Rosh Hashanah 24 - November 2, 27 Cheshvan

Study Guide Rosh Hashanah 24

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Today's daf is sponsored by my parents, Robert and Paula Cohen, myself and my siblings in memory of my grandmother, Sonja Waschitz, Sarah bat Yitchak and Yenta Rachel z"l, whose first yahrzeit is today. "My grandmother was a beautiful woman who rebuilt her life a number of times - first by leaving her family behind in Vienna in 1939 to create a new life for herself in America - at age 14. She valued education, hard work and never complained. We miss you!" 

Today's daf is also sponsored by Minna Felig and Naomi Ferziger "in loving memory of Grandpa Asher Anschel ben Shaul Yehezkel and Rivka "Baba" Greenfield z"l, on the occasion of his 56th yahrzeit. He and Grandma Etta sent their three daughters to the pioneering Shulamith School for Girls in Boro Park, where they learned Torah, Derekh Eretz, and Ivrit."

What were the questions they asked the witnesses? What were the "right" answers? What discrepancies between the two witnesses' testimony would disqualify them as witnesses and what discrepancy could be overlooked as the difference was not so great? Testimony that the new moon was seen reflected off of something would not be accepted. If one happened to notice the new moon and went to look more properly to testify and didn't see it anymore, one cannot testify. The court would declare the new month by saying "mekudash" and the people would repeat "mekudash" twice. From where is all this derived? There are four different opinions regarding whether this ceremony is done only on a 29-day month or on both a 29 and 30-day month, or only on a 30-day month, or on neither. Rabban Gamliel had different shapes of the moon that he would use to question the witnesses.