[Avodah] Molad

Micha Berger via Avodah avodah at lists.aishdas.org
Tue Jul 28 20:51:08 PDT 2015


On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 02:09:11PM -0400, Zev Sero via Avodah wrote:
: That should be halfway between moldos, i.e. 14d 18h 22m after the
: molad, not a full 15 days.  It should also be adjusted for the time
: difference between your standard time and Y'm's real time, which
: for NY is 7h 20m in the winter and 6h 20m in the summer.   Using
: a full 15 days is only bediavad.

Y-m time to EST is 7h 21m, not 20.

But I am not sure the molad is announced for Y-m time, despite what we
call it. It's hard to know exactly where the molad is being announced
for, since the average lunation has changed over time and the accumulated
difference between estimation and reality over millenia has grown large.

Right now, the average molad matches the average moment of new moon for
Qandahar, Afghanistan.

If we go back in time to when the molad was closest to one lunar month,
we get to 4th cent CE, the days of Hillel Nesi;ah. The av beis din to
whom R Hai Gaon attributes our current calendar.

If we assume the molad then was most accurate in start time as well when
it was most accurate in durection, then the molad is being announeced
for something like Ur Kasdim, which is also around the middle of Jewish
settlement at the time, between the Nile and the Euphrates.

In which case, the molad is being announced for a place 44 min after IST
(not 21m).

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             There's only one corner of the universe
micha at aishdas.org        you can be certain of improving,
http://www.aishdas.org   and that's your own self.
Fax: (270) 514-1507      	    - Aldous Huxley



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