Mevarchim Hachodesh - Blessing the New Month (Part 5)
“The greatest darkness comes just before dawn –
but most people give up one minute before the light.”
Ba’al Shem Tov
Mevarchim HaChodesh continues with an announcement about when the new month will begin. The day, hour and “chalakim” (fractions of an hour) of the “molad” – the moment that marks the beginning of the new month – are announced.
The Exodus from Egypt took place in the year 2448 from Creation, corresponding to the year 1312 BCE. Immediately before the Jewish People left, Hashem commanded us the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh (see Shemot 12:1-2). Kiddush HaChodesh, the sanctification of the new month, is actually the very first mitzvah given to the Jewish Nation by Hashem.
Kiddush HaChodesh symbolizes our partnership with Hashem in creating the yearly cycles: The Torah mandates the date of Yom Tov, for example, but only through our active participation in declaring each new month can every Yom Tov be celebrated in its correct time.
Truly amazing, however, is the extraordinary accuracy of the calculations that create each new month of our calendar. From the very beginning, our Sages understood that the length of a lunar month was exactly 29 days, 12 hours, and 793 “chalakim”. What are “chalakim”?
According to Jewish Tradition, hours are divided, not into sixty-minute units, but rather into 1080 “chalakim”. Each individual “chelek” is thus slightly more than three seconds.
Amazing indeed! What this means is that over three thousand three hundred years ago, we knew that each month was exactly 29 days 12 hours, 44 minutes and a little more than 3 seconds! Such precision is breathtaking, but when one factors in the realization that counting seconds became a practical reality only in the sixteenth century with the invention of mechanical clocks, it is positively astonishing. The established and absolute definition of a second was only conclusively finalized by the International System of Units in 1967, yet such exactitude has been ingrained within our calculations for thousands of years.
What makes this accuracy even more remarkable is that, at around the same time that the International System of Units was quantifying a second, NASA - using precision satellite measurements - were in the process of determining the precise length of a lunar month. NASA’s final figure was 29.530588 days. Which is almost exactly the same figure as our Sages reached thousands of years earlier of 29.53059 days!
Pondering this pinpoint accuracy of the Jewish calendar, it actually becomes quite a mystery why we have a reputation for somewhat unreliable time keeping. This tendency is referred to, tongue-in-cheek, as “Jewish Standard Time”, with its own entry in Wiktionary! “A notional system of time or time zone…which the Jewish people sometimes jocularly ascribe to themselves, to account for their supposed tendency to be leisurely, not rigorous about scheduling, and often tardy. (en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Jewish_Standard_time)
Of course, we have learnt to use “Jewish Standard Time” to our benefit over the generations.
There is a famous joke told about three friends, one French, one Italian and one Jewish, who have been found guilty and sentenced to death for anti-government agitation in Soviet Russia. On their last day they are offered a last meal, immediately after which they will be executed. Pierre, the Frenchman, asks for a fresh baguette and camembert cheese washed down with a glass of champagne. Luigi, the Italian, requests a margherita pizza and a glass of chianti. Moshe, the Jew, asks for a plate of strawberries.
“Strawberries?” his jailors ask him incredulously.
“Yes,” replies Moshe, “strawberries.”
“But they are out of season.”
“No problem,” replies Moshe, “I’ll wait…”
To be continued…
