Rosh Hashanah 21a — the Talmud in English

And we answer: Since the order of the months is one full and one deficient [since approximately every 29 and a half days the moon renews itself, and over 59 days two months pass], Tammuz is therefore a deficient month. And if they also made Av deficient, it follows that there were two deficient months, one after the other.

And

two deficient months -

have publicity.

When two months are deficient one after the other, this is an unusual matter, and there is publicity about it; and the publicity arrives before Tishrei even in a place to which the messengers of the court [who went out in Elul] do not arrive.

[And likewise with regard to Passover: Tevet is deficient according to the order of the months. And if Tevet and Shevat were made deficient one after the other, the publicity arrives even in distant places, before Passover].

And now the Gemara brings here several incidents connected with intercalating the month and intercalating the year:

Levi happened to come to Babylonia on the eleventh of Tishrei.

Levi happened to come to Babylonia on the eleventh of Tishrei according to the reckoning of the people of Babylonia.

He said: The Babylonian dish is tasty -

on the great day of the West!

The Babylonian dish is tasty on the Day of Atonement fast in the Land of Israel.

That is, in Babylonia they reckoned Elul as a deficient month, according to the order of the months. But in the Land of Israel they intercalated Elul that year. It follows that the Day of Atonement fell on the eleventh of Tishrei according to the reckoning of the people of Babylonia.

They said to him: Testify!

Come and testify before the court that they intercalated Elul, and we will rely on your words.

He said to them: I did not hear from the mouth of the court

that they said on the day of intercalation [the thirty-first day]

“Sanctified.”

And below [page b] we learned that the messengers do not go out to the Diaspora to testify about the intercalation of the month until they hear from the court that they sanctified it, even though they know that they did not sanctify it on the thirtieth day, and they will necessarily sanctify it on the day of intercalation.

Rabbi Yohanan announces: Wherever the messengers of Nisan arrive and the messengers of Tishrei do not arrive,

every place in the Diaspora to which the messengers of Nisan arrive before Passover, but to which the messengers of Tishrei do not manage to arrive before Sukkot. This is because the messengers would travel only on weekdays, and not on Shabbatot and festivals; and in Tishrei the messengers cannot travel on Rosh Hashanah and on the Day of Atonement.

Then,

let them observe two days.

They should observe two festival days even on Passover, although the messengers arrived and informed them, because they issued

a decree

concerning

Nisan -

on account of Tishrei.

For if they observe only one day in Nisan, according to the testimony of the messengers, they will come to observe only one day also on Sukkot, according to the reckoning, without the testimony of the messengers, and there is concern lest they err in their calculation.

Rabbi Aivu bar Nagri and Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba,

the disciples of Rabbi Yohanan,

happened to come to a certain place to which the messengers of Nisan arrived.

They happened to come to a place to which the messengers of Nisan arrive,

but they do not arrive

to it

the messengers of Tishrei.

And they observed one day,

and the people of the place observed only one day, according to the testimony of the messengers,

and they did not say anything at all to them.

And they did not protest to them.

Rabbi Yohanan heard,

their teacher,

and became angry.

He said to them:

Is it not that

I said to you,

is it not that I said to you,

wherever they arrive

where

the messengers of Nisan arrive, but they do not arrive

and the

messengers of Tishrei do not arrive, let them observe two days, a decree concerning Nisan on account of Tishrei?!

And now the Gemara explains how they observed the Day of Atonement in the Diaspora:

Although the messengers did not arrive in Babylonia before the Day of Atonement, they fasted there only one day.

Whereas

Rava

was strict with himself, and

was accustomed to sit in a fast for two days.

He would fast for two days, lest they had intercalated Elul.

Once it was found to be according to him,

and once it turned out that the Day of Atonement indeed fell on the second day, on which Rava fasted, since they had intercalated the month.

Rav Nahman

was accustomed to fast only one day.

Once

he sat in a fast for the entire day of Atonement,

he fasted for the entire Day of Atonement.

Toward evening,

toward evening, approaching the conclusion of the Day of Atonement,

a certain man came,

a certain man came, and

said to him

to Rav Nahman:

Tomorrow -

the great day is in the West!

Tomorrow the Day of Atonement falls in the Land of Israel, because the court intercalated the month of Elul.

He said to him,

Rav Nahman:

Where are you from?

From where are you?

He said to him: From Demeharya.

He said to him,

Rav Nahman: “Demeharya,” as an acronym -

“Blood shall be his end”

of Rav Nahman.

That is: You are requiring me to fast for two consecutive days, and through this I will die.

