[Avodah] YT Sheni

[Kohn, Shalom]

Apropos of the thread about YT Sheni and its perpetuation at the times of Moshiach:

It is worth commenting on the very odd and obscure statement in the gemara Beizah about YT sheni generally, that once it was enacted by a beit din, even if the rationale for rule does not apply (given that we are now familiar with "keviah d'yarcha" (the lunar cycles), we are not empowered to change the edict unless a superior Sanhedrin is convened.  

This type of adherence to earlier rulings is at best an exception.  (For example, we do not observe the prohibition on uncovered water because snakes are not prevalent, per Rabbeinu Tam, and prohibitions rooted in magic (keshafim) equally are unobserved).  Another example is the changing rules on tumat keri re: studying Torah.  Clearly something else is afoot here.

My suggestion (I may have written about this before to this mailing list), is that the power of Beit Din to declare the new Moon is a profound grant of authority from Hashem to the Jewish people.  Mekadesh Yisroel V'Hazmanim (sanctifies Israel and the Times/Holidays) is interpreted in the Gemara to mean that Hashem sanctifies Israel who in turn Sanctifies the holidays.  The Sanhedrin can set the "true" 9th of Tishrei as Yom Kippur, and everyone will eat, drink and do labor on the "true" 10th of Tishrei, because that is not the date the beit din declared.  (Compare the episode -- I forget who and where, though that was a computation dispute rather than a Sanhedrin declaration -- where one amorah required the other to come before him with his stick and purse on the Yom Kippur which the second amorah computed, but which was not in accord with the first aromah's ruling.)  Beit din is even empowered to move the day for rosh chodesh for various reasons, and remarkably, to use false testimony ("machminim es ha'edim") for that purpose.  It is a remarkable partnership of Hashem and his people and an empowerment of B'Nai Yisroel.

The risk that Jews in Babylon and other communities (which in population and arguably in achievement became dominant and the Israeli community declined after the exile) would develop an independent tradition for the timing of Holidays threatened to undermine the authority of the Sanhedrin, were it to be resurrected -- which everyone hoped would be imminent in connection with the Redemption.  It was therefore important to stress at various points the centrality of Jerusalem, as in the beginning of Sanhedrin about how we are merely shiluchim (agents) of the semuchim (ordained ones) in Israel, and the resulting limits on adjudication in the diaspora; statements that we are dependant on Israel; the superior wisdom of Israel; and for the common people, the emphasis on YT Sheni as defining the experience that our holidays depend on the authority of the Sanhedrin.  This notably was only a rule for the Diaspora, because the concern was the emergence of an independent Diaspora community that would not accept the authority of the Sanhedrin.  In Israel, the assumption was that this would not be a problem because in practice (except for Rosh Hashana), the time of the declaration of the New Moon would become known, and because the knowledge of the lunar cycles was sufficiently esoteric that the common person would not question a variation in declaration of the New Moon compared with the computation, in part because he might conclude that the witnesses were not available to testify as to the computed date.

To declare this as the rationale for the rule -- as being independent of the actual timing of the new moon -- would undermine the objective sought to be conveyed (hopefully not for readers of this list).  Hence, the obscurity about the reason, and the odd declaration that we do not undo the edicts of earlier courts unless our courts are superior.

It follows from the foregoing that when Moshiach will come (soon), the return of the Sanhedrin will result in a declaration of the New Moon as in the past.  One further presumes that (a) especially with Techiyat Hameisim (resurrection) we will be able to empower a superior Court (if that proves necessary at all); and (b) with the Glory of Hashem filling the Earth, issues about corruption of the message of the New Moon (and perhaps other internet virus and errors) will not be an issue as to transmitting the Sanhedrin's edicts.

It is a good thing to hope that the foregoing will come to pass in the coming New Year.  Shana Tova to all.

Shalom L. Kohn 	

 
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