Forging a New Beginning

This is my article for this year's Tisha b'Av To Go (and an upgraded version of an article I first published here). Comments welcome.

Some twenty-five hundred years ago, on the ninth of Tammuz, the walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Babylonians. Or, perhaps not.

Yirmiyahu placed this Babylonian invasion on the ninth of Tammuz, recording (52:6-7):

בחדש הרביעי בתשעה לחדש ויחזק הרעב בעיר ולא היה לחם לעם הארץ: ותבקע העיר וכל אנשי המלחמה יברחו ויצאו מהעיר לילה דרך שער בין החמתים אשר על גן המלך וכשדים על העיר סביב וילכו דרך הערבה:

In the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, the famine strengthened in the city and there was no bread for the population. And the city was breached and the soldiers fled, and they departed the city via the gate between the walls by the king's garden, with the Chaldeans surrounding the city, and they traveled via the aravah.

This perplexed the sages, for a mishnah (Taanit 4:6) teaches that this invasion took place on the 17th of Tammuz. Rava offered a solution in the Babylonian Talmud (Taanit 28b):

לא קשיא כאן בראשונה כאן בשניה דתניא בראשונה הובקעה העיר בתשעה בתמוז בשניה בשבעה עשר בו

There is no problem; Yirmiyahu spoke regarding the first Beit haMikdash, whereas in the time of the second Beit haMikdash the city was breached on the 17th of Tammuz. A braita corroborates this, saying, "In the first Beit haMikdash the city was breached on the 9th of Tammuz. In the second, on the 17th of Tammuz."

The Tur and Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 549) cited Rava’s view as law, explaining that we fast on the date of the second breach of Jerusalem because the destruction of the second Beit haMikdash is more severe for us.

Notwithstanding Rava’s explanation and its adoption by the Tur and Shulchan Aruch, the Talmud Yerushalmi offers a different justification for the conflicting dates. Addressing both the conflict regarding the 9th or 17th of Tammuz as the date of the breach of Jerusalem, and a second conflict between Yechezkel's statement (26:1-2) that the first Beit haMikdash was destroyed on the 1st of Av and our tradition of commemorating the destruction on the 9th of Av, Rabbi Tanchum bar Chanilai explained (Talmud Yerushalmi Taanit 4:5):

אמר ר' תנחום בר חנילאי קילקול חשבונות יש כאן... בין כמאן דאמר בתשעה לחדש בין כמאן דאמר בשבעה עש' מה ביניהון עשרי' ואחד יום מיו' שהובקעה העיר ועד יום שחרב בית המקדש... מאן דאמר בתשעה לחדש באחד באב חרב הבית מאן דאמר בשבעה עשר בתשעה באב חרב הבית

Rabbi Tanchum bar Chanilai said: I see a corruption of calculations here… Whether taking the view that the walls were breached on the 9th of Tammuz, or taking the view that the walls were breached on the 17th of Tammuz, there were 21 days from the time the city was breached until the Beit haMikdash was destroyed… The one who said the walls were breached on the 9th of Tammuz took the view that the Beit haMikdash was destroyed on the 1st of Av, and the one who said that the walls were breached on the 17th of Tammuz took the view that the Beit haMikdash was destroyed on the 9th of Av.

According to Rabbi Tanchum bar Chanilai, the walls of Jerusalem were breached on the 17th of Tammuz and the destruction of the Beit haMikdash actually took place on the 9th of Av, and the Jews of Bavel remembered that twenty-one days had passed between the invasion of Jerusalem and the fall of the Beit haMikdash. Therefore, when they incorrectly set the destruction of the Beit haMikdash as the 1st of Av, they dated the invasion as having occurred 21 days earlier, on the 9th of Tammuz.

All of the above leads to a simple question, though: Granted that the beleaguered population might have been confused, why did the Sages canonize inaccurate dates? Can it be that these texts, canonized as prophecy, are simply inaccurate?

