The Context:
For a court to declare a new month, they must accept witnesses who testify to having seen the new moon, and ratify that testimony according to their own astrological calculations.
Regarding this testimony, the Mishnah records a dispute. Rabbi Shimon says that these witnesses may be relatives, even though the Torah does not allow relatives to be witnesses in other legal proceedings. The sages disagree and maintain that relatives are not accepted for new moon testimony. (Rosh Hashanah 22a)
A possible explanation for this dispute lies in the role of testimony in the new month proceedings. Generally speaking, testimony is given legal weight by the Torah as a scriptural decree. Testimony provides the legal seal on any proceeding where the Torah requires it. The law proscribing relatives from being witnesses together is another element of this scriptural decree. It is not because we are concerned that they are conspiring to mislead the court, the Torah simply decreed that relatives cannot testify.
Rabbi Shimon seems to maintain that because the court relies on their own calculations to determine if the new moon has arrived, therefore the role of the witness is not to ratify the proceedings with Torah’s authority, but simply to offer another form of support for their calculations. Therefore, this is not the typical testimony of the Torah that must conform to the scriptural requirement for unrelated witnesses. Relatives would be fine as well — since they have no conflicting interests, they can offer supporting visual evidence for the court’s calculations.
The sages, however, seem to maintain that even though the court does rely on their own calculations, they still need the legal weight offered by the Torah’s recognition of witnesses. Therefore, the testimony required is not supplemental evidence, it is the full legal authority of testimony as in any other court proceeding and therefore the witnesses cannot be related per the Torah’s decree. The law follows this opinion of the sages.
The Question:
Why do we require both forms of clarification, the court’s calculations and the legal weight of testimony, to announce the new month? In fact, the law states that if the testimony does not align with the court’s mathematical calculations, the testimony is rejected. So what is the purpose of having the witnesses if we will defer to the calculations in any event?
The Explanation:
The mitzvah of consecrating the new moon is the first mitzvah given to the Jewish people because it contains the mission statement of the entire project of mitzvos. The objective of Torah is to introduce a radical innovation, a “newness,” to the world: to undo the certainty of existence and reveal the essential nothingness of creation.
In order to accomplish this two innovations are needed. a) To introduce the Essence of G-d within the mundane reality, b) to prepare this lowest of possible worlds to acclimate itself to this revelation. Therefore, in declaring the new month, the court needed to incorporate both elements of ratification: a) the top-down legal force of witnesses which corresponds to the Essence of G-d becoming manifest in our world; and b) the court’s rational calculations which correspond to the efforts we make to prepare our world for receiving the revelation of the Divine.
