Rosh Hashana 1:5 — When Everyone Saw It Too
A reading aid, not an exact translation.
This English is a clause-by-clause rendering to help you follow the Hebrew. It is not word-for-word literal, and it is not a transcript of the recorded shiur — the audio carries explanation and context the translation deliberately leaves out.
| Case | Ruling | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| The moon stood ba'alil, where all could see it — may these witnesses still be mechallel Shabbos? | Tanna Kamma: Yes | — |
| R' Yosi: No | — |
A machine transcript of the recorded shiur.
This is the shiur as spoken, transcribed automatically and left unedited — the wording is Ephraim's, and occasional transcription errors remain. It follows the audio word by word.
An amalgam of commentaries, including original insights.
These insights draw on the commentaries to this Mishnah and on the recorded shiur. Those commentaries often rest on earlier sources — the Gemara, the Yerushalmi, the Rishonim, and one another — without always saying so; where they do, we generally cite the one we read. Every commentary consulted is kept, verbatim, with this card.
בַעֲלִיל — clearly visible
A genuinely rare word: once in Tanach, and rare in tannaitic literature. The Gemara, brought in Tosafos Yom Tov, explains it from that one pasuk, כסף צרוף בעליל לארץ (Tehillim 12), שפירושו גלוי לכל — open to all. Rambam gives the astronomy of the two cases: sometimes the new moon stands high and large in clear air for all to see, and sometimes it hides near the sunset's redness, עד שלא ישיגנו אלא אדם שראות עיניו חד, so that only a sharp-eyed man attains it.
רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אוֹמֵר — Rabbi Yosi says
Rabbi Yosi accepts the dispensation itself; he narrows the case. If the moon was plainly visible, Bartenura explains, דודאי ראו אותה בירושלים — the court certainly saw it too, so this witness's Shabbos travel buys nothing: we can assume somebody else will bring it. Rambam states the consequence: אין צריכין לעדים ולפיכך אין מחללין. And both close alike: אין הלכה כרבי יוסי.
אִם נִרְאָה בַעֲלִיל, אֵין מְחַלְּלִין — if clearly seen, they do not override
Melechet Shlomo brings the Gemara's pairing: Rabbi Yosi here and Rabbi Yishmael on the omer, who has it brought on Shabbos from three se'ah rather than a finer five — אמרו דבר אחד, they said one thing: where the need is already met, Shabbos is not stretched further. And the Gemara's own distinction points a mishnah ahead: אבל הכא גבי לבנה דאיכא מכשילן לע"ל — by the moon there is the stumbling-of-the-future concern, the same words Rabban Gamliel will say to Rabbi Akiva in the next mishnah.