Parshas Bo: "Happy New Year" - The Secular Calendar in Halacha

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com allow me to be the first to wish you Happy New Year now it's not what you think it is it's not what you think it is because I'm sure you know today is a halik new year you say how is that new year it's and holds that is right so it's actually according to if Mia was here today today would be rash according to B and we would pass like B when mhia comes so I already feel the kadus since when Mia comes today is going to be a you could feel it already the K but all kidding aside um this week's par par told about what is the New Year in terms of months and of course we know what today is in the secular calendar so it's an appropriate time to talk about uh using the secular calendar in okay we take a look in number one said to in the land of Egypt say this month should be for you the beginning of the month it is first for you for the month of the year we all know this is talking about the month of Nissan and Hashem saying about the month of Nissan that this month should be considered the first month of the year says Rashi the third line in number two you cannot take the out of its simple meaning is speaking about the month of Nissan the month of Nissan should be called number one even though the year starts in t we all know when does the year start the year starts in Tish but nevertheless the first month of the year is the month of Nissan you know it's it's a little bit odd it's not what you would have thought if the year starts in Tish which is the seventh month how could Nissan be the first month nevertheless years and months are not related the year begins in Tish the first month of the year is son the second month of the year is the third month of the year is Sian and so forth so today we are now in the 11th month right happy 11th month that has just begun we are now in the 11th month the Raman and this week's Parish learns that this is the very first Mitzvah that the Jewish people were commanded this Mitzvah of counting the month of Nissan as the first month of the year says ran this is the first this is the very first Mitzvah that God gives the Jewish people through mhu and the ran goes on to say that what is so special about the month of Nissan all the Miracles of took place in Nissan it's the month of the year that God demonstrated his control of nature his absolute dominance of the forces of the world it's the month that Hashem took of M the month that even though the constellation of Nissan is the T the idol of the Egyptians nevertheless God shattered whatever meaning these constellations have and he showed he's in complete control of the world so the month of Nissan whenever you think of Nissan you think of all the Miracles of and when you think of as the second month and S on the third month and so forth you're always thinking about the Miracles of Yas so whenever you are in the year when you start this month and somebody asks you what's today and you say today today is the 11th month of the year that causes your mind to think the 11th month from Nissan oh that was the month that God demonstrated his power his control his might and it brings your mind to think about the Redemption from Egypt because at all times the rebish wants us to remember how he took us out of MIM you put on filling you remember took us out you kiss the mza you remember took us out you put on your you make KES on shabas you keep shabas all of these are reminders of so says I want you to do one more thing whenever you count the months make sure Nissan is primary Nissan is the first month of the year ER is the second month Sian is the third Tas is the fourth a is the fifth El is the sixth Tish is the seventh shabat is the 11th there is a 12 so at every single month of the year you're always remembering says the ran the same way we Jews we don't say Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday like the goam say we would never do a disgraceful thing like that to say Sunday Monday Tuesday what what do we say at the end of daving we sayas we don't say Wednesday Today the fourth day from chabas somebody asked you tonight what's today a Jew doesn't say it's Thursday a Jew says today is why so that we remember at all times that God created the world in six days and he rested on chabas the same way we don't say January February March April April we don't say any other delineation of months other then 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 says this is a Mitzvah in the T which Mitzvah the first Mitzvah given to the Jewish people make sure Nissan you count as one ER you count as two and so forth so you'll ask but we don't do that even we we don't count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 we say Nissan Sian T we don't say 1 2 3 4 Cesar Aman you know why because the pusk tells us that after God redeemed us from B from Babylon during the 70 years we were in Exile the PK says that once God redeemed us from Babel we will no longer say God who took us out of Egypt instead the ran quotes of we say God who took us out of Babel so in order always to remember that the Jewish people after they were exiled to Egypt and redeemed from Egypt we were then exiled to B and redeemed from B how are we going to remember that so we no longer just say 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 instead we've adopted the names of the Babylonian months which are really the names of the months that the Persians called it we call it Nissan by the way Nissan they're not Hebrew words by the way T is the name of a Persian God so why do we call it after these names in order to remember that the Jewish people were exiled to B and God took us out of B so even though originally the Torah says you better call it 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 but once we were exiled to B and redeemed from B we never want to forget about that period in Jewish history so we call it Nissan ER Sian thas but to call it January February March it would seem from the ran you're violating a Tah a Prohibition