Rosh Hashanah 12a (יב.) — the Talmud in English

And because

the people of the generation of the Flood changed

their ways—

the Holy One, blessed be He, altered for them

the

order of Creation.

The Gemara below will explain in what way God altered the order of Creation.

And He raised

the

constellation of Kimah by day. And He removed two stars from Kimah,

and a hole was made in the heavens.

And

through that hole

He brought

the Holy One, blessed be He,

the Flood upon the world.

And we raise a question concerning this:

Granted,

the matter is understandable

according

to the view of

Rabbi Yehoshua,

who holds that the Flood began to descend in Iyar,

that is why it is written “

in the

second month.”

For Iyar is the second month in the counting of the months.

However, according to Rabbi Eliezer,

who holds that the Flood began to descend in Marheshvan, there is a difficulty:

What is the meaning of “second”?

Why is Marheshvan called here “the second month”? Iyar is the second month in the counting of the months!

And we answer:

The second in relation to judgment!

Marheshvan is the second month after Tishrei, in which the Holy One, blessed be He, judged the world and in which He decreed the Flood upon that generation.

We learned in a beraita that according to everyone, the Holy One, blessed be He, altered the order of Creation when He brought the Flood upon the world.

And we raise a question concerning this:

Granted, according to Rabbi Yehoshua—

that is why He altered it,

the Holy One, blessed be He!

During the Flood there was a deviation from the normal order of the world, since in Iyar the constellation of Kimah sets by day, and the Holy One, blessed be He, raised it by day. Furthermore, the springs diminish in Iyar, and the Holy One, blessed be He, made them flow more abundantly.

However, according to Rabbi Eliezer,

there is a difficulty:

What did He alter?

In Marheshvan the constellation of Kimah rises by day, and the springs also become more abundant; therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, had no need to alter the order of Creation for them!

And we answer: According to Rabbi Eliezer, the alteration in the order of Creation was

as Rav Ḥisda taught.

For Rav Ḥisda said: They corrupted through boiling passions—

and they were judged through boiling waters.

And Rav Ḥisda explains his statement:

They corrupted through boiling passions,

the people of the generation of the Flood,

through the transgression

of forbidden sexual relations.

And through

boiling

waters they were judged

for this.

For

here it is written [Genesis 8], concerning the Flood:

“

And the waters subsided.”

And there it is written [Esther 7]:

“

And the king’s anger subsided.”

Ordinarily, anger is boiling, as it is stated [there]: “And his anger burned within him.” This indicates that the waters of the Flood were boiling.

The Sages taught: The Sages of Israel count

the years and months

of the Flood

in accordance with Rabbi Eliezer,

who holds that the Flood began in Marheshvan, because the years of the Creation of the world and the years of the generations are counted from Tishrei.

However, with regard to the time of the Creation of the world, they hold in accordance with Rabbi Yehoshua, who says that the world was created in Nisan.

And

therefore, with regard

to

calculating the time at which the

tekufa

of each of the four seasons begins, they calculate

in accordance with Rabbi Yehoshua.

That is, the sun was suspended in the firmament at the beginning of Wednesday night. The duration of the solar year is 365 complete days plus one-quarter of a day [that is, an additional six hours, which are one-quarter of a twenty-four-hour day].

Accordingly, the tekufa of Nisan always begins at one of the four quarters of the day.

For in the first year, the tekufa of Nisan [the spring tekufa] began at the beginning of the night. In the second year, it began six hours later, at midnight—that is, after 365 complete days and an additional six hours had elapsed from the preceding tekufa of Nisan.

In the third year, it began at the beginning of the day. In the fourth year, the tekufa began in the middle of the day. In the fifth year, it returned to beginning at the beginning of the night.

And

the Sages of the nations of the world count even the Flood in accordance with Rabbi Yehoshua,

for the counting of the years of the generations begins in Nisan. Accordingly, the Flood began to descend in Iyar [which is the second month after Nisan], in the six-hundredth year of Noah’s life.

We learned in the Mishna: On the first of Tishrei is the New Year for years

and for vegetables.

One does not tithe vegetables that were picked before the first of Tishrei from vegetables that were picked after it.

The tanna

taught in the Tosefta: On the first of Tishrei is the New Year for years

and for vegetables, tithes, and vows.

And we raise a question concerning this: The New Year

for vegetables—

what does this mean!?

What is the meaning of a New Year for vegetables? It must necessarily refer to the matter of

the tithe of vegetables.

If so, there is a difficulty: Why did the beraita say: “On the first of Tishrei is the New Year for vegetables and tithes”? “Vegetables”—

is that not tithes?!

is that not tithes?!

And we answer:

The tanna

first taught the tithe of vegetables, which is

rabbinic , separately, thereby teaching us that there is a fixed New Year for vegetables. One does not tithe produce picked before the New Year from produce picked after it.

And

afterward

he taught

the

Torah-mandated tithe

of grain, wine, and oil. For they too have a fixed date that serves as their New Year, such that one does not tithe new produce from old produce.

And we raise an objection:

Let him teach

it would have been appropriate for the tanna to teach the

Torah-mandated tithe first!

For a Torah-mandated tithe is more important than a rabbinic tithe.

And we answer:

Because it was dear to him—

he taught it first.

The rabbinic tithe was dear to the tanna because it contains a novel point ; therefore, he taught it before the Torah-mandated tithe.

And we raise a question concerning this:

But our tanna,

the tanna who taught our Mishna, did not teach “tithes,” but only the tithe of vegetables, which is rabbinic—what is his reason?

And we explain:

He taught

the tithe of vegetables,

which is rabbinic.

He thereby taught us that it has a fixed New Year with regard to new and old produce.

And

it follows automatically

by a fortiori reasoning

that with regard to

Torah-mandated

tithes this law certainly applies.

And we raise an objection to the beraita in the Tosefta:

Why did we learn “tithes” in the plural?

Let him teach “tithe”

in the singular!

And we answer: The tanna intends to say that the first of Tishrei is the New Year with regard to two tithes:

one, the tithe of animals,

and one, the tithe of grain.

And we raise an objection to the Mishna and the Tosefta: Why did we learn “vegetables” in the plural?

Let him teach “vegetable”

in the singular!

And we answer: There are

two types of vegetables;

there are two kinds of vegetables, and there is a difference between them with regard to the laws of tithes:

As we learned

in tractate Maaserot [1:5]: The completion of the work of

a bound vegetable,

which is customarily sold bound in bundles, is

from

the time

when it is bound.

From that point onward, it is forbidden to eat even a casual eating from it as long as it has not been tithed.

And

vegetables

that are not bound,

but are sold loose, may not be eaten casually

from the time one fills the container.

For filling the container is considered “the completion of its work.”

The Sages taught

in the continuation of the aforementioned Tosefta:

How does [the first of Tishrei serve as] the New Year for vegetables?

If one picked vegetables

on

the eve of the New Year before the sun had set

[before sunset],

and then returned and picked

some of the vegetables—