Past, present, future
First Mitzva ordered to Bnei Yisrael while we were still in Egypt – even before Korban Pesach. (Had to be before Korban Pesach, since there is no Pesach though Rosh Chodesh Nisan.)
Hopefully, no matter how many pieces we review about a Jewish Calendar, we will always find something new to know and/or to ponder.
Warning: The subsequent many paragraphs competence be a bit confusing. Please don’t worry. Keep reading. Or, if we must, skip to p.65 “And here’s a point!”
We’ve usually begun a month of Sh’vat, so let’s use it as an instance (things don’t always work out this way).
Last Shabbat, during Birkat HaChodesh, a molad of Sh’vat was announced.
[For today’s calendar, that is a good compare though it is rather coincidental. The R”Ch of any month is not dynamic by a molad of a month. Only a molad of any Tishrei is used to bound Rosh HaShana according to specific rules.]
Something else we should know. The molad is not a birth of a new moon, it is not a time we can see a small splinter of moon that is manifest during a commencement of a Jewish month. The genuine molad is a present that a Moon is between a Earth and a Sun. The Moon is totally invisible to us during that impulse and for many hours thereafter.
We also should know that a molad we announce – according to a tradition is not a genuine moment. The announced molad is formed on a calculation regulating a AVERAGE time it takes a Moon to cycle by a phases. That duration of time is called a lunation and averages 29d 12h 44m 1p. (1 partial is 3 and a third seconds; 18 tools or chalakim in a minute; 1080p in an hour.)
The molad we announce is called a MOLAD EMTZA’I. The genuine molad is called a MOLAD AMITI, tangible molad or a astronomical molad (a.k.a. New Moon).
A small some-more fact before we get to a point.
Our stream in use calendar uses normal molad and ‘ignores’ a tangible molad, that can be several hours before or after a average. This is a outcome of a laws of heavenly suit (enough pronounced on that here).
When we had a Sanhedrin AND IYH when we will once again have one, afterwards a normal molad is not relevant, though a tangible molad is used. It is used (past and future) to establish when and if a initial prominence of a lunar crescent will be manifest to a exposed eye during early dusk following a 29th day of a month.
In a instance (last Sunday), a tangible molad for Sh’vat 5779 was 3:27am on Sunday, Jan 6th.
A sitting Sanhedrin had/will have a cabinet of judges who were experts in astronomy (or have entrance to a good websites who do a math for them). They would have dynamic that a Moon would not have been manifest on Sunday night. Monday, then, would have been a 30th of Tevet (which we do not have in a bound calendar), and Tuesday (not Monday) would have been Rosh Chodesh Sh’vat.
And here’s a point!
Without a Sanhedrin, with a calculation routine of last a Calendar, Rosh Chodesh Sh’vat 5779 is accurately where HKB”H creatively dictated it to be. With a Sanhedrin, it would have been a day later.
Which routine of creation a calendar does HKB”H prefer?
Not a one that uses a calculations and a normal molads.
And a reason WHY is a whole indicate of this Lead Tidbit. We can contend it with one word. LACHEM! The word that HKB”H used twice in a pasuk that ordered a Calendar. He (so to speak) is anxious and gay to wait until we are means to see a newness of a Moon and are means to announce a day holy as active (junior) partners with G-d in a routine of Sanctifying Time. We are usually temporarily relegated to being pacifist bystanders to a process. Our calendar – by possibly routine – is changed and holy. But a categorical authority was to Moshe and Aharon and a Sanhedrins via a generations. G-d keeps us (so to speak) during arm’s stretch until we consequence a Sanhedrin once more, BIMHEIRA B’YAMEINU AMEN.