the same way if you don't do Brisa would a Jew ever not give his kid a Brisa would did you ever not eat mat according to ran if you don't use the Hebrew names of the month you are nullifying you are not fulfilling aah the first Mitzvah given to the Jewish people it's getting a little hot in here right so according to ran you're oblig to use the Hebrew name of the Monthan in takes it further not only you obligated to use the Hebrew name of the month in terms of the days of the week you can't call it by its name Sunday Monday Tuesday instead you have to call it in fact look at number four the the ra is commenting on the this is saying you have to remember shabas at all times says ran what does it mean to remember shabas how do you remember shabas on Tuesday how do you remember shabas on Wednesday on Thursday how do you do that says ra because you don't call it Tuesday you don't call it Wednesday you don't call it Thursday what's today what's tomorrow not Tuesday not Wednesday not Thursday say this is aah that's a little that's a little bit of a going to be a problem for us does anybody do that not too many people does any so how do we deal with this so the first thing we have to know is do we pasan like the ran is this really a serious thing maybe this is only the Ran's opinion is this accepted well the in this week's par look at number five he quotes the ran both in this week's par he quotes about the importance of using the Hebrew names of the month and the importance of using the Hebrew names of the days and the ends off the bottom four lines are number five this is an open rebuke that you have to write in your letters write the first day of the week the first month don't you dear right Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and don't you dear right January make sure you WR make sure you write why because you want to show you believe God created the world after all that's a good thing to believe in right we're Jews we're believing Jews we believe God created the world so if you believe God created the world what are you doing saying Monday you say this is the second day since God rested yeah do you believe God took us out of Egypt so what are you saying January for you say today is that today is the 11th month and not heaven forbid use the secular calendar the take a look at number six in his in the year t giml does anybody know what year is T K giml 1862 very good right excellent 1833 how do you figure it out so I'll tell you a little trick whenever you have a Hebrew date you just add the year 1240 to the date and you get the Hebrew date so you have t that's 593 you add 1240 that gets you to 1833 okay so is right writing in 1833 now just bear in mind does anybody know when the lived okay keep this in mind no when when 1862 to 18 um excuse me 1762 to 1839 okay and keep that in mind 1762 to 1839 Sam writes like this he talks about the importance of using the Hebrew days of the week and the Hebrew months and then three lines from the end writing in 1833 says not like the new fangle Jews not like those modern Jews who have come recently that instead of counting the year from when God Almighty created the world they choose to count from the day that the mser was born kind of ridiculous thing is instead of counting when your God created the world you count from you Jew should be ashamed of yourself instead of using the date from when God created the world instead when do you count what year is it oh that mser was born 2014 years ago tonight right so I'm going to start telling you the year based on when the mser was born what happened to Judaism what happened to something called the Tyra no you're oh guy doav with a minion three times a day he won't even look at the base tifas he won't even vote in the church but he asked him what year it is oh let me think the Mamer was born 2014 years ago oh so it's the year 2014 says you should be ashamed of yourself no he doesn't say it's us it's just saying he said you should be embarrassed that instead of invoking your God you're invoking somebody who's resp responsible for the deaths of more Jews than any other cause in the history of the world okay but takes it even further take a look at number seven Ander in his discourses in his Dr for Z of in the year T what year is T K in 570 so you use a little trick 570 and says five four lines from the end right that the end is always the best not like the new fangle Jews now listen to what he has to say about those new fangle Jews mikar who have come recently now by the way who's he referring to reform reform the simplon that they write at the beginning of their documents the date of the birth of the Christian savior so what are these people doing imagine the guy's writing a check so he's signing his name and he's writing on top he's writing and then he attests he's signing that he's not a Jew so here you have a guy he down with a minion three times after Shak he said from a and then he said before and then matter of time he gave Saka before he gave Saka after he said to said the of the the and and then afterwards he went to the Mikvah and then he writes at a check and on the check it says yank Ben bar is writing a $100 to tadaka the only thing is he then signs his name that he's no longer Jewish he's a faithful member of a different religion how is he doing that by writing 114 why is he writing 114 in other words he's saying I don't believe God created the world no I believe in the and I'm not only do I believe in the I'm signing my name I am being made a a testimony that I forsake and abandon the Jewish faith and Hebrew and he's even giving a 100 bucks to attest to it but it doesn't sign in Hebrew in English so what right it's it's a valid signature that's pretty serious to such people they have caused very a lot of evil to themselves they they are disgusted with the Torah so to put it very simply the is not a fan of using the secular dates so then what do you do how do you write a check cash only right cash only I mean what what are we going to do credit card credit card what are you going to do on the credit card