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... 

This Shabbat, we bench Rosh Chodesh Adar Alef, which will be on Sunday and Monday. Sinch Sh'vat always has 30 days (in our fixed calendar), Adar and Adar Alef have two days of Rosh Chodesh. Adar Alef has 30 days.
ROSH CHODESH ADAR RISHON YIHYEH MACHAR B'YOM RISHON U'V'YOM SHEINI HABA ALEINU V'AL KOL YISRA'EL L'TOVA:
HAMOLAD YIHYEH HA'EREV, MOTZAEI SHABBAT, SHLOSHIM V'ARBA DAKOT V'CHAMISHA ASAR CHALAKIM ACHAREI ESER.
That is, Saturday night, 34 minutes and 15 chalakim (parts; 18 parts = 1 minute) after ten..

In Rambam’s notation, that’s YOM RISHON (Sunday) 4 hours and 627 chalakim

On the clock, that’s Shabbat, 31 JAN, 22:14 Israel Winter Time
The astronomical (actual) Molad, as opposed to the actual Molad which we use, is 12:48pm, almost 9½ hrs. earlier.

This Shabbat is Erev Rosh Chodesh, and the Haftara is Machar Chodesh. Those two items do NOT go hand-in-hand.

Every year has at least one and at most 3 Shabbat - Erev Rosh Chodesh (Sh-ERCh). Specifically, 5 types of years have only 1, 5 types have 2, and 4 types of years have 3. Taking into account the frequencies of each year-type, there is an average of 1.825 Sh-ERCh per year.

Not all months can have a Sh-ERCh. Tishrei, Tevet, Shvat, Tammuz, and Av never do.

For Sh-ERCh Cheshvan, Kislev, Adar Alef, Iyar, and Sivan, we read the Machar Chodesh Haftara. But Sh-ERCh Adar and Adar Sheni are Parshat Shkalim, and the special Haftara preempts Machar Chodesh. Simialrly, Sh-ERCh Nissan is HaChodesh - not Machar Chodesh. And Sh-ERCh Elul is one of the 7 Haftarot of Nechama and it is not preempted by Machar Chodesh.

There is 1 year-type without any Machar Chodesh, 10 year-types with only 1 Machar Chodesh, 2 with two, and only 1 with three Machar Chodesh Shabbatot. This year, 5763, is one of this year type.

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