A Machar – not Mar – Chodesh and the Many Ages of B’reishit

Shabbat B’reishit – Shabbat M’vorchim

I'm beginning this week’s column on Motza’ei Shabbat/Chag here in Israel. As I write these words, it is still Sh’mini Atzeret in the States, with Simchat Torah still to come. For us, it is already Isru Chag and I have already taken apart the smaller of my two sukkas – the one I sleep in. The big one will have to wait for the morning.

Last night, I spoke briefly at my minyan between the short version of Kabbalat Shabbat and our Maariv preceding Hakafot. As part of my talk, I compared and contrasted the observance of our Yom Tov in Israel – one day each of Sukkot and Sh’mini Atzeret (Simchat Torah), flanking six days of Chol HaMoed – with the two days of Yom Tov, flanking five days of Chol HaMoed, in Chutz LaAretz.

We read Kohelet on the first day of Yom Tov; you read it on Sh’mini Atzeret. We read in the Torah and recited in Musaf about one specific day of Sukkot; you reflected the doubt as to which day was Yom Tov in the daily leining and davening. We read the first part of Parshat B’reishit at Mincha of Shabbat-Yom Tov. You read V’zot HaB’racha. Some of you were in your sukka for kiddush or meals at night and/or the daytime of Sh’mini Atzeret; we were officially not allowed to eat in the sukka lest we be suspected of bal tosif (adding to a mitzva). As for havdala after Shabbat, in Israel, we said Ata Chonantanu in the weekday Maariv Amida; in Chu”L, you said Vatodi-einu in the Yom Tov Maariv Amida. In Chu”L, you had your third YaKNeHaZ in four weeks! We in Israel said a regular Motza”Sh havdala – including b’samim.

Why did I speak about all this at a minyan in Jerusalem? To remind the olim from the Old Country and to clue in some native Israelis about Yom Tov Sheini. Some had no idea.

Personal note: I came on aliya 45 years ago. At that time, I thought I would miss a second Seder. I didn’t and still don’t. But to this day, the one-day combination of Sh’mini Atzeret and Simchat Torah still throws me off. Moods switch from the festivities of Simchat Torah to the somberness of Yizkor and Geshem.

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Shabbat B’reishit is always the Shabbat M’vorchim of Marcheshvan. It is the only sedra that is always read on Shabbat M’vorchim.

It is also one of two Shabbatot that are named for their sedra. This coming Shabbat is called Shabbat B’reishit, not just Shabbat Parshat B’reishit. The only other Shabbat named for its main Torah reading is Shabbat Shira (a.k.a. Shabbat Parshat B’shalach).

Can you name the four Shabbatot named for their Maftirs? How about the four Shabbatot named for their haftarot?

Also, by the way, Marcheshvan is the correct name for the month – Cheshvan is an inaccurate shortening of the month’s name. And the “Mar” doesn’t mean bitter or anything else, regardless of what you might have learned in school. Marchesh + van is the correct breakdown of the name, which is a Hebraicized rendering of the Akkadian term for the eighth month.

This year, B’reishit is not only Shabbat M’vorchim but also Machar Chodesh, with Rosh Chodesh Marcheshvan being on Sunday and Monday. This means that the regular haftara of Parshat B’reishit is preempted by the Machar Chodesh haftara. The 29th of Tishrei is on Shabbat when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat-Sunday, which happens in 28.57% of years.

So, the 29^th of a Jewish month that falls on Shabbat (which never happens with the 29^th of Kislev, Tevet, Adar, Sivan, Tamuz, or Elul) is Erev Rosh Chodesh. And Shabbat M’vorchim. And always Machar Chodesh. But not always with the Machar Chodesh haftara.

Why? The 29^th of Sh’vat in a regular year is Parshat Sh’kalim, and the haftara for that special Shabbat is read. The same is true for the 29^th of Adar, which would be Parshat HaChodesh. And with Av, where the sedra is R’ei, its haftara is one of the seven haftarot of comfort following Tisha b’Av, so that is not preempted either.

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Here is an interesting halachic issue with a couple of messages thrown in. Let’s use this coming Shabbat as an example. You wash for HaMotzi for Seuda Sh’lishit (a.k.a. Shalashudis, which means Shalosh Se’udot – three meals, rather than the third meal), and you have company and are all eating and singing and shmoozing, and before you realize it, it is after Shabbat-out time. Shabbat is over for other people – but not yet for you and your guests. And it is Rosh Chodesh. When you bentch, do you say R’tzei because this is a Shabbat meal of yours, or do you say Yaaleh v’Yavo because it is now Rosh Chodesh – or do you say both because it is your Shabbat meal that spilled over into Rosh Chodesh?

It should not come as a big surprise that there is a machloket, a dispute among authorities.

