Maftir for Major Lunations 🌖
Because Parashat Pinchas contains descriptions of the commanded temple sacrifices for different Jewish holidays, sections of that particular parsha are read during major holidays and other significant moments in the Hebrew calendar — and because the Hebrew calendar is lunisolar in nature, it's equally accurate to say it contains many verses which are closely connected to different major phases of the moon.
🌒 The verses about the commanded sacrificial offerings for each New Moon are read each Rosh Chodesh.
🌕 Numbers 28:16–25 is appropriately read during the Full Moon in Libra, which corresponds with the first two days of Pesach.
🌓 The proper offering for Shavuot, during the Waxing Quarter Moon in Virgo, is outlined in Numbers 28:26–31.
🌒 The original Rosh Hashanah observance, under the Waxing Crescent Moon in Libra, is described in Numbers 29:1–6...
🌔 ...immediately before the instruction to observe what became Yom Kippur under the Waxing Gibbous Moon in Aquarius.
✡️ Incidentally, my research has revealed it to be quite rare for the hours of Yom Kippur to not overlap with a period when the Moon is in the sign of Aquarius/Dli, which is the sign of the Jewish people. ✡️
🌕 Finally, Numbers 29:12–16 outlines the length of the Sukkot festival and its offerings, which begin under the Full Moon in Aries.
Tribal Census vs. Signs of Long & Short Ascension 📈
In Numbers 26 Hashem commands Moshe and his nephew Eleazar to conduct another census of all combat-ready males, counted by tribe. Each tribe that corresponds to a sign that rises more quickly over the horizon in the Northern Hemisphere (i.e. each sign of short ascension) has a population larger than its sister tribe/the tribe correlated with its antiscion:
Yehuda (Aries) is larger than Gad (Virgo)
Issachar (Taurus) is larger than Shimon (Leo)
Zevulon (Gemini) is larger than Reuven (Cancer)
Naftali (Pisces) is larger than Ephraim (Libra)
Asher (Aquarius) is larger than Menashe (Scorpio)
Dan (Capricorn) is larger than Binyamin (Sagittarius)
[This pattern is also upheld in 5/6 instances in the first census in Numbers 1, with the exception being Shimon outnumbering Issachar.]