[Avodah] Vizhnitz Rebbe Asks Chasidim To Make Kiddush This Shabbos Between 6 And 7

[Zev Sero]

On 27/12/20 6:03 pm, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
> And we certainly aren't so subservient to their calendar that we would 
> skip a leap year in 1900 or in 2100, which is why there is a slight 
> drift over the centuries, for which days of December are the switchover.

Actually we probably would, if the Gregorian adjustment had been in 
effect when we adopted this practice.

The reason we do it this way, even though we have always known it to be 
imprecise, is probably because it's easy to keep track of via the 
Goyishe calendar.  We switch on Nov 23 (or 24 if it's going to be a leap 
year -- and remember that at that time the year didn't change until 
*after* February), and we say birkas hachama whenever March 26 is on a 
Wednesday in the year after a leap year.  Easy and simple.

Then the goyim went and switched the calendar on us and made it not so 
simple.  Almost every century we have to adjust those dates to keep up. 
But had they changed their calendar *before* we decided to rely on it, 
we'd probably have decided to rely on the new and improved calendar instead.



> So why on earth does this practice (about kiddush between 6 and 7) bow 
> down to each state government's policy on how to set one's clock? Even 
> when daylight time is in effect?!?!

The answer is that it doesn't.  I don't know who claimed that people 
ignore daylight savings time (i.e. keep 6 to 7 DST in the summer, which 
is "really" 5 to 6), and I don't believe it.  I do believe -- indeed I 
know -- that there are many who ignore the adjustment for railroad time, 
but that is simply out of ignorance of the metzius, and when the truth 
is explained to them they change their practice.


> But maybe that's *not* how Mars works; maybe Mars affects the entire
> earth at the same time, beginning at some point and lasting for 60
> minutes. If so, then we need to ask "From six to seven o'clock *where*?"
> and adjust accordingly (very similar to the current thread about where
> the Molad is calculated from).

This is not viable, because the Gemara describe these hours in Bavel, 
and doesn't say that in EY they're different, and the Maharil in Europe 
uses them unadjusted.


[Quoting a post I never saw:]
> Those who are followers of the Besht, etc accept this at face value

This has nothing to do with chassidus or the Baal Shem Tov -- it's 
minhag Ashkenaz as recorded by the Maharil, and expanded on by the Magen 
Avraham and the Machtzis Hashekel, none of whom were chassidim.  If most 
non-chassidim have stopped practicing it, that needs to be explained.

But I find it curious that, at least in my experience, people who do 
practice it think of it as a negative, *not* to make kidush during the 
Mars hour, and therefore usually delay kidush till after that hour, 
whereas the original source, the Maharil, expresses it as a positive, 
*to* make kidush during the Jupiter hour, *before* the Mars hour.

Also, it seems to me that the Maharil's language (although I've never 
seen it inside, but only as quoted by others) seems to imply that he 
thought it worked by sha'os z'manios, i.e. that Mars always rules the 
"hour" after sunset", and therefore the minhag is to accept Shabbos 
early and make sure to make kidush before sunset.  But as far as I know 
everyone who practices this says it works by sha'os hashavos, just like 
molad zaken does.

-- 
Zev Sero            Wishing everyone a *healthy* and happy 5781
zev at sero.name       "May this year and its curses end
                      May a new year and its blessings begin"