Huh, why does Israel celebrate two days of Rosh Hashana? "We don't know when the new moon shows up in Jerusalem exactly so we're going to celebrate two days" only applied outside, I thought. Is it just to be extra sure because it's RH, or is there another reason?
Rosh Hashana is the only holiday that's on the first of the month -- so even if you're relying on local witnesses, by the time they show up you'd be hours into the day. The others are mid-month or later, so that problem doesn't arise.
Heh. I had a paragraph on Rosh Chodesh but deleted it for fear of providing too much information. :-)
Rosh Chodesh has the same basic uncertainty, but the consequences of missing aren't as severe. The festivals, Rosh Hashana, and Yom Kippur all forbid creative work (melacha), and all but Yom Kippur have a sanctification over wine to inaugurate them. Rosh Chodesh has none of that.
Today about half of the Rosh Chodeshes are two-day observances. Why not all of them? It has something to do with the fact that months can't be more than 30 days long, but I'm not quite sure how that works, nor why we couldn't do the same thing with Rosh Hashana (which is a Rosh Chodesh, though Rosh Hashana trumps that).
There's a lot about Rosh Chodesh that I don't know, so sorry for the fuzziness here.
Congrats on your shul finding a great way to help the community, and differentiate itself from the other Reform shuls around. And I'm impressed that you got so many more people, and on a Tuesday, too.
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Rosh Chodesh has the same basic uncertainty, but the consequences of missing aren't as severe. The festivals, Rosh Hashana, and Yom Kippur all forbid creative work (melacha), and all but Yom Kippur have a sanctification over wine to inaugurate them. Rosh Chodesh has none of that.
Today about half of the Rosh Chodeshes are two-day observances. Why not all of them? It has something to do with the fact that months can't be more than 30 days long, but I'm not quite sure how that works, nor why we couldn't do the same thing with Rosh Hashana (which is a Rosh Chodesh, though Rosh Hashana trumps that).
There's a lot about Rosh Chodesh that I don't know, so sorry for the fuzziness here.
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