WORD OF THE MONTH

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... 

There is an interesting Kiddush L'vana question that is "actual" this month. The Molad, as announced, was last Shabbat afternoon. Three days later was Tuesday afternoon, which made Tuesday night the first opportunity for K.L. Or, according to the 7-day opinion, 7 days after the Molad is this Shabbat afternoon, which makes Motza'ei Shabbat perfect for K.L. The "problem" is that the actual, real, astronomical Molad was early Sunday morning. Tuesday night was not three full days from the real Molad. This Motza"Sh will not be 7 full days from the real Molad. The answer is – it doesn't matter when the real Molad was. Tradition tells us to calculate the starting time and deadline of K.L. based on the average Molad. That makes Tuesday and Motza"Sh the best nights (depending upon opinion). Our knowledge that 3 or 7 days "really" haven't passed (meaning that the Moon really isn't 3 or 7 days old) does not impact on HALACHA L'MA'ASEH, what we do.