Sanctifying the Moon: Tales of Rabban Gamliel’s Ancestral Traditions, Dirt-Throwing, and a Message About the Enduring King David (Rosh Hashanah 25a)
Accounts and Teachings of Rabban Gamliel, R’ Yoḥanan, R' Ḥiyya, and R' Yehuda HaNasi
Outline
Rabban Gamliel's Lunar Tradition: Explaining Variations in the Moon's Visibility
R’ Yoḥanan on Lunar Uncertainty: Interpreting Rabban Gamliel's Ruling Through the Psalmist's Astronomical Insights (Psalms 104:19)
Throwing Dirt at the Moon: R' Ḥiyya’s Rebuke to a Waning Moon
Mission to Sanctify the New Moon: R' Yehuda HaNasi’s Directive to R' Ḥiyya, and Mention of King David
Misinterpretation Due to Clouds; Rabban Gamliel's Precise Calculation; and Eulogy for Ben-Zaza’s Mother
The Passage
Rabban Gamliel's Lunar Tradition: Explaining Variations in the Moon's Visibility
Rabban Gamliel informed the Sages (חכמים) that he received a tradition from his grandfather’s house1 explaining that the moon's visibility varies due to its path, which can be either long or short.2
תניא,
אמר להם רבן גמליאל לחכמים:
כך מקובלני מבית אבי אבא —
פעמים שבא בארוכה, ופעמים שבא בקצרה.
It is taught in a baraita that
Rabban Gamliel said to the Sages, in explanation of his opinion that it is possible for the new moon to be visible so soon after the last sighting of the waning moon:
This is the tradition that I received from the house of my father’s father:
Sometimes the moon comes by a long path and sometimes it comes by a short one.
R’ Yoḥanan on Lunar Uncertainty: Interpreting Rabban Gamliel's Ruling Through the Psalmist's Astronomical Insights (Psalms 104:19)
R' Yoḥanan homiletically interpreted a verse from Psalms (104:19), stating that while the sun has a fixed and predictable path, the moon’s course is irregular and changes monthly.
אמר רבי יוחנן:
מאי טעמא דבי רבי?
דכתיב:
״עשה ירח למועדים
שמש ידע מבואו״ —
שמש הוא דידע מבואו,
ירח לא ידע מבואו.
R' Yoḥanan said:
What is the reason for the opinion of the house of R' Yehuda HaNasi, i.e., the house of the heads of the Great Sanhedrin, the source of Rabban Gamliel’s ruling?
As it is written:
“Who appointed the moon for seasons;
the sun knows its going down” (Psalms 104:19).
This verse indicates that it is only the sun that knows its going down, i.e., its seasons and the times that it shines are the same every year.
In contrast, the moon does not know its going down, as its course is not identical every month.
Throwing Dirt at the Moon: R' Ḥiyya’s Rebuke to a Waning Moon
R' Ḥiyya, upon seeing the waning moon “standing” (קאי) on the morning (צפרא) of the 29th day of the month, threw (פתק) a clump (קלא) of dirt at it, instructing it to disappear3 until nightfall to allow for the new moon to appear in the coming night.
רבי חייא חזייא לסיהרא דהוה קאי,
בצפרא דעשרים ותשעה.
שקל קלא, פתק ביה,
אמר:
לאורתא בעינן לקדושי בך,
ואת קיימת הכא?!
זיל איכסי!
The Gemara relates that R' Ḥiyya once saw the waning moon standing in the sky
on the morning of the twenty-ninth of the month.
He took a clump of earth and threw it at the moon,
saying:
This evening we need to sanctify you, i.e., the new moon must be visible tonight so that we may declare the thirtieth of the month as the New Moon,
and you are still standing here?!
Go and cover yourself for now, so that the new moon will be seen only after nightfall.
Mission to Sanctify the New Moon: R' Yehuda HaNasi’s Directive to R' Ḥiyya, and Mention of King David
R' Yehuda HaNasi once instructed R' Ḥiyya to travel to a place called Ein Tav (עין טב) to sanctify the new moon4 and send a coded confirmation sign5 using the phrase: “David, king of Israel, lives (חי) and endures (קים).”6
אמר ליה רבי לרבי חייא:
זיל לעין טב,
וקדשיה לירחא,
ושלח לי סימנא: ״דוד מלך ישראל חי וקים״.
The Gemara further relates that R' Yehuda HaNasi once said to R' Ḥiyya:
Go to a place called Ein Tav
and sanctify the New Moon there,
and send me a sign that you have sanctified it. The sign is: David, king of Israel, lives and endures.
Misinterpretation Due to Clouds; Rabban Gamliel's Precise Calculation; and Eulogy for Ben Zaza’s Mother
Part 1
On one occasion, the sky was cloudy on the 29th day of the month, and the form (דמות) of the moon appeared faintly.
