[Avodah] From Areivim: zayin Adar

[saul mashbaum]

RTKatz wrote (on Areivim)
<As to Moshe Rabbeinu's birthday and yahrzeit, IIRC Sefer Hatoda'ah says  he died (and was born?) in Adar Rishon of a leap year.>

REMTeitz: responded (there)
>>
      According to Rashi on Yehoshua 1:11, it was on the day of "vayit'mu y'mei aivel Moshe," the day shloshim ended, that Yehoshua announced the crossing of the Yarden three days hence.  As the pasuk tells us, that crossing was on the 10th of Nissan.  Ergo, Moshe's p'tira was either in a non-leap year or in Adar II.
>>
Unsurprisingly, both opinions appear in our tradition; baanu l'machloket R. Yehoshua v' R. Elazar HaModai.  See  Yalkut Shimoni Yehoshua 5.  R. Yehoshua says here that the mahn was eaten for 40 days after the death of Moshe, 7 Adar-16 Nissan (see Rashi on Yehoshua 1:10, not only 11). In the same midrash, R. Elazar Ha Modai says the mahn was eaten for 70 days after the death of Moshe, since Moshe was niftar on 7 Adar Rishon of a leap year. This opinion is quoted in Sefer Hatodaah, as RTK indeed recalls correctly, Volume II, page 106, in the three volume Hebrew edition I have (nothing there about the year he was born). Sefer Hatodaah cites this opinion in support of the minhag of some chevrot kadisha to observe 7 Adar in Adar Rishon, as is apparently the practice in NMB.
See the Radak to Yehoshua 3:2, who discusses the subject of the date of death of Moshe at more length. The Radak there cites a tannaitic  opinion that Moshe was not niftar on 7 Adar at all, but on 7 Shvat. This is the opinion of R. Eliezer in the Yalkut cited above; he agrees with R. Elazar haModai that the mahn was eaten for 70 days after the death of Moshe, but says it was 7 Shvat - 16 Nissan, that year *not* being a leap year. 
That Moshe died on 7 Adar is an interesting example of "famous" statements of chazal that "everyone knows" and are widely assumed to be an undisputed part of our mesorah which are in fact the subject of differing opinions in chazal. 
I mentioned the Hebrew edition of Sefer Hatodaah because of course, as most of us know, there is a three-volume Englsh translation of this superb work, called "The Book of Our Heritage", by none other than RTK's father, R. Nachman Bulman zt"l. RTK has mentioned on this forum that R.Bulman was not only the translator of R. Eliyah Kitov's work, but a  personal friend of his. This is also mentioned in the charming autobiographical "Tea with the Rebbetzin" by Toby's mother, Rebbetzin Shaindel Bulman, pp 88-89. Indeed, the Rebbetzin mentions there that RNB used to read (translating) Sefer Hatodaah to his family during the Friday night and Shabbat morning meals when the Bulman children were young
Saul Mashbaum
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