[Avodah] Molad Alert: Friday night

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Mar 03, 2011 at 01:38:11PM +0200, Akiva Blum wrote:
: Please note, that should be 12 hours (midnight) and 7 chalakim.

Wondering... Does anyone's shul's gabbai also announce the time in the
local standard? And, the Avodah question: How is it appropriate /not/
to?

As I understand it, the original idea was for people to know the time
of the molad. Then we didn't want to lose the qesher to the yishuv nor the
ease of just adding n molados to a known molad, so even when we stopped
living in the area from Alexandria to Bavel that included the Jews of EY,
we still used the time (pre timezone) used there.

But now that no one thinks in solar time, instead in standard (or daylight)
time, we are losing the initial point! Shouldn't we therefore announce
both?

We know "Jerusalem" Solar Time is 21 min ahead of Isreal Standard Time,
but I don't think we know that to the nearest cheileq. Instead, we can
just give this nearest-minute approximation.

So, for example, this Shabbos here in EST, shouldn't the gabbai say
something like:
    The molad was last night, 7 chalaqim after midnight "Jerusalem" solar
    time,
    which was 4:49pm to the nearest minute our time.


To recap what I got from last time we discussed the molad:
We don't know exactly where the location is for which we're announcing the
molad. Problem is that the molad is now too short as the moon is slowing
down. We're pretty sure it was set up for Alexandria, the westernmost
edge. However, due to this slippage, the announced molad is now average
time of the new moon roughly halfway between Israel and Bavel.

This makes it impossible to do the math to the nearest cheileq.

Anyone want to correct flaws in my memory or understanding?

-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "'When Adar enters, we increase our joy'
micha at aishdas.org         'Joy is nothing but Torah.'
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