[Avodah] The Molad of Tamuz

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Jul 01, 2018 at 04:59:14PM -0400, Zev Sero via Avodah wrote:
:                     In Israeli Standard Time it would be 5:44:27,
: and in Summer Time 6:44:27.   You have not only added a spurious
: adjustment for the actual time of sunset, but have forgotten the
: 00:20:57 adjustment for Standard Time, which is every bit as
: artificial as the one-hour adjustment for Summer Time.

Actually, I am not convinced the times we announce really are
Jerusalem Mean Time.

The molad is lengthening, and was most accurate about 1650 years
ago.

(I noted the incredible siyata diShmaya involved, since the first
time this value was recorded was by the Bavliim or Meton of Athens,
a millennium before its peak accuracy. And yet, when the Sanhedrin was
falling apart and we needed numbers to build a calendar on, it ws at its
most accurate. Led me to believe the value is MiSinai, and Bavel got it
from us. But even if not, Divine intervention of some sort lays beyond
such a "coincidence".)

We can therefore go back 1650 years and see when the molad was.

Turns out that back when the time between lunations was most clsely the
molad, the actually time of the molad would have been most accurate if
the time we were announcing were something closer to Ur Kasdim time,
than Y-m time.

To better justify that idea... More accurate at a meridian that runs
down the middle of Jewish Settlement from Bavel to Alexandria.

Or, a correction of around 44 min from IST, not appx. 21.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             In the days of our sages, man didn't sin unless
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