Day #61–Rambam DAILY Sefer HaMitzvos

today is day number 61 of our daily study of ramen seifarimitzwas in the three chapters the day of mishna Torah we are in we only just began those halachas yesterday literally means the laws of the sanctification of the new moon But it includes so much more than that it's really about the entire uh Jewish calendar um so we're going to be studying the this myth there's one biblical myth for that corresponds to these laws so we're going to be studying that repeatedly over the next several days God willing so it's going to give us an opportunity to really go into depth on this one Mitzvah all right let's uh say it again we said it yesterday we'll say it again today positive commandment number 153 the Commandment to keep the calendar to calculate the months and the years and as mentioned yesterday that's based on a verse while still in Egypt actually right before the Redemption right before the Exodus this month meaning the month that it was when that occurred the month of Nissan shall be to you the head of months to you it shall be the first of the months of the year now what is this expression to you plural to y'all I know in English we say you and you could be singular or plural but lochem in the Holy tongue means specifically plural who's this plural okay so the ramam says that the the mitzvah to keep track of and to establish the months and the Jewish calendar is commanded to the based in the high court in the holy city of Jerusalem in other words as opposed to something where every individual keeps track and proclaims the sanctity of the day what would that what would be the example of this yeah right Shabbos Shabbos every individual makes kid-ish when Chavez comes in and says this is Shabbos right um the calendar is up to the group of Judges who convene in the high court and that is how it was done during Biblical times during the first and second second temple era uh and that's why the calendar was very much in flux um there was no preset calendar things were done uh as as they occurred in other words when would the new moon be well Witnesses would us would spot the currents of the tiniest little sliver of the new moon and they would come to the high court and testify what they had seen and then the court would Proclaim today Israelis today is the new month the first day of the new month and that the old month is over by the way remember when we were learning the laws of yamtif and I mentioned that all of those all those Jewish holidays are two days rabbinically and it really explain why that is okay well now it might click for you if the calendar was in flux and we didn't know what date would be well I should I should clarify it's not that we have zero clue what date is will be it's really one of two days because a true lunar month is 29 in a fraction days so it could be a 29 day month or a 30-day month but we don't know what it's going to be until the witnesses come to the um in other words we don't know when witnesses will actually spot the occurrence of the the tiny sliver of the new moon and come to the and come to the court to testify and then the court will proclaim a new month so in uh ancient times communication being what it was in that era it was plausible that the date of a holiday such as circus or pesach would come around and you wouldn't know yet what date it was the the news hadn't reached you yet you live too far from yerushalayim from from the holy city of Jerusalem so you don't know which day was the new moon you know it was one of two days so that's why you kept two days of yamdev and that's the origin of that that's where that comes from although we continue to keep it now even though we know very well what date it is and I'll just briefly mention regarding that um why do we know what date it always is because there's a fixed calendar that goes back to the 4th Century Common Era a sage by the name of Hillel not to be confused with his ancestor Hillel hazakin who was a sage during the second temple period but the Hillel often called Hillel nasia Hillel the Nasi he established a set calendar that we use until this day and so we no longer rely on Witnesses coming to the high court in the high court proclaiming uh on a case-by-case basis when each new month will be now it's all set in advance and you can look up uh the dates of Jewish holidays for many years to come that's how it works now and that's the calendar that's been in operation now for uh close to two millennia okay so there's much more to be said about this fascinating Mitzvah we will continue with more God willing tomorrow