On Sod HaIbbur

Continuing this line of posts.

If the period prior to Moshiach is akin to the period in Mitzriam regarding practice of Sod HaIbbur, then it is obviously not that during Galus Mitzraim that leap months were not intercalated.

What, then, was missing? Could it be simply the 19 year cycle itself, which was known among the goyim for sure at least 2400 years ago?

There is hidden power within the 19 year cycle, the Ibbur Cycle, and this can only be used by Am Yisrael by the Sanhedrin's use of the leap cycle.

So what is / was missing is the knowledge of this sod and the actual usage thereof.

This, of course, is not the entirety of Sod HaIbbur, as can be seen from Rosh Hashanah 20b.

A Calendar for the whole Golah

Following up on the last post, we should ask, what does it mean that the Ibbur will become less during the stages before Moshiach's arrival, as it was during Galus Mitzraim?

Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer doesn't say that B'nei Yisrael did not practice Sod HaIbbur, it just says it was lessened. I would propose that the parallel between then and now could be the accuracy of our calendar.

Brief background: Our calendar is based on a 19 year cycle of lunar years, with 7 of these years having leap months. This is because 19 solar years is very close in length to 235 (19 * 12 + 7) lunar months. There is a set pattern of how we add leap months, and it created an accurate calendar, for its time, some 1600 years ago. Over time, however, the calendar has a drift, so that more and more years out of the 19 year cycle are too late.

In Rosh Hashanah 20b, Shmuel says that he can set up a calendar for the entire Golah. He doesn't mean the place; the calendar for Babylon and for Monsey are the same. Rather, Shmuel could make a calculation that would make a calendar that stays reasonably accurate until such time as a Sanhedrin could fix it. This is in our days.

Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer on Sod HaIbbur

Chapter 8 of Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer brings a history of Sod HaIbbur (Sod HaIbbur meaning the secrets behind the calendar. On a base level, this means when to add a leap month.).

First Hashem took care of Sod HaIbbur. Then He passed it on to Adam HaRishon in Gan Eden (Which is problematic if we are to say that there were no years before Adam HaRishon's stay in Gan Eden).

• Adam passed on the knowledge to Chanoch.
• Chanoch passed on the knowledge to Noach.
• Noach passed on the knowledge to Shem.
• Shem passed on the knowledge to Avraham Avinu.
• Avraham Avinu passed on the knowledge to Yitzchak Avinu.
• Yitzchak Avinu passed on the knowledge to Yaakov Avinu.
• During Yaakov Avinu's stay outside of Eretz Yisrael, Yitzchak resumed the adding of the leap months.
• Yaakov Avinu passed on the knowledge to Yosef, and Yosef was the one that added the leap months in Mitzraim.
• When Yosef and his brothers passed away, the leap months became lessened "נתמעטו העיבורין מישראל", until the time that Hashem gave the mitzvah to sanctify the months to Moshe and Aharon.

It goes on to say there that just as during Galus Mitzraim, the leap months became lessened, so to it will be towards the time of the end of the servitude to the Fourth Kingdom, until the coming of Moshiach.

And just like Hashem was revealed to Moshe and Aharon to bring Sod HaIbbur back to Am Yisrael, thus too Hashem will be revealed in the future to bring it back to us.