Rosh Hashanah (Mishnah)
Rosh Hashanah ( Hebrew ראש השנה'Beginning of the year') is a treatise from the Mishnah in the order Mo'ed (feast days, feast days) .
Content and structure
The treatise deals in two parts with questions about the calendar system (1.1-3.1) and the liturgy on New Year's Day (3.2-4.9). The first Mishnah defines four different beginnings of the year: on the 2nd Nisan for the festival cycle and the reckoning of times (of the kings), on the 1st Elul with regard to the declamation of cattle, on the 1st Tishri for the beginning of the "civil" year and on the 16th . Shevat , the New Year of trees . This is followed by stipulations about the manner of observing the moon. At the time of the Mishnah, the determination of the calendar v. a. after observing the beginning of the month, although calculations were available for correction or in case of doubt. The Mishnah deals with provisions on the following questions:
- when do observation-related activities take precedence over other festivals
- which observation is evaluated how
- which witnesses are allowed to observe the moon
- how is the decision result announced
Mishnah 2.9 contains a famous episode about a dispute between Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua over the calculation of the calendar, according to which Rabban Gamliel forced his opponent to accept Gamliel's calendar calculation and even to desecrate Yom Kippur (according to his own calculation). The principle is clearly expressed here that in questions of cult the communal or community-creating determination has priority in case of doubt over an individual opinion that jeopardizes social peace for the insistence on their position.
In the second part of the treatise, the following topics are discussed:
- what must the shofar be like
- how should the shofar be blown?
- what is the liturgical order on New Years Day
Chapter 3 ends with an aggadic outlook, as is customary for the conclusions of tracts, so that an original conclusion of the treatise can be assumed here, especially since the first Mishnayot thematically occupy a special position in Chapter 4: They deal with a series of Taqqanot / amendment provisions , ordered by Rabban Jochanan ben Sakkai after the temple was destroyed.
See also
literature
- Paul Fiebig : Rosh Hashanah (New Year). Text, translation and explanation. In addition to a text-critical appendix. Töpelmann, Giessen 1914.
- Michael Krupp (Ed.): The Mishnah. 2nd order. Mo'ed - festival times. Part 2, 8: Michael Krupp: Rosh Hashanah - New Year. 2nd improved edition. Lee Achim Sefarim, Jerusalem 2004, ISBN 965-7221-18-8 .
Remarks
- ↑ The episode has received a rich aggadic afterlife even in modern literature, for example in Lion Feuchtwanger's Josephus trilogy .