Origins of Rosh Chodesh
The festival of Rosh Chodesh was born in the desert where no shadows existed to hide shapes and colors; neither were there many surfaces to muffle sounds. This was a world of no destinctions between land or sky, wind or air; different from the Egypt we had just left.
In our wilderness wandering we learned to speak to the heavens and find answers written in the shapes of clouds. The rocks taught us to be patient. The scraggly bushes tuaght us how to save the rain, embrace the earth. The palm trees clustered together like children around a green pool, showing us hot to join them on our knees to drink the blessed water. The desert sustained us all with the same umbilical cord.
Is it any wonder that we who had emerged from the Sea of Reeds together into the wildernesss of Sinai all began to live by one rhythm? And is the wonder any greater that the cycles of the moon reverberated in every woman at the same time, in the same way? As soon as the moon was borne anew in the sky, each woman began to bleed.
Without saying a word to each other, we women knew it was time to separate ourselves from the men. As if the moon were calling us, we left camp and hiked together to a wadi and half-day's distance. We moved at night over rocks, surefooted as lizards. The moon guided us to the place, pulling us with her crescent, a white gleaming magnet in the sky.
When we reached the Wadi of the Moon, we lay on the sand, nestling in the rocks still warm from the daytime sun and fell asleep. That night we all had a similar dream.
One woman told it thus: "We were each bathed very carefully in different ways. The moon bathed us with her light. Our mothers soothed us with the lullabies they had sung to us when we were children. We felt purified with a green fragrance which seemed to emanate from the rocks.
When we awoke, rosemary had sprouted overnight beneath us. We rose as in a spell and embraced each other. Then we began to sing.
Our song seemed to make things grow. There were date palms, figs, grapes, olives appearing all at once and in great abundance. From a rock a spring trickled from the earth by seating ourselves in special postures, bathing in the moonlight by night and resting in the shelter of the largest rocks by day.
Soon our bleeding ceased. We watched the moon swell to fullness. It was time to return to camp....
...The women at Sinai had taken this eventually into account. They had prayed to the Shekhinah, Moon of Israel, for guidance. If the sacred knowledge of the months were lost, the Shekhinah let them know that in a future time when women sougtht this monthly wisdom once again, it would be rediscovered as easily as moving aside a rock to uncover the fragrant plant beneath. Then the ritual would be reinstated through a community of women who remember, as in a distant dream, how the moon once called to them at Sinai.
We are that community. - Miriam's Well by Penina Adelman
רבי שמעון בן פזי רמי כתיב (בראשית א, טז) ויעש אלקים את שני המאורות הגדולים וכתיב את המאור הגדול ואת המאור הקטן אמרה ירח לפני הקב"ה רבש"ע אפשר לשני מלכים שישתמשו בכתר אחד אמר לה לכי ומעטי את עצמך אמרה לפניו רבש"ע הואיל ואמרתי לפניך דבר הגון אמעיט את עצמי אמר לה לכי ומשול ביום ובלילה אמרה ליה מאי רבותיה דשרגא בטיהרא מאי אהני אמר לה זיל לימנו בך ישראל ימים ושנים אמרה ליה יומא נמי אי אפשר דלא מנו ביה תקופותא דכתיב (בראשית א, יד) והיו לאותות ולמועדים ולימים ושנים זיל ליקרו צדיקי בשמיך (עמוס ז, ב) יעקב הקטן שמואל הקטן (שמואל א יז, יד) דוד הקטן חזייה דלא קא מיתבא דעתה אמר הקב"ה הביאו כפרה עלי שמיעטתי את הירח והיינו דאמר ר"ש בן לקיש מה נשתנה שעיר של ראש חדש שנאמר בו (במדבר כח, טו) לה׳ אמר הקב"ה שעיר זה יהא כפרה על שמיעטתי את הירח
§ Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi raises a contradiction between two verses. It is written: “And G-d made the two great lights” (Genesis 1:16), and it is also written in the same verse: “The greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night,” indicating that only one was great. Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi explains: When G-d first created the sun and the moon, they were equally bright. Then, the moon said before the Holy One, Blessed be Hashem: Master of the Universe, is it possible for two kings to serve with one crown? One of us must be subservient to the other. G-d therefore said to her, i.e., the moon: If so, go and diminish yourself. She said before G-d: Master of the Universe, since I said a correct observation before You, must I diminish myself? G-d said to her: As compensation, go and rule both during the day along with the sun and during the night. She said to G-d: What is the greatness of shining alongside the sun? What use is a candle in the middle of the day? G-d said to her: Go; let the Jewish people count the days and years with you, and this will be your greatness. She said to G-d: But the Jewish people will count with the sun as well, as it is impossible that they will not count seasons with it, as it is written: “And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14). G-d said to her: Go; let righteous men be named after you. Just as you are called the lesser [hakatan] light, there will be Ya’akov HaKatan, i.e., Jacob our forefather (see Amos 7:2), Shmuel HaKatan the tanna, and David HaKatan, i.e., King David (see I Samuel 17:14). G-d saw that the moon was not comforted. The Holy One, Blessed be Hashem, said: Bring atonement for me, since I diminished the moon. The Gemara notes: And this is what Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish says: What is different about the goat offering of the New Moon, that it is stated with regard to it: “For the Lord” (Numbers 28:15)? The Holy One, Blessed be Hashem, said: This goat shall be an atonement for Me for having diminished the size of the moon.
Gershom Scholem, On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism, 151-153
This 'lessening of the moon' was interpreted by the Kabbalists as a symbol of the Shekhinah's exile. The Shekhinah itself is the 'holy moon,' which has fallen from its high rank, been robbed of its light and sent into cosmic exile. Since then, exactly like the moon itself, it has shone only with reflected light. With the Talmudic explanation, which relates only to the designation of the moon as the 'lesser light' in the first chapter of Genesis, the Kabbalists connected their knowledge of the changing phases of the moon, which seemed to indicate that until the Messianic redemption the moon (and the Shekhinah as well) would time and time again sink back into utter lightlessness and want. Only in redemption would the moon be restored to its original state, and in support of this belief a verse from Isaiah (3o : 26) was cited. Meanwhile, no cosmic event seemed to the Kabbalists to be more closely connected with the exile of all things, with the imperfection and the taint inherent in all being, than this periodic lessening of the moon.
