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...

We bench Rosh Chodesh Nissan on Shabbat Parshat VaYakhel/P'kudei - HaChodesh, March 9, '02

ROSH CHODESH NISSAN Y'H'YEH B'YOM CHAMISHI HABA ALEINU V'AL KOL YISRA'EL L'TOVA

The Molad is on Thursday (March 14th) 2h 30m 4p 

In Rambam notation: CHAMISHI • 8h • 544 chalakim 

Clock time (can be adjusted for location) THU March. 14, 2:09¼pm 

Astronomical Molad - THU, MARCH 14, 04:04:06

Aside from the question about using secular dates in general, there is a separate issue about using the numbers of the secular months. The Torah says: This month is yours as the first month of the year. It was talking about Nissan. How can we ignore that and call January month #1. Various authorities raise this point.