Rosh Hashana 1:9 — What Shabbos Gives Way To

The Lived Mishnah·A Zeman Nakat Project
Mesechta Rosh Hashana
Mishnah 9 of 35
Audio · Listen with Ephraim Diamond
Listen with Ephraim Diamond · 6:10 0:00 / 6:10
0:00
6:10
Speed
Click any Hebrew phrase above to jump to where Ephraim reads it · Highlight holds while he discusses each phrase
MoedSederסדרמוֹעֵד
Rosh HashanaMesechtaמסכתראש השנה
1Perekפרקא׳
9Mishnahמשנהט׳
נושא · Topicמִי שֶׁרָאָה אֶת הַחֹדֶשׁWhat Shabbos Gives Way To
This Mishnah is:a casewhat does that mean?
Mishnah ראש השנה א׳:ט׳ · Rosh Hashana 1:9
מִי שֶׁרָאָה אֶת הַחֹדֶשׁ וְאֵינוֹ יָכוֹל לְהַלֵּךְ,
מוֹלִיכִין אוֹתוֹ
עַל הַחֲמוֹר,
אֲפִלּוּ בְמִטָּה.
וְאִם צוֹדֶה לָהֶם, לוֹקְחִין בְּיָדָם מַקְּלוֹת.
וְאִם הָיְתָה דֶרֶךְ רְחוֹקָה, לוֹקְחִין בְּיָדָם מְזוֹנוֹת,
שֶׁעַל מַהֲלַךְ לַיְלָה וָיוֹם מְחַלְּלִין אֶת הַשַּׁבָּת וְיוֹצְאִין לְעֵדוּת הַחֹדֶשׁ,
שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (ויקרא כג),
אֵלֶּה מוֹעֲדֵי ה' אֲשֶׁר תִּקְרְאוּ אוֹתָם בְּמוֹעֲדָם:
One who saw the new moon and cannot walk —
they may bring him
on a donkey,
even in a bed.
And if someone lies in wait for them, they may take in their hands sticks.
And if the road was a long one, they may take in their hands provisions.
For it is only for a journey of a night and a day that they may be mechallel Shabbos — violating Shabbos — and set out for edus hachodesh, the testimony on the new moon;
as it says — and this pasuk is the basis for the imperative that the witnesses may be mechallel Shabbos at all: (Vayikra 23)
These are the moadei Hashem which you shall proclaim in their appointed time.
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/objectpermissive rulingreasonpasuk/proof textcondition
Structure
The shape of it▾
מַהֲלַךְ לַיְלָה וָיוֹםa night and a day — the edge of the heterבֵּית דִּיןעַל הַחֲמוֹר · בְּמִטָּהcannot walkמַקְּלוֹתsomeone lies in waitמְזוֹנוֹתthe road is longמִחוּץ לַתְּחוּם הַזֶּהhe does not set out at all
Summary Chart
What Shabbos Gives Way To▾
CaseRulingReason
He saw the new moon and cannot walk — is he excused?No — they bring him, on a donkey or even in a bed—
And if someone lies in wait on the road?They may take sticks—
And if the road is long?They may take provisions—
Is there a limit on how far a person may travel on Shabbos to testify for Kiddush HaChodesh?Yes — a night and a day's journey, no further: he must arrive before it ends—
Transcript
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.

All Meforshim
Mishnah Insights
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.

Insights on this mishnah▾

אֵלֶּה מוֹעֲדֵי ה' — these are Hashem's appointed times

The proof-pasuk arrives only now, after five mishnayos of chillul Shabbos: the same editorial shape as the opening of Sheviis, where tosefes sheviis runs for mishnayos before its pasuk is brought, and perhaps Rebbi Yehuda Hanasi edited the two seventh-openings alike. The derivation itself, in Bartenura: וכל מקום שנאמר מועד, במועדו, דוחה את השבת — wherever the Torah says moed, its set time overrides Shabbos. Ikar Tosafos Yom Tov supplies the link: וראש חדש נמי אקרי מועד.

מוֹלִיכִין אוֹתוֹ עַל הַחֲמוֹר, אֲפִלּוּ בְמִטָּה — they transport him on a donkey, even in a bed

The two clauses are not the same size of allowance, and Tosafos Yom Tov, writing in his own sefer on Kiddush HaChodesh, measures them: riding the donkey is a lightening within the issur, שמה שמרכיבין על החמור הוא להקל באיסור. The bed is not: a sick man is not self-carrying, דחולה ככפות דמי, so those who bear the bed are fully liable — וקמ"ל דלעדות החדש שרי, and that is precisely the mishnah's chiddush.

וְאִם צוֹדֶה לָהֶם — and if there is an ambush for them

An unusual word, and the meforshim prove its sense from Tanach. Bartenura reads צוֹדֶה as one lying in wait, כמו ואתה צודה את נפשי לקחתה, from Shaul's words to David. Yesh Seder LaMishnah wonders at the choice of proof: דבעי טעמא שלא הביאו ראיה מהתורה — the Torah itself has ואשר לא צדה, which Onkelos renders as ambush; why reach for Shmuel when Chumash was nearer?

שְׁאֵלַת חָכָם

Who was ambushing witnesses on the roads? Rashi, brought in Ikar Tosafos Yom Tov: והביתוסים והכותים הם היו אורבים להם לעכבם כדי להטעות את חכמים. Rashash objects on Rashi's own terms: on a Shabbos in Nissan, a kiddush declared that day plants the first day of Pesach on Shabbos — וזהו דוקא רצונם, exactly what the Baytusim wanted for the omer. Why then ambush the witnesses who would bring it about? Rashash leaves the kushya standing. (See Rashash here.)

— Rashi via Ikar Tosafos Yom Tov; Rashash
▶ Listen from here on the radio
‹ ›
הֲדַרָן עֲלָךְ מַסֶּכֶת רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה
A siyum · Mesechta Rosh Hashana

You have learned every Mishnah of Rosh Hashana — all 43 steps, from the four new years through the tefillos of the day. Hadran alach: we will return to you.

Hear the Siyum — the Summary of the Mesechta Back to the Mesechta