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... As you might have noticed...the molad of Cheshvan was early Thursday morning at 2 hours, no minutes and no chalakim. The molad occurs at an exact hour once in 1080 months. This is so because the time from one molad to the next is 29 days, 12 hours (which we can ignore for this calculation) and 793 chalakim (which is 44 min. and one cheilek and which we cannot ignore). 793 and 1080 are relatively prime, so that the number of chalakim of an hour will repeat only after 1080 months (more than 87 yrs.). The molad of Tammuz 5677 (1917) was WED 1 0 0. More interesting was the molad of Adar 5590 (1830) which was exactly at midnight bet. MON & TUE. Next scheduled whole hour molad is Adar Alef 5852, FRI 3 0 0 - however, we hope and pray for the restoration of Sanhedrin long before that, when this calculation will no longer be in use. [The
Parshat No'ach Homepage]
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