The Taz (TureiZahav, R’ David HaLevi Segal, 1586-1667) says that if one’s meal began on Shabbat and continued into Rosh Chodesh, he should say both R’tzei and Yaaleh v’Yavo.

Others object to that ruling, stating that it is a contradiction, since to say both would be to claim that it is both Shabbat and Rosh Chodesh – which it is not. It seems that the Taz does not consider it as such, but rather an overlap of the sanctity of Shabbat and Rosh Chodesh, similar to the situation of Yom Tov that follows Shabbat when we merge kiddush for Yom Tov with havdala for Shabbat (as we know from YaKNeHaZ).

Most other sources instruct one to say R’tzei only, because it is the beginning of a meal that determines what to add to Birkat HaMazon, or to say only Yaaleh v’Yavo, according to those who hold that it is the end of the meal – when one is bentching – that determines what to add.

The prevailing opinion is that one should say only R’tzei in this situation, unless he did not eat a kazayit of bread before dark, in which case he says only Yaaleh v’Yavo. And if he is unsure, he should say both.

However, Rav Moshe Feinstein writes that one should avoid the controversy – even though there is a prevalent p’sak about what to do – by ending Seuda Sh’lishit this Shabbat by sunset, or at least by eating no more bread after sunset. Then everyone would agree that one says only R’tzei.

Rav Moshe’s p’sak is based on avoiding (when possible) a situation that requires behavior that not every authority agrees with. The lesson, in other words, is that even with a p’sak about what to do, it is better not to have the question come up in the first place.

The other lesson is that a dissenting opinion which we don’t follow under normal circumstances is preserved for an unusual situation that might arise. We don’t dismiss the opinions that we don’t follow – we put them on the back burner.

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How about a little on this week’s parsha? It’s about time we got into it.

First, the Torah-Stats:

B’reishit is the first of the 54 sedras of the Torah, and the first of 12 in Sefer B’reishit.

It is written on 241 lines in a Sefer Torah; rank: 9th.

It has 23 parshiyot – 10 open, 13 closed; rank: 6th.

It has 146 p’sukim; rank: 8^th (5^th in B’reishit). Its pasuk count is the same as that of Mikeitz, but Mikeitz is longer in lines, words, and letters.

B’reishit’s word count is 1,931; rank: 8^th (5^th in Sefer B’reishit). Its letter count is 7,235 letters; rank: 11^th (5^th in Sefer B’reishit).

Now watch this: With 146 p’sukim of the Torah’s 5,846, B’reishit makes up almost 2.5% of the Torah.

The Torah starts at Creation and ends after the 30-day mourning period for Moshe Rabbeinu. That’s a span of 2,488.5 years.

Parshat B’reishit begins with Creation and ends with G-d planning to destroy the world and, on the other hand, liking No’ach. Let’s say that Hashem was about to tell No’ach to build the Ark, which was 120 years before the Flood. That makes Parshat B’reishit’s time range about 1,586 years – almost 64% of the time range of the whole Torah.

The Book of B’reishit spans 2,309 years, from Creation until Yosef’s death. That’s almost 93% of the time-range of the whole Torah.

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Of course, when it comes to the timing of Creation, there are different ways of looking at the issue. Are the six days of Creation six days as we know days to be? Or were those days much longer? A thousand years each? Eons of undeterminable length? Take your pick.

Personally, I go for the view that a day equals a day as we know it, since the Torah speaks in human terms. And Hashem can do all that is described in B’reishit’s first chapter in as short or as long a time period as He chooses.

But here is something that I totally believe and accept as truth. The account of Day One of Creation begins with the third pasuk of B’reishit perek 1: “And G-d said, ‘Let there be light...’” The first two p’sukim describe something else altogether. “B’reishit bara...” and “V’haaretz...” are referring to what happened before B’reishit 1:3. They refer to the first stage of Creation – yeish mei-ayin, which means “something from nothing,” or creatio ex nihilo. Originally, there was nothing except for G-d. Then, He brought everything into existence as a chaotic mixture. Matter, energy, time... everything. The rest of the chapter describes the six days of Creation, the formation and organization of something (everything) from something.

If B’reishit 1:3-31 and 2:1-3 span the six days of Creation and the first Shabbat, what is the timing of the first two p’sukim?

That question cannot be answered because time was part of the tohu vavohu mixture and wasn’t separated from the mix in a meaningful way until Day One.

But treating the first two p’sukim of B’reishit as a separate unit can explain timings from science – the age of the solar system, age of the universe, age of dinosaurs, and much more. Scientific conclusions are based on the idea that what we observe today can be extrapolated through the long past because things have always behaved the way they do now. Only that is not what we believe or accept. We are not reluctant or adamantly refusing to put G-d into the picture. And that changes many, many perceptions.

Obviously, an oversimplification. But that’s the way the column crumbles.

Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov. And a warm, healthy, sweet year to you all.