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 mistakenly reported last week that the first op for Kiddush L'vana was Sunday night, June 20th. In fact, the first op for KL was Monday night. We deeply regret the error and hope that no one was misled into saying KL before its proper time. Know, however, that if one says KL on the third night from the molad but before 3 full days (72 hours) have passed, then he is still YOTZEI the mitzva, the bracha is not in vain, and one does NOT say KL again after the "proper" time. (Some say to hear KL from someone else and say AMEN.)

Those who say KL only after 7 full days have passed from the molad have their first and prime opportunity this Motza'ei Shabbat (Chukat), June 26th.
Last opportunity for KL this month is THU night, July 1st - all night.

Feedback
From email correspondence this past week from Dr. Roy Hoffman of the Israeli New Moon Society, both to the membership of the society in general and to us in particular, we would like to correct certain impressions left by last week's Lead Tidbit and the Word of the Month box.

As exciting as it might have seemed from our description of the guy walking out of shul between Kabbalat Shabbat and Maariv and just happening to notice the first visibility of the lunar crescent - according to Dr. Hoffman, NO WAY. The Moon last Friday evening at 8:00pm was only 20.5 hours old, much too small to be observed except by very experienced observer who knew exactly where, when, and how to look for it. In fact, the INMS report stated that "experienced observers from Petach Tikva, Talmon, Kfar Baruch, Kerem Byavneh and Jerusalem tried hard to see the Moon but failed." The report said that only two observers in Beitar Illit reported that they saw the Moon on Friday night. Because of the small size of the Moon, these two fellows were questioned more intensively than is usual (as would probably happen in the time of Sanhedrin too), and "appeared to be reliable". One observer reported seeing the new moon for about 15 seconds (only) at 8:05pm and for another few seconds a minute later, until the sliver of moon was lost in the haze close to the horizon. By Motza'ei Shabbat, the Moon was over 44 hours old, and quite easy to see. But you should get the feeling from what you've just read, that seeing the Moon on the first night of its visibility is not often easy. Thank you RH for your input and your efforts.

[The Parshat Chukat Homepage]
[The TORAH tidbits Homepage] [How to use TORAH tidbits]
[About The OU/NCSY Israel Center] [About TORAH tidbits]
 [www.ou.org]