WHAT WOULD
SANHEDRIN DO?
By Rav. David Pollina
Shalom
Mishpocah,
YES. The title of this note
is indeed intended to be satirical, but in a good natured way. Many have
seen the popular bracelets "WWJD" - "What Would Jesus Do", and we really should
find someone to produce them as "WWYD". This needs to be the primary
question we ask ourselves in determining any issue where there are conflicting
views, for we are to model HIM.
I am preparing an
article on the Torah basis for understanding authority, as this issue with Rosh
HaShannah has really served to highlight what I see as an alarming trend amongst
Messianic believers - the rush to have Sanhedrin authority. As most of you
are aware, there is a new Sanhedrin forming in Jerusalem, and how we as
Messianic Yisraelites are to understand their place in OUR lives is going to
become a critical issue in the near future.
So we really
should not be asking the question WWSD, we should be asking WWYD, nu?
Y'shua would follow Torah. Y'shua did not follow the Sanhedrin. He
followed the same practices of theirs which agreed with Torah, and did not
follow those which contradicted Torah.
EVEN the
Sanhedrin at the time of the Mishnah (c.200 AD) had added additional criteria
beyond Torah in determining the first Chodesh of the year. Yet, when we
get down to 359 AD and Rabbi Hillel II, things took an even worse turn by
totally divorcing the calendar from any observation
whatsoever.
It is
interesting, however, to go through the Mishnah and try to determine how the
Sanhedrin of 200 AD would have looked at this Chodesh. The following is
from an e-mail I received from a friend of mine, Dr. Roy Hoffman. Roy is a
professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and heads the Israeli New Moon
Society which I also participate in. He is the author of the Lunacal
software which is one of the most powerful tools we use today for current and
archaeologic astronomical data. In short, he is one of the 'go-to' guys in
this field.
He is an Orthodox
Jew, and so for him, observing is only practice until a new Sanhedrin 'corrects'
the current problematic calendar. Until that happens, he like many others,
continues to follow the last standing instructions of the last Sanhedrin, and so
he is adding the 13th month. Here, he discusses the Talmudic method and
how it applies to this year - in theory:
Dr. Hoffman (my
emphasis added):
"The Jewish calendar is a lunar-solar
calendar. This means that in addition to fixing the start of each month, a
decision has to be made for the start of each year in order to match the
solar year. The calendar is kept in step by adding an extra month of Adar to
make a 13th month. In the calculated calendar that we use today,
this is done seven times in each 19-year cycle; on the 3rd,
6th, 8th, 11th, 14th,
17th and 19th years. This year is the 8th
year of the cycle and this New Moon is the start of the second month of
Adar."
"However, when the Sanhedrin fixes the
calendar by observation (which is not the case today) it also decides each
year if to add an extra month. It is interesting to consider what their
decision might have been especially as in the 19 year cycle, the
8th year is also the year that ends the latest relative to the
solar year. There are three major criteria that may be used and it turns out
that all three may be relevant this year. 1) If the 16th of
Nissan would fall before the vernal equinox then a month is added. This year
16th Adar II (March 27th) is a few days after the
equinox (March 20th) so we continue to the next criterion. 2)
Will there be enough barley ripe to reap on the eve of Nissan
16th, grind into flour and sacrifice on the next day? For this,
three regions are taken into consideration: Judea,
Samaria and the East Bank of the Jordan. I
have received reports that there are a few pockets of barley in Judea that will be ripe enough a few days before
16th Adar II. However, this is so marginal that it is unlikely
that there will be ripe barley in Samaria
which is cooler and wetter and it is questionable also on the East Bank of
the Jordan because it is
wetter than in Judea. If ripe barley is not
available in Judea then an extra month is
added. If barley is available in Judea and
at least one of the other regions then no extra month is added. If barley is
available only in Judea, as might be the
case this year, then the third criterion comes into play. 3) Are the fruit
trees that normally blossom in Nissan in flower by the end of Adar in order
to provide first-fruits in time for Shavuot. Unfortunately, I am not an
expert on this but it does seem quite possible that they are beginning to
bloom."
"It appears that this year the addition of
an extra Adar would be an extremely marginal decision if the Sanhedrin were
ruling the case. My best guess is that they would
not have made this a leap year. In any case this is
purely hypothetical as we add a second month of Adar this year according to
our calculated calendar."
What Roy is doing here is strictly following the
guidelines laid out in the Mishnah, as the Sanhedrin would have done. From
Torah alone however, the only criteria is the barley being in an abib
condition. Thus, even though we don't follow the Sanhedrin (more on that
later), it is interesting to see how they came to such
decisions.
Shalom w'Baraka,
(Peace & Bless
You)
Rav.
David PollinaRav. David Pollina