<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">It is imperative to understand what is the purpose of the Molad. Today only the Molad of Tishrei has any effect on the Hebrew Calendar. The Molad of any given year and the succeeding year determine the entire calendar for that year. The Molad of Tishrei is the one Molad that is not announced.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Micha Berger and Dr. Irv Bromberg of University of Toronto are very concerned about the accuracy of the Moladot. They presume that Chazal created the Molad to supplant simple actual witnesses to improve the accuracy of determining the new month but that time has made it out of wack. This is because the length of the interval between successive moladot is 532 ms longer than the astronomically determined value. Which means 3 1/2 hours error since the time of Rabban Gamliel. </span></p><div class=""><br class=""></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">In the gemora of Rosh Hashanah at the end of Daf 24 begins a discussion:</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">“Two witnesses came and said we saw the [the old moon] in the morning in the East and [the new moon] in the West. R’ Yohanan ben Nuri’s said they were false witnesses. Yet Rabban Gamliel accepted them.”</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">I created a spreadsheet from the time of creation of all of the moladot and discovered that occasionally the Old Moon could indeed be seen on the morning of the day before the Molad of Tishrei. Such was the case for the Molad of Tishrei 120 CE a time consistent with the life of Rabban Gamliel.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">On Sunday morning September 8 the Old Moon would have been visible until daybreak. That night was the start of the Molad of Tishrei. The actual Crescent New Moon would not be seen until Wed September 11 at 6:12 PM.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">It should be obvious that Chazal was not at all concerned about being Mekudesh of the Moon at the correct time but rather at a consistent time for all Am Yisrael as it shows with its latter statement “Atem, Atem, Atem”.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Could the Gemara give any greater hint to the fact that Rabban Gamliel was using the Molad system than by his statement in Rosh Hashanah Daf 25? </span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">“Rabban Gamliel said to them: Such I have received as a tradition from the house of my fathers: the New Moon* is not seen [until] less than 29 days, 12 hours and 793 halakim [have passed].”</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">*New moon here is the actual sighting and not the conjunction which Is invisible.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Why did Rabban Gamliel note “not less”? The answer can be found in a reference by Azariah De’ Rossi to a book by Rabbi Abraham Bar Hiyya Hanasi, Sefer ha’Ibur, where the latter remarks that according to Ptolemy, the Egyptian sages originally held that there were only 792 halakim.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Now in my opinion since the Mishnah was talking about an impossibility, that of seeing the old moon in the morning and the new moon that night, the circumstances of this case were the following:</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Rabban Gamliel calculated the Molad and announced the Molad perhaps on Shabbat Mevorkim. Now potential witnesses were primed to see the new moon shortly after sunset as the Rambam states: </span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">“The moon becomes hidden and cannot be seen for approximately two days - or [slightly] less or slightly more - every month: approximately one day before its conjunction with the sun at the end of the month, and one day after its conjunction with the sun, [before] it is sighted in the west in the evening”.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">So potential witnesses went out on the evening that starts the day of the Molad seeking to receive the rewards stated in the gemora Rosh Hashanah and not surprisingly claimed to have seen the new moon.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Incidentally they commented that they saw the old moon, in the morning, in the East. Rabban Gamliel chose to ignore that fact receiving much criticism.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></p></body></html>