Rosh Chodesh, the New Moon
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's permission from Moonbeams: A Hadassah Rosh Hodesh Guide, edited by Carol Diament.
