Study Beitzah folio 5A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
ונתקלקלו הלוים בשיר. התקינו שלא יהו מקבלים את העדים אלא עד המנחה.
and the Levites erred in the song. They were unsure whether to sing the weekday song or that of Rosh HaShana during the sacrifice of the afternoon daily offering, as it was unclear whether or not witnesses would arrive that day. From that point on, the court instituted that they would accept witnesses who came to testify that that day was Rosh HaShana only up to minḥa time, i.e., when the daily afternoon offering was sacrificed. If witnesses had not arrived by then, they would declare Elul a 30-day month and calculate the dates of the Festivals accordingly.
ואם באו עדים מן המנחה ולמעלה, נוהגין אותו היום קדש, ולמחר קדש.
And if witnesses came from minḥa time onward, although the calculations for the dates of the Festivals began only from the following day, the people would nevertheless observe that day on which the witnesses arrived as sacred, and they would also observe the following day as sacred. On the 2nd day, they observed Rosh HaShana in full, both by sacrificing its offerings as well as calculating the upcoming Festivals from that date. It is evident that the observance of two days of Rosh HaShana did not stem from uncertainty in the Diaspora as to when the Festival began. Rather, the rabbis instituted that the two days of Rosh HaShana are one unit due to the inherent difficulty in determining the date of a Festival that is celebrated on the 1st of the month.
אמר רבה: מתקנת רבן יוחנן בן זכאי ואילך, ביצה — מותרת. דתנן: משחרב בית המקדש, התקין רבן יוחנן בן זכאי שיהו מקבלין עדות החדש כל היום.
Rabba said: From the time of the ordinance of Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai onward, an egg laid on one day of Rosh HaShana is permitted on the other. As we learned in a Mishnah (Rosh HaShana 30b): After the Temple was destroyed, Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai instituted that the court should once again accept testimony to determine the start of the month all day. Since the concern about errors was no longer relevant, they reverted to the original custom. As the court was aware of the exact date based on the testimony of the witnesses, those in proximity to the court kept only one day of Rosh HaShana. Those who lived far from the court observed two days merely due to uncertainty, and as one of those days was certainly a weekday, an egg laid on the 1st day was permitted on the second.