The Calendar עִנְיְנֵי דְּיוֹמָא
Ever wonder when the world was created? Hazal were curious about this question, and they disagreed about the answer!
רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר: בְּתִשְׁרִי נִבְרָא הָעוֹלָם…
רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ אוֹמֵר: בְּנִיסָן נִבְרָא הָעוֹלָם.
R. Eliezer says: The world was created in Tishrei (when we observe Rosh Hashanah)...
R. Yehoshua says: The world was created in Nisan (when we observe Pesah).
If you look it up, you’ll see that the answer isn’t in the Torah because the Torah doesn’t make the connection between Rosh Hashanah and creation. (See Vayikra 23:24-25 and Bemidbar 29:1-6.)
However, many of our Rosh Hashanah tefillot seem to follow R. Eliezer. For example, in Musaf we say הַיּוֹם הֲרַת עוֹלָם (hayom harat olam, today is the world’s birthday) and זֶה הַיּוֹם תְּחִלַּת מַעֲשֶׂיךָ (this day was the beginning of Your work, Bavli Rosh Hashanah 27a).
So is R. Yehoshua wrong? Rabbeinu Tam (France, 1,000 years ago) doesn’t think so. He suggests that our tefilot might mean the world was first an idea in Tishrei, but it still could be that it was actually made into reality in Nisan (Tosafot Rosh Hashanah 27a).
- What makes sense about the world being created in Tishrei? What makes sense about it being created in Nisan?
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