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Shortly before sundown on the 29th of Adar, G-d commanded Moses regarding the mitzvah of sanctifying the crescent new moon and establishing a lunar calendar. This is the first mitzvah the Jews were given as a nation.
Moses had difficulty envisaging the moon's appearance at the exact moment of its monthly rebirth. After the sun set, G-d showed Moses the crescent new moon of the new month of Nissan, showing him the precise dimensions of the moon at the moment the new month is to be consecrated.
For the generations that followed, each new month was ushered in when two witnesses testified before the Sanhedrin (rabbinic supreme court) that they had seen the molad, the new moon. In the 4th century CE, Hillel II foresaw that the Jews would no longer be able to follow a Sanhedrin-based calendar. So Hillel and his rabbinical court established the perpetual calendar which is followed today -- until Moshiach will come and reestablish the Sanhedrin.
Links::
Lunar Time
Rosh Chodesh
The Molad
A few months after its creation, Napoleon's "Sanhedrin" (rabbinical supreme court) was dissolved. The Sanhedrin was created to approve certain religious regulations requested by the French "Assembly of Notables." The regulations were designed to blur the distinction between Jews and non-Jews.
The rulings of this pseudo-Sanhedrin were never adopted by Jewish communities.
Link:: Napoleon Bonoparte
When the Romans forbade the study of Torah, Rabbi Chanina ben Tradyon gathered Jews publicly and taught them Torah.
His teacher, Rabbi Yossi ben Kisma, warned him that the Romans would burn him and his Torah at the stake.
Rabbi Chanina asked, “My master, what will be with me in the next world?”
“Do you have any good deeds?” asked Rabbi Yossi.
“Yes,” he answered. I collected money for the poor on Purim. I inadvertently mixed it with my own. So I gave it all to the poor.”
“If so,” his teacher answered, “may my share of the next world be with you.”
What was Rabbi Chanina’s question? He was literally giving his life to teach Torah!
And what was Rabbi Yossi’s response? Isn’t teaching Torah a good deed?
Because Rabbi Chanina questioned whether he was teaching Torah for sincere motives. Perhaps it wasn’t entirely about what G-d wanted from him. Perhaps he was driven by his personal love of knowledge and ideas, not by his divine inner soul.
Giving, on the other hand, does not come easy to intellectuals.
By giving generously, Rabbi Chanina showed that he did what he did not because he wanted to do it, but because it needed to be done.