Chatam Sofer, writing on the Yerushalmi, contended that the confusion was actually the people's misunderstanding of a proactive decision by those prophets to date the churban as the 1st of Av, even though it had occurred on the 9th:

אנשי אותו הדור בבבל לא האמינו זה, ונתיאשו... אנשי בבל שמעו מהנביאים שלהם "ביום א' לחדש שמח צור במפלת ירושלים" והם לא הבינו כי ט' אב נקרא א' בחדש על "כי תם עונך", על כן חשבו כפשוטו כי ביום ר"ח אב נשרף בהמ"ק וחשבו כ"א יום למפרע לבקיעת העיר ויהיה ביום ט' תמוז.

That generation of Babylonians did not believe this [that once the Beit haMikdash was destroyed, there was hope for redemption]. They gave up hope… The Babylonian Jews heard from their prophets, 'On the first of the month, Tyre rejoiced at the fall of Jerusalem,' and they did not understand that the prophets called the 9th of Av 'the first of the month' because of the prediction, 'Now your sin is complete [and the redemption can begin].' They thought it was to be understood literally, that the Beit haMikdash had been burned on the 1st of Av. They calculated 21 days back, and figured that the city had been breached on the 9th of Tammuz.

The destruction of the Beit haMikdash fulfilled Eichah 4:22, “[The punishment for] your sin is concluded.” Once the building was demolished, we entered a new world of consolation and re-birth, and so our leaders dated the destruction as the first day of a new month, and indeed a new era. The nation took this literally, dated the fall of the Beit haMikdash as the 1st of Av, and back-dated the fall of Jerusalem as the 9th of Tammuz.

Chatam Sofer’s suggestion that the Sages would have risked calendar havoc is stunning in its presumption. Judaism views the calendar as sacrosanct, the very purpose of the creation of the celestial spheres; “He created the moon for the sake of the appointed times,” King David sang in Tehillim 104, building on Bereishit 1:14. We set our halachic lives by our days and months. Our first national mitzvah was the system of calculating the lunar month. And yet, Yirmiyahu and Yechezkel felt comfortable feigning re-setting the clock, in clear defiance of the physical moon and the halachically infallible justices of the beit din, for the sake of making a philosophical statement about the new era we had entered!

This bold approach should highlight for us the importance of launching new beginnings immediately after catastrophe. The sky is still filled with soot and ash, parades of chained Jews shamble out of Jerusalem, looters are stuffing elegant gold and silver into sacks – and the prophets have the hope-filled hubris to declare, "Today is the first day of the rest of your national life." This must serve as a guide and inspiration for us; if it is always darkest before the dawn, then the moment after our darkest despair is always the start of our new day.

This point is underscored by the arrangement of our own Tishah b’Av–centered mourning. Whereas normal mourning following a personal loss consists of consecutive, easing levels of grief, our mourning for the Beit haMikdash consists of intensifying levels, building up to Tishah b'Av. Then, immediately after the Tenth of Av’s special commemorations end, the mourning ceases entirely and we being building anew. As the Chatam Sofer put it, “It is the first of a new month, Menachem.” This is a day deserving of the title, “Day One.”

May the value of our mourning up through Tishah b'Av, and our efforts at consolation in the new era born thereafter, merit the immediate rebuilding of our Beit haMikdash.

Daf: Sotah 12-14

Sorry to take so long before posting another installment. There is so much to say on these pages, and so little time to type it up. As always, you'll really need a gemara in front of you to see what I am discussing.

12a
See Tosafot Acheirim

Tosafot cheimar suggests that Moshe's boat was camoflagued in the reeds because the tar and pitch linings were on the inside. This is interesting, b/c it magnifies the miracle that Bat Paroh saw the boat at all!

12b
How can Moshe say that the Jewish babies were saved because he was cast into the water – the whole decree to throw the kids in the water was because of him! See Tosafot and Maharsha, who both address the issue.

The question of “How could Moshe get hurt on the water if he will sing to Gd on the water one day” is odd; what is the connection? Especially as this may not be yam suf! (It is reminiscent of a gemara in Taanit, though, regarding a ditch-digger whose daughter fell in a ditch and was protected by his merit.)

How could you have had a 'leap month' in those days? They haven't even learned HaChodesh haZeh Lachem! Reminiscent of Seder Olam that the sod haibbur was passed down from Adam and Chavah.

The issue of nursing from an eater of treif is interesting - see Rav Schachter's noteworthy comment in this issue, cited in my post here.

