Welcome back to our pre-Pesach Mishnayot learning series where we are studying the Mishnayot as it relates to the time period between Purim and Pesach. We are currently studying Mishnayot related to the 29th day of Adar, ערב ראש חודש ניסן, the day before Rosh Chodesh Nissan, and today we are going to focus on the topic of creating the Ibur Shanah as we call it where we add a month to the Jewish calendar and it's famously known as Adar Sheini where we add a second Adar and that's great because that means we actually end up getting two sets of Purims, Purim in the first Adar and then Purim in the second Adar. And the reason we might add a month is because, briefly, the Jewish calendar is fixed based on the lunar cycle. The moon goes around the earth roughly every 29 and a half days and that constitutes a month. And if you calculate that out that's about 354 days every year. On the other hand, another way to calculate the year not using the moon is to use the sun where the earth goes around the sun and that takes 365 and a quarter days, roughly 11 days longer than the lunar year. So the solar year minus the lunar year leaves us with 11 days every year. So that means that our Jewish calendar would fall behind the regular calendar by 11 days every year. So let's say Pesach was supposed to be April 1st, within three years you lose 11 days every year, it would be close to March 1st or a little bit in February and then it would be in January and then in December and we would, by the time we turn around, Pesach would be where we normally have Chanukah. And that can't be because the Torah calls Pesach Chag Ha-Aviv. It is the springtime holiday and therefore the Chachamim understood that we need to balance our calendars, the moon calendar and the sun calendar, and the way you do that is by adding a month every couple of years. Nowadays we have a fixed calendar, meaning we know the system, we know the cycle and we add those every few years. In fact, next year I believe will be a leap year. On the other hand, in the time of the Mishna, the way they determined Rosh Chodesh was not on a fixed calendar but it would be with two witnesses who would testify to the Beit Din in Yerushalayim that they saw the new moon and then the Beit Din would declare that day Rosh Chodesh and that would either be the 30th day would be Rosh Chodesh of the month or the 31st day. However, that's good for declaring Rosh Chodesh. How did they know if they had to add a month? So therefore the Beit Din, the Mishna tells us in Sanhedrin, the second Mishna of Perek Aleph tells us that the Beit Din would gather, the smaller Beit Din of three judges and then maybe five judges and then maybe seven judges and they would determine and they had a lot of things that they would think about including making sure that Pesach fell in the spring. They would also look to see how rainy the season was and whether the ovens in Yerushalayim were all wet and could not be used to roast the Korban Pesach. They would also try to see how well the people were traveling from far away and whether they would make it for Pesach and all those things would go into their determination whether to add the second month of Adar. Now the question is what, when during the month can they think about that? Should they think about it in the beginning of Adar, the end of Adar? So we'll see in our Mishna, our Mishna tonight will be Mishna מסכת עדיות פרק ז משנה ז. We will see there that originally they would try to make this determination before Purim so that people would have enough time to learn about it before they set out to travel. However, our Mishna will tell us that it later came to be that they would wait all the way until the 29th of Adar so that they can take more, they can look around longer, they can determine and deliberate and they can think about the issue longer and they would try to make the decision just before Rosh Chodesh Nissan. The basic difference between that would be, of course, that if you always had to determine the leap year before Purim you would never really have the chance to have what we call Purim Katan, which is Purim in the first Adar, and Purim Sheini, which is in Adar Sheini. On the other hand, but we do know, and for those of you who have studied Masechet Megilla, that in פרק א משנה ד we see there that the Mishna seems to be in line with our Mishna that you always make the determination after Purim because there it discusses what's the difference between the first Adar and the second Adar and the idea is that Purim is the big, natural difference, meaning that you have to repeat Purim. So we see that that Mishna understood our Mishna, our Mishna in Masechet Eduyot and therefore ruled accordingly. Okay, so we will begin our Mishna in Eduyot, like I said, פרק ז משנה ז. The beginning of the Mishna has two Halachas. Halachos that are unrelated. We will speak about them very briefly, but we will then focus on the ibbur year on adding the month to the year. The Mishna begins: Hem Heidu, they testified. Now Masechtas Idios is a Masechta that's