July 31, 2026 Much Ado About the Molad & Kosher Mammal Mysteries
Parshat R’ei – Shabbat Mevorchim Elul
Shabbat Parshat R’ei can fall on the 25th, 27th, or 29th of Menachem Av – in which case it is Shabbat M’vorchim Elul – or it can fall on the 30th of Menachem Av – in which case it is Rosh Chodesh Elul.
This year, Shabbat Parshat R’ei is the 25th of Menachem Av and Rosh Chodesh Elul will be announced as occurring on the following Thursday and Friday (August 13 and 14). Rosh Chodesh Elul is always two days in our fixed calendar since Menachem Av has 30 days. Elul, on the other hand, always has 29 days. The upcoming Rosh Hashanah is Shabbat and Sunday.
As I am sure most readers know, when we bentch Rosh Chodesh, the molad of the coming month is announced. But how does that work?
The molad of Elul 5786 is on Thursday, 8 hours and 15 minutes (no chalakim). The time announced is in Jerusalem Solar Time, and corresponds to 8:29 a.m. Israel Summer Time on Thursday, August 13. The announced molad is the same all over the world, but the corresponding clock time should be adjusted for different locales. For example, in New York, the molad announced for Elul corresponds to 1:59 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday.
The molad as announced in Birkat HaChodesh is not adjusted for Daylight Savings Time or for one’s locale. Rather, the clock time is adjusted.
Here’s the thing about the announced molad. Molad sounds like it describes the birth of the New Moon, which would also be known as the first visibility of the lunar crescent. That is inaccurate, for two reasons.
First, the molad is the moment that the Moon and Sun line up on the same side of Earth. If the alignment is exact, that would be a solar eclipse. However, because the Moon’s orbit around the Earth is at a slight angle to the orbit of the Earth-Moon around the Sun, at the molad, the Moon and Sun are aligned horizontally, but the Moon will be above or below the Sun vertically, and there would be no eclipse. This is the more common situation, which is why solar eclipses are on the rare side.
Interestingly, the Avudraham, a 14th-century Spanish Rishon, explains in his Seder Ha-Ibur (a section of Sefer Avudraham) that molad is a misnomer, since the Moon cannot be seen at all at or near the molad. About 600 years later, Sir Patrick Moore, a British astronomer, explained that the term New Moon (molad) was a misnomer, since it really is the moment of No Moon.
Furthermore, the molad as announced is based on the average time it takes the Moon to cycle through its phases. The time between one New Moon and the next, between one molad and the next, is called a lunation.
Lunations average 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 1 cheilek. A cheilek (part) is three and a third seconds; there are 18 chalakim in a minute – 1,080 chalakim in an hour.
Because the orbits of the Moon around the Earth and of the Earth-Moon around the Sun are not perfect circles – they are elliptical, the length of a lunation – the time from one actual molad until the following one varies.
Our calendar, in effect when there is no Sanhedrin, uses the average lunation (called molad emtza’i) – not the actual or astronomical lunation (called molad amiti).
To illustrate: The molad of Av was on Tuesday, 19h (hours), 30m (minutes), and 17p (parts, or chalakim). When we add 29 days to that, we arrive at Wednesday (four weeks and one day later), 31h 74m 18p. As we know, 18 chalakim equals one minute. That puts us at Wednesday, 31h 75m. Those 75 minutes are equivalent to one hour and 15 minutes. Thus, we have Wednesday, 32h 15m. Finally, since 32 hours constitute one day and 8 hours, the molad of Elul is on Thursday, 8h 15m – as stated above.
Let’s take this one more step by calculating the molad of Tishrei 5787 – which we will not announce because we don’t bentch Rosh Chodesh Tishrei. However, the molad of Tishrei is the most important molad of the year because Rosh Hashanah is fixed by it.
The molad of Elul is, as we saw, on Thursday, 8h 15m. Add 29 days. That takes us to Friday, 8h 15m. Add 12h 44m 1p, bringing us to Friday, 20h 59m 1p. Rosh Hashanah is set on the day of the molad of Tishrei unless it is a molad yashan – defined as a molad after noon – which this one is. Rosh Hashanah is then set for the following day, which is Shabbat. Thus, Rosh Hashanah 5787 will be Shabbat and Sunday.
In this case, even if the molad of Tishrei would be before noon on Friday, Rosh Hashanah would be bumped to the following day because of LO ADU ROSH – the calendar rule that Rosh Hashanah cannot be on Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday.
Yes, you can look at a calendar and see when Rosh Hashanah will be. But I wanted to share with you some of the workings of the calendar so that when you hear this Shabbat, “Hamolad yihyeh b’Yom Chamishi chameish-esrei dakot acharei sh’moneh baboker,” you’ll have a better idea of what the gabbai is saying.
