002 - הִלְכוֹת קִדּוּשׁ הַחֹדֶשׁ פֵּרֶק ב

Laws of Sanctifying the Month, Chapter 2

1. Only two valid men, who are fit to testify in all matters, are acceptable as witnesses for the new month. Women and slaves are like other invalid witnesses and may not testify. If a father and his son saw the moon, they should go to the Beis Din to testify—not because relatives are valid for testimony about the new month, but so that if one of them is found invalid, for example, because he is a thief or otherwise disqualified, the other can join with another person and testify. Anyone who is invalid for testimony by Rabbinic decree, even if he is valid according to the Torah, is invalid for testimony about the new month.

2. According to Torah law, we are not strict in examining testimony about the new month: even if the month was sanctified based on witnesses who were later found to be false witnesses in this testimony, the month remains sanctified. Therefore, originally, they would accept testimony about the new month from any Jew, since all Jews are presumed valid unless it is known that someone is invalid. Once the heretics corrupted the process and would hire people to testify falsely that they had seen the moon, it was instituted that the Beis Din would only accept testimony about the new month from witnesses whom the Beis Din recognized as valid, and they would examine and investigate their testimony.

3. Therefore, if the Beis Din does not know the witnesses who saw the moon, they send people from the city where it was seen, together with the witnesses, and other witnesses who can vouch for them to the Beis Din and inform them that these are valid witnesses. Only then do they accept their testimony.

4. The Beis Din calculates using the methods that astronomers use, and they know when the moon should be visible in that month—whether it will be north or south of the sun, whether it will appear wide or narrow, and in which direction its horns will point. When the witnesses come to testify, they examine them: How did you see it? Was it to the north or south? In which direction were its horns pointing? How high did it appear to your eyes? How wide did it appear? If their statements match what is known from the calculations, they are accepted; if not, they are not accepted.

5. If the witnesses say, "We saw it in water," or "in clouds," or "through glass," or if they saw part of it in the sky and part in clouds, water, or glass—this is not considered a sighting, and the month is not sanctified based on such a sighting. If one says, "I saw it as high as two stories," and the other says, "It was as high as three stories," they can be combined. If one says, "Three stories," and the other says, "Five stories," they cannot be combined. One of them can be combined with another witness who testifies similarly, or if there is only a difference of one story between them.

6. If they say, "We saw it unintentionally, and when we focused on it to see it in order to testify, we no longer saw it," this is not valid testimony, and the month is not sanctified based on it, for perhaps clouds gathered and appeared like the moon and then dispersed. If witnesses say, "We saw it on the morning of the twenty-ninth, in the east before sunrise, and we saw it in the evening of the thirtieth, in the west," they are believed, and the month is sanctified based on this sighting, since they saw it at the proper time. But if they say they saw it in the morning, we do not rely on that, for we are not concerned with a morning sighting, and it is known that it was clouds that gathered and appeared to them like the moon. Similarly, if they saw it at the proper time, but it was not seen on the night it should have been seen as a full month, they are believed, for we are only concerned with the sighting on the night of the thirtieth.

How Testimony About the New Moon is Accepted

7. How is testimony about the new moon accepted? Anyone who is fit to testify that he saw the moon comes to the Beis Din. The Beis Din gathers all of them into one place and prepares large meals for them, so that people will be accustomed to come. The first pair that arrives is examined first, with the examinations we have described. They bring in the elder, and question him. If his words are found to be consistent with the calculation, they bring in his companion. If their words are found to be consistent, their testimony is established. As for all the other pairs, they are asked a brief outline of their testimony—not because they are needed, but so that they will not leave disappointed, and so that people will be accustomed to come.

8. Afterwards, once the testimony has been established, the head of the Beis Din says, “Sanctified!” and all the people answer after him, “Sanctified! Sanctified!” The month is sanctified only by three, and the calculation is done only by three, and the month is sanctified only if it was seen at its proper time. The month is sanctified only by day; if they sanctified it at night, it is not sanctified. Even if the Beis Din and all of Israel saw it, but the Beis Din did not say “Sanctified!” until it became dark on the night of the thirty-first, or the witnesses were examined but the Beis Din did not manage to say “Sanctified!” until it became dark on the night of the thirty-first—the month is not sanctified, and the month is considered extended, and Rosh Chodesh will be only on the thirty-first day, even though it was seen on the night of the thirtieth. For the sighting does not determine it; only the Beis Din that says “Sanctified!” is what determines it.

9. If the Beis Din themselves saw it at the end of the twenty-ninth day, and it was still not nightfall on the night of the thirtieth, the Beis Din says, “Sanctified! Sanctified!” for it is still day. But if they saw it on the night of the thirtieth, after two stars had appeared, on the next day two judges sit with one of them, and those two testify before the three, and the three sanctify it.

10. If a Beis Din sanctified the month—whether in error, or because they were misled, or under duress—it is sanctified, and everyone is obligated to establish the festivals on the day that they sanctified it. Even if someone knows that they erred, he must rely on them, for the matter is entrusted only to them, and the One Who commanded to observe the festivals is the One Who commanded to rely on them, as it is said: “Which you shall proclaim them…” (Vayikra 23:2, 23:4, 23:37).