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Celebrating Rosh Chodesh
Rosh Chodesh means "head of the month." So Rosh Chodesh is the first day of any new month. Rosh Chodesh occurs when the first crescent of the new moon appears in the sky. In ancient times, the day after the new moon appeared was a festival, celebrated with the sounding of the shofar, a holiday meal and special sacrifices. Today, we no longer make sacrifices or blow the shofar on Rosh Chodesh, and many congregations no longer even mark Rosh Chodesh with special prayers. However, over the past three decades, Rosh Chodesh has been revived as a sacred observance by contemporary Jewish women—which is not really surprising, since Rosh Chodesh has long been a holiday special to women. In the Talmud [Megillah 22b], we read that women are exempt from work on Rosh Chodesh, This “time off for good behavior” each month is given to women to honor their faith at Mount Sinai when they refused to give up their jewelry for the building of the Golden Calf. When Moses went up on the mountain, the Israelites were afraid that God had abandoned them. Only the women had faith that God—like the moon—might seem to be gone, but would return. So “the Holy One of Blessing rewarded them in this world that they would observe the new moons more than men, and in the next world they are destined to be renewed like the moon.” (Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer 45) Freedom from work made Rosh Chodesh a natural time for women to gather together. In the Middle Ages, Jewish women met to share a meal, exchange family news, hold charity collections, and even play cards and gamble—which apparently became a big enough problem that the rabbis declared a special ban on Rosh Chodesh gambling! But Rosh Chodesh wasn’t only fun and games. From the 16th to the early 20th centuries, the women of Eastern Europe wrote special Rosh Chodesh tekhines—personal prayers in Yiddish, and i n the Sephardic culture, women observed Rosh Chodesh by lighting candles and gathering for songs, prayers and a holiday meal. According to both the Talmud and mystical tradition, the new moon is a time to celebrate the reappearance of the Shekhinah, the feminine Divine presence (Talmud, Sanhedrin 42a). This is another reason that, from Talmudic times, Jewish tradition has designated Rosh Chodesh as a special holiday for women. Many people also have pointed out that the menstrual cycle is similar to the monthly cycle of the moon. (The English word "menstruation" derives from the Latin word for "monthly.") As Penina Adelman, author of Miriam’s Well, the first contemporary Rosh Chodesh guide for women published in 1986, points out, the words Roshei CHodshiM,” heads of the months,” contain the same letters that form the word ReCHeM, “womb.” In recent years, women have reclaimed Rosh Chodesh as their special observance, creating women’s Rosh Chodesh groups for study and creative ritual. Some Rosh Chodesh groups are sponsored by synagogues, others by non-denominational organizations, and a few meet independently. There is no one standard way to celebrate Rosh Chodesh. Each group is as unique as its participants; each meeting is as innovative and creative as the women who plan it. At its core, it is a group of women coming together on a monthly basis to celebrate the new month and their lives as Jewish women. According to Ruth Berger Goldston and Merle Feld, "the unifying theme of Rosh Chodesh groups is the exploration of Jewish women's issues with particular emphases on personal spirituality, ritual and celebration." Many Rosh Chodesh groups have opening and closing rituals, which set the tone for the meeting and designate the group's gathering as sacred space. The activities of the group vary from month to month and may include a text study on an upcoming holiday, an art project, a creative ritual, the celebration of a life cycle transition of one of the members, a discussion on a topic of interest/concern, or a festive meal. The Beth El Women’s Rosh Chodesh Group meets each month to celebrate the new moon, make blessings for our families and our community, and laugh, learn and share together. There is no charge to attend and it is open to women of all ages. So bring your friends, your mothers, your post-Bat Mitzvah daughters. It’s a great place to get to know our Beth El family. To learn more, email 2006-2007 Rosh Chodesh Chair Chana Andler at Chana@andler.org.
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