Rav Nahman applied

Rav Nahman

to him,

to that man, the verse [Lamentations 4]:

“Light were our pursuers.”

The Gemara brings an incident concerning intercalating the year:

And we will preface by explaining several matters concerning the seasons of the year.

a. The year is divided into four seasons: the season of Tishrei, the season of Tevet, the season of Nisan, and the season of Tammuz.

b. These seasons do not belong to the lunar year, but to the solar year, which is 365 days, and each season is one quarter of the solar year.

c. The day on which the season occurs:

The season of Tevet occurs on the shortest day of the year.

The season of Tammuz occurs on the longest day of the year.

Whereas the seasons of Tishrei and Nisan both occur on days on which the day and the night are equal.

d. According to halakha, the day on which the season occurs is considered the first day of the following season, and not the last day of the preceding season [“the day of the season begins”]. Sanhedrin 13a.

e. Since we calculate the months according to the course of the moon and not according to the sun, it follows that the seasons do not occur every year on the same date.

f. It is stated [Deuteronomy 16]: “Observe the month of the springtime and perform Passover” - “springtime” means the ripening of the grain. From here, Passover must occur in the season of Nisan, which is the time in which the grain ripens.

And when the month of Nisan is about to occur in the season of Tevet, a second Adar is added, and the year is intercalated, so that Nisan will occur after the season of Tevet has ended and the season of Nisan has entered:

g. The tannaim disputed in tractate Sanhedrin [13a-b] how many days of the month of Nisan must be in the solar season of Nisan.

Rav Huna bar Avin sent to Rava:

When you see,

when you see,

that the season of Tevet extends until the sixteenth of Nisan,

that the season of Tevet extends until the sixteenth of Nisan, and on the sixteenth itself the day of the season occurs and the season of Nisan begins, so that the first festival day of Passover, which is on the fifteenth, occurs in the season of Tevet, while the rest of the festival occurs in the season of Nisan -

intercalate that year!

Intercalate that year, in accordance with the view of “Others” [a designation for Rabbi Meir], who hold this way.

And do not be concerned about it.

Do not be concerned and say that one should not rule according to Others, since this is the view of an individual. But according to the other tannaim [in Sanhedrin 13a-b], the year is not intercalated in this manner unless the season of Tevet extends farther [as explained in tractate Sanhedrin there].

Because Scripture supports the view of Others.

For it is written [

Deuteronomy 16]:

“Observe the month of the springtime.”

That is,

observe the springtime of the season.

Observe this: that the season of Nisan, in which the grain called springtime ripens,

shall be in the month of Nisan.

And it is as though it were stated in the Torah: Observe the springtime, so that it shall be in “the month.”

And “month” is from the language of renewal. There is no renewal in the sun, but only in the months of the moon. For the moon is covered at the end of the month, and returns and renews itself, and grows larger, until the fourteenth of the month, when it reaches the height of its size; and from that point onward it continually grows smaller.

And from here, the Torah’s intention is to say that the solar season of Nisan should occur within the first fourteen days of the month of Nisan. For throughout that entire time the moon is in renewal, until the middle of the month, when it begins to diminish and grow smaller.

Therefore, if the season of Nisan occurs on the fifteenth of Nisan, there is no need to intercalate the year; rather, there is a remedy for the matter: the court intercalates Adar, and it follows that the season of Nisan will occur on the fourteenth.

But when the season occurs on the sixteenth of Nisan, it is not enough for us, if we intercalate the month of Adar and make it thirty days, for then the season will occur on the fifteenth and not on the fourteenth.

Therefore, the year is intercalated, and the season of Nisan will occur on the sixteenth of the second Adar; and it follows that the entire month of Nisan occurs in the solar season of Nisan.

And now the Gemara brings an incident connected with the establishment of the months:

Rav Nahman said to those sailors,

to those who go down to sea:

You, who are not expert in the establishment of the month,

you, who are not expert in the order of establishing the months, then, in Nisan,

when you see the moon completing the day,

when you see that the moon is visible throughout the entire night until sunrise -

burn the leaven.

Burn the leaven in your possession.

And we object:

When does it complete

on what date does the moon rise until sunrise?

On the fifteenth

on the fifteenth of the month!

But we burn from the fourteenth!

For one must burn the leaven on the fourteenth of Nisan and not on the fifteenth of Nisan!

And we answer:

For them, for the entire world is revealed to them.

To the sailors, for the entire world is revealed before them, and nothing at all obstructs their seeing the edge of the sky -

it completes from the fourteenth.

Already on the fourteenth of the month the moon is visible until sunrise.