13a
The gemara here, per Rashi on the 36 crowns, assumes that the two Korachs mentioned in the lineage of Esav in Bereishit 36 are different people – but see Rashi to Bereishit 36:5, where he says that they are the same person.

Did the children of Keturah come for Yaakov’s funeral? Rashi does not think so, but Tosafot Shantz does.

See the Maharsha on the mourning of the horses and donkeys (which, of course, is reminiscent of the city of Nineveh).

I have difficulty understanding why the Gemara here seems to criticize the Jews for being involved in taking the spoils of Egypt, when Berachot 9a, based on דבר נא in Shmot 11, indicates that HaShem had to plead with them to take spoils! (Unless the plea is from before the actual departure, and then they “got into it” afterward, while Moshe was getting Yosef’s body?)

13b
Note that the line קיים זה כל מה שכתוב בזה is the source for burying a Torah scroll with a righteous person.

Interesting transition in the line about Yosef being returned to Shechem. Yosef is “stolen” from Shechem, and returned to Shechem as a “lost object” – removing the human agency and blame from the picture. And is he Yaakov’s lost object?

Of course, the Torah seems to indicate that Yosef was removed from Dotan, not Shechem, but see Rashi here.

The gemara here seems to pin the death of Er and Onan on Yehudah, instead of on their own famous sins. Perhaps it’s that Yehudah’s problem made them vulnerable to punishment?

Interesting: Yaakov’s degradation comes from others (who call him Yosef’s servant), but Yosef’s degradation, which is a punishment of sorts for him, comes from himself (when he calls himself ‘bones’). Recall the gemara in Taanit regarding placing ash on the heads of the sages on a public fast – degradation is worse when it comes from others.

Note that although Moshe dies at 120, that is not a source for saying that 120 is a maximum on people’s lives. I hope to post on this issue soon, but for now see Tosafot Bava Batra 113a ומטו.

14a
Rashi renders גסטרא here as a ruler, but note the usual translation of a split or broken receptacle.

Regarding the Bach’s note א, recall that there is a midrash in which Moshe does attempt to bring the Jews back to Israel after their exile.

We see here the idea of a grave being a significant place for prayer.

Here our patriarchs are called עצומים, mighty ones; this is parallel to the term איתנים used for them in the gemara toward the beginning of Rosh HaShanah on ירח האיתנים.

Tosafot כדי on “דורשין טעמא דקרא” makes the important distinction between analyzing the deeper meaning of pesukim for ethical lessons and analyzing the deeper meaning of pesukim for lessons which may affect the way we fulfill a mitzvah. See also Hirsch’s introduction to Horeb.

14b
Regarding the “face of the altar” see Tosafot Shantz as well as Rashi Zevachim 62a.

Birkat haChamah/Blessing the Sun 2009, Erev Pesach, and Bad Astronomy, Part I

[Part 2 is here, Part 3 is here.]

If you thought this year’s Erev Pesach was unusual, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Next year we have, of all things, Birkas haChamah on Erev Pesach - Wednesday April 8, 2009.

Yes, you heard me right - we will be reciting a once-in-28-years blessing, and it will fall out on Erev Pesach, of all days. In the morning, specifically. Right after the siyyum for the firstborn. While we’re trying to get rid of all of our chametz, and prepare Pesach food. And the Seder. And a 3-day Yom Tov.

I have to think that we’re going to organize a communal celebration for Birkas haChamah - how could you not do that, for something that comes up less than 4 times per century? So it’s going to be a huge, massively fun, mess.

And, of course, it likely will rain (or snow?) just to wreck Birkas haChamah, put out the Chametz fire, and make life in general more chaotic.

And do you want to hear the funniest part? Birkas haChamah, according to some very big halachic names of the past few centuries, is observed on the wrong day.

Don't hang me for a heretic; let's look at the sources:

Talmud Bavli, Berachos 59b:
The sages taught: One who sees the Sun בתקופתה, the Moon in its strength and the stars in their paths and the constellations in their order says “Blessed is the Creator of Bereishit.”

