The new moon. The day of the Molad [conjunction] is Rosh Hodesh

 It is one of those odd kinds of years that got me wondering wondering about the new moon. The molad [conjunction of moon and sun] was yesterday. Today is when a court could have seen it. But tomorrow is when everyone is doing rosh hashanah.

To know the exact time of the molad is not hard. Hipparchus brings it in his book that he got it from the ancient Babylonians. But that is not the same thing as getting the lunar and solar time to correspond at least to some degree. 

The first time the calendar that is used was recorded was by Meton in Athens. That was considerably before the first mention of  a Hebrew Calendar which was by Saadia Gaon. The Gemara never mentions any calendar at all. and it just says the sages knew when the molad was קביעא דירחא. But that has nothing to do with the calendar.

Nor is there any mention of Hillel II setting up any kind of calendar. And during the time of the geonim we have letters bringing dates that do not correspond to the calendar.

What clearly happened was after the troubles that occurred in Babylon when the yeshivas were closed that there was no central authority and people needed to know when to celebrate the festivals. The calendar that was already widely used to made a reasonable correspondence between the solar and lunar years was Meton's calendar.

So the best idea is to depend on Tosphot in Sanhedrin [10b] that says that the day of the Molad is Rosh Hodesh

Saadia Gaon says the calendar is from the "shamua" but writing in Arabic uses the word that he uses elsewhere to refer to the general body of tradition. Not Halacha to Moses from Sinai.  Later people misunderstood Rav Saadia and thought he meant Halacha to Moshe from Sinai. But that not at all what Saadai wrote.

 There is an amazing wealth of advice in the books of Rav Nahman of Breslov and Uman. But also there was for me a certain kind of blessing that came to me when I got to his ziun in Uman. 

One of the most significant bits of advice is the path of learning--which is that of "girsa" say the words and going on.

By itself it does not seem to work very well, but together with the deep kind of learning that you have in Litvak yeshivas that seems to work well.

This certainly helped me in learning Gemara. In Shar Yashuv there was a tremendous emphasis on deep learning, but I felt kind of lost spending two weeks on one page of Gemara before I had even finished the tractate even once. But the deep learning combined with the girsa helped me a lot.

[Besides that after I took note of the opinion of some rishonim about the importance of Physics, this path of learning of Rav Nahman has been a great help for me. But I do have my little  addition I would like to make. Yes on one hand to get through the book, like Sting Theory or something like that, but then when you get to the end then instead of starting again at the beginning, you go back page by page from the end to the beginning.]\

A lot depends on whom you marry.

 A lot depends on whom you marry. This was conventional wisdom in the Litvak yeshiva world. 

When it comes down to choosing a wife, you need to find one that is a bat talmid chacham (daughter of a authentic Torah scholar from the realm of holiness). The reason is that if you want to continue learning Torah after you marry you need to find a wife that wants you to be sitting and learning.

It was said that, "If she wants you to learn, you will learn. If she does not want you to learn then you will not."

You can see this even in the wider world. It is know that one of the major mistakes that caused the downfall of the Confederacy was John Bell Hood [known as Sam Hood]. He had an amazing steak of victories  up until he fell in love with Sally Preston. She was so well know as a flirt  that one soldier who was thought to be interested in her was asked about this. He answered, "I would rather face a charge of Yankees. I do not want to end upon the casualty list."

Yet John Bell Hood did fall in love with her, and not just lost battle after battle, but in one of the most crucial aspects of the war, he was put in charge of an entire army, and really messed up so much so that it caused the loss of the entire war.  

[He thought to attack Sherman's supply lines. Sherman could not have been more happy. He said he soldiers ate and sleep better living off the land.]

evolution

Racism is simply evolution. Every species changes and diverges in different directions. There is nothing wrong or evil about that. It is just the way things change.And every group has to find some way to fit into their niche and to do so means it changes to fit its niche.

Talking with God as one talks with a good friend- Hitbodadut

Talking with God as one talks with a good friend is not mentioned much in the LeM of Rav Nahman. The first place is vol. 2. And even there not anything more than saying it is a great thing.

Then at the very end it is brought up as the main thing to be doing all the time.