they're going to ask you for the expiration date so he gonna say tuat yeah Tu yeah my last card expired 613 so I was good right so that's a big problem so we see this is not only the opinion of the ran in three places is writing very strong terminology now we we treat it very lightly we say oh we just write the date now 11114 111 2014 you have to what does it mean what's what does 2014 mean you are saying that you're considered a why is this dat important because you're saying 2014 years ago a guy was born who a billion people believe is their God but you know you're a Jew no you're you're signing your name over to that Faith big problem I'll take it even further yeah one second take even further the theik he writes about the following question kadish go into the cemetery and lo and behold they see a gravestone and on the gravestone it says here lies yankle Ben barrel and the whole gravestone is written in Hungarian or in a foreign language to write a gravestone in a Jewish cemetery in a foreign language that's against the rules that's every Jewish gravestone in this cemetery is written bles is written in Hebrew and besides every Jewish gravestone it says when the person was born according to the the Jewish calendar and when the person passed away according to the Jewish calendar and then every Jewish gravestone says t n sad B hey what does that stand for let let the soul be bound up in the in the bindings of life and by the way the ancient Jewish gravestones say further say more than that it says that one day this gentleman or woman will get up and stand up and walk again among all the other Jews who have and the question is somehow they got this gravestone into the cemetery it's not written Kesh and it has a secular date and the question they ask is we have two options either we could take it and toss it throw it at remove it from the cemetery or or we could take cement and plaster it over those are the two options says Marik this is a major problem because you have to know who does a cemetery belong to a cemetery is called it belongs to the people who lay there and you cannot do anything without the permission of those who are in charge so whoever put this gravestone there is a robber is a steel is a ghav you can't go against the wishes of and says let me explain something to you what is a gravestone called in Hebrew where is a Mata a Jewish thing it is who is the first person to make a Mata for the Jewish people he makes mat for and what does the word mat mean mat means to stand to stand what's the meaning of that what we're saying is that even though this person has passed away to the next world their soul stands their soul is alive their soul has life in the but it means more than that not only are we saying the soul has life but we're saying there's an element that the body has life because one day the body will get up again and stand erect at the time of the great day of now says on that great day of what do you think the people are going to be speaking Chinese Japanese Italian Russian English of course not there will only be Jewish people and they're not going to be speaking English they're going to be speaking lades there will be no other languages so for you to write a grav Stone in any language other thanes is what we call T it's self-contradictory you're writing a that means you believe in the resurrection if you believe in the resurrection then you have to write Ines because at the time of the Resurrection that will be the only language spoken so if you're writing in another language you know what you're saying about this dead body you're saying he will never get up again so it's an embarrassment to him so says mik take the gravestone and you have to throw it out don't cement it cuz cement in a thousand years will wash away remove it throw it out you're embarrassing the mace says that's only half the problem here's the main problem the main problem is it says on it the secular date to use the secular date is an is what's the says the is you're not allow to mention the god of any of the nations of the world and you can't cause your friend to mention their name you can't cause someone to think about them you can't cause yourself to think about them when you write the secular date when you write the secular date yeah when you write the secular date what are you Conjuring up in the mind of the reader of this mat you have a guy he's walking in you know some people like to visit uh cemeteries and they the guy comes into cemetery and he sees here lies yanel 1750 to 1899 and the guy's thinking wow Yano bar lived 149 years from 1750 18 what happened 1750 years ago oh 1750 good old yel was born good old yel right so what are you causing people to think about the Y right j s u s by the way you know just allowed to say his name allowed to say his name you're allowed to say his name make then you're allowed to say his first name because that was his personal name when he was born by the Brisa the the the rashash said what's the name and the mother said j s s right so that's not it's not a god it's not a Divine name that was his personal name the second name it's user to say you now how to say both names together okay but still it's better not to say it so I'm just going to spell it out when you write the date of the secular calendar you're causing people to think of this individual but you're not going to talk about this individual because there's you can't mention his name and you can cause people to think about him so this Monument this mat has another problem and that is Anyone who reads it is going to violate the iser of thinking about that guy so therefore take the Mata remove it you want maybe you want to make um you want to make a chair out of it no problem you want to play Punch ball out no problem but you can use it as a Jewish gravestone for two problems number one it's not written and number two it has a secular date that's what mik writes Marik concludes that to use a secular date be it on a Mata be it on a document is an so now what do we do do we like the do we like this so you take a look