Chevra, and thank you for joining as we continue learning together. Now that we have completed Maseches Rosh Hashanah, I want to take a few minutes to look back over the arc of the masechta and remind ourselves how much ground we covered. Very often while we are learning one mishna at a time, we understand the individual halacha, but we do not yet see the larger shape of the masechta. It's only at the end that we can step back and realize how one subject led to another and how many different areas of halacha we actually encountered along the way. The masechta began with two mishnayos built around the number four.

The first taught us about the four roshei hashanahs, different dates that serve as the beginning of a year for kings, the Yamim Tovim, Maaser Behema, the counting of the years, and the agricultural halachos connected to Tishrei and the fruit of the trees. The second mishna taught us the four periods of judgment, the Yemei Hadin, specifically grain on Pesach, the fruits of the trees on Shavuos, people on Rosh Hashanah, and water on Sukkos. From there, the masechta began its long discussion of Kiddush Hachodesh. It entered the process in an unusual place, you'll recall, with the messengers who went out during the particular months to inform the nation that Rosh Chodesh had in fact been declared. The rest of the first perek concentrated mainly on the witnesses and their journey to the Sanhedrin.

We learned when they were permitted to travel on Shabbos, including when the moon was clearly visible to all. We learned the story of more than 40 pairs who passed through Lod and were stopped by Rabbi Akiva, and Rabban Gamliel's response that discouraging them now could prevent these witnesses from coming in the future when they may be needed. We then considered who was fit to testify, a father and son, perhaps other relatives, Tuvia the doctor together with his son and his freed slave, and those whose conduct disqualifies them from ordinary testimony. The perek returned at its close to the journey itself, the witnesses who could not walk, the danger on the road, and the food needed for a long trip. Only in the final line of the perek did the mishna give us the pasuk on which all of these permissions rested.

The second perek moved from bringing the witnesses to protecting and completing the process. When hostile groups arranged false testimony, Beis Din began requiring someone to identify unknown witnesses. When the Kusim corrupted the fire signals, the Chachamim replaced them with messengers. We learned how the signals had worked, torches and beacons carried to the mountain tops, waved until the next mountain responded, creating a chain of light that carried the news outward. We then came to Beis Yazek, the courtyard in Yerushalayim where the witnesses would gather.

They were fed and were given room to move after traveling beyond their techum. From there we enter the examination and interrogation itself. The Beis Din questioned the witnesses about the position, direction, height, and appearance of the moon. Even after enough valid testimony had been received, the remaining witnesses were still asked some very basic questions so that they would not feel that their journey had been in vain. Then came the declaration of Rosh Chodesh itself, the head of the Beis Din said Mekudash, and the people answered Mekudash, Mekudash.

The perek ended by testing the authority of that declaration. Rabban Gamliel accepted testimony that רבי דוסא בן הרכינס considered impossible and that Rabbi Yehoshua outright rejected. The disagreement produced two possible dates for Yom Kippur that year, and Rabban Gamliel ordered Rabbi Yehoshua to come to him carrying his staff and money on the day that would have been Yom Kippur according to Rabbi Yehoshua's calculation. Rabbi Akiva first tried to comfort Rabbi Yehoshua by teaching that the Yamim Tovim established by Beis Din are binding even if the Beis Din erred. Rabbi Dosa then argued that if we challenge Rabban Gamliel's Beis Din, we would have to challenge every Beis Din going back to the times of Moshe Rabbeinu.

Rabbi Yehoshua accepted ultimately Rabban Gamliel's authority and came to Yavneh. Rabban Gamliel rose, kissed him, and called him my Rebbe in wisdom and my student because you accepted my words. The first mishna of Perek Gimmel completes Kiddush Hachodesh. We learned what happens when the moon was seen but Beis Din did not complete the declaration before nightfall, or when Beis Din alone saw it, and when three members even of the Beis Din had to divide their roles between witnesses and judges. It's at that point the masechta turns from the moon to the shofar.

We began by asking which horns qualify as a shofar, including the debate concerning the horn of a cow. We compared the preferred shofar and the accompanying chatzotzros, trumpets, on Rosh Hashanah with their arrangement on a public taanis, a fast day, and we compared the shofar of Rosh Hashanah with the shofar of Yovel. The mishna then considered a damaged shofar, one that was cracked, assembled from pieces, punctured or plugged. From the instrument we move to its sound. Someone hearing a shofar from a pit or a cistern had to distinguish the actual sound from a mere echo.

Someone passing behind a shul had to know what he was hearing and according to the way the mishna is understood, direct his heart accordingly. The discussion of directing your heart led to the mishna describing Moshe's raised hands during the war with Amalek and to the copper serpent. Neither that... Neither the hands nor the serpent produced salvation on its own. They caused Klal Yisrael to look upward and subject their hearts to their father in heaven to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

The perek then returned to Halacha and taught that someone who is not obligated in the mitzvah of shofar cannot discharge the obligation of others. They cannot be motzi others. The fourth perek brought us into the world after the churban. We learned about blowing the shofar on Shabbos, first in the Beis Hamikdash and later through the takanah of רבן יוחנן בן זכאי in the presence of any Beis Din. We compared the reach of that practice in Yerushalayim to Yavneh.

We then learned some further takanas connected to the changed world after the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. Taking the lulav for seven days throughout the country as a zecher l'mikdash, to remember the practice of the Beis Hamikdash. The prohibition of chadash throughout the day on which the omer had once been offered and the return to accepting testimony concerning Rosh Chodesh throughout the day once the Mikdash service could no longer be disrupted by late witnesses. Finally, the masechta turns to the tefillos and tekios of Rosh Hashanah. We learned how Malchiyos, Zichronos, and Shofros are placed within the brachos of Musaf, how many pesukim are recited, which kinds of pesukim may be used, and why the shofar is sounded with the later tefillah and not in Shacharis.

We also learned the limits of the mitzvah, that even though shofar is the mitzvah of the day, we do not violate even rabbinic prohibitions, even issurei d'rabbanan of Yom Tov, in order to obtain one. We learned about teaching children to blow and about someone who blows only for practice. And in the final mishna, we reached the order of the sounds themselves: tekiah, teruah, and tekiah. Their required lengths and the rule that one extended sound cannot always be divided into two. The masechta then ended with the relationship between the individual's obligation and the shaliach tzibbur, who can be motzi others of the kehilla.

Looking back, we can now see the arc of the masechta. We began by asking when a year begins. We moved to the witnesses and Beis Din who established the month. We saw how one calendar was protected from sabotage and division. We moved from seeing the moon to hearing the shofar, from the physical instrument to the sound and the intention of the listener.

And after the churban, we watched the chachamim preserve sacred practice, memory, and communal tefillah in a changing world. We also crossed an extraordinary range of Halacha: the calendar, testimony, Shabbos, Beis Din, astronomy, communal authority, the laws of shofar, the practices of the Beis Hamikdash, takanas after the churban, and the tefillos of Rosh Hashanah. At the beginning of the masechta, we allowed witnesses to travel on Shabbos in order to establish the calendar for the tzibbur. Near its end, we learned that an individual may not violate even a rabbinic prohibition of Yom Tov in order to obtain a shofar. That contrast captures something of the masechta's larger story.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu established the natural cycle while the Torah gave Klal Yisrael through its witnesses and Beis Din the responsibility to establish and preserve one calendar for the nation. Mazel tov on completing Maseches Rosh Hashanah and with that, I wish you continuing hatzlacha in all of your learning.