Rosh Chodesh: The New Moon and the Renewal of Israel

The Moon in the Torah and the Prophets

Lights for appointed times

On the fourth day of creation, God made the lights in the firmament:

Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.

The word translated “seasons” is mo’adim (מועדים), “appointed times”, the word Leviticus 23:2 uses for the feasts. From the beginning, the lights were made to keep Israel’s festivals in their times: “He appointed the moon for seasons (mo’adim)” (Psalm 104:19).

The Hebrew word for month, chodesh (חודש), comes from chadash, “new”. A month is literally “a renewal”. Israel’s calendar is lunar-solar: the months follow the moon, and the years are kept in step with the sun so that Pesach always falls in the spring (Deuteronomy 16:1).

Offerings and trumpets

The Torah gives Rosh Chodesh its own offerings:

And in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a burnt offering unto Hashem; two young bullocks, and one ram, seven lambs of the first year without spot… And one kid of the goats for a sin offering unto Hashem shall be offered.

This passage, Numbers 28:1–15, is the Torah reading for Rosh Chodesh. Silver trumpets were blown “in the beginnings of your months” over the offerings, “for a memorial before your God” (Numbers 10:10), and the psalmist calls: “Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day” (Psalm 81:3).

The New Moon in Israel’s life

• At the king’s table. David tells Yonatan, “Behold, to morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat” (1 Samuel 20:5). David’s empty seat at Shaul’s feast was noticed on the first day, and on “the morrow, which was the second day of the month” Shaul asked, “Wherefore cometh not the son of Jesse to meat, neither yesterday, nor to day?” (20:24–27). Here the royal New Moon feast lasts two days.
• A day to visit the prophet. The Shunammite’s husband asks, “Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath” (2 Kings 4:23). People went to the prophet on New Moons and Shabbatot.
• A day of rest from trade. Amos condemns merchants who said, “When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn?” (Amos 8:5).

Isaiah’s rebuke must be read in this light: “Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth” (Isaiah 1:14). Isaiah is not condemning a day Hashem commanded. He says why the offerings were hateful: “your hands are full of blood” (1:15). The problem was empty observance by people who did injustice, and the same book ends with the New Moon restored in glory (Isaiah 66:23).

Witnesses, Beacons and the Court

In the Second Temple period and for some generations afterward, the new month was declared by the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem on the evidence of eyewitnesses. The Mishnah, in tractate Rosh Hashanah, describes how this worked.

The witnesses. Anyone who saw the thin new crescent after sunset would hurry to Jerusalem. In a courtyard called Beit Ya’azek, the judges questioned each witness separately: Where was the moon? Which way was it facing? How high, and how wide?¹ If the testimony agreed, the head of the court declared, “It is sanctified!” (Mekudash), and all the people answered, “It is sanctified! It is sanctified!”² If no one came by the end of the thirtieth day, the new month began the next day, so a month always had 29 or 30 days.

Rabban Gamliel’s diagrams. Rabban Gamliel kept diagrams of the moon’s shapes on a tablet and on the wall of his upper room, and showed them to unlearned witnesses: “Did you see it like this, or like this?”³

The authority of the court. When Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua disagreed over one New Moon, Rabban Gamliel ordered Rabbi Yehoshua to appear before him with his staff and money on the day that, by Rabbi Yehoshua’s reckoning, was Yom Kippur. Rabbi Akiva comforted him: the Torah says “the appointed times of Hashem, which ye shall proclaim” (Leviticus 23:2), so what the court declares is the appointed time. Rabbi Yehoshua came, and Rabban Gamliel kissed him, calling him “my teacher and my student”.⁴ Israel’s feasts are not set by each person’s own observation, but proclaimed by the community’s recognized authority, for the sake of unity.

The beacons and the messengers. At first, the Mishnah says, the news was spread by fires on the mountaintops, from the Mount of Olives to Sartaba and onward, until the whole Diaspora “looked like one blazing bonfire”. When the Samaritans lit false beacons, the court sent messengers instead,⁵ for the six months whose festivals depended on the date: Nisan, Av, Elul, Tishrei, Kislev and Adar.⁶ For Nisan and Tishrei, witnesses could even break Shabbat to testify.⁷

Why two days?

