[Avodah] Yomtov Sheni

[Zev Sero]

On another list we've been discussing yomtov sheni, and a theory
was advanced that the Sanhedrin's takanah applies only to Bavel
and not to other countries.

Someone wrote:

> It is not comparable to the Chacham Tzevi's view.  He argues that the
> decree of Yom Tov Sheini, *from its inception*, was made on places,
> not on people.  He did not suggest that subsequent events should change
> the original takkana; he argued about what that original takkana was,
> and sought to maintain what he considered it to be.

He doesn't even say that.  Let it be on people; but *what* shall those
people do?  What they used to do when there was no cheshbon, and they
had to keep two days misafek.  What did they do in those days?  When
they were at home they kept two days but when they went to EY they kept
one.  So now after the takana that's what they should keep doing.
Similarly the takana *applies to Bnei EY too*, and they should keep
doing what *they* used to do before the cheshbon, which was to keep one
day at home but two days if they visited chu"l.

This is *exactly* the reason why we keep RH different from other YT.
Why is it that beitza shenolda barishon te'achel basheni?  After all,
we have no sfeika deyoma, and we know *both* days are yomtov, the first
mid'oraita and the second mid'rabanan.  So how can we eat the egg on
the second day, when today is vadai yomtov and it was prepared on
vadai yomtov.  Further, how can we make an eruv tavshilin on the first
day of yomtov that falls on a Thursday, saying "if today is kodesh and
tomorrow is chol, then I don't need an eruv at all, but if today is chol
and tomorrow is kodesh then let this be my eruv"?  We know for sure that
both days are kodesh, and one may not make an eruv!  So how does this
work?  The gemara's answer is that even though both days are kodesh, we
keep them as our ancestors kept them back in the day, when only one was
kodesh but they didn't know which one.  We do so because that was the
takanah.  If the takanah had been "keep two days" then we would not be
allowed to eat the egg or make the eruv, just as we can't on Rosh Hashana;
we can only because the takanah was "keep doing what your ancestors did",
i.e. act *as if* there were still a safek.

So why is RH different?  After all, wasn't RH also sfeka deyoma?  The
gemara's answer is that while this was usually the case, it sometimes
happened that BD would decide at nooon on the first day that it would
definitely *not* be the first of Tishri but the thirtieth of Elul, and
that it was nevertheless to be kept as a yomtov mid'rabanan.  In other
words the situation was the same as ours is today, but reversed: the
first day was mid'rabanan and the second mid'oraita.  And since in such
a case both days were kodesh, one could not on the second day eat an
egg laid on the first, and one could not make an eruv tavshilin al tnai
on the first day.  Since our ancestors could not know for sure that one
day was chol, they kept both days as if they were vadai kodesh, and so
the takanah was to continue to do so today.

Note that none of this is my chidush; this is the pshat in the gemara.
There is no other.  The takanah is to do as our ancestors did, even if
it contradicts the reality as we know it today, and is *more lenient*
than the reality would seem to dictate.  We act as if we had a safek
when in fact it is vadai, because that is what the takanah said to do.
The same chachamim who said it was vadai yomtov said we could treat it
as if it were not.  Hapeh she'asar hu hapeh shehitir.   So the Chacham
Tzvi applies exactly the same principle.  If we are to do as our
ancestors did, then we should do *exactly* as they did, including
switching when we cross from EY to chul"l or vice versa.

And now that I've typed all that I realise that here lies the true
answer to the theory that was proposed.  In trying to refute it I've
been missing the forest for the trees.  The true answer is that this
theory that the takanah applied only to Bavel is plainly false, because
it applies also to EY, as we witness every Rosh Hashana!  Nowadays there
is no sfeka deyoma on RH, any more than on any other yomtov.  We *know*
that the first day is the 1st of Tishri and the second is the 2nd.
So why do we keep both days?  If the proposed theory were correct we
would keep them only in Bavel, where the Sanhedrin decreed to do so;
why do we do so even in EY? The obvious answer, the *only possible*
answer, is that the takanah did *not* apply only to Bavel, or even only
to chu"l, but to the whole world; everybody was to continue doing as
our ancestors had done.  And what did they do?  When they were in EY
they kept two days for RH and one day for all other yomim tovim, and
when they were in chu"l they kept two days for all yomim tovim.   And
thus it makes no difference where any individual's ancestors were
living at the time of the takanah.  They may well have been Bnei EY,
as the theory goes; they must still do as those ancestors did, which
is to keep two days when in chu"l.  QED.


-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon