Kommentar zu Arakhin 2:2
אֵין פּוֹחֲתִין מֵאַרְבָּעָה חֲדָשִׁים הַמְעֻבָּרִים בְּשָׁנָה, וְלֹא נִרְאֶה יָתֵר עַל שְׁמֹנָה. שְׁתֵּי הַלֶּחֶם נֶאֱכָלוֹת אֵין פָּחוּת מִשְּׁנַיִם וְלֹא יָתֵר עַל שְׁלשָׁה. לֶחֶם הַפָּנִים נֶאֱכָל אֵין פָּחוּת מִתִּשְׁעָה וְלֹא יָתֵר עַל אַחַד עָשָׂר. קָטָן נִמּוֹל אֵין פָּחוּת מִשְּׁמֹנָה וְלֹא יָתֵר עַל שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר:
Es gibt nie weniger als vier volle Monate im Jahr, und es schien auch nicht richtig, mehr als acht zu haben. Shtei Halechem [Die zwei Sauerteigweizenbrote, die als Opfergaben auf Shavuot gebracht wurden und die Verwendung des neuen Getreides für heilige Opfergaben erlaubten] wurden nie früher als am zweiten Tag oder später als am dritten Tag gegessen. Die Lechem Hapanim [zwölf speziell geformte ungesäuerte Brote, die jedem Schabbat auf dem goldenen Tisch im Tempel angeboten wurden] wurden nie früher als am neunten Tag und nicht später als am elften Tag gegessen. Ein Säugling darf niemals früher als am achten oder später als am zwölften Tag beschnitten werden.
Bartenura on Mishnah Arakhin
אין פוחתין מארבעה חדשים מעוברות – of thirty days for the year. For we don’t make more than eight months as defective/deficient (i.e., that they have only 29 days). But eight deficient ones we make [in the calendar].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Arakhin
There are never less than four full months in the year, nor did it seem right to have more than eight. Every month in the Jewish calendar has 29 or 30 days, depending on when witnesses come to testify that they saw the new moon. The rabbis realized that there had to be about six “missing” months and six “full” months a year, in order to keep the schedule correct (an actual lunar cycle is between 29 and 30 days long). Therefore, they instituted a minimum of four full months and a maximum of eight to keep the calculations as close to correct as possible. Today, the Jewish calendar is fixed, and generally, there are six full and six missing months.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Arakhin
ולא נראה יותר על שמונה – meaning to say, and it doesn’t appear to the Sages to complement a month by assigning to it an additional day for more than eight months. For the “renewal” of the moon (i.e., the time that the moon takes to go around the planet earth between each beginning of the moon’s first quarter) is twenty-nine and one-half days and two-thirds of an hour and seventy-three parts (i.e., 793/1080 parts). For every two months has fifty-nine days, one month from twenty-nine days and one month from thirty days. The month of twenty-nine [days] is defective/deficient, and the month of thirty [days] is called full or “pregnant.” And according to law, it was that all of the months of the year, one would be “full,” and the other would be “deficient,” but because of the difference of the two-thirds by an hour and seventy-three parts, that there are in each and every month, sometimes, it is necessary to make eight months from the year as full and four deficient, and sometimes eight months are deficient and four are full/complete.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Arakhin
Two loaves were eaten, never earlier than the second day, nor later than the third day. The “two loaves” refers to the two loaves eaten on Shavuot. Generally, they were eaten the day after they were baked. They would be baked on erev Shavuot, and eaten on Shavuot. This is “the second day.” However, if Shabbat fell before Shavuot, they would be baked on Thursday and eaten on Sunday, the third day. For more information see Menahot 11:9.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Arakhin
אין פחות משנים – to the second day of their being baked.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Arakhin
The shewbread was eaten never earlier than the ninth day, nor later than the eleventh day. The showbread was the bread baked in the Temple on a weekly basis. Generally, it would have been baked on Friday and eaten the following Shabbat, on the ninth day. However, if there were holidays on Thursday and Friday, it might have been eaten on only the eleventh day. For more info see Menahot 11:9.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Arakhin
ולא יותר על שלשה – and on the third day of their being baked, they are consumed, but not beyond that. How so? If the Festival of Atzeret/Shavuot occurs on Sunday, they are baked on Friday, for their baking does not supersede neither the Sabbath nor the Festival, and they are consumed after they are waved, that is, on the third day. But when Atzeret/Shavuot occurs on the rest of the days of the week, they are baked on the eve of the Festival and consumed on the Festival which is the second [day] from their being baked.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Arakhin
An infant may never be circumcised earlier than the eighth nor later than the twelfth day. Normally, a boy is circumcised on the eighth day. However, if he is born at dusk, at a time when it might be already the next day, he would have to be circumcised on the ninth day (which might be the eighth day). If he is born at dusk on erev Shabbat, he is circumcised on the following Sunday, the tenth day, because he can only be circumcised on Shabbat if it is certain that it is the eighth day. If he is born on erev Rosh Hashanah, when it falls on Thursday-Friday, he will be circumcised on the twelfth day, which is the following Sunday, because he couldn’t be circumcised on Thursday, Friday or Saturday . Unless the baby is unhealthy, the circumcision cannot be delayed any longer.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Arakhin
לחם פנים נאכל אין פחות מתשעה – which is baked on the Eve of the Sabbath (i.e., Friday) and eaten on the next Sabbath which is nine days from their being baked. If the two Festival days of Rosh Hashanah occur on Thursday and Friday of that week, they bake the shewbread on the Wednesday of that week, and arrange it on the table on Shabbat, but it is eaten on the second Shabbat which is the eleventh day from their having been baked.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Arakhin
ולא יותר על שנים עשר – How so? If a male child is born at twilight of the Eve of the Sabbath (i.e., late afternoon on Friday just prior to the onset of the Sabbath), he is not circumcised on the Sabbath (of the next week), for perhaps it might be the ninth day (instead of the eighth day). For the twilight period is doubtfully day and doubtfully night. But if it is day, it would mean that the Sabbath is the ninth day, but circumcision that is not at its appropriate time does not supersede either the Sabbath or the Festival Dy. But if the two Festival Days of Rosh Hashanah occurred after that Sabbath, he is not circumcised until Tuesday, which is twelve days from his birth.
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