Halakha Bilangan 28:14: Mishneh Torah, Sanctification, Shulchan Shel Arba & Ta'amei HaMinhagim

The months of the year are lunar months, as it is stated (Numbers 28:14), "the monthly burnt-offering for each new moon"; and it is [also] stated (Exodus 12:2), "This month shall be for you the beginning of the months." Thus did the Sages say: The Holy One, blessed be He, showed Moshe a likeness of the moon in a prophetic vision and said to him, "See [when] it is like this, and sanctify it (as the beginning of the month)." But the years that we calculate are solar years, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 16:1), "Guard the month of the Spring."

One should not engage in conversation after the cup of blessing, and one should not say the blessing over a “cup of tribulations.” What is a “cup of tribulations”? A second cup. The reason for this is that pairs are bad luck. As they taught in a baraita, “Whoever drinks double – that is, a pair of cups – should not say the blessing, because of the verse “Be proper to meet your God, O Israel.”³²³Am 4:12: “Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” (JSB), but this midrashic use of the verse picks up on the connotation of nakhon – being proper or correct – from the root of the imperative verb hikon “prepare.” And the reason for prohibiting pairs is because of witchcraft and beings composed of two who rule over anyone who eats and drinking something in pairs. And another reason to distance oneself from “twos” is that that are separated from the power of One, for pairs come from the power of “twos.” So in order to fix one’s heart on unity and distance oneself from dualistic faith, like what is alluded to in Scripture, “Do not mix with shonim,”³²⁴Pr 24:21: “Do not mix with dissenters” (JSB). However, R. Bahya is clearly playing on the connection between “shonim” – literally, “those who differ” and shnayim – “two. In other words, he reads the verse as, “Do not mix with dualists.” The Talmudic prohibitions on pairs probably had something to do with their Babylonian cultural context, i.e., the dualistic Zoroastrianism of the Sassanid Persian empire. those who believe in twos or more. Therefore they prohibited pairs even for things eaten and drunk, for it is appropriate for natural matters to be a sign and symbol of appropriate practices and beliefs,³²⁵Literally, “appropriate matters.” But some mss. of R. Bahya’s text read “intellectual and spiritual matters,” making his point clearer. in that you already knew that true beliefs thus require actions. And you see that in the story of Creation, it was not said, “that it was good” on the second day.³²⁶That expression ki tov, which appears after the descriptions of what was created on the other five days in Genesis 1, is conspicuously absent at the end of the account of day two. For we follow what they said in Genesis Rabbah, that on it dissent and Gehennah were created, and without a doubt, with things like these created on it, it is a dangerous day, on which it is prohibited to begin any work, as our rabbis z”l said, “One does not begin things on the second day, because whoever adds something to one, there’s no good in him [or it], and thus it was called yom sheni – “day two,” which is from the expression shinui – “change.” For in One there is no change, which is what is written: “For I am the Lord, I have not changed.”³²⁷Mal 3:6. But the second day was the beginning of change, and from then on, change in what was created is desirable, and on the rest of the days after it we have found basis for an accusation against all of them, e.g., on the third day God said, “Let the earth bring forth fruit trees,” but it actually brought forth only “trees bearing fruit.”³²⁸Gen 1:11,12. R. Bahya picks up on the slightly different phrasing: “fruit tree bearing fruit” (1:11) vs. “tree bearing, to imply that the earth did not do exactly as God commanded. Similarly on the fourth day the moon made an accusation saying, “It isn’t fair for two kings to use one crown.”³²⁹B. Hullin 60b. This is the midrash told there:
And God made the two great lights? but later it says: “the great light and the small light”! The moon said before the Holy One: Master of the world, is it possible for two kings to use one crown? God said to her: Go and diminish yourself! She said before God: Because I asked a good question, I should diminish myself? God said: Go and rule both in day and in night. She said: What advantage is that? A candle in the daylight is useless. God said: Go and let Israel count their days and years by you. She said: They use the daylight [of the sun] to count seasonal cycles as well…Seeing that she was not appeased, the Holy One said: Bring a (sacrificial) atonement for me that I diminished the moon! This is what R. Shimon ben Lakish said: What is different about the ram of the new moon that it is offered “for God” (And one ram of the flock for a sin offering for God…Numbers 28:14). Said the Holy One: This ram shall be an atonement for me that I diminished the moon. And likewise on the fifth day, God killed the male Leviathan,³³⁰Though in his commentary to the Torah on Gen 1:4, R. Bahya uses the version of this midrash found in b. Bava Batra 74b: God castrated the male Leviathan and killed the female Leviathan. For had they mated with one another, they would have destroyed the world. which can be interpreted as He hid the heavenly light. And likewise on the sixth day, Adam sinned and changed the will of Ha-Shem, and about this it is said, “altering his face, you sent him out.”³³¹Job 14:20, which R. Bahya interprets as “you (Adam)– changed God’s face, and so ‘made” Him (God) send you out of the Garden of Eden.” See how the second day is the cause behind all of this, because all of these things come from its power and follow it. To the extent it said “Prepare to meet your God, O Israel,”³³²Am 4:12. who is one, and it added “O Israel,” who is the one singular nation of the one God, as it is said, “And who is like Your people, one nation on earth,”³³³I Chr 17:21. you should prepare and direct yourself to meet the One. So you should not eat or drink things in pairs, so that you will not think dualistic things in your heart.

