The New Moon & The Power of Israel

by Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed, Rosh Yeshivat Bet El, translated and edited by Hillel Fendel

This is the power of the Nation of Israel: Via its rabbinical judges, it can determine the actual date, and therefore when Passover and Yom Kippur, for example, are to be commemorated.

[Ed. introduction: One of the 613 Torah commandments (mitzvot) is that a rabbinical court must hear testimony regarding the first sighting of the "new moon" each month, and determine the beginning of the month accordingly. The new month begins only when the court hands down its ruling, regardless of when exactly the new moon could have actually been seen. Similarly, the rabbinical court determines when a leap year is to be declared. Both of these mitzvot can be performed only in the Land of Israel.]

The classic Talmud commentary known as Tosafot notes that the Land of Israel requirement is derived from two different verses. One is כי מציון,  For from Zion the Torah shall go forth, and G-d's word from Jerusalem (Isaiah 20), and the other is לשכנו תדרשו, It is there that you shall go to seek His presence (D'varim 12,5). Why are both verses needed? Tosafot does not answer, though elsewhere the commentary notes that this is not an unusual situation.

Rabbi Yechezkel Landau (Chief Rabbi of Prague, 18^th century) answered this question in his work Tzion L'Nefesh Chayah (known as Tzlach) as follows: The first verse is specifically required for the commandment of declaring the new month, and the second is for the determination of leap years. There is a major difference between the two: Unlike a leap year, if a new month is mistakenly declared, it is still valid. This is the power of the Nation of Israel: Via its rabbinical judges, it can determine the actual date, and therefore when Passover and Yom Kippur, for example, are to be commemorated.

But if a leap year is declared in error, it is like a mistake in any other Halakhic ruling, and is invalidated altogether. In Biblical times, a special sacrifice, known as the Inadvertent-Sin Offering for the Community, would be brought in such a case.

The Tzlach explains why this difference between the determination of months and years exists: The mitzvah to sanctify the new month is special in that it actually creates a Torah reality – even if done by mistake! The court's ruling determines whether one who eats on the day it determined to be Yom Kippur, or eats chametz on the day it determined to be Pesach, will be liable for Divine punishment or not. This reality is created by the court!

As such, this mitzvah can only be performed in the Land of Israel – for, as the first verse teaches, this is where Torah "goes forth from." Rabbinical courts outside Israel can only clarify what the Torah law states, but cannot create anything new. Only in this one law of Sanctifying the Month are the courts permitted to create a new reality, and since "from Zion will go forth the Torah" – only in Israel can this creative force of Torah go forth and be manifest – it must be done only in the Land of Israel.

But the mitzvah to determine a leap year does not apply when done in error; it does not have this creative force. Therefore, a different verse is required to teach us that it must be done only in the Land of Israel – and that is the above-cited "It is there that you shall go to seek His presence."

Rabbis Rule, the World Fulfills

The Jerusalem Talmud (Nedarim 1,2) teaches that the rabbis' rulings regarding a new month actually affect our physical reality, and not just the Halakhic reality. For instance, a minor cannot be put to death for infractions such as murder – but his age is determined by the date! And who determines the dates, if not the rabbinical courts? As such, the Sanctification of the Month is important and significant for the entirety of Torah, and therefore it can be effected only in the Land of Israel – the source of Torah's revelation in the world.

How, then, are our calendars determined today, when so many Jews live in the Diaspora and the rabbinical courts in the Land of Israel no longer determine the New Moon? The Rambam explains (Laws of Kiddush HaChodesh 5,13) that although "in every place, the New Month is announced independently – these calculations do not determine the facts, for this mitzvah may not be done outside the Land of Israel. Rather, our calculations rely only on the calculations made in Eretz Yisrael… What is actually [being announced] is the day that the people of Eretz Yisrael determined; it is there that the dates are set." [Ed. note: Rav Melamed notes here only the general principles of this very complex issue, which must properly be studied in detail.]

In his Book of Mitzvot, the Rambam adds that if we could imagine a situation in which no Jews remained in the Land of Israel, all of our calculations would be meaningless.

Jewish Nation – Only in Israel

Very significantly, the Rambam adds here a crucial caveat: "Such a situation could actually never happen, because G-d has promised that He would not totally erase the vestiges of the Nation of Israel." This means that having no Jews in the Land of Israel is equivalent to the erasure of the Jewish People, Heaven forbid.