Rosh Chodesh - The start of the Scriptural Month
The first day of the each month in the scriptural calendar is determined by the sighting of the renewed moon. Throughout the scriptures, the first day of the month hosts a noteworthy occasion. In Genesis, after the flood, the tops of the mountains were spotted on the first day of the month. In Exodus, the Tabernacle or Tent of Meeting was set up on the first day of the first month. In Leviticus, the first day of the seventh month is declared a sabbath, a day for remembering and blowing trumpets. In Numbers 33, Aharon, the Cohen haGadol (high priest), died on the first day of the fifth month. In Deuteronomy, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moshe shares with the people of Israel all that YHVH commanded them. Throughout the book of Ezekiel we see that Ezekiel received his word from YHVH on the first day of the month. And lastly, for this discussion anyway ... Psalm 81:3 tells us, Blow the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. The calendar based on the sighting of the renewed moon was the first mitzvot (commandment) given to the infant nation Israel immediately upon leaving Egypt. It was deemed so significant, that when Israel was occupied by the Syrian-Greeks (circa 165 BCE) the feast of the new moon was one of the commandments that they forbade the Israelites to observe. Without the observance of the new moon, there is no calendar; without the calendar there can be no observance of Yah's feasts.There are those that believe that the rehearsal of the new moon portrays the renewal of the Israelite people. There are those that believe that the new moon portrays the return of Messiah Yahshua. In either case, the observance of the New Moon sets us apart from those that follow the sun and the feasts associated with the sun. And while we cannot pretend to know every nuance of its observance and the prophecies it portends, we can be obedient to our Father and hold this day in esteem. After all, it will be a feast we observe in the New Heaven and the New Earth (see Isaiah 66). At Kol HaMashiach, we celebrate the New Moon with blasts on the shofar, a short service thanking and praising our Father for His mercy, a small (desserts, coffee and light snacks) feast that night and a congregational feast on the following Shabbat.
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