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...

HaChodesh HaZeh Lachem...
Common question from last Shabbat: If the molad was yesterday, how come today isn't Rosh Chodesh. The real answer is that in our fixed calendar, we use the molad of Tishrei and some rules to fix Rosh HaShana, then we use next Tishrei's molad to fix next Rosh HaShana, and the months in between fall into place based on other rules - and NOT based on the molad of each month. That's the real reason. But even if our Rosh Chodesh were based on each month's molad (which it isn't without a Sanhedrin), with a Friday afternoon molad, the moon cannot be seen on Friday night. So why should Shabbat be Rosh Chodesh. And, in fact, the moon was so small and low on Motza'ei Shabbat that no one reported seeing the moon even then. This supported the Israel New Moon Society's calculation that the moon would not be visible on Motza'ei Shabbat.

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