Rosh Hashana 11

Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua share their ideas about the importance of different months in Biblical history and in our future.  For example, Rabbi Eliezer believes that we were redeemed from Egypt in Nisan and that Moshiach will come in Tishrei.  Rabbi Yehoshua believes that we were redeemed from Egypt and that Moshiach will come in Nisan.

The months in question are when the world was created, when the Patriarchs were born, when the Patriarchs died, when Isaac was born, when Sara, Rachel and Channah were remembered, when Joseph came out from prison, when slavery in Egypt ended, when we were redeemed from Egypt and when we will be redeemed in the final redemption.

The Gemara details different verses that prove that Rosh Hashana was the the day that our foremothers were 'remembered' ie. conceived; that Tishrei was the month when the world was created.  To do this they use both natural laws and verbal analogies.  For example, we are told in Genesis 1:11 that G-d said that the earth should grow grass, that herbs should grow seeds, and that trees are yielding fruits according to their kind.  Rabbi Eliezer asks in which month do these things happen?  In Tishrei, of course.  Tishrei is also a time of rain, which is described in Genesis 2:6.  And thus Tishrei is the month in which the world was created. 

But based on Genesis 1:12, which describes these things happening, Rabbi Yehoshua argues that the month must be Nisan, for that is the month when grass, seeds and fruit are in abundance at once.  Further, Nisan is the time when animals mate, as Psalms 65:14 describes connected with this time.  Thus Nisan must be the month in which the world was created.

The rabbis use verbal analogies; they note that words may allude to other similar sounding words.  This connection is used to prove interpretations and arguments.  One of my favourites in today's daf is the conversation regarding Sarah, Rachel and Channa giving birth on Rosh Hashana.  How do we know this?  We learn in different sources that both Rachel and Channah were remembered by G-d, zechira.  Both Sarah and Channah are also revisited by G-d, pekida.  How are we remembered or revisited?  Rosh Hashana is "a solomn rest, a memorial proclaimed with the blast of a shofar" (Leviticus 24:25).  Thus these women were remembered on Rosh Hashana.  And if Channa was remembered AND revisited, and we know that being remembered results in a baby on Rosh Hashana, then Sarah's revisiting must have resulted in the same timing of conception and birth.

Another baraita is said to describe Isaac's birth on Pesach.  This is because Sarah is told that at the appointed time G-d will return to Sarah and give her a son (Genesis 18:14).  The word time, mo'ed, is the same as the word for Festival.  The next Festival would have been Pesach, for any other Festival would mean that Sarah gestated for somewhere between five and seven months. 

The rabbis share other proofs regarding the months including Tishrei being 'watched' and the constellation Kima rising in the morning... the rabbis can use verbal analogies based on their extensive knowledge of Tanach to prove almost any possible connection.  

This creative use of text and passion for G-d is exciting and invigorating.  It is fodder for a searching mind; it connects the dots that we cannot even see.  It helps us believe that there might be some logic behind the words in the Torah - no accidents; everything is there just waiting to be discovered.  At the same time, this kind of ideologically based search for meaning can yield whatever it is we are looking for.  If I were a true scholar of Tanach and Talmud, I could find words that sound like other words to prove my points.  I could use verses as metaphors, simply demonstrating the 'truth' of my interpretations.  

And so as much as I loved today's daf and its wonderfully colourful conversations, I am more critical than before beginning Daf Yomi about the 'truths' that the rabbis are uncovering and explaining.