Parashat Bshalach 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... Last opportunity for Kiddush L'vana this month is 12:42pm on Friday. Whenever the deadline is during the day, the actual last opportunity is the night before - all night long. Remember that the deadline is calculated by the time of the NIGUD (opposition, when the Moon and Sun are on opposite sides of the Earth.). The NIGUD occurs at full moon (actually, full moon occurs at the moment of NIGUD). For K.L. purposes, the average figures are used, not the actual ones. In other words, NIGUD (that is, last opportunity for K.L.) is half a Molad from the last Molad. That's 14 days, 18 hour, 22 minutes since 6:20pm on Thursday, January 6th. The actual time of opposition will be about 6:39am on Friday. The difference of 6 hours between the actual and the average times have no significance, this time. (Sometimes they do.) Also (sounds so Israeli, starting a sentence with also), the deviation between actual and average is not always 6 hours; could be more or less, could be earlier or later than average. (That's sort of what average means.) [The Bshalach Homepage]
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