Renewal and Rejuvenation

This Shabbas, I was back in my home shul, best known as KJ. It was great to be back, especially with words of wisdom from Rabbi Shaya Karlinsky, co-founder and Dean of Yeshiva Darchei Noam/Shapell College and Midreshet Rachel College of Jewish Studies for Women.

In Parshas Bo, we learn that the first thing that the Jewish people are commanded to do is to sanctify time "H-shem said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying "This month shall be for you the beginning of the months, it shall be for you the first of the months of the year". One wonders why this commandment was given as the first one. Why not observing Shabbat or keeping kosher? Rabbi Karlinsky explained that in Egypt, we were slaves and time was meaningless to us because we weren't in control of our time. Great, we're free but we don't know what to do with our time, how to control time. That's why the commandment of Rosh Chodesh is given to us first.

So what is Rosh Chodesh? Well, we have to go over the Jewish calendar first. Our calendar is based on the moon. Rosh Chodesh has to be proclaimed by the Rabbinic Court, two witnesses must testify that they saw the re-appearance of the moon. A 12 month year contains 354 days, we have a Jewish leap year. In the leap year, we add a 13th month 7 times every 19 years so Nissan is always in the right place. We wouldn't want to be celebrating Pesach when the weather is cold.

As we know, the moon looks different from night to night. One night, the moon appears to be nothing but a sliver, the next night, the moon comes back full force. That symbolizes the Jewish people, just when you think we have been eliminated, we have come back stronger. The Egyptian empire, the Greek empire, the Roman empire, what do they all have in common? They tried to destroy the Jews and they are extinct.

Rabbi Karlinsky likened the moon waxing and waning to the struggles of the Jewish people, communally and individually. In the winter, the days are shorter and the nights are longer and in the spring, we have shorter nights and longer days. Like the moon, we have our bright moments and our dark moments. He made a point of saying that we have our dark moments and that is to be expected. But, we will always come back renewed and stronger than before.

I really needed to hear this speech. Lately, I've been struggling with some personal stuff and have been under some stress trying to set things up for going into grad school, and also remaining in the here and now and being focused on doing my job well. This gave me some much needed strength.

A nice couple hosted a community lunch, great conversation, more wise words from Rabbi Karlinsky, singing from Jewbilation, a singing duo that re-writes popular songs and gives them a Jewish twist. I've gotten to know both of these men very well over the past year and they are such mentsches, kind, thoughtful, humorous, decent men.

Motzei Shabbas (Sat. night) I went to a party downtown called Ravayah. That will be the subject of my next post.

P.S. Some of the information I got on Rosh Chodesh was from the commentary in the Stone Edition of the Torah.