full of testimony of people who came to the Yeshiva in Yavne and they testified about Halachos that they had heard from their Rabbanim and they were telling over it over to the Beis Medrash. So hem, they, is a reference to the Mishna before ours where Reb Yehoshua and Rab Papyas were saying over a number of testimonies that they knew, that they learned from their Rabbanim. So Hem Heidu, they testified על ארוכות של נחתומים on the planks that bakers would use to bake their bread. They were flat pieces of wood and generally speaking, flat pieces of wood are not considered, cannot become tamei, they cannot become impure. However they testified that because these are used regularly by the baker, shehein tameios, they can become tamei. And that is to, and that is in opposition to שרבי אליעזר מטהר because Rebbi Eliezer normally ruled that even these planks that the bakers would use to bake their bread, mattaher they are tahar because he ruled that those are like regular flat pieces of wood that never become tamei. That is the first testimony. The second testimony of the Mishna is Hem Heidu, again Reb Yehoshua and Rab Papyas, they testified על תנור שחתכו חוליות that if you take the stoves that they used to use were in cone shape and they would and so sometimes in order to make them travel if you want to have a travel stove you would slice the stove into slices into round slices and then what you would do is you would layer between each slice some sand so they weren't stuck together and then you would put plaster on the outside to hold it together but then when you broke away the plaster you could take apart your oven your stove and move it I'm sorry your oven and move it along with you. And so he says that they testified that in this type of tannur that is made of these circular pieces ונתן חול בין חוליה לחוליה and you place sand in between each of them so that they don't stick together. Shehu tamei that they are tamei because you consider it as a whole oven and a whole oven can become tamei. Again שרבי אליעזר מטהר because Rebbi Eliezer argued on this and said because it's in pieces and it's not stuck together therefore it is always going to be tahar. That is testimony number two. Testimony number three is the one that we are focused on today, Hem Heidu Reb Yehoshua and Rab Papyas testified shemeabberin es hashana that you can create a leap year bechol Adar all the way up through the 29th of Adar. Shehayu omerim because it was the original rule ad haPurim that only until Purim which is 30 days before Pesach to give people time as I said. But instead as I said and it seems to be that that's how we pasken that we rule this way that you can add the leap year all the way through the 29th of Adar and that's why it's related to the 29th of Adar. And finally related to the idea of creating a leap year the Mishna concludes with a fourth testimony Hem Heidu again Reb Yehoshua and Rab Papyas testified שמעברין את השנה על תנאי that although normally you need the head of the court the head of the Beis Din to be there when you want to declare a leap year you can if he's not around then you can declare the leap year on the condition that the head of the Beis Din will agree to it. And now the Mishna which it occasionally does it brings a story to prove its point. Umaaseh beRabban Gamliel it tells us a story of Rabban Gamliel one of the great Tannoyim who was the head of the Beis Din שהלך ליטול רשות מהגמון בסוריא he was traveling he went to speak to the government that was in Syria up north of Eretz Yisrael he needed to talk to them. Veshahah lavo and he was spending too much time there he had I guess it took a while all the appointments all the bureaucracy took him a while. Ve'ibberu es hashana and the Beis Din determined that they needed to make a leap year al tnai so they did it on the condition shekesheyirtze Rabban Gamliel that Rabban Gamliel will agree to it when he finds out about it. And certainly and that's what happened ukeshebba amar ratzani and when he showed up he said ratzani Rabban Gamliel said I agree with that. Venimtseis and therefore we found hashana meuberres that the year was the leap year was in fact good and therefore there was now an Adar Sheni. And for those of you who are looking at the slides you can see in the first slide we have the tavla shel nachtomim we have the baker and his tray. We also have a picture of the of the oven the tannur shel sapirin we have the oven. And then also in the second slide is the picture of the Beis Din deliberating as you can see it's getting late in Adar and they're trying to figure out and you can see pictures of them looking at the agricultural and the moon cycles and you can see already people starting to get ready for Pesach and they're trying to make a determination whether or not they should add a leap year and with that like I said this. And with that like I said this Mishnah in Eiduyot Zayin Zayin is also related to the Mishnah in Sanhedrin Aleph Bais and Megillah Aleph Daled, and you can look at our visual to see how they are all connected as well.