You can say that it simply was not known to Rav Nahman how important it is until the end of his life.

And in fact that seems clear from the Conversations of Rav Nahman.

The emphasis  comes from a very short two paragraphs in LeM vol II section 96 that the greatest Avodat Hashem ("service towards God") is to do hitbodadut. "And since most people are not able to do this much, at least it is necessary to command them to do it at least an hour a day. But for one who really wants to serve God, it is the best thing to spend the whole day talking with God as one talks with a friend."

But I have had mixed feeling about this. At first, when I started taking the ideas of Rav Nahman more seriously I went in for the Hitbodadut thing also. So instead of learning Torah I would go out into the fields and forest around Safed to spend the whole day "doing Hitbodadut."

Then I noticed that in Breslov, that is people that were consciously following the path of Rav Nahman, there seemed to be a need to be spending more time on learning Torah. And on the other hand I noticed that "learning Torah" also did not seem to bring people to a higher moral and spiritual level.

It was hard to put it all together. Another thing that made it hard to figure out was that in fact the beginning of this period in Safed when I was concentrating on Hitbodadut, I felt a tremendous surge of energy, what then I would refer to as אור אין סוף ("the infinite light of God"). So after all is said and done, I have to agree that the Hitbodadut thing is just as important and even more so that Rav Nahman said it is. 

So it is the best thing to have a balance between Hitbodadut and learning Torah.  

At any rate, in Torah thought, Learning Torah is what one must do if he can. Taking away any time from learning Torah is forbidden except for doing a commandment that can not be done by anyone else.

In fact I sometimes would hear the old Yidish expression: "Abi Nisht zu learning" [anything but learning]. That is one ought to sit and learn Torah and trust in God for parnasah. But if parnasah doesnot come, then one ought to work. But the idea is that learning Torah iswhat one ought to spend his tome and energy on. 

[However in my case I have an expanded idea and a contracted idea of what learning Torah means: I.e. it includes Mathematics and Physics as per the Rishonim like the Inb Pakuda and Rambam. But also a contracted idea because the Oral Law mean the actual books handed down to us by the sages of the Mishna and Gemara. Everything after that is not, "The Oral Torah."

  

If a Israeli marries, and finds his wife is not a virgin, she is still permitted to him because of doubt of a doubt. ספק ספקא. Ketuboth page 9 side B

 A priest [Kohen from the male descendants of Aaron the brother of Moses] has more restrictions on who he can marry than a regular Israeli. As you can see in the verses in Leviticus the section of "Emor" "Speak to the priests", he can not marry  a "Zona" which is any woman who has had sex with someone that was forbidden to her (by a prohibition from the Torah.). It matters not if it was rape or not.

This is different than a Israeli. If his wife was raped, then she is still permitted to him. But if it was with her agreement, then she is forbidden to her husband from then on.

This is a bit of an introduction. Next between betrothal and marriage there used to be a long time period. But betrothal was done in such a way that she became a married woman. [That is called Kidushin.]

So if a Israeli marries, [that is did kidushin betrothal and much later does nisuin that is the actual bringing her into his home] and finds his wife is not a virgin, she is still permitted to him because of  doubt of a doubt. ספק ספקא. Maybe the sex was before she got married [betrothal] . And even if it was after, maybe it was rape. So because a doubt of a doubt ספק ספקא is permitted, she is permitted to her husband. [The rule is in a case of a doubt about a prohibition of the Torah, the law is to forbid. But if the case is a doubt of a doubt, the law is to permit. ]

The Shita Mekubetzet asks why is this not a case of טומאה ברשות היחיד uncleanliness in a private domain-which we learn from "sota" [a married woman who has strayed] is forbidden? He answers that is when there is a prior status that there can at least begin a doubt. [Like in the case of Sota when there are reasons to believe she strayed. Here there is nothing like that.

Another answer that Rav Shach gives is  this is not really a case of טומאה uncleanliness. but of prohibition. Only if we already know that she is forbidden, then it becomes a case of טומאה uncleanliness, but here we do not know in the first place if she is forbidden. 

Orchestra and piano from around 1994]

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