In which you will find

words of truth on

halacha and science

through which an intelligent person will walk

a straight path

and achieve rational inference.

Therefore, make knowledge and truth

a crown for your head.

Volume Number Five

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The month of Adar, 5759

“How do we know that it is a commandment for a person to calculatetekufot and the zodiac? For it is said that “It is your wisdom and your understanding before the eyes of the nations.”[1] What is the wisdom and understanding which is before the nations? Say this is the calculation oftekufot and the zodiac.” (Shabbat, 75)

We, speakers of the true knowledge, also want to merit this important commandment of calculating the tekufot. For this is glorious knowledge by which it is possible to recognize the greatness of He who spoke and the world came into being.

We will also mention that wisdom and understanding about actuality and reality are that which guided us in all the previous pamphlets. We have already been privileged, at a fortuitous hour, to publish four pamphlets, each in several editions, and we are still poised to print and send to all who ask.

In these pamphlets we examined Chazal’s knowledge of realistic truth and have shown that on many  issues (the laws of Shabbat, treifot, signs of kashrut in animals, matters of time, etc.). Chazal’s knowledge was exactly as the knowledge of the wise men of those generations. They did not receive it from Sinai, and the Divine Spirit did not speak through their mouths.

In this pamphlet we are dealing with the calculation of the tekufot and the signs of the zodiac, about which it is said, “For it is your wisdom and understanding before the nations.” Mainly we will deal with the time of the moon’s renewal, which is a topic of the “secret” of “ibur” (intercalation), and we will see, G-d willing, just to whom the wisdom of calculation belongs.

The renewal of the moon is the time which passes between molad (New Moon) and molad, which is called the synodic month in English.

It is written in Masechet Rosh Hashana 25a: “Rabban Gamliel said to them: Thus I received from my grandfather’s house—the moon does not renew in less than 29 days and a half and  of an hour and 73 chalakim (an hour = 1080chalakim).

This is an remarkably like what is known to us today about the mean length of the synodic {month} and deviates from current calculations by less than one second!

And, as is the way of believers who found scientific exactitude in Chazal, they have adapted it to strengthen their belief that only from the Divine Spirit itself could this sort of accuracy come into the hands of Rabban Gamliel. And those who publicize the faith and go to the secular to return them to the faith make this issue their main proof that the wisdom of Chazal is from the Divine Spirit and that the Holy One, blessed be His name, spoke through them.

And you should know, student who seeks the true knowledge, that the early Babylonians knew the synodic mean with the same amazing accuracy before the great-grandfather of the great-grandfather of Rabban Gamliel’s great-grandfather was born! We have written tablets from the two astronomical centers of Babylon (named “Nabu-rimmani” and “Kidinu”) on which they cited not only the mean synodic time, but also the manner of its calculation, all this 400 years before Rabban Gamliel’s time.

And understand that to know the length of the moon’s renewal is simple and there is no need to rely on Divine mercy—it is enough to know the time of two lunar eclipses and divide the time between them by the number of months and you have the mean time of the synodic month, and thus the Babylonians measured and achieved this remarkable accuracy. When Babylon was conquered by the armies of Alexander the Great, the wisdom of astronomy moved over to the Greeks and they continued to develop it. All that Rabban Gamliel’s grandfather received, he received from the Babylonians and the Greeks.

And a sign that all we have said is true comes from the two great lights, the Ibn Ezra and the Rambam. The Ibn Ezra brings, in an aside, the method of calculating the synodic mean and does not make it out to be any secret or anything Divine. And he writes (Daniel, chapter 9, verse 24): “Perhaps you will want to know about the molad; if you know the time of the moon’s eclipse this year and have it eclipsing a hundred years ago, I can then know the moon’s true position.”

And the Rambam, in his great honesty, wrote in the Laws of Sanctifying the Month, halacha 24: “And the point of all these calculations and the reason they add this count, and the reason they subtract, how each and every thing known, and the proof for each and every thing is the wisdom of the tekufot and the gematriot which the wise men of Greece wrote many books about. They are now found in the hands of the sages, but the books written by the Jewish sages in the times of the prophets of the sons of Issachar did not come down to us. And since all these things are clearly proven to be unexceptional and no man can doubt them, there is no hesitation about whether the prophets wrote them, or whether the Gentiles did. Since the reason behind all things is revealed and their truth proven to be unexceptional, we rely on the person, as he said or learned the proof revealed and the reason known,” end of quote.

And you, the student who thinks and examines the truth, see how the words of the Rambam are more precious than gold, for about all things which have their reasons revealed and their scientific truth known, it makes no real difference who said it, be it a prophet or Gentile or Jewish sage; hold fast to this rule and do not let it go.

And what follows from all these words of ours is that instead of saying, “For it is your wisdom and your understanding before the nations,” it should rightly say,“For this is the wisdom of the nations and their understanding before your eyes.” One who says something in the name of its originator, etc.

And on the issue of Rabban Gamliel’s citation, you the wise and learned student who pursues the truth with no favoritism, please look and see that there is a great difficulty about these things. And we will see this difficulty via three witnesses.

