Birkat Hachodesh is
the modern commemoration of the new moon. Today, though, as feminist Judaic
scholar Blu Greenberg points out, if you "randomly ask 100 Jews about this
special day that comes 11 times a year, 90 of them will offer a blank stare.
There are far more Jewish bird-watchers than there are moon-watchers." But
in ancient times, before the Jewish lunar calendar was fixed, the sighting of
the new moon was cause for grand festivity alongside grave seriousness. Since
every Jewish community was obligated to observe holidays at the same time, all
Jewish communities needed to agree on dates, and dates were determined based on
the sighting of the new moon.
During
the Second Temple period, the new month began when at least two reputable
witnesses observed the first sliver of moon. The witnesses were called before
the beit din, the rabbinic court in
Jerusalem, and the judges called each witness separately to testify about the
precise location and appearance of the moon. If both gave identical testimony,
the beit din declared the arrival of
Rosh Chodesh. Then sacrifices were offered and incense was burnt. Special
prayers were chanted, the shofar was
blown, and a celebratory meal was eaten.
The
news of the moon's appearance was communicated to Jewish communities throughout
Israel and the Diaspora by setting fires on the hilltops of Jerusalem, with
each Jewish community that observed those fires then lighting its own fires to
alert neighboring communities. Toward the end of the Second Temple period, the beit din instead sent messengers to
outlying towns and villages to alert them of the appearance of the moon,
because the Samaritans had begun to deliberately set fires at incorrect times
in order to mislead the Jews. By the middle of the fourth century, the rabbis
had established a fixed calendar, and the examination before the beit din and the sending of messengers
to publicly proclaim the new moon was discontinued.
Today we enjoy no festive meal nor do we blow the shofar on Rosh Chodesh. We do, however,
continue to celebrate Rosh Chodesh with prayer. Besides reciting Birkat HaChodesh on the preceding
Saturday, we recite a special musaf
[additional]service on Rosh Chodesh
itself. In addition, the Kiddush levanah (sanctification
of the moon) ceremony takes place outdoors on a clear night soon after Rosh
Chodesh (usually on the first Saturday night that follows). [Rosh Chodesh has
also become a significant observance for many women in modern society. Such contemporary observances include study
and prayer, and range from very traditional observances to newly evolving
creative celebrations of Rosh Chodesh.] We observe the new moon festival 11
times a year; we don't celebrate Rosh Chodesh for the month of Tishrei, which coincides with Rosh
Hashanah, since the new Year celebration incorporates the new month.
God first commanded us to observe the new moon just as we
were ready to flee from the enslavement of Egypt. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch,
the 19th-century German scholar, noted that since we would soon be liberated
from slavery, we could appreciate the moon's emergence from darkness to light.
Through the moon's renewal, God is telling the people of Israel: "This is
to be the model for your own conduct! Even as the moon renews itself by the law
of nature, so you, too, should renew yourselves, but of your own free
will." God also commanded us to count the months, so that we could always
calculate the amount of time that our people have been free.
Reprinted with hadassah.org/">Hadassah's permission from Moonbeams: A
Hadassah Rosh Hodesh Guide, edited by
Carol Diament.
