009b – אין נערכין - פרק שני – ערכין, דף ט ע”ב

On what do they disagree?^[1]

במאי קמיפלגי - Rav Huna, who sets the Mishnah as two rules, holds like Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, that [the added month is] sometimes 29 and sometimes 30. This is how the Mishnah is explained: “One does not make fewer than four full months” – that we do not make more than eight deficient ones; but eight deficient we do make, and this is found only in a leap year whose added month is 30, as Ulla [explained]. “And it did not seem right to make more than eight full” – but eight full ones we do make, in a leap year whose added month is 29, as [explained] above; and this is according to Rabban Shimon. Ulla, however, holds like the Tanna Kamma, that it is always thirty; therefore the Mishnah can be set only as one rule: “It did not seem right to make more than eight deficient” it teaches – but eight we do make, in a leap year whose added month is thirty; but to make full months, even eight full we do not make, for the moon would come two days early; and [the case of] a leap year whose added month is 29 cannot be set as Rav Huna does, for the added month of the year is never less than thirty.^[2]

On the added month of a leap year, as it was taught: How long is the added month of the year? Thirty [days]. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: A month.^[3]

They raised an objection: Atzeres falls only on the day of the waving, and Rosh Hashanah falls only either on the day of the waving or on the light of its ibbur!^[4]

אלא ביום הנף - On the [weekday] on which the 16th of Nisan fell; for on the 16th of Nisan we begin counting fifty, and the fiftieth day falls on the [same] first day of the start of the count, for the 49th day is the end of the seventh week, and on the fiftieth day the week begins.

ואין ר"ה כו' או לאור עיבורו - On the light of the ibbur of Nisan: on the [weekday] on which the 31st of Nisan falls. For example, if Nisan [began] on the first day of the week, its “light of ibbur” is the third day of the week. It is called “the light of its ibbur” because it is the night on which the month is made full; for when Rosh Chodesh is made on the 31st day, the month that passed is full.^[5]

Granted according to Ulla, who holds that we make eight deficient months but do not make [extra] full ones – you can find it:^[6]

both deficient – on the day of the waving;

שניהם חסירין - Kislev and Sivan. Since there are then four deficient months in the winter and four deficient months in the summer, Rosh Hashanah falls on the day of the waving. For nowadays we always make the months of the summer in their regular order, and we have a fixed sign: א"ת ב"ש ג"ר^[7] – Rosh Hashanah falls on [the weekday of] the third day of Pesach, that is, on the light of its ibbur; and when one more month is made deficient, Rosh Hashanah is moved one day earlier, that is, to the day of the waving. But according to Rav Huna, who said that we also make [extra] full months – since we make four full months in the summer, Rosh Hashanah is delayed one day, so that it falls on the day after the light of the ibbur of Nisan, on [the weekday of] the fourth day of Pesach.

one full and one deficient – on the light of its ibbur.

But according to Rav Huna, who said: We do make [extra] full months – sometimes you will find it on the day after the light of its ibbur!^[8]

Rav Huna can say to you: And according to Ulla, is it well?

It is eight [full months] that we do not make; but seven we do make.

הא שבעה עבדינן - Even according to Ulla: the reason we do not make eight full months is that the moon comes two days early;^[9] but seven, where it comes only one day early, we do make. And sometimes we do [not] make it in the winter, and we make the winter months in their regular order, and we move it to the summer and make four full months; and then too it falls on the day after the light of its ibbur.

Seven – sometimes we do not make them in the winter and make them in the summer, and then it falls on the day after the light of its ibbur!^[10]

Rather, whose [view] is this?

אלא - That which it teaches, that it is always on the light of its ibbur and no later – it is Acherim, who do not hold of [extra] full and deficient months, for according to them all the months [all of them] go in their regular order.

It is Acherim, as it was taught: Acherim say: Between Atzeres and Atzeres, and between Rosh Hashanah and Rosh Hashanah, there are only four days alone; and if it was a leap year – five.^[11]

אלא ארבעה ימים - If Rosh Hashanah fell on the first day [of the week], it will come the next year on the fifth day; that is, when all of them go in their regular order.

In the end, according to Acherim you can never find it on the day of the waving!^[12]

ביום הנף לא משכחת לה - For in the regular order it falls on the light of its ibbur.

