Hello everyone and welcome back to our Mishnah series, our pre-Pesach Mishnah series as we continue to learn Mishnayot related to the period of time between Purim and Pesach as a lead up to Pesach. So last night we completed our learning regarding the 29th of Adar and we make our way to the next day in the calendar which is Rosh Chodesh Nissan. And this is a series of four Mishnayot we will cover one each night, four Mishnayot that make reference to the day of Rosh Chodesh Nissan. So let's begin and so it should come as no surprise the first Mishnah in our series will be the first Mishnah in Masechet Rosh Hashanah. מסכת ראש השנה פרק א משנה א, a very famous Mishnah that describes four different what we would call New Years during the year, New Years for different purposes. We all know the New Year January 1st is the New Year for the secular year and that's when the year changes from last year was 2025 this year is 2026 and so that's one type of New Year but there were identify a number of New Years throughout the year and the Mishnah in the first Mishnah Masechet Rosh Hashanah will describe these four. Now the reason why these four are chosen is because these Rashei Hashanot all fall out on Rosh Chodesh for the most part we'll see there's some machloket in our Mishnah there's some dispute but all four Rashei Hashanot fall on Rosh Chodesh and therefore and as many of you know Masechet Rosh Hashanah has actually two big topics the first topic the first half is about Rosh Chodesh and how the Beis Din declares Rosh Chodesh and then the second half of the Masechet is about what we call the Yom Tov of Rosh Hashanah and the mitzvah of Shofar and the other mitzvos of the day. But let us begin now learning the Mishnah. משנה ראש השנה פרק א משנה א. So the Mishnah begins very simply with a statement ארבעה ראשי שנים הם. There are four New Years, four Rosh Hashanahs throughout the year. The first one being Be-echad Be-nissan. The first one is Rosh Chodesh Nissan that's why it is connected to our series, the first one is Rosh Chodesh Nissan and that's the Rosh Hashanah that's a Rosh Hashanah for two different things one is La-melachim one is for the kings, which means that the Jewish kings when you're counting how many years did they rule how many years did they reign so then the way you count it is that if they ruled before Rosh Chodesh Nissan and then Rosh Chodesh Nissan shows up that day becomes the second year of their reign. So let's say they started on Rosh Chodesh Adar that would have been year one and then Rosh Chodesh Nissan would have started year two of their reign and it's important because they would sometimes use the date of the king's ruling king's reign as the as a date in contracts so this way you knew what year you were speaking about. So that's the first one and the second one is Velar-regalim and for the Yamim Tovim. Although there is a dispute a machloket when the world was created Rosh Hashanah of Rosh Chodesh in Tishrei or in Nissan for the purposes of the order of the Yamim Tovim we always begin with Rosh Chodesh Nissan meaning the Yamim Tovim in order then would be Pesach followed by Shavuos followed by Sukkos. And the reason that this is important is because if someone makes a promise to bring a Korban to the Beis HaMikdash the halakha is that he can wait up to three of the Yamim Tovim and if he waits beyond and too long and he waits beyond the third Yom Tov then he violates the averah of Bal Te'acher of waiting too long to fulfill his promise. And so the halakha is that it's not just any random order of the Yamim Tovim but rather we always start from Pesach so if you made your promise right after Pesach and then came Shavuos and Sukkos and then the following Pesach you still would not be obligated to bring your Korban or you wouldn't be over the averah of Bal Te'acher until that second Pesach and the following Shavuos and the following Sukkos passed. So you would get almost close to two years before you violated that halakha. So those are the two Rosh Hashanahs related to Rosh Chodesh Nissan. The second Rosh Chodesh is Be-echad Be-elul is the first day of Elul and that is ראש השנה למעשר בהמה that is the Rosh Chodesh as it relates to Maaser Behemah. The halakha of generally of giving maaser when you give one-tenth and we spoke about Maaser Behemah in an earlier Mishnah where we discussed that there were actually three times during the year when you would separate the animals for Maaser Behemah. But here the Mishnah is telling us that there was one on the Rosh Chodesh of Elul and the point of this halakha is that we don't mix and match the years for purposes of maaser meaning if I have an animal born before Rosh Chodesh However, רבי אלעזר ורבי שמעון אומרים, Reb Elazar and Reb Shimon argue and say that is not actually Rosh Chodesh Elul but אחד בתשרי ראש חודש תשרי. And then so that's the second Rosh Hashana. The third Rosh Hashana is אחד בתשרי ראש השנה. Now we now know it as the Yom Hadin, but the Mishna first says Rosh Hashana what is it the Rosh Hashana for? The first day of Tishrei, lashanim, to count the years so we know we are now in the year 5786 from the creation of the world, although it's an interesting question when was year one? I will post in the chat a little discussion about when and how you count year one, but this year is 5786 from creation so that is one reason. Lashanim like I said to count the year, velashmitin there is a seven year cycle of shmita and so the years flip on every Rosh Hashana. So on Rosh Hashana it would be year two then year three and then shmita would start on the Rosh Hashana of year seven. And similarly velayovlos would also be for Yovel. Yovel is every 50 years and so you would have seven cycles of seven shmitos, that's 49 years, and the 50th would be Yovel. Again it would come in on Rosh Hashana of the first day of Tishrei. Then it also applies similarly to the maiser, sorry, lenatiya is to planting. So if you plant a new fruit tree for the first three years it's called orla. You're not allowed to eat those fruits. In fact I recently planted an orla tree in Eretz Yisrael and we had to destroy the fruits on that tree so you don't come to eat them. They are assur to eat. And then on the fourth year it would be what's called neta revai. It would be the fourth year you would have to bring those fruits up to Yerushalayim and eat them. So velanatiya is that the years for both orla and neta revai switch again on the first day of Tishrei. And finally velayerakos, yerakos means vegetables and that again when it comes to giving maiser you can't combine vegetables from one year one maiser year to the other maiser year and so therefore the line that divides them would be the first day of Tishrei. And finally the fourth Rosh Hashana is be-echad beShvat, the first day of Shvat is Rosh Hashana la'ilan is the Rosh Hashana for the trees and again this relates to maiser that again if you have fruits that grow before that date and after the date you cannot combine them for maiser. And the Rosh Chodesh Shvat is kedivrei Beit Shammai, that is according to Beit Shammai. On the other hand Beit Hillel omrim, Beit Hillel says bachamisha asar bo in fact the Rosh Hashana for l'ilanos is what we now know as Tu B'Shvat. And Tu B'Shvat would be the date on which you would have to separate the fruits in order to know which year you're giving the maiser on as well. And so and with that we conclude our learning tonight but keep on learning and we will see the next Mishna tomorrow.