Which is followed by Abayye’s explanation:
When is this? Abbaye said: Every twenty-eight years, when the machzor returns and the tekufah of Nisan occurs in Saturn, on the night after the third day, the beginning of the fourth.
In other words: The sun, as seen from Earth, is said to pass through various Houses in the heavens. When we see the Sun return to the beginning of the House in which it was created - a point in space we calculate based on our calendar calculations - then we recite this berachah.

Note: The Yerushalmi (Berachos 9:2) cites the view of R’ Chuna who disagrees in explaining what this blessing is all about: Rabbi Chuna said: This is only in the rainy season, after three days. (See Chasam Sofer Orach Chaim 56 who explains why seeing the sun after 3 non-sunny days would rank a blessing on “The deeds of Creation.” Or just figure it out yourself; it’s logical enough.) As the Beit Efrayim (Orach Chaim 7) noted, this is probably a debate about reading the word בתקופתה or בתוקפתה, the former meaning “at its circuit” and the latter meaning “in its strength.”

In any case, Rambam (Hilchos Berachos 10:18) and Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 229:2) agree with the Bavli view of Abayye, that this is a berachah recited once every 28 years, when the sun reaches the start of its circuit again.

And so everyone (except some odd Italian communities noted by the Chida (Tuv Ayin 18:58), and except for the Raavad (cited in Minchas Yitzchak 8:15), who said it for his community in order to avoid berachos in vain if we are doing it improperly) goes out to recite a berachah upon seeing the Sun next Erev Pesach, and wish it a happy birthday as it starts its new circuit of the heavenly Houses.

Well, almost.

As the Masat Binyamin (101), Chasam Sofer (Chasam Sofer Orach Chaim 56), Rav Meshulam Roth (Kol Mevaser 2:51) and many others pointed out many, many years back: If we know anything at all, it’s that our 28-year calculation is wrong.

1) We have two different traditions for how to measure the sun’s circuit, one credited to Shemuel and the other to Rav Ada. Shemuel’s, which is based on a 365.25-day solar year, gives us a 28-year cycle; Rav Ada’s, somewhat more accurate in its estimation of the solar year, gives us a 19-year cycle. (For more on their calculations, click here.)We follow Rav Ada for most halachos - so why are we following Shemuel for this one?

2) According to many authorities, as well as our liturgy, we follow the Tannaitic view that the world was created in Tishrei, not Nisan. Therefore, this event should be in Tishrei!

3) We are quite well aware that although the sages’ calculations are sufficiently accurate for most halachic purposes, they are not quite precise - and so we shouldn’t be using this day at all!

Various authorities present fascinating answers for the first two problems, but the third is pretty intractable. The Chasam Sofer concluded that the numbers are wrong, but leaves it as צריך עיון גדול and recited the berachah anyway.

Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank (Har Tzvi ibid) had a very interesting approach. He accepted that these are problems, but argued (based on a very interesting responsum of the Rashba regarding Shehechiyanu at the birth of a baby) that the whole berachah is optional. If I understood him correctly, he was saying that we can recite the berachah when we recognize the beauty of Bereishis, even if that’s not the precise moment in time described in the gemara.

I plan on a Birkas haChamah Part II post (now available here!), and perhaps a Part III, to discuss how/when Birkas haChamah is said, and whether we should have mass gatherings for it or avoid having such gatherings, and more, but I think this should suffice for now.

[Note: You may find considerable good material on this mitzvah here.]

Daf: Nazir 5a-10b

Get a gemara, or this will likely be unintelligible…

5a
We are consistently taught that a Gezeirah Shavah (or pleonasm, as Rabbi J. David Bleich translates it) is a received tradition, such that logic is ineffective in analyzing it. This is a message reiterated all through the gemara. Nonetheless, the middle passage on this page – היכא דאיכא דדמי לה etc – certainly sounds like there is logic at work here!

The gemara seems to counsel shaving on Friday afternoon, which is problematic given the gemara elsewhere warning not to shave on Friday afternoon! See the Aruch haShulchan Orach Chaim 251:3, who has everyone from Rif and Rambam to Arizal and GRA.
Perhaps in this case one has davened earlier. Alternatively, see the Rosh here, who may be solving precisely this problem with his "לאו דוקא פניא" statement.