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Last week, I wrote about the Vilna Gaon’s division of the Book of D’varim into three parts. This week, we are beginning the second section – the one with loads and loads of mitzvot. Until now, with D’varim, Va’etchanan, and Eikev, we have heard Moshe Rabbeinu review the action-packed history of the 40-year period in the Midbar and present the foundation stones upon which Judaism is built: the Aseret HaDibrot, the first and second passages of Sh’ma, and the concept and command to bless G-d for food and other things He has given us.
This week, I can picture Moshe telling the people at the end of the previous session to make sure to bring notebooks and pens or pencils. (Tablets? Probably not because the people would confuse them with the Tablets in the Aron. You can smile, but please don’t groan; it hurts my feelings even if I don’t hear it.)
R’ei begins with the plans to present the blessings and curses after the people enter the Land. Those blessings are described in this week’s sedra as the body of mitzvot.
Parshat R’ei has 55 mitzvot of the Torah’s 613. That’s almost 9% of Taryag. Sho-f’tim has 41 mitzvot and Ki Teitzei has 74 (which is 12% of all mitzvot). For comparison, the Torah averages 11.35 mitzvot per sedra. These three sedras have about five times the average number of mitzvot.
Before we get into R’ei’s mitzvot, let’s look at its other numbers. With 126 p’sukim, R’ei ranks 13th among the 54 sedras. But the p’sukim are longer than usual. With 1,932 words and 7,442 letters, R’ei climbs to 7th place in both of those categories. And with 20 parshiyot and the blank spaces they each have, R’ei rises to fourth place in length based on lines in a Sefer Torah.
Fourth place in lines and third place in mitzvot make R’ei a biggie.
R’ei has 17 mitzvot asei (positive commandments) and 38 mitzvot lo taasei (prohibitions).
I won’t be going through them all, but allow me a number of comments.
Let’s start with the Nolan Ryan pasuk – D’varim 12:17 in R’ei: “Lo tuchal le’echol…” You may not eat within your cities the tithe of your grain, or of your wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your cattle or of your sheep, or any of your vows that you will vow, or your donations, or the separation by your hand.” In this one pasuk, we find eight mitzvot. Eight mitzvot from a single pasuk!
These are: the prohibition against consuming the second tithe of wine outside Jerusalem; the prohibition against consuming the second tithe of oil outside Jerusalem; the prohibition against eating an unblemished firstborn animal outside Jerusalem; not to eat of a Chatat or an Asham outside the Beit HaMikdash; not to eat the flesh of an Olah (burnt offering); not to eat of Korbanot of lesser holiness before their blood is sprinkled on the Mizbei’ach; that kohanim should not eat Bikurim before they are set down in the Azara (the courtyard of the Mikdash).
So where does Nolan Ryan get the honor of a pasuk being named for him? There have been 292 MLB pitchers who have pitched a no-hitter in the last 150 years. Of those 292 pitchers, 29 have pitched two no-hitters. Four have pitched three and Sandy Koufax pitched four. And then there is Nolan Ryan. He has pitched seven no-hitters over his career. There are many p’sukim in which we find one mitzva. Far fewer p’sukim have two or more mitzvot. But nothing comes close to D’varim 12:17. Eight mitzvot! I think there is a pasuk from which we have five. But none close to eight.
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All the animals that we eat must chew their cud and have split feet...
That’s the opening line of “The Kosher Song” attributed to Uncle Moishy. In the Torah, we are first introduced to the kosher and non-kosher mammals, fishes, birds, and insects in Parshat Sh’mini. The second time that topic occurs is in this week’s sedra. Back in Sh’mini, kosher animals are described by simanim (signs) but none are named. Four non-kosher mammals are mentioned – the camel, arnevet, shafan, and the pig. In R’ei, the same four non-kosher animals are mentioned, but we also find the names of ten kinds of kosher animals.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Cow, sheep, goat. The domesticated farm animals. Then shor, kesev (or keves), and eiz. These Hebrew names are easily matched to English names because of generation after generation of knowing these animals as kosher – even though Hebrew was dormant as a spoken language for over 1,500 years. What’s a keves? A sheep. We’ve known that continuously all this time.
But the Torah in R’ei names seven kosher wild (non-domesticated) animals. And after so much time without speaking Hebrew, the identity of these animals is in doubt. They are: yayal, tzvi, yachmor, ako, dishon, t’o, zemer. Some translate these chayot t’horot as gazelle, deer, antelope, ibex, chamois, bison, and giraffe. Some Chumash translators refuse to translate these animal-types for fear of misleading people to possibly eat non-kosher. Then comes The Living Torah by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. His footnotes on the animals (and birds) can give you a headache.
Let’s leave it as there is doubt as to the identity of the kosher chayot mentioned in the Torah. Today, the kashrut of some mammals is determined by checking for split hooves and for the animal being a true ruminant (cud-chewer). Zemer is thought to be the giraffe. Giraffe burgers with a side of French-fried kosher locusts, anyone?
On that note, have a Shabbat Shalom and a meaningful and productive Elul coming up.