People7 mistakenly assumed it was the New Moon, prompting the court to consider sanctifying the day (as Rosh Chodesh).
Rabban Gamliel corrected the misunderstanding, stating that according to his received tradition,8 the length of the lunar cycle is no less than 29.5 days + 40 minutes (“two-thirds of an hour”) + 73/1080 of an hour.9
תנו רבנן:
פעם אחת נתקשרו שמים בעבים,
ונראית דמות לבנה בעשרים ותשעה לחדש.
כסבורים העם לומר ראש חדש, ובקשו בית דין לקדשו.
אמר להם רבן גמליאל:
כך מקובלני מבית אבי אבא —
אין חדושה של לבנה פחותה מ
עשרים ותשעה יום ומחצה
ושני שלישי שעה
ושבעים ושלשה חלקים.
The Sages taught in a baraita:
Once the sky was covered with clouds,
and the form of the moon was visible on the twenty-ninth of the month.
The people thought to say that the day was the New Moon, and the court sought to sanctify it.
However, Rabban Gamliel said to them:
This is the tradition that I received from the house of my father’s father:
The monthly cycle of the renewal of the moon takes no less than
twenty-nine and a half days,
plus two-thirds of an hour,
plus seventy-three of the 1,080 subsections of an hour.
Part 2
To clarify that the month had not been sanctified, Rabban Gamliel delivered a prominent eulogy for the mother of Ben-Zaza,10 which would not have been allowed if the New Moon had been declared. This act served as a public signal that the court had not sanctified the day.
ואותו היום מתה אמו של בן זזא,
והספידה רבן גמליאל הספד גדול.
לא מפני שראויה לכך,
אלא כדי שידעו העם שלא קידשו בית דין את החדש.
The baraita continues: And on that day the mother of the Sage ben Zaza died,
and Rabban Gamliel delivered a great eulogy on her behalf.
He did this not because she was worthy of this honor;
rather, he eulogized her so that the people would know that the court had not sanctified the month, as eulogies are prohibited on the New Moon.
בית אבי אבא.
Rabban Gamliel II (fl. early 2nd century CE; considered to have been a nasi/patriarch), and his grandfather Rabban Gamliel the Elder (fl. middle 1st century CE; he’s mentioned in the New Testament), are the major, central figures in Mishnaic teachings regarding the new moon.
See the next section as well, and see the many other traditions from him in the first two chapters of tractate Rosh Hashana on this topic, quoted in my “Mishnah Tractate Rosh Hashanah: Featuring Reader-Friendly Formatting, Summaries, Hyperlinks, and Loanword Etymologies” (at my Academia page):
Section “Witnesses May Desecrate Shabbat for Nisan and Tishrei New Moon Testimonies“ (pp. 9-11):
שלח לו רבן גמליאל:
אם מעכב אתה את הרבים,
נמצאת מכשילן לעתיד לבא
Rabban Gamliel sent [a message] to him [=R’ Akiva]:
If you detain [on Shabbat] the many people [who wish to testify about the new moon],
you will cause them to stumble in the future.
Section “Beit Ya’zek: The Jerusalem Courtyard for New Moon Witnesses with Feasts to Encourage Testimony; Rabban Gamliel's Decree: Expanded Boundaries for Witnesses and Rescuers on Shabbat“ (pp. 16-17):
התקין רבן גמליאל הזקן,
שיהו מהלכין אלפים אמה לכל רוח.
Rabban Gamliel the Elder instituted
that they [=the witnesses] be permitted to walk [on Shabbat and holidays] 2,000 cubits in each direction (cf. Techum shabbat)
Section “Rabban Gamliel Used Moon Diagrams to Validate New Moon Testimony; Story: Rabban Gamliel Accepts Impossible-sounding Testimony on Moon Despite R' Yoḥanan ben Nuri's Rejection” (pp. 20-21)
Section “The Story of Rabban Gamliel and R' Yehoshua: A Dramatic Dispute Over the New Moon and Yom Kippur” (pp. 21-24)
The Talmudic sugya in our main piece is launching off of those latter two Mishnaic stories; found in Talmud ed. Steinsaltz here: Rosh_Hashanah.24b.14-25a.6.
This statement by Rabban Gamliel, along with the following one by R’ Yohanan (see next section), is cited by Maimonides in the Mishneh Torah, see yesterday’s piece “Pt2 The Celestial Spheres According to Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah (Laws of Foundations of the Torah 3:1-9)“, section “The Challenge of Lunar Calculations“.
איכסי - literally: “be covered”.