at number 10 and this question was asked to and he was ask the following to write the date according to the years of the Christians is it prohibited to use the secular calendar how careful does one have to be not to use a secular date only are in other words is it actually prohibited to use the secular date how careful does one have to be to avoid using the secular calendar says for sure definitely you have to be very careful to distance yourself to use the calendar to use the secular calendar is an outright prohibition it is a Biblical to use our calendar so you wake up in the morning you think to yourself H what good Mitzvah can I do today I'm going to put on my and I'm going to down with a minion don't forget another Mitzvah you could do somebody says what's today tell them today is so you just and then you say but what day of the week say oh today so when you go to sleep that night and you're making your and you're writing down all your good deeds so you're writing down I put on F today and I learned TI today don't forget to write you didn't use the secular calendar and when someone ask what's today you said and when someone ask you what's what year is today so you know it's important to know just you should memorize that this here is T some people don't even know that you have to know that at all times so now let's see we're going to try to deal with this so how do you write a check how do you write a check what are you going to write exactly on the check you know that that's not going to work too well so you're sanctifying your conversation yeah it's MIT now says the he writes that he got a letter from somebody who claims that as harsh aser spoke out against those who use a secular calendar there's a certain saer that claims theer changed his mind why because and I we're reading now number 10 about 12 lines down because if you look in [Applause] the on page 668 in the he writes that in the year 1,848 something happened of all people said if you write the secular calendar you're signing yourself off as a devout member of a different faith and yet self wrote on page 668 the year 1848 now you're probably thinking 1848 is not alive in the year 1848 so we'll have to deal with that and then if you look in on page theer wrote in a letter to Frederick that in the year 1,828 and theer has uses the secular date in a number of places so apparently the retracted his opinion so you say retracted opinion why would he retract his opinion so this safer makes the claim that you know why theer retracted his opinion because what's the problem with using the secular calendar because when you use a secular calar you're saying that yel was born 2014 years ago no he wasn't because you know what theer the saer claims thought that yo was born the number of years as a secular calendar but then theer learned that actually he wasn't born then he was actually born four years earlier so anyway it has nothing to do with him and as we're going to see there were two y according to and they were approximately 110 years apart and there's a that he live according to the is he may have lived 135 years before the goam say he was even born so anyway we have no idea when he lived and we don't even know who he is if he's goel number one or his thing number two we don't know who he is and we don't know when he lived he could have lived four years before the Common Era he could have lived 135 years so anyway has nothing to do with him soer learned history and he saw that the year one has nothing to do with the Y he retracted his opinion and now the himself is using the secular calendar this is what this C saer maintains and the completely destroys this notion thater retracted number one retracted he wrote in three places the harshest terms against those who use the secular calendar he wrote If you use the secular calendar you're signing yourself away as a devout member of the Christian faith and you're going to tell me the retracted you don't think he would have told us he retracted you don't think he would have let us know he made such a big deal about how terrible it is to use a secular calendar and we're saying because one time he used the date 1848 that he retract he would have told us about it right like the father who is the Indian chief so the father passes away and he has three kids and one day one of the kids say Ruben shim I want you to know last night dad came to me in a dream and he told me I should be the next Indian chief so they say if he wanted you to be the next Indian chief you don't think he would have let us know first if he wants you to be the Indian chief he would have come to us in the dream so to say that retracted it's just it's just number two number two retracted he says if you take a look in the second column in the first line he says heaven forbid to say such a thing heaven forbid to accept such a thing even worse what date do you say theer is referring to look in o on the next page you claim the on page 668 wrote about the date 1848 says I looked through Page 668 and the CER doesn't say he never wrote that you're a liar he fabricated this Oh you mean the footnote on the bottom of the page written by his great grandson-in-law because Samer wasn't alive in the year 1848 so if you're going to claim the is writing about the history of what happened in 184 he died in 1839 he was in the for eight years at least already you know who wrote 1848 his son's son's son-in-law rali who wrote footnotes on theer he's referring to a historical episode that happened when King Frederick tried to expel all the Jews of a and he was unsuccessful because Hashem made the revolution happen immediately so he's writing about historical events and the reason why he picked the secular dat is because everybody knows what year the revolution took place so for him to write the Hebrew date nobody would have any idea what is talking about so first of all theer never wrote the secular date number two it was his great grandson-in-law and he wrote it for historical purposes and he wrote the word Li he wrote this is the date according to the calculation