It is rare that we use Gematria for halachah, but for another example see Rashi on אך-חלק in the beginning of Pesachim.
See also the Rosh here, who seems to be disturbed by the use of Gematria for halachah, such that he decides it’s only an asmachta.

6b
The Rosh decides that Rav Masna has been defeated.

8a
I cannot understand why everyone insists that ימות הלבנה refers to a lunar year. There is no such thing, astronomically or halachically, as a lunar year; the gemara in Rosh HaShanah is explicit on this point; our “lunar year” is simply a collection of twelve lunar months.

8b
A “digon” house seems to be brought up simply for the sake of fitting in with the trigon and tetragon house.
For those who don’t have a gemara in front of them – trigon is a triangle, a shape with three angles. You can have a house with three angles between its walls. Ditto for tetragon/square/four angles. But there is no such thing as a house – or any shape – with only two angles.
The only possibility I can imagine is one put forth at our Daf shiur, of a house with two canoe-shaped walls – but I don’t think this is what the gemara means.

10a
See the Rosh on the cow here being the korban of a nazir.

10b
The word תורף is interesting here.
Rosh takes it like מקום התורף to refer to that which is revealed, or which reveals. Tosafos seems to do the same.
To me, another possibility is that this is like תורף הגט in Gittin – the term תורף is used to refer to the essence of a legal document, the part with the actual names and contract-specific information, as opposed to the טופס which is the boilerplate language.
That would fit with the use here very nicely; the תורף is the essence.

Class: The Making of the Jewish Calendar

This coming Sunday evening, at 7 PM, we'll be looking at the Making of the Jewish Calendar, and specifically the question of what it was that Hillel II enacted in the year 359. The class is part History, part Calendar, and should be fascinating; preparing for this has made me a big fan of the work of Prof. Rachamim Sar-Shalom.

Here is a rough outline, as well as the source sheet I expect to distribute:

The Making of the Jewish Calendar

What were the original rules of the calendar?
Roots of the calendar - Creation through Egypt

The witness system
Witnesses
Interrogation
Mistaken courts
A response to Sadducees?

Who set the calendar?
Small groups
Secretive
Hoshana Rabbah announcement

What are the 5 rules of today’s calculated calendar?
Leap years
Length of years
Length of months
Molad
Rosh haShanah gets pushed off in four situations

When was calculation instituted?
Evidence
Cairo Genizah
Muhammad ibn Musa Al Khawarazmi (early 9th century)
Exilarch’s letter of 836

Hillel’s timeline and influences
325 - Council of Nicea
352 - Rava dies
359 - Hillel makes his enactment
Rav Hai Gaon’s testimony

But what, exactly, did Hillel institute?
A system with many rules, until 840
What Hillel has
Rosh haShanah can’t be Sunday - 7th century
3-6-8-11-14-17-19 is mid-8th century
Al Khawarazmi's 3-5-8-11-14-16-19, and how it may be matched to our 3-6-8-11-14-17-19 based on the three different "Year 1" counts
Full calculation of moladot

Evidence for Sar-Shalom’s theory
Al Khawarazmi’s 825 article is missing the initial molad point
Langerman's challenge, and Sar-Shalom's reply
The Exilarch’s letter
Rav Saadia Gaon vs Ben Meir

Sar-Shalom’s theory also explains the 642 chalakim in the battle of RSG and Ben Meir

Levinger’s challenge and Sar Shalom's reply

The lunation problem

Sources1. Bereishit 1:14
And Gd said: There will be luminaries in the heavenly sky, to distinguish between day and night and to serve for signs, appointed times, days and years.

2. Bereishit 7:11, 8:14
In the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on this day all of the springs of the great depths broke open, and the heavenly stores opened…
And in the second month, on the 27th day of the month, the ground dried.

3. Midrash, Pirkei d’R’ Eliezer, Chapter 7
On the 28th of Elul the sun and moon were created. The counts of years and months and days and nights and times and seasons and machzorot and intercalantions were before Gd, and He intercalated the year, and then passed these to Adam in the Garden of Eden, as it is written…

4. Talmud, Rosh haShanah 25a
The verse states three times (Vayyikra 23:2, 4, 37), “You shall call.” It is you - even in error. It is you - even intentionally. It is you - even if fooled.

