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... 

The Molad of Nissan was on Wed. April 2, 12:42am, Israel Summer time.

The most-followed practice is to consider the deadline for K.L. to be half the time from one Molad to the next. This time is called NIGUD, opposition, and is the time of Full Moon. Because the calculations we use are based on the average time of a lunation, and not the actual astronomical time, which varies, the deadline for K.L. can sometimes be hours before or after the actual Full Moon. Nonetheless, our calculations govern the timings of K.L., not the “reality” of the sky. To the time of the Molad above, we add 14 days, 18 hours and 22 minutes and come to Thursday, April 17, 7:04am.

Therefore, K.L. can be said all Seder night. In NY however (as an example) the deadline would be a little after midnight of Seder night (first Seder, that is).

Shabbat Parshat Acharei, April 26
This Shabbat we bench Rosh Chodesh Iyar. Rosh Chodesh Iyar is always two days in our fixed calendar, becaue Nissan has 30 days.
ROSH CHODESH IYAR YIHYEH B'YOM SHISHI U'V'YOM SHABBAT KODESH HABA ALEINU V'AL KOL YISRA'EL L'TOVA:
HAMOLAD YIHYEH B'YOM CHAMISHI ACHAR H'TZHARAYIM, ARBAIM V'SHEVA DAKOT ACHAREI SHTEIM ESREI
The Molad of Iyar will occur onTHU, May 1, 1:26pm Summer time.
This time is adjustable for time zones, e.g. in LA the Molad is 3:2am.
But the traditional way we announce the Molad, in Jerusalem Solar Time, remains the same all over the world, and it NOT adjusted for time zones or Summer time.
In Rambam’s notation, the Molad isYom HEI 18h 846 parts
The astronomical molad isTHU, May 1, 1:16pm
ONLY 10 minutes before the average

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