of the G so therefore says the de about this saer and then he takes takes it personal he says the rabbi who wrote the sa by the way I know who wrote the sa I don't like his beard he says I don't like his beard he's trimming his beard like the reform so even though last week we had a whole she about the Rano and R some claim even the but the de he's taking it he's taking this guy the task he's saying first of all you're you're invoking the never wrote it it was his great grandson his great grandson is writing for historic rest and that which you said writes on page sh look that also wrote the the secular date and that's true because on the 60th birthday party of France the king France I believe this is France Joseph theer was invited to speak at the 60th birthday party of France Joseph theer wrot writes that this birthday party the Jewish people what he was good maybe they even had champagne at that birthday party yeah and the writes that birthday party took place on the third day of the 27th day of shat in the year 1828 whoa in the year in the year 1828 writes the year of leat which is T and then he writes by the way you know what date that was that date that secular date is the 12th of February 1828 so listen to what the writes he's at the birthday party of France Joseph so you would expect if anybody was speaking at the birthday party of France Joseph you're not going to say not GNA know what you're talking about but even so you know what the says he gets up to speak at the birthday he says today is and according to the secular calendar it's February 12th by their count so you're going to say uses secular dates oh come on he writes three uh dates Ines he identifies the date three times in first he tells you the Hebrew date of the week then he tells you the Hebrew day of the month then he tells you the Hebrew year and if that's not good enough he says and the g call it this number by their account so says you're going to prove from there retracted he's standing in front of the royal audience he's speaking about the emperor and he uses the Hebrew date three times and even when he invokes the secular date he qualifies it with the statement if anything that shows theer remained Ironclad that you may not use the secular date unless it's pressing circumstance okay I this Rabbi who de says I don't like his beard this Rabbi by the way if you want to take a look exactly what the problem with the beard was you can take a look at the end of he delineates exactly what the issue was but detin says he says I this Rabbi wants to say listen to to this that you know why theer retracted because all the things that theer wrote against using the secular date he wrote in the first volume of J and in the second volume of J he keeps on using the secular date so maybe that shows retracted says this man obviously has no familiarity with the writings of because if you know anything about the was written after because himself writes the dates in he writes that in the year 1833 that if you use the secular date you should be ashamed of yourself and yes he writes the date to France Joseph but that was in 1828 5 years earlier so don't bring a proof on the fact that the date he wrote to France Joseph was in the second volume the second volume was written before the first volume says says the de says the de maybe you'll make the case that maybe there's no problem at all because anyway the yo was not born in the year one of the Common Era by the way what I'm telling you now is not just the Jewish opinion all secular historians acknowledge the fact that year one of the Common Era has absolutely nothing to do with the birth of the Y everybody agrees by the way if you look in the uh New Testament it doesn't really talk at all about the yo until he's already over the Hill which shows that they couldn't care less in the early Christianity they couldn't care less about his birth it's only late now when was he born maybe he was born says the de four years earlier so maybe if anyway has nothing to do with his birth maybe you could use the date so he says like this even though it has nothing to do with his birth why do the goam start counting year one of the Common Era from the fourth year of his life so now they make to claim that even though he was born 4 years earlier but when did he come up with his of this religion when he was 4 years old which is complete nonsense but that's what they claim so maybe you'll say if it has nothing to do with his birth maybe he could use that date so says the de that's even worse cuz then instead of calculating year one by the date of his birth you're calculating us someone ask you what year is it oh 2014 years ago the yel came up with Christianity that's what you're saying so it's even worse so if it has nothing to do with his worse with his birth you're just getting yourself in deeper trouble so therefore says you're not allowed to use a secular date so then what do you do if you have to write a tough Shin a test Shin what do you do if you have to write a test Shin what's that a check so he says first of all this is going to be very interesting do not write the name the number of the month don't write 1114 don't write that you write 114 you're basically saying Hashem in the Tyra says that Nissan is the first month but I hold with my check that January is the first month so don't number the month instead write January instead write January right February right March so some say well going to write um October September these are names of gods so I'll tell you even better don't write January this is what I do I write j a n j a an so you're not even writing the month you're just writing in shorthand so you write January and then says don't write 2014 either write 014 or write 14 write so you're writing it Shand so if you have to in a secular document you're writing a letter to your um the phone company you're writing a letter till electricity come don't write 1114 you write January 1st 14 that's what I do right says I've been doing this my whole life never did a check bounce said I've been writing hundreds of