The Reason for the Four Parshiot (Special Torah Readings) Three of them are in memory of the time that the Temple existed. And they are Parshat Shekalim, Parshat Parah Adumah and Parshat HaChodesh. For we announce [the obligation of] the shekel payment on the first of Adar. As the Torah stated (Numbers 28:14), "that shall be the monthly burnt offering for each new moon of the year." And from the oral tradition, they learned that it is meaning to say [it is to be] from the first of the month [of Nissan]. And it said monthly (bechodsho, which is related to the word for new), meaning to say, renovate and offer a sacrifice from the contribution of the new shekel coins. Hence we announce [it] one month before Nissan, so that each one can prepare his half [shekel coin], and all will be collected and brought to the Temple with the arrival of Nissan. And so when Adar begins during the days of the week, we bring up the announcement to the Shabbat before it. As if we delay it to the next Shabbat, there will not be a complete month until Rosh Chodesh (the first day of) Nissan. But when Rosh Chodesh Adar is on Shabbat, there is no need to bring it up, since there is surely a [whole] month. And with Parshat Parah Adumah, it is to inform the people that are impure from [contact with] the dead that they should purify themselves with the ashes of the heifer. For the distant ones began to go up to Jerusalem on the first day of Nissan. Hence we do not take a break between Parshat Parah and Parshat HaChodesh. And Parshat HaChodesh is to inform the people that the first day of Nissan will be in the coming week, so that they will prepare themselves for the pilgrimage to the festival. And Parshat Zakhor The Pri Meggadim wrote (282:3), "Even though a minor counts for the tally of seven (that read from the Torah on Shabbat) and, in the time of the Talmud, a minor would go up and read on his own, a minor that goes up for Parshat Zakhor should not read [it] on his own. For behold there are some that say that the reading of Parshat Zakhor is [mandated[ by the Torah, so we would not fulfill [the commandment] with the reading of a minor. And see Taz 685:2." is because of Purim. As Haman came from the seed of Amalek, and the Torah stated (Deuteronomy 25:17), "Remember what Amalek did to you." And from the oral tradition, they learned that remembering is oral, etc. And we say in the Yerushalmi, "It is proper that we should bring forward Parshat HaChodesh before Parshat Parah Adumah, since the tabernacle was established on the first of Nissan, and they burned the heifer on the second of it. So why did they say to bring forward the red heifer? Because it is the purification of the Jewish people, meaning from the impurity of the dead, so that they will not be pushed off until the Second Pesach." Abudarham.