First is a Breita brought by the Ibn Ezra on Exodus 12, and he writes: This is what the Breita says—”One who wants to know the position of the moon should calculate the age of the world and give each month 29 days and two yadot of an hour, which is 720 chalakim, and 73 chalakim  are missing”—end of quote.

And R’ Abraham the Nasi, in “Sefer HaIbur” wrote: And in this Breita, in the name of Shmuel, it is written that the measure of the month is only 29 days, 12 hours, and 2/3 of an hour, end of quote.

This is a Breita in which the time of the synodic mean differs from Rabban Gamliel’s time, and the division of the hours into chalakim is not mentioned in the Breita.

Second, the division of the hour into 1080 chalakim is found nowhere else in the Gemara but here, while the Tosefta in Brachot chapter one says, “An onahis one twenty-fourth of an hour, an et is one twenty-fourth of an onah, and aregah is one twenty-fourth of an et.” Therefore, Chazal divided the hour into 576etim and 13824 regaim. Nowhere did they divide it into 1080 chalakim, nor did they consider doing so.

And now we come to the third proof, the most respected of all. The exactitude in Rabban Gamliel’s words is only regarding the mean synodic month, and not regarding any actual lunar month. The time of 29 days, 12 {hours} and 793 {chalakim} is a mean time and not the time of an actual lunar month; as the Rambam writes in The Laws of Sanctifying the Moon chapter 5,halacha 3, it is the mean time and sometimes it may be up to 14 hours more or less. As the Ibn Ezra, on Parshat Bo, wrote: ‘If [the Scripture] relied on the molad, it would have a difference, whether it be according to the mean progression or the true molad, which is according to the zodiac cycle (which is sometimes between the intercalated molad and the true molad). Sometimes he will have to add and sometimes to subtract close to 14 hours, and therefore our rabbis said: “Sometimes [the New Moon] comes from a long orbit and sometimes it comes from a short one” (Rosh Hashana 25a). sometimes instructed to lengthen it and sometimes instructed to curtail it.

And thus commented the Rambam about the words of the Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 25a), “Rabban Gamliel said to the sages—thus have I received from my grandfather’s house. Sometimes it is longer and sometimes shorter.” There, in halacha 23, “And the sages said, sometimes it is longer and sometimes shorter, as you can see from these calculations, sometimes you add to it and sometimes you subtract.”

What Rashi and the Tosfot said about the molad witnesses Rabban Gamliel accepted (in Tractate Rosh Hashanah) is puzzling, and the Rambam, in his commentary on the Mishnayot, remarked: And lest you think, when they said “We say {the New Moon was} in the morning in the east and in the evening in the west,” this is what some fools believe (Rashi and the Tosfot) that he believed them on these things, etc., and no one believes this except an absolute fool and a boor who only perceives the cycle as the ox and the donkey would perceive it, end of quote.

We have found from Rabban Gamliel himself that many months the New Moon is less than 29 {days}, 12 {hours}, 793 {chalakim}, and how could Rabban Gamliel say he received from his grandfather’s house that the renewal of the moon is not less than 29 {days}, 12 {hours}, 793 {chalakim}? And this is a contradiction in and of itself.

And it seems obvious that it ought to say “it is not less than 29 days” alone, that is, there are no months of 28 days, and one can not make the 29^th day Rosh Chodesh [as was the topic of debate in the gemara there].  Therefore, against our will, we say that the 12 {hours}, 793 {chalakim} are a later addition by one who does not understand at all and brought the words of Rabban Gamliel to the point of contradiction.

It is clear and also certain that later additions to the Gemara are possible and you, the student, must know and understand that not only in this place are there forgeries, changes and additions, but in many places, and we will bring them in upcoming pamphlets; each matter is discussed in its place.

Chazal’s and the Rishonim’s lack of understanding about matters of reality is particularly serious on the topic of the molad time. They did not bother to understand what lay between the mean molad, the true molad, and the other times in the moon’s orbit (for {we learn} from scientific reality that the moon’s movements are not at a constant speed). And they erred on halacha tied to this, and a proof is in the laws of the final permissible time for blessing the new moon.

The Gemara, in Sanhedrin 41b: Rabbi Asi said that Rabbi Yochanan said—How long do you bless the moon? Until its deficiency is filled. And how long? Nahardai said until the 16^th. And Rashi commented: “until its deficiency is filled”—but afterwards it is not right to say “renewing the months”, as it is already old.  Therefore the blessing on the new moon is permitted until the moon actually begins to wane. One must calculate and know the moment of its waning and it certainly is not the midpoint of the mean molad (and also not the true midpoint).

And this is the opinion of the Beit Yosef (Orach Chaim, 426): “I have found in a German responsum [Maharil, responsum 19] that the reason is what they said, ‘Until its deficiency is filled.’ The matter depends on the filling, and it is neither 15 nor 16, but half the 29/12/973, which is the filling; this is what seems likely to me”—end of quote.

And so the Rama ruled in Orach Chaim, chapter 426.

