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Week 40 - Friday - 1 September 2000

ROSH HASHANAH: CHAPTER 2: MISHNAH 3

How did they light the flares? They brought long poles of cedar-wood, and reeds and shemen wood, and chips of flax, and he tied together with rope, and he went up to the top of the hill and he set fire to them, and he waved to and fro and he raised and lowered until he saw his fellow doing likewise on the top of the second hill, and so, too, on the top of the third hill.

Kehati

How did they light the flares? They brought long poles of cedar-wood - a hard wood, which does not burn quickly, and reeds - thin wooden sticks, and shemen wood - a type of oil producing tree from which tar is made (Radak), and which is mentioned several times in the Bible (I K. 6:23, 32, 33; Isa. 41:19; Neh. 8:15); some explain that this is another name for the olive tree,

And chips of flax - the chips of the stalks which fall off the flax when it is swingled; all these increase the flame, and he tied everything together with rope - at the top of the pole, and he went up to the top of the hill and he set fire to them, and he waved the burning pole to and fro - from side to side, and he raised and lowered it, so that would not be recognized as the Rosh Hodesh flares -

Until he saw his fellow doing likewise on the top of the second hill, and so, too, on the top of the third hill - and so the signal-fires were lit on all the hilltops (see the following mishnah).

ROSH HASHANAH: CHAPTER 2: MISHNAH 4

And from where did they light the flares? From the Mount of Olives to Sarteba, and from Sarteba to Agrippina, and from Agrippina to Havran, and from Havran to Bet Biltin; and from Bet Biltin they did not move, but he waved to and fro and he raised and lowered until he would see the whole of the Diaspora before him like a mass of fire.

Kehati

And from where - from which hill, did they begin to light the flares - and on which hills would they light the flares, one after the other? From the Mount of Olives to Sarteba - a prominent hill in Samaria, on the border of the Jordan Valley, facing Mt. Gilead on the east bank of the Jordan, and from Sarteba to Agrippina - Mt. Kokhava, at the extremity of the eastern Lower Galilee, and from Agrippina to Havran - a high hill at the extremity of the eastern bank of the Jordan (in present-day Syria), and from Havran to Bet Biltin - a hill located between the eastern boundary of Eretz Yisrael and the boundary of Babylonia; and from Bet Biltin they did not move from there, but he waved to and fro and he raised and lowered - the burning pole -

Until he would see the whole of the Diaspora before him like a mass of fire - the Gemara elaborates that "the Diaspora" (ha-golah) refers to Pumbedita in Babylonia; each person there would take a torch and go up to his roof, to publicize kiddush ha-hodesh, and so the people raising the signal-fire on Bet Biltin would know that the people in Babylonia had already seen their signal-fires, and that the latter were continuing to spread the announcement of kiddush ha-hodesh in their regions.

Observation: The names of the hills in this mishnah have been interpreted according to Z. Vilnai (following Perkei Aggadah ve-Mishnah by Y.A. Herling).

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