Rav Mesharshya said: For example, where it was a leap year and the added month was thirty days; take away a month against a month, and so you find it on the day of the waving.^[13]

דל ירחא - Of the summer, and make it deficient, against the month of the ibbur which you made full. Just as we make Shevat and the first Adar both full together, we also make Nisan and Iyar deficient together; for we said: “if it was a leap year – five.” And since the added month is thirty, if we did not make two deficient together there would be six [days] between Rosh Hashanah and Rosh Hashanah; for when you add one full month to the months of the year, Rosh Hashanah is delayed two days. Therefore there are four deficient months in the summer, and it falls on the day of the waving.

Rav Adda bar Ahava said to Rava: Did Acherim come to teach us a count?!^[14]

אחרים מנינא אתא לאשמועינן - In astonishment: since they hold the regular order, it is obvious that there are only four [days] between one and the other. They should rather have said: “we do not make a month full for a need,”^[15] and we would know by ourselves that there are only four between one and the other.

This is what they teach us: that we do not require the mitzvah of sanctifying [the month] by sighting.^[16]

[הא קמשמע לן] - Had they said “we do not make a month full for a need,” I would have said: that applies to a month [whose moon] was seen in its time; but where witnesses did not come on the thirtieth day, you must make it full, because it is a mitzvah to sanctify [the month] on the basis of witnesses.

קמ"ל כו' - For this is what it implies: hold this sign in your hand – four days between one and the other, even if the moon was not seen.

Ravina objected: But there is the “day of hours,” and the “day of thirty years”!^[17]

והאיכא יומא דשעי - That is: granted that Acherim follow the molados of the moon; still, sometimes there are five days between Pesach and Pesach in an ordinary year, for there is “the day of hours”: every three years there is one extra day; for between one molad and the molad of the next year there are four days, eight hours and 876 chalakim;^[18] go three years, eight hours for each year – you find one day.

ויומא דתלתין שנין - For of the 876, take 864 from each 876, and you find a day in thirty years; for there are 1,080 chalakim in an hour; count five [times] 864 – four hours; so for thirty [years], 864 [each] makes twenty-four hours, which is one day.^[19]

Since it does not occur every year, he does not count it.

And Shmuel too holds like Rav Huna, for Shmuel said: A lunar year is not less than three hundred and fifty-two days, and not more than three hundred and fifty-six days.^[20]

ואף שמואל סבר להא דרב הונא - That we also make eight full months.

How so?

Both full – six [i.e. 356];

שניהם מליאים - Both of the deficient ones (two), such as Marcheshvan and Iyar: if you make them full, the year exceeds the regular order by two days, and it is 356.

both deficient – two [i.e. 352];

שניהם חסירין - Two of the full ones, such as Kislev and Sivan: if you make them deficient, the year is short of the regular order by two days, and it is 352, while the regular order is 354. We see that we make eight full months.^[21]

one full and one deficient – four [i.e. 354].

They raised an objection: “I am a nazir like the days of the sun” – he counts a nazirus of three hundred and sixty-five days, as the number of the days of the sun. “Like the days of the moon” – he counts a nazirus of three hundred and fifty-four days, as the number of the days of the moon.^[22]

הריני נזיר כימות החמה - (Or) who said “as the number of the days of the sun” – he counts a nazirus of 365.

And if [Shmuel’s view] is so, sometimes you will find it to be six [i.e. 356]!

In vows, follow the language of people; and [such are] most years.^[23]

And Rebbi too holds like Rav Huna, as it was taught: It happened that Rebbi made nine deficient months, and the new moon was seen in its time,^[24]

ואף רבי סבר לה כרב הונא - Who said that we make eight full months.

ונראה חדש - The moon of Tishrei [was seen] in its time, on the day fixed for Rosh Hashanah.^[25]

and Rebbi was wondering and saying: We made nine deficient months, and the new moon was seen in its time!

והיה רבי תמה - For the moon should have come three days later, since they had moved the fixing three days earlier.^[26]

Rabbi Shimon the son of Rebbi said before him: Perhaps it was a leap year?^[27]

Tosfos

שני חסירים ליום הנף - The 16th of Nisan. “One full and one deficient – on the light of its ibbur”: explanation: the night after its ibbur (דעיבורו), that is, on the 31st day; for the 31st day of Nisan falls on the [weekday] on which the 17th of Nisan falls, which is the third day of Pesach.^[28]

סוף סוף לאחרים ביום הנף לא משכחת לה כו' - For example, where it was a leap year and its added month was thirty; since we made the added month thirty days, we must make one of the full months of the summer deficient; therefore we find [it] on the day of the waving.^[29]

