The Aruch HaShulchan points out in the first siman of hilchos rosh chodesh that the 2 day rosh chodesh that we observe on every month that is 30 days, dates all the way back to the time of the nevi'im. Our minhag is to treat both days as rosh chodesh by abstaining from tachnun, saying hallel and even davening musaf of rosh chodesh (which is related to the korbanos).
Based on this, Rashi in our sugya is very difficult. The wife of R' Eliezer would always stop her husband from saying tachnun (nefilas apayim) out of concern that the power of this tefillah would penetrate the heavens and lead to the death of her brother Rabban Gamliel. The gemara says she got confused between a 29 day month and a 30 day month. She thought it was rosh chodesh when in fact it was not, and thought that her husband wasn't going to say tachnun due to rosh chodesh. In actuality it wasn't rosh chodesh, so R' Eliezer said tachnun and Rabban Gamliel died. Rashi explains that she thought it was a 29 day month so that Rosh Chodesh would be on day 30. In actuality it was a 30 day month so that rosh chodesh was on day 31. She didn't prevent her husband from saying tachnun on day 30 thinking it was rosh chodesh, but since it wasn't he said tachnun and caused Rabban Gamliel to die. Rashi clearly holds that if rosh chodesh is on day 31, tachnun would be said on day 30. This contradicts our minhag which the aruch hashulchan claims dates back to the time of the nevi'im to keep both day 30 and day 31 as rosh chodesh?
4 comments:
Just found that the Maharam Shif asks this question. To answer for rashi he simply says that at that time they must not have been keeping 2 days of rosh chodesh (which is clearly against the aruch hashulchan). However, he points out that the gemara can be understood differently than rashi. Perhaps she assumed it was a "ma'lei" month and therefore 2 days rosh chodesh, when in fact it was a "cha'ser" month and therefore there was only one day rosh chodesh, so she wasn't paying attention to him on the second day.
R' Moshe in Dibros (heara 74) points out that the gemara in nedarim 60 strongly indicates that on a malei month their are 2 days of rosh chodesh. Based on this he says that the 2 days of rosh chodesh must date back as early as the tanaim (since it was explaining a mishna there in nedarim). He suggests that the story with R' eliezer must have occurred prior to this takana.
He also proves that m'ikar hadin one DOES say hallel on erev rosh chodesh. His assumption is that they were mekasesh the chodesh "al pi r'iya" so that day 30 could have potentially been rosh chodesh. Therefore r' eliezer would not have said tachnun until late in the day i.e. mincha time, when it was not likely that eidim will come to establish that day as rosh chodesh. If he followed our minhag he should not have said tachnun at that point anyway since it is mincha of erev rosh chodesh. From here we see that skipping tachnun on erev rosh chodesh must have been a later minhag.
the boys in Mosdos Ohr Hatorah in Cleveland are working hard on this question over shabbos
the Aruch Hashulchan doesnt say that they always had two days; he brings a proof that there was once and therefore obviously such a concept
He also makes no mention as to what the halachos of those two days were in those times
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