Samuel
said: I am quite able to make a calendar[30] for the whole of the
Diaspora. Said Abba the father of R. Simlai to Samuel: Does the
Master know [the meaning] of this remark which occurs in [the
Baraitha known as] the secret of the Calendar?[31] ‘If the new moon
is born before midday or after midday’? — He replied: I do not. He
then said to him: Since the Master does not know this, there must
also be other things which the Master does not know. When R. Zera
went up [to Palestine], he sent back word to them [in Babylon]: It
is necessary that there should be [on New Moon] a night and a day of
the new moon.[32] This is what Abba the father of R. Simlai meant:
‘We calculate [according to] the new moon's birth. If it is born
before midday, then certainly it will have been seen shortly before
sunset. If it was not born before midday, certainly it will not have
been seen shortly before sunset’. What is the practical value of
this remark? — R. Ashi said: To [help us in] confuting the
witnesses.[33]
R. Zera said in the name of R. Nahman: The moon is
invisible for twenty-four hours [round about new moon]. For us [in
Babylon] six of these belong to the old moon and eighteen to the
new;[34] for them [in Palestine] six to the new and eighteen to the
old.[35] What is the practical value of this remark? — R. Ashi said:
To confute the witnesses.
The Master has just said: It is necessary that there
should be [on New Moon] a night and a day of the new moon. Whence is
this rule derived? — R. Johanan said: [From the text]. From evening
to evening;[36] Resh Lakish said: [From the text], Until the
twenty-first day of the month in the evening.[37] What practical
difference is there between them? — Abaye said: The difference
between them is only one of exegesis.[38] Raba said: They differ in
regard to [the hours up to]
midnight.[39]
2. The moon resembles a cosmic clock which orbits the
earth on the average of 29 days, 12 hours plus 793 parts of an hour
(29.53059 days). This figure allows for computing in advance all new
moons and their respective holidays.
3. In order to calculate the appearance of any new
moon in advance (especially Tishri and Nisan) it is necessary to
know in addition to the rate of the moon's orbit, the exact moment
at which the cosmic clock went into
operation.
Bereshit (Genesis) 1:14-15 And God said, "Let there be
lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night,
and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, And
let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the
earth." And it was so.
A. According to the position of Rebbi Eliezer (Pirkei
D'Rebbi Eliezer chapter 8, Pesikta Rabati 46, Midrash Vayikra Raba
Parashat Emor chapter 29a) when Adam was created on the sixth day of
creation, that day was the first of Tishri, New Year's day. Days
1,2,3,4, and 5 of Creation took place successively on the 25, 26,
27, 28, and 29th of the month of Elul of the previous hypothetical
year. This entire hypothetical year preceding the first New Year's
day is called Shanat Tohu or Primordial
Year.
New Year's Day, Tishri 1, is called Yom Harat Olam,
the birth-day of the world referring not to the world which was
created on the 25th of Elul but to Adam for whom the world was
created. (Rashi's commentary to Mahtzor
Vitri.)
B. According to the Oral Tradition (Tosafot on Rosh
HaShana 8a, Rabbi Ovadiah ben David on Rambam Sanctification of the
month 6:8) the first New Moon occurred exactly at the end of the
second hour of the sixth morning (12 + 2 hours from sun set at the
end of the fifth day of Creation) when Adam was created. This first
New Moon is called 6/14 (14 full hours into the sixth day) and is
coded in Hebrew as V/YD. (Vav equals 6, Yod-Dalet equals 14). The
Oral Tradition therefore reveals that the verse "they shall be as
signs..." places the first actual New Moon, not on the fourth day
when the luminaries were suspended, but on the sixth day of
Creation, when Adam, for whose use they were made, was
created.
5. Now we know not only the mean-length of the lunar
month but the exact moment when the "cosmic clock" went into
operation (V/YD). We may now ascertain the appearance of any New
Moon is advance by calculating the number of months that have passed
since the first New Moon (V/YD) and multiplying by 29.53059. (For a
discussion of "simple" (12 months) and "plenary" or "pregnant" years
(13 months) which would have to be taken into consideration for such
a calculation see Rambam Sanctification
6:10-13.
