Talmud Reclaimed explores the relationship between Kabbalah and Halacha – and the different methodologies employed by legal authorities when these sources do not agree. The laws relating to Kiddush Levanah offer a perfect framework for exploring these methodologies as well as more broadly the way in which various Rishonim balance up halachic sources in order to determine Halacha.
One particular peculiarity about the law of Kiddush Levanah is that the main law itself appears to be missing from the primary halachic source: the Talmud Bavli. Instead of the expected location in Masechet Berachot, it is only a tangential passage in Sanhedrin where the latest time for reciting this blessing is debated. The primary obligation itself, as well as the earliest time for performing Kiddush Levanah do not merit a mention.
With the Bavli holding its silence, the earliest commentaries and halachic codes appear to draw upon the Yerushalmi, which places this law where it seems most suited – in the chapter of HaRo’eh among numerous other blessings recited over natural or historical phenomena:
“One who sees the moon in its renewal should say Blessed [is the God who] renews the months”.
As Talmud Reclaimed details, while the Rambam and Rif both consider the Bavli to be the more legally authoritative of the two Talmuds, this is only because it was sealed and published after its Palestinian counterpart and is thus considered to have superseded it. On occasions such as this where the Bavli is silent, the Yerushalmi’s prior teaching remains legally binding. In view of this, Rambam, Rosh, Rashi and others all rule simply that the blessing can be recited from the very first sighting of the moon (Rambam and perhaps Rashi even consider this to be the ideal time). A minority opinion of Rabbeinu Yonah requires one to wait three days – presumably in order for the moon to have sufficiently “renewed” to warrant a blessing. Yet all of this still seems very distant from the ceremony as it is customarily practiced today.
For further clarification of the popular practice we need to examine post-Talmudic sources, starting with Masechet Soferim – a work understood to have been authored in the Land of Israel during the Geonic period. Here for the first time we discover recommendations that the blessing be recited on Motzei Shabbat with due pomp and circumstance.
Characteristically, Rambam and other Rishonim who follow his strict legal methodology, do not record this as law since being post-Talmudic it lacks formal legal authority. Notwithstanding this, the custom to perform the ceremony on Motzei Shabbat became increasingly popular and widely practiced to the extent that it has practically been formalized as law in the popular perception. The positions of Rashi, Rambam and others that it should ideally be recited at the first opportunity, and the Gra’s protest against unnecessarily delaying the performance of a mitzvah (particularly against those who delay until after Yom Kippur and Tishe Be’Av) are rarely acknowledged.
The reason for this seismic shift in the popular approach to Kiddush Levanah would appear to lie not simply in Masechet Soferim but rather in a kabbalistic teaching of Rabbi Yosef Gikatilla which introduces a notion that is absent from both Talmuds: that the blessing should not be recited until at least the seventh of the month for kabbalistic reasons.
This opens a can of worms which is thoroughly parsed in Talmud Reclaimed. In theory it is agreed by all – including Rav Yosef Karo’s Beit Yosef and the Mishneh Berurah – that in a clash between Talmud and the Zohar it is the Talmudic conclusion which must be followed for Halachah. Nevertheless, Rav Yosef Karo’s Shulchan Aruch is widely credited with introducing kabbalistic considerations into mainstream halachic dialogue. Talmud Reclaimed shows the extent to which delicate legal reasoning is engaged in order to demonstrate that the Zohar can be reconciled with the Talmud. The case in hand is particularly difficult to reconcile, the Bach arguing strongly that the seven-day ruling should not be followed as it opposes Talmudic law.
With Kiddush Levana gradually transformed from a blessing over viewing a natural phenomenon – one of the group of Birchot HaRo’eh – to a communal Motzei Shabbat celebration of the moon, its focus can be seen to have shifted significantly. The text of the Berachah specifically addresses God, and makes reference to a prophecy of Yeshaya in order to pray to God to renew and redeem his Chosen People (the “amusei baten”) – a symbolic association with the renewal of the moon. Writing in his commentary to Mishneh Torah, Rabbi Yosef Kappach notes critically how the customary verses and dances which have slowly attached themselves to the blessing have gradually shifted the focus of the ceremony from a prayer to God to the moon itself – sometimes even appearing to address it.
Where this all leaves us is uncertain. But it may be fair to comment that what was initially one small prayer to God has seen itself transformed into one giant leap in the popular evolution of Halachah!
For more information about Talmud Reclaimed: An Ancient Text in the Modern Era and Judaism Reclaimed: Philosophy and Theology in the Torah, visit www.TalmudReclaimed.com.
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