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Ta'anis 010: Keeping up with the Joneses
Gerald Gornish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I don't "do daf," but have found your site an excellent source for what I
am learning. Your site had the only explanation I could find of why in
chutz la'aretz she'elat hageshem begins the night of December 4.
But why did the Rabbis in 1580 not accept the new science and recognize
that Shmuel's view (which I assume was based on the Julian calendar) had
resulted in beginning 50 days after the Tekufah instead of 60, and that the
situation was being cured by adding the 10 days that year only? For that
year they should have begun December 1, but for subsequent years, when the
Tekufah returned to its proper date, they should have reverted to 60 days
after Sept. 23. And now we are only exacerbating the situation by moving
further away one day each century (except in those 00 years divisible by 400).
I realize that we give great credence to our predecessors, but was there
any dissent, when , as you say, "the Jewish authorities agreed that it was
not necessary to institute a parallel change to the Jewish solar calendar
with regard to calculating when the Tekufos occur . . . . We still rely on
Shmuel's calculation." Has there been any move to challenge this view,
which seems clearly wrong?
------------------
The Kollel replies:
Your point is well taken. The Tosfos Yom Tov (Kil'ayim 5:5) goes to lengths
to prove that we cannot discredit a proven and measurable mathematical fact
based on citations from Chazal.
Nevertheless, Chazal have always accepted that the world will not go on
forever. According to a famous quote (Rosh Hashanah 31a), it will last up
to 6000 years, no more. The Chachamim of the generation that created the
Gregorian calendar decided that the amount of drift that will accumulate
during the lifetime of this world did not warrant changing the formulae
they were using for calculating the length of the solar year. Earlier
generations may have been aware of the drift but did not adjust the
calendar, they concluded; if so, who are we to take the initiative to do so
ourselves.
Moreover, the reason earlier generations of Chachamim did not adjust the
calendar was because the formulae used in compiling it were passed down
from very early generations. They may even have had their basis in Halachah
l'Moshe mi'Sinai (-- this measurement was, after all, part of "Sod
ha'Ibur," see Rosh Hashanah 20b). They took this Mesores to mean that the
Torah wants us to use this particular length of year for reasons we may not
understand, despite the fact that some amount of drift occurs. The Torah
foresaw the total amount of drift that will occur until the coming of
Moshi'ach, and allowed us -- indeed, advised us -- to practice its Halachos
based on such a slightly-off calendar. (A similar argument has been put
forward to defend Chazal's measurement of Pi.) If Moshi'ach, when he should
arrive, tells us b'Ru'ach Kodsho to change the calendar, of course we shall.
Best wishes,
M. Kornfeld
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