6. However, it is critical to bear in mind that the
hypothetical year (Shanat Tohu) that preceded the first actual New
Moon V/YD consisted of only five days (Elul 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29)
and that the present Jewish calendar takes the beginning of Shanat
Tohu as its starting point in order not to omit these 5 days! Our
calculations therefore must make up for the approximately 11 months
24.5 days which are missing if we would start at
V/YD.
7. In order to prevent unnecessary complications of
this sort and enable us to calculate in whole years, the sages
employed a method which is scientifically accepted today as well, of
calculating backwards or extrapolation.
8. Calculating backwards: By means of extrapolation we
can calculate the first hypothetical New Moon which would have
occurred if the World (time) had been created at the beginning of
the year instead of at its end. By simply calculating backwards 12
lunar month cycles of 29 days 12 hours 793 parts from V/YD we arrive
at Molad Tohu, the Primordial New Moon.
9. It is understood that this extrapolation is built
in such a way that from the Molad Tohu a period of exactly 12 months
would bring us forward to the first actual New Moon
V/YD.
10. The advantage of employing the concept of Molad
Tohu (Primordial New Moon) as the starting point for the Jewish
calendar, allows us to work in whole years in the ascertaining of
any New Moon we wish to know. (The missing 11 months 29.5 days of
the first hypothetical year are automatically
included).
11. The calculation: When we subtract 12 times 29 days
793 parts from the 14th hour of the sixth day (V/YD) we obtain the
Primordial New Moon: 2 days 5 hours 204 parts (or 5 hours and 204
parts of an hour into the second day of the first week of the
previous hypothetical year). In Hebrew this number is coded B/H/RD,
2d 5h 204p. (Beit equals 2, hey equals 5, Resh-dalet equals
204).
B/H/R/D is derived from Genesis chapter one. If we
were to list out the first chapter of Bereshit (Genesis) as one
letter after another, with no spaces, we could find the B/H/R/D
encoded at 42 letter increments. This 42 letter increment is based
on the 42 letter name of G-d:
N
h
n
a
v
,
t
n
h
v
k
t
t
r
c
,
h
a
t
r
c
C
u
u
v
,
v
,
h
v
m
r
t
v
u
m
r
t
v
,
t
u
K
t
j
u
r
u
n
u
v
,
h
b
p
k
g
j
a
j
u
u
v
N
t
n
h
u
h
n
v
h
b
p
k
g
,
p
j
r
n
n
h
v
H
u
r
u
t
h
v
h
u
r
u
t
h
v
h
n
h
v
k
t
r
C
h
u
c
u
y
h
f
r
u
t
v
,
t
n
h
v
k
t
t
r
A
j
v
b
h
c
u
r
u
t
v
b
h
c
n
h
v
k
t
k
s
The green shaded cell shows srvc = BHRD at a skip of
forty-two letters, yields the lunar cycle of
29.53059.
The gray shaded cells yields the forty-two letters of
Genesis which are permutable into the forty-two letter
name.
|------------------------ 12
months ---------------------| New Years
Day
Tishri of 2nd Year.
A. V/YD
minus12(29d 12h 793p) =
B. 6d 14h
minus354d
8h 876p) =
C. 6d 14h
minus(50
weeks* + 4d 8h 876p)=
D.6d 13h 1080p)
=
---------------------
2d 8h 876p) = B/H/RD
* Note: Since we are only interested in the day, hour
and parts of an hour, we may conveniently drop whole weeks from the
calculation.
A. Maimonides Laws of Sanctifying the Moon 6:8
The very first conjunction with which you begin,
however, is the conjunction of the first year of Creation, which
occurred in the fifth hour and two hundred and fourth part of an
hour of the night of Monday - in numerals: 2d 5h 204p; and this is
the starting point of the calculations.
B. Rabbi Ovadiah ben David - Commentary on Maimonides
ibid. "2d 5h 204p ( B/H/RD ); and this is the starting point of the
calculation"...
Know that Adam, the first man, was created at the end
of the second hour (beginning of the third hour) of the morning of
the sixth Day of Creation, for the Sages have taught: At the
beginning of the first hour... Now, since five full days plus 14
hours of the sixth day (5 days, 12 hours of night, 2 hours of day)
had passed before Adam's formation, we needed to know (and this is
why Rambam refers to this in this Halachah) retroactively the New
Year's Day (Tishri of the primordial year) from which all the
previous hypothetical months began. That New Year's Day is
B/H/RD
