1: Understanding The New Moon/Molad

[Applause] [Music] i'd like to begin with a discussion of the my lud the new moon what it means what happens every month what happened when there was a basal mig-dash in the sanhedrin as is discussed in the gemara rosh hashanah as well as the heisman the calculation that we use today in order to determine the calendar as is well known the moon rotates around the earth when there's a full moon you're actually looking at the sun that's shining on the moon and you look up in the night sky there's no there's no sunlight but you see the sunlight shining on the moon the moon then rotates around the earth and it gets smaller and smaller until it's totally invisible because at a certain point in time it's between the sun and the earth and at that moment it actually ends the light of the previous month and then they are directly aligned and then technically a split second later there's new light from the new moon in reality you can't really see it it takes several hours to actually see that light but in theory it goes from a little light to no light to a little light that moment that split second where it sort of crosses the finish line is known as the milad when there was base amigdas and even after the khurbab shinee until the year were makadish alpi riya which means adam as is discussed extensively in rosh hashanah adam would come at the sighting of the new moon they would come to the basin and the bastion would do trisha kakira with the adam make sure there they saw the moon make sure they're telling the truth at that point when they were satisfied with the testimony of these adam they would then declare the new month makrish makuris makudish in the year 359 of the common era 4119 calculating in the in the hebrew year hilua shaini established a calendar alpi he was makadish all the months up until meshiach and they wanted to mirror what would be if there'd be a sanhedrin if they would have adam that would see the new moon we're trying to replicate what would happen now of course is it possible to be precise because you don't know precise meaning exactly every month to know exactly what would have happened had they been aided but they tried to establish the calendar in a way that would be similar to if there would be a sanhedrin and in doing so the most important number in use was the shasta milad the milad is the moment of the new moon that occurs and that's going to help us determine when rosh hashanah is now one important point of the my lot of this time which we'll speak about in a moment is that it's an average the gemara and all of tells us rosh hashanah um between one myelin and the next is not less than 29 days or max and a half a day ushnei shah and two-thirds of an hour by and gimbal in 73 khalakim so what does that mean 29 and a half days 29 days and 12 hours two thirds of an hour's 40 minutes which comes out to an additional four minutes and one helix three and a third seconds okay look it's equal to three and a third seconds we'll elaborate on that in a moment but what again remember is saying is that between one mile and the next takes 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes and three and a third seconds and this is going to be the basis of the of the heisman of the calendar between one month and the next and one miler to the next is going to be this distance of time now it's important to know that this number of 29 days 12 hours is an average different months will have a different length between one mile and the next in fact the mylar could be even up to 16 hours different than the actual time of the new moon if you look in an almanac you will see the the time of the new moon and you look at it you look at the and you'll see that's different of course the mila time given is the time it is in in in shalom so the might that occurs at one given moment universally it's when the earth the moon and the sun are directly aligned with each other the time when we say the time of the mylab we mean what time is it in yerushalayim and this is the shasta mala and this is the basis of the calendar but again ghazal shows for the heisman an average and this average is again 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes and okay i want to talk a little bit more about the this shasta milan first of all what is a khelik there are 1 080 khalakkum in an hour which means there are 18 khalokem in a minute every month they announced the milan the mylar of the upcoming month every shabbos of arkham so for example this past shabbat savarkam which shabbos pravarkim on wednesday which was also dish it was 12 10 p.m and 12 khalakum the next month when we announce that on shabbos of arkham we're going tonight's the mainland will be on friday at 12 55 a.m and 13 khalakhim note every month it's bumped up by one khelik the my line of teves will be at a certain time in 14 khalakim will be 15 khalakhim other region will be 16 other shannon will be 17 khalakim nissan will be zero khalakkum the might of nissan will be on friday aravish at 4 36 p.m no halachim why are they no the answer is if we move it up a helic every month in other words it's 29 days later 12 hours 44 minutes and one khalik so the next month will be a certain time in two khalakim then three khalikam then four khalakkam when you reach 17 khalakhim the next month is 18 khalakkam 18 khalakkum is a full minute because 18 times three and a third each catholic is three to thirty seconds is equal to sixty so it's 60 seconds so what happens is the myelin column goes back to zero and we add a minute to the to the minute column because we've completed an entire minute so nissan is going to be zero kalakhim and then again we'll have zero caliber minutes 436 and zero caulk in minutes and then we have 5 20 a.m here it'll be 5 20 am one heirlook and so on it's interesting to note that the