When the previous month has 30 days, its thirtieth day is also kept as Rosh Chodesh, together with the first of the new month. When it has 29 days, Rosh Chodesh is one day. The uncertainty of distant communities about the court’s declaration is also the origin of the second day of yom tov outside Israel, a custom kept after the calendar was fixed.⁸

The Fixed Calendar

As Roman persecution made it harder for the court in the Land to function, the Jewish leadership moved to a calculated calendar. Jewish tradition credits the patriarch (Nasi) Hillel II with publishing its rules, traditionally in 359 CE. That date comes from a responsum of Rav Hai Gaon (992), quoted by Rabbi Avraham bar Chiyya in his Sefer HaIbbur (1123), which gives the year 670 of the Seleucid era, that is, 358/9 CE.⁹ There is no earlier source. Historians note that documents from the Cairo Genizah show the calendar still developing in the ninth and tenth centuries, with some rules settled only after the dispute of 921–922 CE between Rav Saadia Gaon and Rabbi Aaron Ben Meir.¹⁰ Tradition and history agree on the main point: Israel moved from observation to calculation to keep the scattered people united. The Rambam explains that the calculated calendar takes its authority from the Sanhedrin of the Land of Israel.¹¹ Benei Avraham follows this calendar, as the Jewish people do.

The molad and the nineteen-year cycle

The calendar rests on the average time from one molad (מולד, the “birth” of the moon) to the next, fixed by tradition at 29 days, 12 hours and 793 “parts” (chalakim, 1,080 to the hour), remarkably close to the modern astronomical value.¹² Twelve lunar months make about 354 days, eleven short of a solar year, so a second Adar is added in years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17 and 19 of each nineteen-year cycle. (See Purim Katan.)

The Liturgy of Rosh Chodesh

Rosh Chodesh has no Kiddush and no festival candles. Its holiness shows in the prayers.

• Ya’aleh v’Yavo (“May our remembrance rise and come”) is added to every Amidah and to the Grace after Meals, asking Hashem to remember Israel, Jerusalem and “Mashiach ben David Your servant”. One who forgets it in the morning or afternoon Amidah repeats the prayer, but not at night, because the court did not sanctify the month at night.¹³
• Half Hallel (Psalms 113–118 with two passages omitted) follows the morning Amidah. The Talmud explains that Hallel on Rosh Chodesh is “the custom of their fathers”, not a biblical requirement.¹⁴
• The Torah reading is Numbers 28:1–15, divided among four people.¹⁵ See the readings for Rosh Chodesh. When Rosh Chodesh falls on Shabbat the haftarah is Isaiah 66; when it falls on Sunday, the Shabbat before reads 1 Samuel 20:18–42, “To morrow is the new moon”.
• Mussaf, an additional Amidah, recalls the offerings of Numbers 28:11–15 and calls the New Moons “a time of atonement for all their generations”.
• Psalm 104 (“Bless Hashem, O my soul”) is recited in many communities.
• No fasting or eulogies. It is a day of joy, and it is fitting to add something special to the meal.¹⁶

Shabbat Mevarchim: blessing the new month

On the Shabbat before each Rosh Chodesh (except before Tishrei), the congregation blesses the coming month, and many announce the time of the molad. The prayer is based on the personal prayer of the sage Rav in the Talmud, asking for “a life of peace, a life of good, a life of blessing”.¹⁷ Holding the Torah scroll, the leader announces the day of Rosh Chodesh, and the congregation prays that Hashem will “gather our dispersed from the four corners of the earth”.

Kiddush Levanah: sanctifying the moon

Some days after the new moon, on a clear night, Jews go outside to recite Kiddush Levanah, the blessing of the moon. The Talmud teaches:

Whoever blesses the new moon in its time is as one who greets the face of the Shechinah.

The school of Rabbi Yishmael added that if Israel merited to greet their Father in heaven only once a month, it would be enough.¹⁸ The blessing praises the One who told the moon “to renew itself as a crown of beauty for those He carried from the womb, for they too will be renewed like it”. It is usually said on Saturday night, at least three days (in some customs seven) after the molad and before mid-month.¹⁹ It includes Psalm 148, a prayer that the moon’s light will be like the light of the sun (Isaiah 30:26), and three times the words David melech Yisrael chai v’kayam, “David, king of Israel, lives and endures”, the password once used to confirm that the new month had been sanctified.²⁰

A day for women

There is an old custom for women to refrain from some work on Rosh Chodesh, mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud and recorded by the Tur and Shulchan Aruch.²¹ Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer explains that when Aharon asked for gold for the calf, the women refused to give their earrings (compare Exodus 32:2–3). Hashem rewarded them with Rosh Chodesh in this world, and in the World to Come they will be renewed like the new moons.²² Many women’s groups have revived the day for study and prayer.

The Character of the Months

• Nisan, “the beginning of months” (Exodus 12:2), is the month of redemption: “In Nisan they were redeemed, and in Nisan they will be redeemed,” in the words of Rabbi Yehoshua (Rabbi Eliezer said the future redemption will be in Tishrei).²³ (See Pesach.)
• Iyar counts toward Sinai and holds Pesach Sheni and Lag BaOmer.
• Sivan is the month of the giving of the Torah (Shavuot).
• Tammuz opens the season of mourning with the fast of 17 Tammuz.
• Av is the month of mourning: “When Av begins, we lessen our joy.”²⁴ Yet it also holds Tu B’Av and Shabbat Nachamu.
• Elul is the month of repentance before the Days of Awe. (See Selichot and Elul.)
• Tishrei is the month of the great feasts, from Rosh Hashanah to Shemini Atzeret.
• Cheshvan (Marcheshvan) is the only month with no festival or fast from the Torah or the sages (the Ethiopian Jewish festival of Sigd on 29 Cheshvan is a later communal tradition). Scripture calls it Bul: “in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished” (1 Kings 6:38). Yet Shlomo dedicated the Temple “in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month” (1 Kings 8:2), almost a year later. A midrash says Cheshvan lost the joy of the dedication, and that Hashem will repay it in the future.²⁵ Later tradition says the repayment will be the dedication of the Third Temple, which is why our calendar says Cheshvan “waits for the Third Temple”.
• Kislev is the month of Chanukah; the same midrash says Kislev, when the Mishkan’s work was finished, was repaid by the Hasmonean rededication.
• Tevet holds Asara B’Tevet; Shevat holds Tu BiShvat.
• Adar is the month of Purim: “When Adar begins, we increase our joy.”²⁶

The New Moon in the Brit Hadashah

Colossians 2:16–17 in context

The Brit Hadashah (the New Testament) mentions the New Moon only once by name:

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Messiah.

This verse is often read as if Paul were abolishing the feasts. In context it says something else. Paul tells the believers not to let outsiders “judge” them, and the following verses describe those critics: they promote “voluntary humility and worshipping of angels” (2:18) and rules of “touch not; taste not; handle not” (2:21), “the commandments and doctrines of men” (2:22). These are ascetic critics, not the Torah. Many scholars conclude that the believers, many of them Gentiles, were being criticized for keeping the festivals, the New Moon and Shabbat, and Paul tells them not to let anyone condemn them for it.²⁷ He calls these days “a shadow of things to come”, in the present tense. A shadow is not abolished by the body that casts it; it shows its outline. The New Moon points to the renewal of all things, a reality that belongs to the Messiah. That is a reason to keep the day with understanding.

Galatians 4:10

“Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you” (Galatians 4:10–11) must be read carefully. The readers were Gentiles who once “did service unto them which by nature are no gods” (4:8), and Paul speaks of their turning “again” to “weak and beggarly elements” (4:9). They could not be going back to Israel’s feasts, which they had never kept. Scholars debate whether Paul means their old pagan calendar, or Jewish days kept as a way to gain standing apart from faith in the Messiah, or a mixture.²⁸ Either way, Paul is not forbidding the appointed times of Hashem, which he himself kept (Acts 20:16; 1 Corinthians 16:8). He opposes observance used as a substitute for trust in Hashem or as a badge to exclude others.

Reflected light

The moon has no light of its own; it reflects the sun. A midrash says the nations count time by the sun, but Yaakov counts by the moon.²⁹ Teachers have drawn a homiletical lesson: Israel, and every righteous person, is called to reflect the light of Hashem. Yeshua told his disciples, “Ye are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14), so that others would “glorify your Father which is in heaven” (5:16). The light is not the moon’s own, and the glory returns to the Father. Like the moon, Israel has waxed and waned, seemed to vanish, and returned.

David, king of Israel, lives

The words David melech Yisrael chai v’kayam link the moon’s renewal with David’s kingship, as the psalmist did: David’s throne “shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven” (Psalm 89:37). The moon vanishes each month and returns; the house of David seemed cut off, but Hashem promised it would endure (2 Samuel 7:16; Amos 9:11). Messianic Jews hear more in the phrase. Yeshua the Son of David was hidden like the moon: rejected and slain, in the pattern of Mashiach ben Yosef, and raised by Hashem (Acts 2:24, 32). He will be revealed as Mashiach ben David at his return. This is a Messianic reading offered with respect for the phrase’s own meaning, the faithfulness of Hashem’s covenant with David.

What the New Moon Points Toward

All flesh from new moon to new moon

Isaiah ends his book with a vision of the new heavens and the new earth:

And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Hashem.

In the age to come the New Moon will not be abolished; it will be universal. Ezekiel’s restored Temple agrees: “The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened” (Ezekiel 46:1), and the people of the land will worship there “in the sabbaths and in the new moons” (46:3). The appointed times are part of the restoration.

The moon restored

Genesis 1:16 calls the sun and moon “two great lights” and then calls the moon “the lesser light”. The Talmud explains: the moon asked, “Can two kings use one crown?” and Hashem answered, “Go and make yourself smaller.” Finally Hashem said, “Bring an atonement for Me, for I made the moon smaller”, which is why the Rosh Chodesh goat is “a sin offering unto Hashem” (Numbers 28:15).³⁰ This bold aggadah is not meant literally. It says the world is not yet what it will be: something is diminished and waits to be made whole. The prophet promises that it will be:

Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that Hashem bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

The moon’s restoration comes “in the day that Hashem bindeth up the breach of his people”: it is tied to the healing of Israel. The dead who sleep in the dust will rise (Daniel 12:2), Israel will be gathered and healed, and creation itself will be renewed (Romans 8:19–21).

Fruit every month

In the restored Jerusalem of the Brit Hadashah’s last chapter, the tree of life beside the river “bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2), echoing Ezekiel’s trees that “bring forth new fruit according to his months” (Ezekiel 47:12). Even in the world to come, time is counted in months. The monthly renewal Israel has kept for three thousand years points to an eternity of renewal before Hashem.

Keeping Rosh Chodesh

Rosh Chodesh falls on the first of each Hebrew month, and also on the thirtieth of the month before when that month has thirty days. It begins at sundown the evening before; work is permitted. See our calendar for each month’s dates.

• Bless the month with the congregation on Shabbat Mevarchim.
• Pray the additions: Ya’aleh v’Yavo in the Amidah and Grace after Meals, and half Hallel in the morning.
• Read Numbers 28:1–15 and Psalm 104, and take a moment to look at the moon.
• Make the meal festive, as the sages encouraged.
• Say Kiddush Levanah outdoors on a clear night in the first half of the month.
• Set a monthly rhythm: review the past month and choose a portion of Scripture, a person to visit or a habit to renew for the next.
• Pray for the day when all flesh will worship before Hashem from one new moon to another.