5. Divrei haYamim I 12:33
And from the children of Yissachar were those who knew wisdom for the times, to know what Israel will do…

6. Talmud, Ketuvot 111a
Gd made them swear that they would not reveal the secret to idolaters.
Rashi: This is the secret of the ibbur or the secret of the explanations of Torah (or trop?).

7. Midrash, Shmot Rabbah 15:20
Intercalation of the year is done with ten elders… and so was done in the days of Solomon, when Solomon intercalated the calendar he brought in seven elders, as it is written…

Class: Isla-Jews, Gaonim, Karaites and Ben Meir

Below is the outline I expect to present at Sunday morning’s Women’s Class on “Isla-Jews, Gaonim, Karaites and Ben Meir.” We’ll be looking at the Calendar Controversy of 1100 years ago, in which two different groups of Jews actually celebrated competing dates for Pesach and Rosh haShanah.

The basic question I hope to address is why the Gaonim and Rabbeinu Saadya (who was not yet a Gaon) crushed Ben Meir and didn’t address the issue of his specific change to the calendar.
My answer is that this event fits into a period of dysfunctional schism within Jewish history, coming after “Isla-Jewish” sects who hybridized Judaism and Islam, and the Karaites. His claim also smacked of Karaism, as he challenged rabbinic adjustment of the calendar and contested a basic masorah. Therefore, aside from the whole issue of Babylonian/Israeli authority, the Gaonim and Rabbeinu Saadya were compelled to oppose Ben Meir flat.

For some interesting theories on why Ben Meir picked the calendar change that he did, see Henry Malter as well as an article by R’ Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer and R’ Ari Z. Zivotofsky.

Isla-Jews, Gaonim, Karaites and Ben Meir

torczyner@gmail.com - http://rechovot.blogspot.com/

Introduction
Ben Meir, in a nutshell

Major questions
Why does Ben Meir never present anything to justify his 942 chalakim?
Why is the response to Ben Meir so harsh?

My central thesis
Israel vs. Babylon?
Isla-Jew/Karaite aftershocks

The schisms of the 7th-9th centuries
Economic unrest (taxation)
Stratified population
Intellectual commotion from clashes of empires
Religious unrest from charismatic leaders

The Gaonic/Exilarch system


Influence of Islam
Growth of Islam

Jews undergo change in status

Isla-Jewish sects, such as Isunians and Yudganites


The Gaonic/Exilarch system
Exilarch

Gaon

Political tension between the two

A new Gaonate in Israel?
Origins – two views

Karaite Differences
Islamic influence

Biblical interpretation
Human role in determining law
Jewish practices with Muslim parallels, like washing and bowing
Reincarnation and mysticism

Limited rabbinic authority

Chanukah and Purim
Calendar
Oral traditions

Post-Anan


The Great Calendar Rift of the 920s
History of the Calendar
Observation
Israeli courts
The fixing of the calendar

The rise of Aharon ben Meir
The decline of Sura and Pumbedita
The rise of Aharon ben Meir

Ben Meir takes on the calendar
Summer of 921 – rumors begin
Rav Saadia Gaon’s letters
The official Ben Meir proclamation


What was Ben Meir’s issue?
Basic calendar rules

Rosh HaShanah – לא אד"ו ראש, לא בד"ו פסח
If Molad is after midday, Rosh Chodesh must be postponed
The halachic hour contains 1080 chalakim

The year 923

Anticipating Rosh HaShanah in 923; 642 chalakim
Why 642?

Noon in Bavel is 56 minutes earlier than in Yerushalayim?
Reducing the number of postponements
A masorah
Israel vs Bavel

The resulting conflict
Official letters to Ben Meir and the Jewish community
Ben Meir counters aggressively
Pesach 923
More warning letters
The fights spread

The end
Rosh HaShanah 923/4683
Going to the government?
Sefer haZikkaron
Rav Saadia Gaon’s book puts an end to it

Summary
Many sources of strife

Historical context
Calendar manipulation
The masorah of the gemara
The authority of the Gaonim

Ben Meir is crushed