[Avodah] Rosh Chodesh Adar

[Zev Sero]

Galsaba at aol.com wrote:
> The Molad for Adar will be Saturday morning, 11:17 AM and 11 Chalokim.
> How we are going to annoince this in the shul? As the molad time is 
> normally given for Yerushalauim local time (solar), then by the time we 
> announce it here, 11:17AM in Israel is past.
> Should we announce "The Molad for Adar WAS Saturday morning, 11:17 AM 
> and 11 Chalokim."

For one thing, that is the *average* molad, which doesn't correspond
to any actual event.  More than that, it's the *calculated* average
molad, based on a calculation that has accumulated a 2-hour error.
The actual New Moon will be at 11:15am Eastern USA time, i.e. 6:15pm
Israeli standard time.   So if you're making the announcement before
that time, you could still say "will be".  But at my shul that won't
make a difference, because by the time we get to birkat hachodesh the
molad will certainly be in the past.   I suppose if the gabbai is on
the ball, he will say "the molad was this morning".

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas