Rosh Chodesh

Historical Perspectives

From the Hadassah Rosh Chodesh Guide

Birkat Hachodesh is a celebration of the upcoming New Moon on the preceding Shabbat. In ancient Jewish society, the sighting of the new moon was cause for grand festivity - and grave seriousness. The Jewish calendar throughout the region was 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. Each witnessed testified separately about the precise location and appearance of the moon. If both gave identical testimony, the beit din declared the arrival of Rosh Chodesh, the new month.

The news of the moon's appearance was communicated setting fires on the hilltops of Jerusalem. Each community that observed the fire would light one to alert neighboring communities. Toward the end of the Second Temple period, the beit din instead sent messengers to outlying towns and villages. 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.

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. We could follow the moon's monthly example and renew ourselves - but now of our own free will.

Return to Reb Laura's "Taste of Torah" list.

Return to "Teachings from Our Rabbis and Friends" list.

---

[ Home ]	[ Asiyah ]	[ Yetzirah ]	[ Briyah ]	[ Atzilut ]	[ Calendar ]
	( Doing )	( Feeling )	( Knowing )	( Being )