checks and he says I got a check in the mail from a certain excuse me I sent a check to a certain Yeshiva and they sent me a receipt and they said Rabbi Stern thank you for the check that we received on 314 2013 so I wrote to the administrator show your rashash that you're violating the is of counting the uh the the months by the secular calendar so uh the administrator got a little nervous you know so and said he got a letter back from RBA that from now on they're going to write March 13th and they're going to write only the last two digits and that's the opinion of the de how you get around how you get around the problem okay this is a major topic give me a little bit more time but how how do we get around this is there any other way to get around this how do we deal with this issue there is an amazing comment of the unbelievable to us it's going to sound a little bit off the beaten path but you should be aware of it says of Al the r maintains that every Mitzvah in the t is eternal that if God told us to put Onin it will last for all times says Al I disagree not every Mitzvah in the T Torah has to be Eternal this is not I'm saying I'm telling you what was a and and most do not agree with what I'm about to say should be aware of this opinion he says let me give you he gives two examples of mitz and the that were not for all time and I'm going to tell you one right now Mitzvah number one God told Nissan is the first month of the year ER is the second month and you have to count one 2 3 4 five and so forth says Al but look in the ran the ran says that when the Jews went to B they stopped counting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 instead what did they start to do Nissan ER Sian but what happened to the command you have to count Nissan one er2 c 3 says Al the in those times understood that when God told mhu count Nissan one that was a temporary command now this is opening up a Pandora's box but that's what the sa says this is one example where somehow the Nim understood that the Mitzvah the first Mitzvah in the T not he's not denying the fact that it was a Biblical Mitzvah the first Mitzvah in the Torah I'm afraid to say it but we'll see it's quoted by nor the that the writes that the understood this Mitzvah given to was only temporary only so long as they enjoyed being redeemed from MIM as soon as they went back into goth and they were redeemed from B the Nim understood the Mitzvah of numbering Nissan 1 er2 c 3 it was off it was off very dangerous idea right because uh the ramban holds that every MIT the is eternal and the sa agrees with the exception of two but the is saying this is the opinion of the ran because ran says that when they went to Babel they stopped calling it 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 instead they started calling it nanas now according to the say we're good because yes Hashem wanted us for a period of time to call on one er2 c 3 but then when we went to B and we were redeemed all bets are off and now we could call January one and we could do whatever we want it was a temporary Mitzvah the problem is that this is not accepted he say forget p and mostly say that that's not what ran means the ran does not mean to say that when the Jewish people went down to B we no longer considered son one and er2 what they means is the following until we went to B Nissan is one ER is two San is three now when we went down to B Nissan is not just one anymore it's Nissan which is the first month ER is not just two anymore it's ER which is the second month we still continue to consider Nissan 1 er2 San 3 that is how we understand the ran just when we went to B we added specific names to the months aside from the the numbers given to them 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 they're also given n and that is pretty much accepted so to say like the say that the command of is what he calls again these are not my words you want to take a look at the yourself number 11 page 4 he says in the third paragraph it's a very dangerous idea but that's what the man says but is there any other way out of this problem is it really user to write on a again you're writing a check you have no choice so you avoid it by writing the number you don't write the number you write January but is it really user to write on a personal letter 114 so we have a cha here number 15 from the who also disagrees with the he says this was not a temporary prohibition to that you only until we went to B you have to call 1 2 3 4 and after that it's off for all times we have to consider Nissan one er2 and so forth but the points out that if you look in the ramb not in the and thez you look in any of the writings of the rambam does the rambam say anywhere you have to use the Jewish calendar and you can't use the secular calendar nowhere does the r make any mention of this is it BR in the no so it's not in the r there's probably a reason why in the main bodies of this raan is not says his opinion is that since all the of I learned that of the when proclaims the new month right two witnesses see the new moon they go to bezin they testify we saw the new moon bezin says says that Nissan is one is two is three is not a for me and you me and you we could call whatever month we want whatever we want to call it you could call this month this is you know um this is uh Chinese month right and you call whatever you want the Mitzvah is that when bezden proclaims the new moon they have to say this is a Mitzvah designated for the best is not a mitzvah for us it's a Mitzvah that when the bezin proclaims the new month the bezin has to say this is the first month of the year the second but it's not a individual he just concludes with the following question that when we're on shabas this past chabas that since we it is paralleled it is supposed to be emulating it's a to the way the did it then why would we say we should say right in other words if really this is a Mitzvah given to the bezan and what we're doing in SCH by proclaiming the new month is paralleling and mimicking what the bezan did then we should also