Day #63–Rambam DAILY Sefer HaMitzvos

but Hashem it is day number 63 of our daily study of rambamsfas and in the three chapters today of mishna Taylor We are continuing the laws of sanctification of the new moon specifically chapters 9 10 and 11. and that means we have the same Mitzvah again that we've had for the past few days which is positive commandment 153 the Mitzvah that is given to the high court to establish the new moon as well as to decide when there should be a leap year we have spoken about this for the past few days so I won't repeat information that I have already conveyed what I will tell you is that in the three chapters a day of mishna Torah we are entering now into chapters which are fairly complex and require an understanding of both mathematics and astronomy what's happening in the three chapters the day of missionary is that that I'm now after having explained the generalities of how the Jewish calendar works it tells you how to do the calculations that will determine when the new moon will appear not that you should do these calculations so that you can establish the new month because we've already said that this is not a Mitzvah that's given to an individual this is a Mitzvah that's given to the high court and in our day we are relying on the calendar that was established by Hillel hanasi who was a leader in the Holy Land in the high court of his time who had the authority to establish new months and he did so for all time so the purpose of learning these calculations is not that we should start establishing when Rush is on our own but rather so that we can know the process that Hillel hanasi's Court used to determine the calendar so what happens now is that educates us on the orbits and their cycles and how to predict with a fair bit of accuracy at least more accurate than makes any practical difference when the new moon will actually appear so that's what we're studying now and we'll talk a little bit more about this Mitzvah God willing tomorrow