Resources for Rosh Hashana daf 18

Daf A Week

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

  1. The גמרא gives three explanations for the Mishna’s term, בני מרון: 1) like sheep (being counted for מעשר בהמה purposes 2) like those going up a narrow path of a mountain that allows only a single-file passing 3) like the soldiers of דוד המלך (who were counted individually before going out to war). There are many explanations given for these three descriptions. See the מרומי שדה here who explains that sheep being counted as a small unit for מעשר בהמהrepresents the דין on a city and its leaders; the narrow path that only lets one through at a time refers to the דין on the יחיד; and the soldiers who are counted represent the דין on כלל ישראל as a whole.
  2. The משנה says that שלוחין are יוצאין forחנוכה and פּורים. If so, it would seem that nowadays we should have a ספיקא דיומא each day ofחנוכה  and פּורים like all other holidays, however, as we all know, this is not so. See theאבודרהם  in הלכות חנוכה who says that we are only מחמיר for ספיקא דיומא on מועדים דאורייתא but not for מועדים דרבנן such asחנוכה  and פּורים. See the מרומי שדה here who says that we can’t have a ספיקא דיומא on פּורים since that would mean we would read the מגילה again on the 15th of אדר which is when the מוקפין חומה are supposed to read. This would be a violation of the requirement to read the מגילה “בזמניהם-זמנו של זה לא כזמנו של זה”. As far as חנוכה, if we lit different numbers of candles, it would not be clear what day it is and what the miracle was.
  3. The משנה says that we don’t send out שלוחין for שבועות because we can make a simple count of 50 calendar days from the second day of פּסח. See the ריטב"א who asks that nowadays when we keep two day of פּסח, it should follow that we would need to count two days for each day of ספירת העומר since we wouldn’t be sure which day was the first day of the עומר? He answers that since we are really בקיאין בקביע דירחא, we don’t count a second day so that we wouldn’t confuse and jumble the number we need to count. Regarding שבועות itself, we still keep two days in order to be consistent with the other holidays. See the בעל המאור at the end of פּסחים who says that we don’t count two days of the עומר since it would require us to be counting the last day of the עומר on the first day of שבועות and this would cause a זלזול יו"ט. See the דבר אברהם ח"א סימן ל"ד who suggests that perhaps the concept of counting requires that you are certain of the number you have counted. One cannot be called “counting” if you don’t know what number you are up to. Therefore, we could not be מחמיר מספק. He acknowledges that the בעל המאור must not have agreed with this.
  4. The גמרא says that post the חורבן and absent any גזירת המלכות, fasting on all fast days except תשעה באב and יוה"כ is optional. See the חידושי הר"ן who quotes the רמב"ן that in reality, all five עינוים (אכילה, רחיצה, סיכה, תשמיש, נעילת הסנדל) are applicable to all five fasts. The only reason we don’t keep the five עינוים on the minor fasts is because the entire fast is מעיקר הדין only optional, and כלל ישראל only accepted upon themselves to fast, but not to keep the other עינוים. See the משנה ברורה, סימן תק"נ, ס"ק ו who says that a בעל נפש should keep all the עינוים since גזירות are common.
  5. The simple reading of our גמרא is that during the times of בית שני, one was forbidden to fast on any of the fast days (except יוה"כ). After the חורבן, one could fast on the minor fast days and must fast on תשעה באב. See the רמב"ם in פּירוש המשניות on our משנה who learns that during the times of בית שני, although fasting was optional, the Jewish people chose to fast on תשעה באב due to the severe tragedies that happened on that day (presumably the בית ראשון, מרגלים, etc.). This fits well with the גירסא we have in our משנה that says when the בית המקדש was standing, שלוחין went out even on אייר, which sounds like it was in addition to the other times listed in the משנה including תשעה באב. See the טורי אבן here who says the גירסא in our משנה must not have the word''אף'' since the פּשטות of the סוגיא sounds like they did not fast on תשעה באב during בית שני.

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