The Additional Day of Yom-Tov in the Diaspora [18]After the future Redemption, when the advent of the New Moon and the proclamation of Rosh Chodesh will once again be determined by the testimony of eye-witnesses, [12] there will no longer be any doubt as to which day was sanctified as such [19] because it will then be possible to inform all Jews of this instantly.Despite all this, it could be argued that even then we will continue to celebrate the Diaspora's Additional Day of Yom-Tov - simply because Jews have been accustomed to doing so for so many generations. For a parallel, note the case of Shavuos. Here there is no calendric doubt, since its timing hinges not on a particular date in the month of Sivan, but on the counting of fifty days from the fifteenth of the earlier month of Nissan. [13] By then, the emissaries from the Beis HaMikdash in Jerusalem were surely able to reach any outlying community and to inform them which day had been sanctified as Rosh Chodesh Nissan (and consequently which day was the fifteenth of Nissan). Nevertheless, even though Shavuos thus involves no calendric doubt, its Additional Day is celebrated as Yom-Tov - simply in order not to discriminate between the Three Pilgrim Festivals, [14] by downgrading it from their accustomed status.
From a talk of the Rebbe Shlita on the
afternoon of Simchas Torah 5749 [1988]
Footnotes:
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