For another story of a sage traveling for the purposes of setting the Hebrew calendar, see Mishnah_Yevamot.16.7
אמר רבי עקיבא:
כשירדתי לנהרדעא לעבר השנה
[…]
R’ Akiva said:
When I descended to Neharde’a, in Babylonia, to intercalate (לעבר) the year (i.e. add an extra month, to make it a leap year)
[…]
The primary discussion there is halachic laws related to a woman remarrying after her husband’s likely death, see my two sets of series on that sugya:
““Endless Water”: Eight Stories of Uncertain Drowning of a Husband in the Context of Remarriage (Yevamot 121a-b)“, final part here.
“"Alas!": Thirteen Additional Stories Regarding the Reliability and Validity of Testimony About a Husband’s Death in the Context of Remarriage (Yevamot 121b-122b)“, final part here.
סימנא - from Greek.
For another talmudic story of a coded message, similarly traditionally interpreted to be referring to sanctification of the new moon, see my previous piece “Sanhedrin 12a: An Ancient Coded Letter Embedded in the Talmud”.
דוד מלך ישראל חי וקים. See Wikipedia, “David Melech Yisrael“.
Compare the same phrase - “alive and enduring” - חי וקים - being used elsewhere in the Talmud to praise God, in my recent piece here, section “The Throne of Glory and Its Measurements“:
מלך
אל
חי וקים
רם ונשא
King
God
alive and enduring (חי וקיים),
lofty and exalted
The phrase is biblical, see Daniel.6.26-27, in the conclusion of the story of Daniel in the lions' den:
באדין דריוש מלכא כתב לכל־עממיא אמיא ולשניא די־[דירין] (דארין) בכל־ארעא
שלמכון ישגא
מן־קדמי שים טעם
די בכל־שלטן מלכותי להון (זאעין) [זיעין] ודחלין מן־קדם אלהה די־דניאל
די־הוא אלהא חיא, וקים לעלמין
ומלכותה די־לא תתחבל
ושלטנה עד־סופא
Then king Darius wrote unto all the peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth:
‘Peace be multiplied unto you (שלמכון ישגא)!
I make a decree,
that in all the dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel;
For He is the living God, And enduring for ever (אלהא חיא, וקים לעלמין)
And His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed,
And His dominion shall be even unto the end
Notably, the Aramaic greeting “May you have much Shalom (“peace")!" (שלמכון ישגא), in that letter according to that verse, is used in a letter from Rabban Gamliel, also related to sanctification of the new moon, quoted in the Talmud, tractate Sanhedrin, see my piece cited in the other footnote. As I write there in a footnote:
Compare also the relatively lengthy three letters (שלש איגרות) cited verbatim in Sanhedrin 11a (sections #2-5). They are written in Aramaic, and have a greeting, plus a message. According to the beraita cited, they were dictated by Raban Gamaliel in Jerusalem, and transcribed by a scribe named Yochanan (יוחנן סופר).
All three start with the greeting “To our brothers, the people of X, may your peace increase (שלומכון יסגא)“. The message then all start with the formula “We are informing you that [….] (מהודעין אנחנא לכון )“.
העם - literally: “the nation”. For the sense of this word, compare the German word “volk”, or archaic English “folk”.
From “the house of his grandfather”, as in the previous section.
So 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3.33 seconds; or 29.53059 days.
There’s been much discussion about this number, especially in comparison with the contemporary classical Greek astronomical tradition. It’s likely that only “29.5 days” is part of the original tradition.
See Wikipedia, “Hebrew calendar“, section “Molad interval“:
A "new moon" (astronomically called a lunar conjunction and, in Hebrew, a molad) is the moment at which the sun and moon have the same ecliptic longitude (i.e. they are aligned horizontally with respect to a north–south line).
The period between two new moons is a synodic month. The actual length of a synodic month varies from about 29 days 6 hours and 30 minutes (29.27 days) to about 29 days and 20 hours (29.83 days), a variation range of about 13 hours and 30 minutes.
Accordingly, for convenience, the Hebrew calendar uses a long-term average month length, known as the molad interval, which equals the mean synodic month of ancient times.
The molad interval is 29 days, 12 hours, and 793 "parts" (1 "part" = 1/18 minute = 31/3 seconds) (i.e., 29.530594 days), and is the same value determined by the Babylonians in their System B about 300 BCE and was adopted by Hipparchus (2nd century BCE) and by Ptolemy in the Almagest (2nd century CE).
Its remarkable accuracy (less than one second from the current true value) is thought to have been achieved using records of lunar eclipses from the 8th to 5th centuries BCE.
In the Talmudic era, when the mean synodic month was slightly shorter than at present, the molad interval was even more accurate, being "essentially a perfect fit" for the mean synodic month at the time.
בן זזא, and otherwise-unknown person. I list him in my piece here, item #74: “Annotated List of Talmudic Figures Known as 'Ben X' or 'Bar X,' and Stories of Ben Zoma (Chagigah 14b-15a)“.