Yesterday we finished massekhet Sanhedrin. This is what I taught at the siyum this morning. First a little background information. The Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar. In the Hebrew calendar there are 12 months of either 29 or 30 days long. Originally when the new moon was seen in the sky, witnesses would go to Jerusalem and testify in the Sanhedrin what they saw. Based on this testimony the Sanhedrin would then decide whether the month will be 29 days or 30 days long. The lunar calendar has 354 days while in the solar calendar there are 365 days. In the 19-year cycle of the Jewish lunar calendar, there are seven leap years which involve adding a full month (Adar II) to the calendar to align with the solar year. This alignment allows Passover always to remain the holiday of springtime. If the sages did not intercalculate Adar II the holiday Passover would move throughout the calendar year. Sometimes we would celebrate Passover in the very dead of winter and sometimes we would celebrated it in the middle of summer.
TB Sanhedrin 87a
Sages are allowed to disagree with each other; however, only one viewpoint can be observed. When the Sanhedrin votes on the how to observe the halakha, the majority decision wins. A sages considered a rebellious elder if he refuses to accept the majority rule. “The Sages taught in a baraita: A rebellious elder is liable only for instructing another to perform an action involving a matter for whose intentional violation one is liable to receive karet, and for whose unwitting violation one is liable to bring a sin-offering; this is the statement of Rabbi Meir.
“A ruling contrary to the ruling of the Sanhedrin could result in a matter for which one is liable to receive karet, as, if his disagreement is to this side, e.g., the court intercalated the year and the rebellious elder ruled that the year is not intercalated, his ruling permits consumption of leavened bread on Passover according to the calendar established by the Sanhedrin. And if his disagreement is to that side, e.g., the court did not intercalate the year and the rebellious elder ruled that the year is intercalated, his ruling permits consumption of leavened bread on Passover according to the calendar established by the Sanhedrin. One who intentionally eats leavened bread on Passover is liable to receive karet, and one who does so unwittingly is liable to bring a sin-offering.” (Sefaria.org translation)
“Rav Silberstein points out that in recent history Jews were taught by their sages to eat chameitz on Peach. This created unique Halachic challenges.
“During the Holocaust, the Jews in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Nazi Germany afflicted by the Nazis with minimum food and long hours of slave labor. It was impossible for the Jews in the camp to attempt to not consume chameitz on Pesach as they would starve to death. They brought their predicament to their rabbi, Rabbi Aharon Bernard Davids. Rabbi Davids ruled that they were all required to eat chameitz during Passover. Before they ate it, he recommended that they recite the prayer he composed:
“Heavenly Father, it is manifest and known to You that we desire to carry out Your will in regard to the commandments of eating matzah, and strictly refrain from eating chameitz on the Festival of Pesach. But we are sick at heart and being prevented in this by reason of the oppression and mortal danger in which we find ourselves. We stand ready to perform your commandments of which it is said, ‘And you shall do them and live by them’ (Leviticus 18:5), that is to say, you shall live by them and not die by them. And accordingly we hear your warning as it is written: ‘Take heed to thyself and keep thy soul alive’ (Deuteronomy 4:9). Therefore we beseech you that you will keep us in life and establish us and redeem us speedily from our slavery so that we may in time come to perform your statues and carry out Your will with a perfect heart. Amein.
“A question arose. If you do not have wine on Friday night you may recite kiddush on the challah bread. Could the Jews in Bergen-Belsen recite the Passover kiddush on the bread they were going to eat at the Seder? Perhaps they were allowed to consume the bread to save their lives, but chameitz should not serve as the basis for the sanctification prayer for the holiday dedicated to matzah.
“Rav Elyashiv rules that Jews facing danger to life by malnutrition may recite Passover kiddush on the bread they eat at the Seder. The bread is fully permitted to them. It is a mitzvah for them to consume it and may recite sanctification prayers over it… Once Jewish laws allows for the ingestion of a food, it becomes permitted food for that individual and all blessings may be recited over it (Chashukei Chemed){ Daf Delights, Sanhedrin, by Rabbi Zev Reichman, page 283-284}
Massekhet Sanhedrin ends:
The Sages taught in a baraita: When a wicked person comes
into the world, wrath comes into the world, as it is stated: “When the wicked
comes into the world, contempt also comes, and with ignominy, reproach”
(Proverbs 18:3). When a wicked person is eliminated from the world,
good comes into the world, as it is stated: “And when the wicked perish there
is jubilation” (Proverbs 11:10). When a righteous person passes
from the world, evil comes into the world, as it is stated: “The righteous
perishes and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken, none
understand that due to the evil the righteous is taken” (Isaiah 57:1) When a
righteous person comes into the world, good comes into the world
with him, as it is stated with regard to Noah: “This is one who shall
comfort us for our work and the toil of our hands” (Genesis 5:29). (TB
Sanhedrin 113, Sefaria.org translation)
הֲדַרַן עֲלָךְ כׇּל יִשְׂרָאֵל יֵשׁ
לָהֶם חֵלֶק וּסְלִיקָא לַהּ מַסֶּכֶת סַנְהֶדְרִין
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