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

[Simon Montagu]

On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 11:13 PM, Hankman <salman at videotron.ca> wrote,
quoting  Rabbi Moshe Bogomilsky
http://www.sichosinenglish.org/books/vedibarta-bam/foreword.htm:

> According to the Gemara (Shabbat 87b) the Jews left Egypt on Thursday.
> Consequently, since the first Pesach was celebrated on Thursday, the
> following Rosh Hashanah was on a Shabbat. Therefore the Torah does not
> mention the actual sounding of the shofar but only "zichron
> teruah" - "a remembrance of shofar blasts."
>
> ________________________________
>
> A difficulty that may be raised with the explanation is that the rule of
> knowing from Pesach on what day of the week a given holiday will fall,
> applies only nowadays when the new month is established al pi
> hacheshbon - according to a pre-calculated calendar. Accordingly, one month
> is complete (thirty days) and the following month is incomplete (twenty-nine
> days), and everything is known in advance. However, when the new month was
> derived based on the testimony of witness who saw the moon's appearance,
> this rule would not be applicable since there can be a few successive full
> or incomplete months.
>
> An answer to this difficulty may be the following: Rabbeinu Bachya
> (Shemot 12:2) writes in the name of Rabbeinu Channaneil that throughout the
> forty years the Jews sojourned in the wilderness, the new month was in fact
> established according to a pre-calculated system and not by testimony of
> witness. The reason is; Hashem covered the Jewish camp in clouds during the
> day and a pillar of fire during the night, (Shemot 13:21) which made it
> impossible for them to see the sun during the day or the moon during the
> night.
>
> Thus, the first Rosh Hashanah the Jews celebrated was indeed on Shabbat and
> they did not blow the shofar.

I find all this very problematic.

Firstly, right there in Shabbat 87b, there is a mahloket, among other
things, whether Iyyar was haser or male; in fact the whole sugya seems
to presuppose the possibility that the calendar wasn't exactly the
same as the current fixed calendar.

Secondly, we know from the Mishna in RH 4:1 that in the Mikdash they
did blow the shofar on Shabbat. Why would they not blow the shofar in
the Mishkan?