Rif: they sanctified the new month by sighting and sounded the shofar when the first day of Rosh Hashanah fell on Shabbos, as was done by the court in Yavneh. And it is reasonable to say—as the Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach, points out—that in the Rif’s time, although he was one of the great Rishonim, semichah still existed. In other words, there was

25:47 Speaker 2 There was still a beis din of ordained judges, and they may also have sanctified the month based on the sighting of the new moon, because the only requirement for doing so is a beis din of ordained judges. If they were members of the Rif’s beis din, they were ordained. So it stands to reason that they, too, sanctified the month based on the sighting of the new moon. And as for blowing the shofar, as we said, they were not concerned about the prohibition of forming separate factions: the proof is that they blew the shofar on Rosh Hashanah when it fell on Shabbos, contrary to the ruling of most halachic authorities. We see just how important it was to restore the reality of a beis din that sanctifies the month based on the sighting of the new moon, and how central this is. The Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach, spoke about this several times. Of course, it is a major part of what we look forward to: the restoration of all the ordinances as in former times. Very soon, when Moshiach Tzidkeinu comes together with Eliyahu HaNavi, “I will restore your judges as at first and your counselors as at the beginning.” Then a beis din of ordained judges will return. There are different opinions about exactly how this will happen and who will ordain them—Moshiach Tzidkeinu or Eliyahu HaNavi. But in any event, they will certainly be ordained again and will be able to return to sanctifying the month based on the sighting of the new moon. Then all the ordinances will return as in former times, as the Rambam says. That includes establishing and sanctifying the months based on the sighting of the new moon. So we have come to understand how important the sanctification of the month is—so important that Shabbos is desecrated in order to sanctify the month at the proper time, correctly and according to halachah. Now a very interesting question arises: when Moshiach Tzidkeinu comes and we finally have the privilege of sanctifying the month again, will...

27:41 Speaker 2 There are two interesting questions here. One is whether we can immediately begin sanctifying the month. Say we are now in Adar, and it has been established as a leap year—5782 was a leap year, right? Moshiach comes, and he says, “No, I want the Sanhedrin to decide that this year will have only one Adar, not two.” Can they do that or not? This is discussed and debated, and I will not go into the whole subject. There is the calendar established by Hillel—Hillel, the grandson of Rabbeinu HaKadosh—regarding the establishment of the months in place of sanctifying them based on the sighting of the new moon. But it is clear that this was only until Moshiach’s arrival. Once Moshiach comes and the established beis din wants to reinstate the sanctification of the month based on the sighting of the new moon, they might decide that a month that was meant to have thirty days will have twenty-nine, or that instead of two Adars there will be only one, or vice versa. So the question of exactly when they can do this is indeed discussed. But it seems reasonable to say—and the Rebbe raises this in several sichos—that as long as Adar has not begun, they can do it. Even if Moshiach comes on the very Shabbos when we bless the month of Adar I, they can decide that it will not be Adar I but simply Adar, the only Adar that year. In other words, as long as it has not yet been formally announced and publicized—not at the start of the year or in calendars, but right before this Rosh Chodesh—

29:33 Speaker 2 whether there will be one Adar or two, the Great Beis Din in Jerusalem can overturn the prior arrangement and change things. The same applies to whether a month is full or deficient: as long as the month has not begun, it is still possible to change it. Once the month has begun and everyone knows whether it is a full or deficient month, the beis din can no longer change it. So, with Hashem’s help, we will soon live to see exactly how this works. It is a broad subject. But there is another interesting point that, at first glance, presents something of a difficulty for this whole subject of sanctifying the months. After all, the months are sanctified based on the sighting of the moon. We see the moon and, as we said, “See it thus and sanctify it.” The question is this: we know that in the future, “The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of the seven days.” In other words, the moon will not start out small, gradually grow, and then become small again. No, it will always be large: the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun. If so, how can there be any sanctification of the months? Until now, even in the time of the First and Second Beis Hamikdash, the moon started small, gradually grew, and so on. But in the future the moon will be as bright as the sun. So how will it be possible to sanctify the month? And likewise, how will it be possible to add a leap month to the year?

31:27 Speaker 2 The whole matter of intercalation—whether there are two Adars or one—also seems to depend on the movements of the moon and the sun. But if the moon’s light is like the sun’s, it will not wane; the moon will be just like the sun. First of all, until that time, until the fulfillment of the promise that “the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun,” we will certainly be able to sanctify the month properly, according to halachah. But once the moon’s light is like the sun’s, then, at one of the farbrengens in 5744, the Rebbe spoke about this and said that it really is a difficult question that needs to be examined. It even seems that the fulfillment of “the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun” will come as soon as the refinement of the world is complete—that is, immediately upon Moshiach’s arrival. If it is not delayed but happens immediately with the Geulah, then it would seem that sanctifying the months will no longer be possible. Well, this needs to be studied further, and surely Moshiach will come and answer these questions for us. But the main point is the lesson all this holds for each of us. When we speak about adding a leap month to the year and sanctifying the months, a Jew should remember that very soon things will change, and, with Hashem’s help, the month will be sanctified based on the sighting of the new moon. Yet even that is in question, because, as we said, “the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun.” Therefore, we must cherish every moment of sanctifying the month, blessing the new month, reciting Kiddush Levanah, and announcing the years and the months as we do today. For in the true and complete Geulah,

33:28 Speaker 2 on the one hand, we will sanctify the month based on the sighting of the new moon, which is the most ideal way. On the other hand, we will face the question of how to sanctify the months. Perhaps we will do it by calculation—but that, too, must be based on the renewal of the moon, and it seems the moon will not renew, because “the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun.” So what exactly we will do, we will know very soon, in the true and complete Geulah. But studying and examining this subject now already prepares us for and brings us closer to the true and complete Geulah. Then we will see all these extraordinary, wondrous things: Kiddush Levanah, sanctification of the month based on the sighting of the new moon, and “the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold.” This shows the great elevation of the Jewish people in the true and complete Geulah. They are compared to the moon, and they will reach the greatest heights in the true and complete Geulah. Most importantly, may we merit this immediately—right now, right now, right now. Long live our master, teacher, and Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, forever and ever.