» to rah
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STONE'S
JEWELRY
You Decide When
We Will Meet
T
his Shabbat is Rosh Chodesh
and the sun. It may be a calendar based on
Nisan. The first mitzvah given
the moon, but it adjusts itself to the sun,
to the Jews as a nation was the
too.
mitzvah of sanctifying the month — in
The sun and the moon symbolize the
essence, to create the yearlong
relationships between God
Jewish calendar.
and the Jewish nation. The sun
Let’s take a look at society’s pri-
represents God and the moon
mary calendar, the Gregorian cal-
represents the Jews. The moon
endar. It is based on the solar year,
itself has no light source and is
which is 365 days — a full cycle of
just a reflector of the sun. The
the sun.
same with the Jewish nation, we
The Muslim calendar, on the
need to get in line with God so
other hand, calculates strictly by
that we can collect the light of
Rabbi
the moon: 12 orbits of the moon
the “sun.”
Schneor
around the Earth constitute one
God is the sun, the giver, the
Greenberg
year. Every lunar orbit around
male, so we address Him in the
Earth is 29.5 days, and when you
masculine form (Baruch Ata),
multiply by 12, you get a 354-day calendar while we, the “Congregation of Israel,” are
year. Each year loses 11 days — and after
the moon, the receiver, the female. That’s
33 years, a calendar based only on the
why we are collectively referred to in the
moon would lose an entire year.
feminine form (Adat Israel) — including
Now let’s take a look at the Jewish cal-
the men.
endar. The Torah instructs us to count
God chose us as His “wife” at the
months and set the holidays based upon
Exodus from Egypt. Every man knows that
the moon: Passover on the 15th of the first in the house, the wife runs the calendar;
month (Nisan), Yom Kippur on the “10th
it’s all up to her. In like manner, every holi-
of the seventh month.”
day is scheduled into the Jewish calendar
At the same time, God instructs us
as an encounter between the Jewish nation
to celebrate Passover specifically in the
and God. He entrusted us with the mitz-
month of spring. This is where the prob-
vah of deciding when is Rosh Chodesh,
lem starts: If the Jewish calendar is solely
saying, “You decide when we’ll meet; you
based on the moon, then Passover would
decide when Passover and Yom Kippur
be earlier every year, and eventually we
will fall — when it comes to scheduling
would end up celebrating Passover in the
the calendar, you’re the decision-makers.”
thick of winter — and then it would get
As we approach the holiday of
even earlier in the year. Thus, to ensure
Passover, we should make it a meaning-
that Passover always falls in the spring-
ful encounter for our families. And this
time, there’s the concept of the leap year
year, let’s try to reach out and bring to our
(as this year). Every two or three years,
table one Jew who would not otherwise
when Passover would otherwise fall too
be at a Passover seder.
early, we push the holiday up a month by
Schneor Greenberg is rabbi of the Chabad Jewish
adding a second month of Adar.
Center of Commerce, rabbi@jewishcommerce.org.
The Jewish calendar equates the moon
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Parshat Tazria, Rosh Chodesh Nisan:
Leviticus 12:1-13:59, Numbers 28:9-15,
Exodus 12:1-20; Ezekiel 45:16-46:18.
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