Word of the Month
for Parshat Va'etchanan

A weekly feature of Torah Tidbits to help clarify practical and conceptual aspects of the Jewish Calendar, thereby better fulfilling the mitzva of HaChodesh HaZeh Lachem....

An average LUNATION (the time from one new moon to the next) is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and one cheilek (part - there are 18 chalakim per minute). The deadline for saying Kiddush L'vana in any month is half a lunation after the Molad of the month. The Molad of Menachem Av was on Friday morning, July 24th, 5h 27m13p (which was 6:07am Isr. Sum. Time). If you add 14d 18h 22m to that time, you get Sat. August 8th, 12:29am (that's 29 minutes after midnight on Friday night).

This means that all night Thursday is the last opportunity to say K.L. this month. We do not usually say K.L. on Friday night. If, for some reason, a person has not said K.L. until Leil Shabbat, and the deadline for K.L. is on Shabbat, then he can say it even on Fri. nite.

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