{"id":48526,"date":"2019-01-30T20:55:21","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T18:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=48526"},"modified":"2022-08-25T06:57:34","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T03:57:34","slug":"new-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/new-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"New Moon!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One celebration which used to be quite prominent in Biblical times has been relegated to a place of lesser prominence in post-Biblical practice, and it deserves another look: <\/span>Rosh Hodesh<\/span><\/em>, <\/span><\/i>the New Moon.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this chapter and the following, the festivals of the calendar are detailed at length. What is noteworthy in that regard is that <\/span>Rosh Hodesh<\/span><\/em> gets the same number of offerings as the other major sacred occasions \u2013 a sure sign that it was of equal importance to those other holy times.<\/span><\/p>\n

To understand the context in which <\/span>Rosh Hodesh<\/span><\/em> was so important, it is worth recalling the place of the moon in ancient pagan religions. For many of them, the moon represented a powerful goddess, whose worship often effected fertility and sustenance. In a world in which people worshiped nature as though it were divine (pantheism), the moon was an attractive and frightening divinity. The genius of traditional Judaism was to refashion (rather than flatly reject) those powerful symbols, making clear that divinity did not inhere in nature or in simple being, but was a constant gift of the God who was and is the source of nature and of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

In that regard, the Torah offers a fascinating hint, calling for the offering of \u201cone goat as a sin offering to the Lord.\u201d That expression occurs for no other festival, anywhere else in the entire Torah. Why does it have to be here?<\/span><\/p>\n

What had been pagan ritual was now transformed to meet the purposes of ethical monotheism. \u00a0The light of the moon now illuminates the riches of Torah and the sovereignty of the <\/span>Ribbono shel Olam<\/span><\/em>, the Commander of Space\/Time. The new phase of the moon becomes a time to praise God for the reliable cycles of nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

A few nights after Rosh Hodesh, Jews gather for the ritual of <\/span>Kiddush Levanah<\/span><\/em>, sanctification in response to the new moon. That ritual consists of reciting a psalm that firmly establishes God as the author of the natural order, noting that the sun, moon and stars do God\u2019s will reliably (and implying that we should too). In reference to this lovely custom, one Talmudic rabbi claimed that \u201cone who blesses the New Moon is regarded as one who greets the <\/span>Shekhinah<\/span><\/em> (the face of God).\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Blessings the New Moon is like seeing God\u2019s face, because when Jews gather to bless the moon we do so as an act of fidelity to the God who made the moon, who continues to pour supernal light on the world through the agency of the renewing moon, the rising sun and the glistening stars of the night sky.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image – By Wac\u0142aw Koniuszko – cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl,<\/a> Public Domain,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":48527,"id":48527,"title":"Num28-Koniuszko_Kiddush_Levanah","filename":"Num28-Koniuszko_Kiddush_Levanah.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num28-Koniuszko_Kiddush_Levanah.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/new-moon\/num28-koniuszko_kiddush_levanah\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"num28-koniuszko_kiddush_levanah","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":48526,"date":"2019-01-30 18:55:04","modified":"2019-01-30 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