And today, when we know the moon’s orbit in all its details and specifics, we can calculate the exact time the moon is full. And since the sages did not know, even in our generation they calculated only according to the mean time. And even the Chofetz Chaim, who lived in the period when the calculation was known to all, ruled in the Mishna Brura, 426, chapter 100/19, in his explanation of the words of the Rama, that one should only sanctify until half of 29/12/973; that means the moon does not renew at less than 29/12/973 chalakim of an hour, end of quote, and he did not understand that it is the mean molad and has no relevance at all to the issue of the full moon, and since he erred in reality, he erred in halacha.

I have looked in the books by rabbis of our generation and found further evidence for the claim that they received knowledge of the tekufot from the Greeks. Rabbi Chaim Kanevsky, in his book “Shekel HaKodesh,” wrote in his introduction, “And they said in the name of the Chazon Ish OBM that even though the Rambam copied the calculations in the final chapters of ‘Sanctifying the Month’ from the Gentiles, as written at the end of chapter 17, after the Rambam wrote them down they became true Torah and one who learns them learns Torah,” and I am amazed for a while by for the words of Rabbi Kanevsky and their significance. According to him, the scientist’s words become G-d’s living words as long as a Jewish sage mentioned them. A stroke of the pen is enough to turn the words of Greek astronomers into words of true Torah, so that one who learns them is studying Torah. And this is a wonderful example of how human words, even those of Gentile scholars, turn into holy words. (And about this topic, how human creation turns into Divine creation, we will expand on in future pamphlets, as it is one of the foundations of Judaism.)

So what has been said, “wisdom from the Gentiles—believe. Torah from the Gentiles—do not believe” has become “wisdom from the Gentiles becomes Torah for the Jews,” all this according to Rabbi Chaim Kanevsky and the Chazon Ish OBM.

And if we’ve mentioned Rabbi Kanevsky, let us say just one thng more about him. I reviewed his book “Shekel HaKodesh” and am greatly puzzled that he did not bring the science and astronomy known to us now, with it being clear to any reasonable person that the reality which faced the Rambam was mistaken. And instead of adopting the words of today’s scientists, proven beyond a doubt, he remained a boor and ignoramus in the sciences as though they had not developed at all since then.

But the acts of the fathers are a sign for the sons, and like his father, Rabbi Yaacov Yisrael Kanevsky OBM, who did not check the cycle of blood in scientific books and so erred in his interpretation (see pamphlet #2), so, too, did he. Woe to the world for the Torah’s disgrace.

As is our way, our search for truth without encouragement from our rabbis is impossible; therefore we cite the words of the Ramchal in “Derech T’vunot”:“The love for knowledge of the truth is a natural matter for the intelligent soul which is in us. You will not find a mentally healthy person who will not exert himself and try with all his mental prowess to reveal it about matters which he happens to contemplate.” And in conclusion we will further quote the words of the Rambam in his response to Rabbi Ovadia Ger-Tzedek, “And anyone who abandons [that is, leaves aside] things built on the foundations of knowledge and understanding because certain details taken from sources do not sit well with those things does nothing but lose himself to reason.”

And you, the student who desires words of truth, do not abandon things built on the foundations of knowledge and understanding of reality; check and investigate and examine. You will reach the truth and secure it. Remember and observe that only from investigation and examination via the senses and intellect will you probe the truth, for only from reality can deduction arise, and not the opposite.

And we will say, as a side-note, that the third edition of pamphlet #1 has been finished, and many more have requested it. Therefore a fourth edition will soon be printed, and we ask those who are waiting to wait just a bit longer. There still remain some of pamphlets 2 and 4 and we will gladly send them to anyone who asks.

We harbor an increasing amazement about the impotence of those rabbis who lodge complaints against us on the issues written up in our pamphlets. Writers of letters full of absurdities, threats and abuse, G-d forbid. There is not a single claim worthy of a scholar. Rabbi Y.D. Rosenberg wrote a long article in “Yated Neeman” (4 Shevat 5759), all dirges and moans, claims and talk, and not a word of response to a single argument. He enumerated, like a peddler, the Jewish sages and sang their praises. And what has this to do with all the true, correct and investigated things which we said? He says only bad things about us, without justification, since, though he can bring no counter-claims which contradict our claims, he may not nullify things out-of-hand. A few others wrote as he did, and it would be a waste of writing time and the readers’ time {to being them here}. Oh, who will give us an honest debating partner.

Several scholars wanted to note a mistake in citation which occurred, they claimed, in pamphlet #2. It is written that the words of Rabbi Kanevsky, the Steipler OBM, were brought from chapter 17 in his book, where it should have read chapter 13. We thank those who made the comments and will say that what we brought was from the second edition of the book, whose chapters were re-edited  and printed in 5751. There the words are in the chapter we cited in the pamphlet.

Another new thing in our pockets is our email address below, at which we will converse with all who write. And we know that anyone who wants can send email without revealing any identifying personal details, using a pseudonym as he wishes. You can also receive answers through this pseudonym’s address, all without revealing names at all. Those who wish anonymity should contact us this way.

And you, the reader who seeks truth and knowledge, if you harbor thoughts or questions in your heart, please contact us in any way or through any medium you like and we will do our best to answer you.

Complete confidentiality is promised to all our correspondents.