Commentary for Rosh Hashanah 38:16

מתיב רב נחמן על שני חדשים מחללין את השבת על ניסן ועל תשרי אי אמרת בשלמא זמנין מלא זמנין חסר משום הכי מחללינן

R'Joshua B'Levi testified on behalf of the holy community of Jerusalem concerning the two Adars, that they are sanctified on the day of their prolongation.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The thirtieth day is known as the day of prolongation () as it is the day which is added to make the preceding month full (v. supra p. 21, n. 7) . In the case of the two Adars the thirtieth day of each is sanctified as the New Moon of the next month.');">¹³</span> This is equivalent to saying that we make them defective but we do not make them full, and excludes the statement made in a discourse by R'Nahman B'Hisda; [for R'Nahman B'Hisda stated in a discourse]: R'Simai testified in the name of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi concerning the two Adars that if they [the Beth din] desired they could make both of them full, and if they desired they could make both of them, defective, and if they desired they could make one full and the other defective; and such was their custom in the Diaspora. In the name of our teacher,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Rab.');">¹⁴</span> however, they said: One is always to be full and the next defective, unless you have been informed that New Moon has been fixed at its proper time'.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., that the Beth din is Jerusalem fixed the New Moon of Adar II on the thirtieth day of the first Adar, the thirtieth day always being regarded as the 'proper time' of New Moon.');">¹⁵</span> They sent [from Palestine] to Mar 'Ukba to say: The Adar which precedes Nisan is always defective. R'Nahman raised an objection [from the following]: 'For the fixing of two New Moons the Sabbath may be profaned,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' By the watchers for the new moon, who are allowed to exceed the two thousand cubit limit in order to report their observation to the Beth din in Jerusalem. V. infra 23b.');">¹⁶</span> for those of Nisan and of Tishri'. Now if you say that [the Adar before Nisan] is sometimes full and sometimes defective, I can understand how occasions arise for profaning the Sabbath

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