[Avodah] Insights Into Rosh Chodesh, the Yomim Tovim, and the Luach

[Yitzchok Levine]

RSRH has a long commentary on Shemos 12:1-2.

121 And God said to Moshe and Aharon in the land of Egypt as follows:

2 This renewal of the moon shall be for you a beginning of new moons; 
it shall be for you the first among the months of the year.

Indeed, his commentary goes on for 10 pages. In it he give brilliant 
insights into the nature of Rosh Chodesh, sanctifying the months by 
means of witnesses, Yom Tov Sheni, etc.  All of this is well worth 
the long read, IMO. I will just post a couple of things from his 
commentary on these pesukim. YL

Note this well: It is to be by mutual choice! If the beginnings of our
months and, consequently, the dates of the festivals were to be tied
exactly to planetary-astronomical phases, so that the lunar cycle would
automatically determine the Moed and the Moadim then we and our God,
as it were, would be bound by the blind, unchanging cycle of nature.
In that case, our Moed of the New Moon would lend serious support to
the idolatry of a cult of nature worship.

But this shall not be. Indeed, this dangerous illusion that so readily
suggests itself must be countered with all deliberate firmness. It is not
the meeting of heavenly bodies, the renewed illumination of the moon by
the sun, that produces the beginning of the month; it is not this natural
phenomenon that the New Moon celebrates. Rather, each time the moon
reunites with the sun and receives from it new light, God wants His people
to find their way back to Him, so that His light may again shine forth on
them, no matter where they may be or through what periods of darkness
they may have to pass in their path through history. The encounter between
the moon and the sun is only a symbol and occasion for our
reunion with God; the renewal of the moon is a symbol and an occasion
for our own renewal. Moed literally means "meeting."

Chodesh thus proclaims redemption from sin and from evil, and that is
why this institution is placed at the commencement of our national
upbuilding. The truth that it teaches forms the foundation stone of our
Jewish consciousness and sharply distinguishes this consciousness from
all paganism. 
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