Study Sanhedrin folio 12A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
during years of famine. When grain is scarce, intercalating the year would exacerbate the food shortage by delaying the omer offering, which is brought in Nisan, thereby prolonging the period during which the new crop is forbidden.
It is taught in a baraita: R' Yehuda HaNasi says that this principle can be demonstrated based on an incident related in the Bible. The verse states with regard to the prophet Elisha: “And there came a man from Ba’al Shalisha, and he brought to the man of God bread of the first fruits, 20 loaves of
The incident is analyzed: You do not have in all of Eretz Yisrael an environment in which fruit ripens more swiftly than in Ba’al Shalisha, and even so, only one of the 7 species had ripened at that time, as the verse testifies that he brought him “bread of the first fruits.” Lest you say the verse
Based on this, say that even in the place in which fruit ripened the fastest in all of Eretz Yisrael, after the omer had been brought, only the barley had ripened. Evidently, the year was fit to be intercalated, because the spring produce was not sufficiently mature in time. And for what reason did
§ A baraita states (Tosefta 2:3): The court may not intercalate the year before Rosh HaShana. And if the court intercalated it this early, it is not intercalated. But if there was a need to intercalate it early due to exigent circumstances, e.g., religious persecution, they may intercalate it immedi