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Does the nascent Sanhedrin in Israel sanctify the new moon with witnesses?
In 2004, a group of rabbis in Israel attempted to begin the process of re-establishing the Sanhedrin using the Rambam's method of universal consensus to re-establish the line of semikha. Rabbi Moshe Halberstam was selected as the first musmakh and he proceeded to confer semikha on others until enough rabbis had been granted semikha to establish a Sanhedrin, which R' Adin Steinsaltz, as Nasi, referred to as the "Nascent Sanhedrin".
As far as I can tell, this new Nascent Sanhedrin is still active; albeit quietly. Rambam, whose opinion was relied upon to re-establish semikha, also holds that whenever a Sanhedrin exists, new months must be established through testimony (Hilkhos Kiddush HaChodesh 5:2). Does this new Sanhedrin sanctify the new month through witnesses? Is there any record of this happening?
1 answer
I was not even aware of this group (and I live in Israel...). Some digging brought the jackpot: The Israeli New Moon Society. Here's what they have to say on the matter:
On 7th May 2008 the Sanhedrin reenacted a reconstruction of receiving eyewitness testimony of the crescent Moon used for fixing the calendar and have carried out many such reconstructions since. This has helped improve the efficiency and accuracy of the process.
On 6th January 2011 members of the Sanhedrin went up to the Temple Mount, received eyewitness testimony about the Moon, sanctified the month and announced “mekudash mekudash”. This was a forbidden act that will probably bring about an end to this Sanhedrin.
Here's a Hebrew article on the subject.
And a listing of their moon reports until 2009.
A listing of moon reports until 2011.
The latest piece I could find is from the New Moon Society which is from way back in 2011, so I don't know what they're doing nowadays.
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