my line will hit all parts of the hour will hit every part of the helic over the course of 1080 months which is 87 years and either four or five months when they announced the milan of khezman tafsin-samahi 2004 it was actually zero minutes and zero khalakkum the next time that will happen habboli malaysia will be 87 years later it will be in in the year 2092 because again every 87 years the myelin actually goes back to the top of the hour because again it hits every possible moment of the given hour because you're adding and it hits every one of those khalakkam anyway so that's the shasamailad that's there now the mainland is important is is important time because it's going to determine exactly when rosh hashanah is going to be but here we have an understanding of what the milot is and exactly what occurs it's when on average based on the average time you have the sun the moon and the earth that are all aligned now one more question we have to answer and that is if this if the moon is aligned with the sun and the earth and it's in between the sun and the earth and that's why you can't see the moon you're looking at the dark side of the moon actually the moon also rotates on its axis it takes the moon 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes and a helix for the moon to spin around one time a day on the moon is the same as so to speak the time it takes to go around the earth is the same amount of time it spins on its axis so we look always at the other side we're always looking at one side of the moon sometimes it's dark sometimes it's half dark sometimes it's partially lit the other side of the moon is always facing away from us until um they went up into space and they took pictures of the other side of the moon we were never able to see it but even when it was lit up because it was always facing away from us that has no practical nafkamina but the question is if the moon is between the sun and the earth so why isn't it eclipsed why do we why does it block the light of the of the sun the answer is is that we're we're thinking of the myelin two-dimensionally we're thinking of the myeloid as being directly between the earth and the sun in reality it's a little bit higher or a little bit lower and therefore every month when the moon goes around the earth and it's directly between the sun and the earth it's a little it's a little bit out of the way it's a little bit higher or lower but looking at a bird's eye view you see it's directly in between the sun and the and the earth you have the moon in between but it could be a little bit higher or lower every so often the earth actually the moon actually is on the same line as the sun and the earth they're totally and completely aligned and that's when we have a solar eclipse in 2017 four years ago there was a solar eclipse which went from all the way from the west coast to the east coast started oregon made it all the way to the east coast during the course of the day you will notice that that an eclipse always occurs either on rish kaidish or aravers khaidashir maybe two days before reshredish the reason for that is because by definition reshaddish is always going to fall out at the period of time when the moon is between the earth and the sun and that's exactly when an eclipse is going to occur so the eclipse of 2017 was reshredish elo you will note that the the my light that they announced on shabbos right the eclipse was on that was on um was on monday when they announced the milan on shabbos it wasn't the time of the eclipse it was it was much later than the eclipse the answer is as we're explaining the shah samayal is based on the average time it is in your saline it was the average amount of time it takes the moon to go around the earth one time and but it's again the real time whenever you have an average you're not going to get the real time typically you're only going to have you're only going to have an average every so often it will come out on the on the real time but that's why the time of the eclipse was different than the shasta milan but also the eclipse occurred on aeroverse khaidish because again every month the moon is between the earth and the sun it's just higher or lower and by an eclipse which again will have scheduled to occur in the united states visible for the united states on on average nissan 2024 so just in in a few years it's the same thing it occurs around rich heidesh in 1979 i remember there was an eclipse uh in the northwest that wasn't there but there was an eclipse as well that took place i believe was on this other in shalom intestine 1979 it was again those these were total eclipses that occurred so again they're always going to occur around an eclipse of the moon there an eclipse of the moon means this the the light from the sun is shining on the moon that's when you look and you see a full moon at that point in time the moon is on the opposite side of the earth and you're looking at a full moon because it's the angle that we see is the entire side of the moon and therefore you see a full moon but when the earth blocks that moonlight so you have a lunar eclipse the lunar eclipse will always occur either on the 15th the lail the 15th of the month or the lail the 14th of the month or maybe the 13th again for the same reason because the full moon is when the earth is between the moon and the sun usually higher or lower so it doesn't block the light from reaching the moon but every so often it actually blocks the light and therefore you have a lunar eclipse so over we've seen what a my lot is we've seen that it occurs every 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes we understand this is the basis of our calendar as we will explain in the next session and that a solar eclipse will always occur around rich and a lunar eclipse will always occur around the 15th of the month