not just say the the name of the month we should say the number of the month okay but this is the way out of the B we have over here a number 16 the sh gin and the sh gin writes that the worst thing to do if you're going to use a secular calendar do not write the number of the month the number of the month is a major problem so his advice is if you have to write and use a secular calendar make sure you write January and you don't write one writing one is really going in the face flying in the face of the mitah the T says says it's not as bad as they make it out to me it's a translation it's not as bad as they make it out to me why not number one to say that of walking in the ways of the G he says first of all it's very doubtful that yoska yel whatever you want to call him Charlie Brown whatever you want to call him it's very doubtful he was born in the year one in fact if you look in the Jewish history books he was born and he perhaps died 135 years before the so this is hundreds of years before they say he was born even so says writes there were two Y in his footnotes he writes there two of them and he may very well be correct about that but since we don't know exactly when he was born why are we using the secular date you know why we're using the secular date because it's un un Al recognized as a time period that everyone acknowledges why do I say 2014 because in order to communicate with people I have to do business with in order to communicate with other people in the world we have to have a recognized time frame so if anyway it has nothing really to do with when he was born because he probably died at least 100 years before they say he was born it's just a universally recognized agreed upon acknowledged time frame and therefore says if the reason go would be using the date is either because now this is very important to know when do you violate the prohibition of acting like the G because after all G weisen right so you going to say I'm not going to wear clothing cuz G wear clo I'm not going to I'm not going to drive in a car because go driving a car what things are you not allowed to do that go do and what things are you allowed to do so the raama tells us ra you have it on your sheets says very clearly anything do with for no reason you can't do so G you know they're walking down the street they see a black cat so they don't want to continue going a Jew has to go because why don't g go if there's a black hatat cuz it's a Superstition we don't believe in Superstition go do it for no reason we continue to go we walk under ladders we open umbrellas inside the house don't don't let the these superstitions creep into your practice we open up umbrellas you could walk under a ladder with your umbrella when there's a black hat there okay you could do all of them at the same time because why do gam avoid these practices because they're superstitious there's no reason it's a by them oh things do for no reason are probably based on we're not allow to mimic that but if wear socks so they do it for a reason they don't want to get their shoes sweaty G wear a watch why because they want to know what time it is so we could also wear a watch but any or anything do because they're trying to be involved in in uh IM modest type of behavior so you're not allow to copy that but anything go do for a practical reason why do go use the year 2014 it's not because y was born he was long dead by the year right one he's long dead right now why do they use it cuz the whole world acknowledges that's a time frame says you cannot say it iser to use the secular calendar spoke out very harshly against those who use a secular calendar and the mamik spoke out very harshly you have to know the times they were dealing with they were dealing in the the during the Advent of Reform when using the secular calendar meant a lot more than just using the second using the secular calendar meant you were going to go to a Sho where they Ed the organ and the rabbi was more like a priest and a rabbi so then using the secular calendar in that context was not just an isolated deviation it meant more than that but to say says that it's to use the secular calendar you cannot say that in fact says if you want to take a look this is an O on page eight he says in um Mishu you cannot say it's Mish you can't say it's actually prohibited and therefore he says if someone writes a check for you and it says on it 1114 what do you do with the Check Cashes you cash the check don't worry about it don't protest and especially in we are nobody we going to tell a guy what what date you're going to say you know know what you're talking about especially in says where the government where the country they have no idea all they know is a secular calendar then it is permitted for business or any other purposes to use a second account but he says don't write January as one because by writing it as one you're actively going against the Tyra but he says obviously this is when you need you need to use a secular calendar but if you're writing a letter to your friend who's a yid don't write the he says there's no reason to write the secular date right so says to say it's AER to use a secular calendar you can't say that but certainly whenever you're able to use a Jewish State it's always advisable to use a Jewish State and that's how he concludes he says the last words of the bottom line is you cannot say it is to use a second calendar those who are lenient they have what to rely on it's always good to do things in the ideal way whenever you're dealing with Jews whenever you're able to you should always try to use the the Jewish date and it's important for Jews to keep in mind sometimes you get so used to ring the SEC date you don't even know what the Hebrew date is whenever possible a Jew should TR to make it his business to fulfill this Mitzvah of using the Jewish date I found an amazing thing also has something to say about this but this is not found in any of the writings of it's found in a journal of Carlin Stalin in the Carlin Stalin Torah Journal they bring down the of that