מעשה ועשה רבי ט' חסרים ונראה חדש בזמנו - The molad of Tishrei [was] on the day fixed for the year. “And Rebbi wondered”: how did we make nine deficient months and the new moon was seen in its time? Explanation: Rebbi thought that last year the fixing and the molad were on the seventh day, and he made nine deficient months and the year was fixed on the first day; and therefore he wondered – according to what he thought, that last year the fixing and the molad were on the seventh day, then this year by rights [the moon] would not [appear] until the fourth day, for the moon would be seen only three days after the fixing. His son Rabbi Shimon said before him: Perhaps it was a leap year and the added month was thirty, and last year we made both full; take away three against three and it stands in its place. Explanation: this year, in which we made the nine deficient months, was a leap year. Certainly last year the fixing was on the seventh day; and because we made this year a leap year with an added month of thirty, by rights this year’s fixing should have been six days later than last year’s, and been fixed on the fourth day; and because Rebbi made three [extra] deficient months, the year was fixed on the first day. And last year we made both full, so the molad preceded last year’s fixing by two days, and last year’s molad fell on the third day; and when you add 5 [days], 21 [hours], 589 [chalakim],^[30] the molad now falls on the first day, and therefore it was seen now on the day of the fixing. Seemingly, last year the molad came earlier, from the third day at six hours, for when you add 5 days, 21 hours, 589 chalakim the molad is seen on the [first] day itself. But one must examine: since last year the molad was on the third day, how did he make eight full months (ואי חד) [and delay] the fixing until the fifth day? The molad would then have preceded the fixing by two days! And above we concluded that we make eight full months only when that year is a leap year and it happens such that [the molad] precedes the fixing by only one day. If so, according to his explanation, the situation last year was that the molad was on the third day after eighteen hours, and [the moon] was not seen until the fourth day, so the sighting of the molad preceded the fixing by only one day. But then it is very difficult: when we add 5 days, 21 hours, 589 chalakim to the third day at 18 [hours], this year’s [molad] would be on the second day at 15 hours, while the fixing was on the first day – so how was the month seen in its time? Also according to what was explained above, that [the molad] is not considered “preceding” unless it is before the last eighteen hours of the day – it could be that last year the molad was on the third day at six hours, and for the people of Bavel [the moon] was not seen until the fourth day; still, when you add 5 days, 21 hours, 589 chalakim to the third [day] at six hours, the molad now is on the second day at three hours, and still it is not in its time. Perhaps, then, “the month was seen in its time” is not precise: the day after the fixing is also called “its time,” for a delay of one day of the molad after the fixing is nothing, since people do not notice it; therefore when the molad is on the day after the fixing, it is like the day of the fixing.^[31]

