ANSWERS TO REVIEW QUESTIONS
prepared by Rabbi Eliezer Chrysler
Kollel Iyun Hadaf, Jerusalem
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Rosh Hashanah 3
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ROSH HASHANAH 2-10 sponsored by a generous grant from an anonymous donor. Kollel Iyun Hadaf is indebted to him for his encouragement and support and prays that Hashem will repay him in kind.
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Questions
1)
(a) Resh Lakish gives the four possible meanings of the word "Ki" as - when,
perhaps, but and because.
(b) According to that, we will translate ...
- ... "*Ki* Yikarei Kan Tzipor Lefanecha" - as *"When* you come across a bird's nest ... ".
- ... "*Im* Kesef Talveh es Ami" - "*When* you lend My people money".
- ... "ve'*Chi* Somru, Mah Nochal ba'Shanah ha'Shevi'is" - "And *perhaps* you will say, what will we eat in the seventh year?"
(c) And we explain the Pasuk "*va'Yir'u* Kol ha'Eidah *Ki* Gava Aharon" - to
mean "And all the people *were seen*, *because* Aharon had died".
2)
(a) We just Derived that Sichon was alive when Aharon died, from the Pasuk
"Vayishma ha'Cana'ani ... ". The connection between Sichon and the cana'ani
is - that Sichon and the Cana'ani in this instance, are one and the same.
Note: The Cana'ani in this Pasuk really refers to Amalek, who spoke Cana'ani
to confuse Yisrael. The proof that Sichon was alive (and his people intact)
is from the fact that Amalek pretended to be Sichon (a senseless thing to do
if they were no longer in existence).
(b) Sichon's third name was Arad.
(c) The king's name was Arad and his kingdom, Cana'an. He is referred to as
'Sichon' - because he resembled a 'Sayach' (a *young ass*) - according to
the Aruch, he was as swift as a *foal*.
(d) According to others, his name was Sichon, and his kingdom, Cana'an. He
is referred to as Arad - because he resembled a wild ass.
3)
(a) We know that the Rosh Hashanah for kings is Nisan and not ...
1. ... Iyar - because, when they set up the Mishkan, the Torah refers to
Nisan of the *second* year, and when they traveled, one and a half months
later, it refers to Iyar too, as being in the *second* year (and if Iyar had
been Rosh Hashanah for kings - which is synonymous with the new year that
they reckoned in the Desert, as is clear from the entire Sugya - then it
would have been the *third* year).
2. ... Sivan - because the Torah writes in Yisro (in connection with their
arrival at Har Sinai) "ba'Chodesh ha'Shelishi, le'Tzeis B'nei Yisrael ... ".
Had Sivan been Rosh Hashanah for kings, then the Torah would have added
"ba'Chodesh ha'Shelishi ba'Shanah ha'Sheinis ... ".
(b) From all the Pesukim brought to date, we have no proof that the Rosh
Hashanah for kings is not Tamuz, Av or Adar (only that it is not Tishri -
when the world was created, and which was certainly considered the new year
until they left Egypt). We get round this problem (too) from the Pasuk in
Divrei Hayamim "va'Yechal Livnos ba'Chodesh ha'Sheini, *ba'Sheini*,
bi'Sh'nas Arba le'Malchuso" - where "ba'Sheini" can only mean the second
month from which one counts the years of kings (and this was said in the
month of Iyar).
(c) We know that "ba'Sheini" does not mean the second of the month - because
then the Pasuk would have said so.
(d) We suggest that - perhaps "ba'Sheini" means the second day of the week
(Monday)?
4)
(a) "ba'Sheini cannot mean 'Monday', because we never find the day of the
week mentioned in the Pasuk. Alternatively - just as the *first* "Sheini"
mentioned in the Pasuk refers to a month, so too, does the *second*.
(b) We prove Rebbi Yochanan (who sparked off the entire Sugya by bringing
the Pasuk from Melachim as the source for Nisan being the Rash Hashanah for
kings) right - by quoting a Beraisa which corroborates Rebbi Yochanan's
Pasuk from Melachim, as well as every subsequent Derashah quoted in the
Sugya (because they are all needed, as is evident from the Sugya. See also
Tosfos DH 'Tanya').
5)
(a) Rav Chisda learns from the fact that the Pasuk in Nechemyah (regarding
King Artachshasta) refers to first Kislev and then Nisan as the twentieth
year - that, as far as Nochri kings are concerned, Rosh Chodesh cannot be
Nisan.
(b) We know that the first of the two Pesukim, which does not name the king,
also refers to King Artachshasta - from Rav Papa's 'Gezeirah-Shavah' of
"Sh'nas Esrim" "Sh'nas Esrim" (which teaches us that, regarding all issues
of years) whatever is obscure in one place, we learn from the other - see
Rashi 2b. DH 'Sh'nas Esrim').
3b---------------------------------------3b
Questions
6)
(a) From the fact that whatever Chanani told Nechemyah in Kislev, he passed
on to the king in Nisan - we learn that the Pasuk in Nechemyah that is dated
in Kislev (which deals with what Chanani told Nechemyah) precedes that of
Nisan (where he passed the information on to the king).
(b) The information that Chanani gave Nechemyah (in the Pasuk currently
under discussion) was decidedly unpleasant. He told him of the terrible
suffering and humiliation of the Jews who remained behind in Eretz Yisrael
from the captivity, and how the walls of Yerushalayim were still breached
and the gates burnt to the ground.
(c) The news that Nechemyah received from Chanani was reflected on his face
when he spoke to the King in Nisan - the King however, knowing that he was
not ill, misunderstood his contorted features, taking it as a sign that he
was brewing some sort of plot in his heart.
(d) Nechemyah's position in the royal court - was that of chief butler.
7)
(a) After Nechemyah explained to the King why his face was contorted - the
King reacted by asking whether he could help by perhaps praying for him to
the G-d of the Heaven (a Nochri does not understand that Hashem is also G-d
of the earth).
(b) Nechemyah's response - was to ask the King to send him to Yehudah to
help rebuild the ruins.
(c) The dialogue ended - by Nechemyah giving an estimated time-period that
he would need for the task, and for his request being granted.
8)
(a) The Pasuk in Chagai refers to first the *sixth* month (Ellul) and then
the *seventh* (Tishri) as being in the second year of his reign - because at
the time of that prophesy, he was righteous, so the Pasuk counts the years
of his reign like those of a Jewish king (from Nisan).
(b) Exactly one year after the completion of the second Beis Hamikdash, in
Adar of the *sixth* year of Daryavesh's reign - Ezra left Bavel with a large
contingent of exiles for Eretz Yisrael.
(c) The problem with the Pasuk in Ezra, which describes how he arrived in
Yerushalayim in the fifth month of the *seventh* year of the King - is that,
seeing as the Pasuk records that he left Bavel in Adar of the *seventh*
year, Nisan should have marked the beginning of his *eighth* year. So why
does it refer to the following Av as still being the *seventh* year?
(d) We resolve the apparent confusing of Koresh and Artachshasta - by
concluding that the two are one and the same: Koresh was his title, because
'Koresh' contains the same letters as 'Kasher' (a hint to the fact that he
was a righteous king), and Artachshasta was the name of his kingdom. His
real name was Daryavesh (Darius).
9)
We ascribe the fact that the Pasuk now considers Adar and Av to be in the
same year (despite of what we learned earlier that the years of Koresh were
reckoned from Nisan, because he was a righteous king) - to the fact that he
later turned sour.
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