One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
קִדּוּשׁ הַחֹדֶשׁ
Sanctification of the New Month 2
Sefer Zemanim · Who may testify to the new moon, what does not count as seeing it, and the word said in daylight that makes the month whether or not the court was right
2
Adult men fit in all matters, the only admissible witnesses
3
Judges to reckon, and three to sanctify the month
1
Storey of discrepancy across which testimonies still join
30
The night whose sighting is the only one that counts
Part 1Who is let into the room
- Two men, fit for any testimony. Only two adult males acceptable in all matters may testify to the new moon; women and slaves may not, and neither may a man disqualified by rabbinic decree alone, although the Torah itself would accept him. (2:1)
- Father and son both go, and only one of them counts. Relatives are not accepted together, yet both should present themselves, because one may turn out to be disqualified for theft or another reason and the second can then be paired with a different man. (2:1)
- By Torah law the month stands even on perjury. No precision is strictly required, and a month sanctified on testimony later shown to be perjured remains sanctified; the early courts therefore took any Jew, until the followers of Baithos began hiring false witnesses and the court decreed that it would accept only men known to be acceptable, and would examine them. (2:2)
- The home town vouches for the stranger. Where the High Court did not know the character of the witnesses who sighted the moon, the inhabitants of their city sent additional witnesses along to establish that they were acceptable, and only then was their testimony received. (2:3)
RememberThe vetting is a fence built after a scandal, on top of a law that never required it.
Part 2What counts as having seen it
- The reckoning is done before the questions are asked. The court calculates in the manner of the astronomers whether the moon would stand north or south of the sun, whether its crescent would be wide or narrow and where its corners would point, then asks the witnesses exactly that; fitting answers are accepted and unfitting ones are not. (2:4)
- A reflection is not a sighting. Testimony that the moon was seen in water, behind clouds, or in a mirror is of no consequence, and the same applies where part was seen in the open sky and part in the water, the cloud or the glass. (2:5)
- Two storeys join, three and five do not. Witnesses estimating two and three storeys of height may be combined; three and five may not, though either man may still be joined with another whose account matches his or differs by a single storey. (2:5)
- A glance is not evidence, and only the thirtieth night matters. Those who saw it without concentrating and could not find it once they looked deliberately are not believed, since clouds may have gathered and dispersed; but those who saw it in the east before sunrise on the twenty ninth and again in the west on the thirtieth night are believed, the morning sighting being disregarded. (2:6)
RememberA real moon seen out of the corner of the eye is worth less than a fitting answer about which way its corners pointed.
Part 3The feast, the word, and its finality
- A large feast, and questions nobody needs. All who saw the moon are gathered into one place and a large feast is made so that people will come regularly; the first pair is examined, the greater man privately and first, and the remaining pairs are then questioned more broadly although their testimony is not required at all, only so that they will not depart disheartened. (2:7)
- Three judges, in daylight, or nothing. The head of the court declares that it is sanctified and the people answer that it is sanctified; three judges are needed for the reckoning and three to sanctify, and a sanctification made at night is of no consequence. (2:8)
- Missing the word costs the month. Even if the court and the entire Jewish people saw the moon, and even if the witnesses were fully examined, a court that did not declare it sanctified before the nightfall beginning the thirty first day makes the month full and Rosh Chodesh falls on the thirty first, since the month is established by the declaration and not by the sighting. (2:8)
- Once said, it holds, error and all. A month the court has sanctified remains sanctified whether the judges erred unwittingly, were led astray, or were forced, and the festivals are reckoned from the day they named; even one who knows they erred must rely on them, since the matter was entrusted to them alone. (2:10)
RememberThe court may reconstitute itself the next morning, but it can do nothing at all about nightfall.