[Avodah] Yom Tov Sheni for Olim LeReget to the Beit Mikdash

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> The way I see things, RRW and RZS take it as obvious that the first to
> use any form of fixed calendar was when Hillel Nesi'ah and his Sanhedrin had
> to provide for the future impossibility of Sanhedrin convening and
> accepting eidim.
> 
> I was taught that too. Bar Ilan searching didn't turn up a maqor, so I
> asked the chevrah if they had proof. Abayei, who gives the "minhag
> avoseihem beyadeihem" statement was niftar in 335 CE, within Hillel
> Nesi'ah's leadership -- 330-365. The window is possible, if Abayei was
> discussing events he lived through toward the last 5 years of his life.
> AND, that Hillel Nesi'ah's Sanhedrin established the calendar during the
> first 5 years of its meeting, not the other 30 closer to the crisis
> that closed it in 425 (90 years after Abayei's death).

See Rambam Kiddush Hachodesh 5:3.  "From when did all Israel start to
use this calculation [which was passed down from Moshe miSinai]?  From
the end of chachmei hatalmud, at the time when EY was destroyed and
there was no beis din kavua left there.  But in the days of chachmei
hamishneh, and also in the days of chachmei hatalmud until the days of
Abaye and Rava, they relied on the keviut of EY."

He doesn't name Hillel; perhaps Hillel's predecessor instituted a
formula based on the Halacha Lemoshe Misinai, and Hillel refined it?
Whatever the exact date on which this started, though, it's crystal
clear that it was after the churban, and after R Gamliel, and after
Rebbi.   And therefore that it can't have affected the olei regel.


> Rabbeinu Bechaye on Shemos 12:2.

Who is quoting Rabbenu Chananel.

> A teaser, "umeiheikh hay qov'im
> chadashim al pi re'iyas halevanan, ela vadai iqar hamitzvah bekasuv al
> pi hacheshbon". Or, in case that was too much transliteration to follow,
> "and from where [do you know] that they established the months according
> to the sighting of the moon; rather certainly the iqar of the mitzvah
> in the text is according to the calculation."

It's not "umeiheikh hay" but "umeiheikhan hayu"; he's talking about
the dor hamidbar, who could not have seen the moon through the ananei
hakavod and the amud eish, "so from where did they establish...?"
They couldn't possibly have done it through seeing the moon, so they
must have done it by calculation.

Interesting.  And he explains R Gamliel; but how does he deal with
R Yehoshua not knowing this?  Was the true mesorah a closely held
secret that not even the chachamim could know?  And how could the
Leviyim have sung the wrong song, if the BD knew all along that
that day would be rosh chodesh?  And what about Rebbi, who made
nine 29-day months in the same year?  How could he have done that,
if the cheshbon is the ikkar, and why was he astounded when Elul
also turned out to have 29 days?  It sounds from the story of Rebbi
that he hadn't been keeping track of the cheshbon at all, until Rosh
Hashana came around and he looked back and realised something was
strange.  And most of all, according to this why was there ever a
sfeka deyoma?  Why didn't they just let the Bnei Bavel know in advance
when they planned to make yomtov?

As for his proof from the dor hamidbar, they weren't prisoners inside
the clouds; witnesses could have gone out every month to see the moon,
just as they left in order to obtain arba minim, etc.


-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher