WELCOMING SHABBAT

Shabbat is more than a day of refraining from worldly activity.

When experienced to its spiritual fullest, its holiness enlightens all other days of the week.

We invite you to enhance your Shabbat with these words of Torah.

 

Moon in a star filled sky

The New Moon

The New Moon

Jacobson, Rabbi Simon
January 6, 2022

“‘This new moon (Ha’chodesh Hazeh) shall be to you the head of months’ (Shemot 12:2).

 

Moses found difficulty with the renewal of the moon… G-d therefore showed him with His finger the moon in the sky and said to him, ‘You will see a moon like this and you will then sanctify [the month].’

 

Why did Moses have a problem with the moon’s renewal?

 

And what did G-d show him? If there was a moon in the sky, Moses could have looked up and seen it on his own. And if there was no moon yet – which is more likely because the new moon was just being born – what exactly did G-d show him? How can a new moon be seen with the naked eye?”