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 Tamuz, which will be on Thursday and Friday, July 3rd & 4th Sivan has 30 days in our fixed calendar; Tamuz 29. And this is how Rosh Chodesh will be announced this Shabbat: ROSH CHODESH TAMUZ YIH-YEH B'YOM CHAMISHI UVYOM SHISHI HABA ALEINU V'AL KOL YISRA'EL L'TOVA: The molad is THU 11h 46m 10p HAMOLAD YIH-YEH B'YOM CHAMISHI, ARBA'IM VASHESH DAKOT V'ASARA CHALAKIM ACHAREI ACHAT-ESREI BABOKER This corresponds to 12:26pm Israel Summer Time. This can be translated to one's locale, but the announcement of the molad stays the same worldwide. In Rambam notation the molad is THU 17h 838p The astronomical (actual) molad is 5:19am on THU (7 hrs. before the announced molad) And were you wondering about what sedra we read on the Shabbat that we bench Rosh Chodesh Tamuz? In case you were wondering that very thing, here's the scoop. Shabbat M'vorchim Tamuz is either Sh'lach or Korach. No other sedra. But look at the different relative frequencies: In Israel - 50.9% of the time we bench Rosh Chodesh on Sh'lach. 49.1% of the time, it's Korach - almost even split. Outside of Israel - 89.5% of the time, it's Sh'lach. Only 10.5% of the time - like this year - we bench Rosh Chodesh Tamuz on Shabbat Parshat Korach. Of course, we bench Rosh Chodesh on the same Shabbat in Israel and abroad. But we don't always read the same weekly portion. Why such a wide disparity between Israel and Chutz LaAretz? When Shavuot is on Friday in Israel, it is on Friday and Shabbat in Chutz LaAretz. When that happens, we in Israel read Parshat HaShavua on the Shabbat that is the second day of Yom Tov with its own Torah reading, in Chu"L. We go a sedra ahead of those Jews who live abroad. In Chutz LaAretz in such years, Chukat and Balak are combined; they are never combined in Israel. That's how we get back into sync. But in the meantime, we've benched Rosh Chodesh Tamuz with different weekly portions. Similarly, when Pesach is Shabbat to Friday in Israel and Shabbat to Shabbat in Chu"L, we get out of sync. If the year had two Adars, then we won't gert back into sync until we separate Matot and Mas'ei. By that time, Rosh Chodesh Tamuz would have been announced on Shabbatot with different Torah readings. But this year, we all bench Rosh Chodesh on Shabbat Parshat Korach. [The Parshat Korach Homepage]
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