[Avodah] Q re tonight's RYReisman shiur on the chamah

[Michael Poppers]

One of RYR's Qs essentially was "If 'B'Tishri nivra ha'olam,' why do we say
Bircas haChamah in Nisan?" w/ his answer being (based on a Tos'fos in BT
Rosh haShanah 27) that we hold like R'Eliezer (b'Tishri) in the world of
machshavah and like R'Y'hoshua (b'Nisan) in the world of ma'aseh (i.e. that
alah b'da'as hQbH to create the world before He actually [in what we call
Nisan] created the world).  My Q is: don't we calculate the average molad
going back to Tishri rather than Nisan?  Now, Googling a bit, I see that
R'Micha had some comments a few years ago re the starting point for molad
calculations (see http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol14/v14n071.shtml#19 ;
for further Avodah posts on the topic of Molad Tohu, see
http://www.google.com/m?mrestrict=xhtml&eosr=on&ct=fsh&q=site%3Aaishdas.org+molad+tohu
 ), but I would like to note another Webpage
(http://www.hamodia.com/inthepaper.cfm?ArticleID=143 ) as having an answer
for my Q, and I quote: "Other commentaries offer different explanations for
the fact that we reckon the astronomy-based halachos from Nisan but count
years from Tishrei, with some explaining that although the sun and moon may
have been created in Tishrei, the beginning of their cycles was actually
the equinox before - but it was a 'theoretical' equinox. Similarly, the
animals were created fully matured and the trees fully grown, and the sun
and moon were also created in the middle of their cycles. So even though
they may have been created in Tishrei, their cycle had theoretically
started on the previous (theoretical) equinox, in Nisan. The Rishonim use
this reasoning in regard to the first molad (phase) of the moon, taking
into account the theoretical molad that 'happened' before the actual
creation of the moon (see Tosafos Rosh Hashanah 8b litekufos)."  That A
sounds like it's saying, "Your Q, RMP, is not a Q, as we calculate the
molad from Nisan, but it's worth noting that Molad Tohu is actually not a
few days before Shnas Adam but more like six months before it!"  Did I
understand that Hamodia article correctly?  Thanks.

Gut Voch/Shavua Tov and all the best from
--Michael Poppers via RIM pager
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