again if you want to use the do um calendar don't write Jan one two three for the months instead write January February March and by doing that you're good to go according to this is Al also the of fer the what yeah said yeah you could use a second calendar but do not write one two three you should write January February March okay and by doing that you avoid the problem that's in number 19 comes the and the also he has a very interesting twist he says all the whole big deal about using the secular calendar and by the way the the de R does not like this twist he said the only time you're not to use a secular calendar is if you end off by saying this is the way the Christians count in other words one 114 according to the Christian count but if you don't write the words Lan hanum according to the Christian count it's okay as long as you don't say explicitly this is the way their religion counts but if you just write a date says the there's no problem however he says my good pal my good friend r y he wants to say that it's better to write January February March he says I don't like that I don't like that because January is the name of their God February is the name of their God March I feel it's better to write the following 14 according to their count that's what the you could write the number one but you should add this is not the Jewish count this is the secular count and he says even better would be that after you write one 114 you then write the Jewish date also and that takes care of all issues now it would seem that the consensus of PO is it's better not to write one one it's better to write January February that's what most po say says that says that says that fisher says that that's what most po seem to say so can we say that it's Mish well we're not saying it you look at the writings of the you look at the writings of theik and by the way the points out that before 300 years ago nobody ever said boo about using the secular calendar until you come to Hungary he says 300 years ago no pisum anywhere ever spoke out about using the secular calendar in fact says the he brings a whole long list of Pim that cited the secular calendar including Somebody by the name of RA is RA and and therefore he concludes look it's not a coincidence that before 300 years ago in Hungary nobody ever spoke out about it and all of a sudden all the Hungarian from on go to town against you know why because they were fighting the reform movement and for them using the secular calendar was not just an isolated deviation like we said earlier it meant an affiliation and association with the reform but it doesn't matter because they have good points and they have good reasoning why you shouldn't use it by the way I'll tell you one more justification to be able to use a secular calendar this comes from in he says a very interesting uh M to as a leniency to use a secular calendar let's say for just uh theoretical purposes the did not use mons they just used weeks and they would write the first week of the year today is 1141 meaning the first week of the year and in 10 weeks from now they would call a 10114 or 10214 would anybody say you can't use that number system of course you could use it the Torah says Nissan is the first month of the year good I believe Nissan is the first of the year but in the country I live in the go count the time by weeks so I could I could follow that says Rita January February and March are not months so what do you mean what are they then this says months they're not months the secular calendar is a solar calendar there's no such thing as a month in a secular in a solar calendar what's a month a month is a counting of a certain physical phenomenon the amount of time it takes for the moon to revolve around the earth right how long does it take 20 9 and half days but in the solar calendar there's no such thing as a month there is no such month means Moon so what's January January they arbitrarily decided that they're going to be 31 days 30 days has September right 31 days in January right they decided January has 31 days what is it counting nothing it's not a month it's just a recognized unit of time they have nothing better to call it but a but it's not a month just because they call it a month it doesn't make it a month so the same way no one in their right mind would say that if go start counting time by weeks you can't use the weak system in a solar calendar if they start making up months it's not a month it's not a scientific month there's only one concept of month a lunar month there is no such thing as a solar month in a solar year no physical phenomenon happens every 30 or 31 days and therefore for us to use January February and even to call 1 2 3 he said there's no problem at all that perhaps is another leniency but bottom line is if you associate with the uh the world of the and the Hungarian Pim they treat this very seriously and they consider this a major infraction and if you consider yourself on the like the you have to take this very very seriously but can we say that it's us the say there is to use the secular calendar when you need to because as the as points out if evener held it was aish he would not have been allowed to use the secular calendar even for the 60th birthday party of Fran what do you mean Shalom you can't violate a la in the for Shalom malos so if it was really a la would not have used it even with throwing in even with throwing in the Hebrew date so bottom line is whenever possible try to make use of of the uh of the calendar the Jewish calendar today is when you write a letter to your friend you're always better off using the Jewish calendar if you have to write a check according to most instead of writing the number better to write the name of the month better even to write it shorthand better even to Shand the Millennia WR 14 but if necessary the say you can't say it's aish but it is as much as possible to use the secular to to use the Hebrew calendar the Jewish calendar so I wish you and a good and I wish all the you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com