Rosh Hashanah 12a — the Talmud in English

And because they changed

the people of the generation of the Flood

their deeds—

the Holy One, blessed is He, changed for them

the

work of Creation.

And the Gemara below will explain in what way God changed the work 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 is He,

a Flood upon the world.

And we inquire about it:

Granted

the matter is understood

according to

the view of

Rabbi Yehoshua,

who holds that the Flood began to descend in Iyar,

this is why it is written “

in the

second month.”

For Iyar is the second month according to the counting of the months.

But 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 the month of Marheshvan called here “the second month”? After all, Iyar is the second month according to the counting of the months!

And we answer:

Second in relation to judgment!

For the month of Marheshvan is the second after the month of Tishrei, in which the Holy One, blessed is 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 is He, changed the work of Creation when He brought a Flood upon the world.

And we inquire about it:

Granted, according to Rabbi Yehoshua—

this is why He changed

the Holy One, blessed is He!

For in the Flood there was a change from the normal order of the world, since in Iyar the constellation of Kimah sets by day, and the Holy One, blessed is He, raised it by day. Furthermore, the springs diminish in Iyar, and the Holy One, blessed is He, intensified them.

But according to Rabbi Eliezer

there is a difficulty:

What did He change?

After all, in Marheshvan the constellation of Kimah rises by day. The springs, too, become stronger, and the Holy One, blessed is He, did not need to change the work of Creation for them!

And we answer: According to Rabbi Eliezer, the change in the work of Creation was

as in the statement of Rav Hisda.

For Rav Hisda said: With boiling-hot [water] they corrupted—

and with boiling-hot [water] they were judged.

And Rav Hisda explains his words:

With boiling-hot [water] they corrupted

the people of the generation of the Flood

through the sin

of forbidden sexual relations.

And with

water

boiling hot they were judged

for this.

For

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

“

“And the waters subsided.”

And it is written there [in the Scroll of Esther, chapter 7]:

“

“And the king’s wrath subsided.”

And ordinarily wrath is boiling hot, as it is said [there]: “And his wrath burned within him.” And from here [it follows] that the waters of the Flood were boiling hot.

The Sages taught: The Sages of Israel count

the number of the years and months

from the Flood—

like Rabbi Eliezer,

who holds that the Flood began in Marheshvan. For the years of the creation of the world and the years of the generations are counted from Tishrei.

But with regard to the time of the creation of the world, they hold like Rabbi Yehoshua, that the world was created in Nisan.

And

therefore, with regard

to

calculating the time of the beginning of the

“tekufa,”

of each of the four seasons of the year, they calculate

like Rabbi Yehoshua.

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

Therefore, 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 from the preceding Nisan tekufa.

And 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. But in the fifth year it returned and began at the beginning of the night.

And

the Sages of the nations of the world count even the Flood like Rabbi Yehoshua,

for the counting of the years of the generations begins in Nisan. Therefore, the Flood began to descend in Iyar [which is the second month from 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.

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

A tanna taught

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

for vegetables, for tithes, and for vows.

And we inquire about it: The New Year

for vegetables—

what is it?

What is the New Year for vegetables? Surely, it must necessarily refer to the matter of

the tithe of vegetables.

And if so, there is a difficulty: Why did the beraita say: “On the first of Tishrei is the New Year for vegetables and tithes”? After all, “vegetables”

—

is that not tithes?!

And we answer:

The tanna

first taught the tithe of vegetables, which is

rabbinic ,

separately, and informed us that there is a fixed New Year for vegetables. One does not tithe from what was picked before the New Year for what was picked after it.

And

afterward

he taught

the

Torah-mandated

tithe in grain, wine, and oil. For they, too, have a fixed day for the New Year, from which one does not tithe from the new produce for the old.

And we object:

And let him teach

it would have been appropriate for the tanna to teach the tithe

mandated by Torah law first!

For the tithe mandated by Torah law is more important than the rabbinic tithe.

And we answer:

Since it is dear to him—

he placed it first.

The rabbinic tithe is dear to the tanna, because it contains a novel point ; therefore, he placed it first and taught it before the tithe mandated by Torah law.

And we inquire about it:

But our tanna,

the tanna who taught our Mishna, who 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.

And he informed us that it has a fixed New Year with regard to new and old.

And

it is self-evidently understood that

all the more so

with regard to tithes

mandated by Torah law

this law is stated.

And we object to the beraita in the Tosefta:

Why did we learn “tithes” in the plural?

And let him teach “tithe”

in the singular!

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

one is the animal tithe,

and one is the grain tithe.

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

And let him teach “vegetable”

in the singular!

And we answer: There are

two types of vegetable,

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

For we learned

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

a vegetable that is bundled,

which is customarily sold while bundled in bundles, is

from

the time

that it is bundled.

And from then onward it is forbidden to eat from it even a casual eating, so long as it has not been tithed.

And

a vegetable

that is not bundled,

but is sold loose, is forbidden to eat as a casual eating

from the time that he fills the vessel.

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

The Sages taught

in continuation of the aforementioned Tosefta:

How [is it that it is the New Year] for vegetables?

If he picked vegetables

on

the eve of the New Year before the sun had set

[before sunset].

And he returned and picked

from the vegetables—