Notes

1. 1. Continues from the previous amud [Arachin 9a]. The Mishnah [Arachin 8b] teaches: one does not make fewer than four full months in a year, and it did not seem right to add more than eight. Rav Huna and Ulla explained it differently; the Gemara now asks what their dispute rests on.
2. 2. Rav Huna reads two rules in the Mishnah: no more than eight deficient months, and no more than eight full ones; eight full months are made only in a leap year whose added month is 29 days, as Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel holds. Ulla reads only the first rule; for him the added month is always 30, and eight full months are never made.
3. 3. The added month (Adar II) of a leap year. A month of the Jewish calendar is either “full” (30 days) or “deficient” (29). For the Tanna Kamma the added month is always thirty days; for Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, the Nasi and father of Rebbi, it is “a month” – sometimes 29, sometimes 30. Rav Huna follows Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel; Ulla follows the Tanna Kamma.
4. 4. The “day of the waving” is the 16th of Nisan, when the Omer is waved. Atzeres (Shavuos) is the fiftieth day from it, so it always falls on the same weekday. “The light of its ibbur” is the next weekday (that of the 17th of Nisan). The following Rosh Hashanah falls on one of these two weekdays.
5. 5. From Nisan to Tishrei, with the months in their regular order (full and deficient alternately), there are 177 days – 25 weeks and two days; so Rosh Hashanah falls on the weekday of the 17th of Nisan, the “light of its ibbur.”
6. 6. The question assumes that for Ulla no full months are added beyond the regular order, and at most one more summer month is made deficient; so Rosh Hashanah falls on the day of the waving or on the light of its ibbur, never later – just as the beraisa says.
7. 7. The calendar sign א"ת ב"ש ג"ר: the first day of Pesach falls on the weekday of Tishah b’Av, the second on that of Shavuos, the third on that of Rosh Hashanah.
8. 8. Rav Huna allows full months beyond the regular order; if the summer has four full months, Rosh Hashanah falls one day after the light of its ibbur – on the weekday of the fourth day of Pesach – against the beraisa.
9. 9. “The moon comes early”: with too many full months, Rosh Chodesh is fixed later than the molad, and the new moon is seen a day or two before Rosh Chodesh; so this is avoided.
10. 10. Rav Huna replies: Ulla too makes seven full months; if the winter months are in regular order and the extra full month falls in the summer, the summer has four full months and Rosh Hashanah falls on the day after the light of its ibbur. So the beraisa is difficult for both.
11. 11. “Acherim” (“others”) is the name given to Rabbi Meir [Horayos 13b]. They hold that the months always go in regular order; a year of 354 days is fifty weeks and four days, so each festival moves four weekdays from year to year, and in a leap year five.
12. 12. With the months always in regular order, Rosh Hashanah always falls on the light of its ibbur and never on the day of the waving; so how can the beraisa of Acherim mention the day of the waving?
13. 13. Rav Mesharshya, a Babylonian Amora, a disciple of Rava. In a leap year whose added month is thirty, a summer month is made deficient against it (Nisan and Iyar both deficient, against Shevat and Adar I both full, as Rashi explains); then Rosh Hashanah falls on the day of the waving.
14. 14. If for Acherim the months always go in regular order, the four-day difference is simple arithmetic; what did they come to teach?
15. 15. “We do not make a month full for a need”: a month is not lengthened to suit some need of the calendar; the months simply alternate full and deficient.
16. 16. The Torah’s mitzvah to sanctify the new month on the testimony of witnesses who saw the new moon. Acherim teach that this is not essential: the calendar follows the reckoning, four days from year to year, even if the moon was not seen.
17. 17. Ravina, one of the last Amoraim. The true lunar year is 354 days, 8 hours and 876 chalakim; the eight hours add up to a whole day every three years (“the day of hours”), and the chalakim to a day every thirty years; in those years the difference is five days, not four.
18. 18. A chelek (plural chalakim) is one 1,080th of an hour, the unit used in reckoning the molad.
19. 19. Five times 864 chalakim is 4,320 chalakim, four hours; so 864 chalakim a year add up in thirty years to twenty-four hours – a whole day.
20. 20. Shmuel, of the first generation of Babylonian Amoraim, was an expert in the calendar: “the paths of the heavens are as clear to me as the streets of Nehardea” [Berachos 58b]. A regular year has 354 days; 356 means two extra full months.
21. 21. In the regular order there are six full months and six deficient (354 days). A year of 356 days has eight full months, so Shmuel shows that eight full months are made, as Rav Huna holds.
22. 22. A nazir vows to keep from wine, from tumah of the dead and from cutting his hair; an unspecified nazirus lasts thirty days. The beraisa appears in Nazir [Nazir 8b]: like the days of the sun – 365 days; like the days of the moon – 354. If a lunar year can be 356 days, why 354?
23. 23. Vows follow what people mean by their words; and people mean by “the days of the moon” 354 days, as in most years; so there is no contradiction to Shmuel.
24. 24. Rebbi is Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, the redactor of the Mishnah, in whose days the beis din still sanctified the months. He made nine deficient months, and still the moon of Tishrei was seen on the day fixed for Rosh Hashanah.
25. 25. The “fixing” is the day the beis din set for Rosh Hashanah, as against the molad, the moment of the new moon.
26. 26. Nine deficient months instead of the regular six bring Rosh Hashanah three days earlier; so the moon should have been seen only three days after the fixing, not in its time.
27. 27. Rabbi Shimon, Rebbi’s son. The answer continues on the next amud [Arachin 10a]: the added month was thirty days, and the year before they had made two extra full months; take away three against three, and the month stands in its place. So eight full months are made, as Rav Huna holds.
28. 28. Tosfos explain as Rashi does: “the light of its ibbur” is the night after Nisan’s thirtieth day – the 31st day from Rosh Chodesh Nisan, which falls on the weekday of the 17th of Nisan, the third day of Pesach.
29. 29. Tosfos explain Rav Mesharshya’s answer: since the added month is thirty days, one of the summer’s full months must be made deficient, and so Rosh Hashanah falls on the day of the waving.
30. 30. 5 days, 21 hours, 589 chalakim is what a leap year runs beyond whole weeks: thirteen lunar months are 383 days, 21 hours and 589 chalakim, i.e. 54 weeks plus 5 days, 21 hours, 589 chalakim. Adding it to last year’s molad gives this year’s.
31. 31. Tosfos find that by the reckoning this year’s molad could not have been on the day of the fixing, and conclude that “in its time” is not exact: a molad on the day after the fixing counts as in its time, since people do not notice a one-day delay.