Today our Sunday Funday class falls on the first day of Rosh Chodesh, which means :
Rosh = head, Chodesh = month, so rosh chodesh is the start of the new month.
Rosh = head, Chodesh = month, so rosh chodesh is the start of the new month.
More than a thousand years ago before calendars, telephones and emails, Rosh Chodesh was an important festival day. People would watch the sky carefully between the 29th and 30th day and when the a sliver of the moon appeared and became visible after dark, and was witnessed by at least two people, the new month was declared. They would light a fire on the hills of Jerusalem so that neighbouring towns could see, where more fires would be lit and so on. The next day the festivities would start, they would sound the shofar and festivities would begin. Then the same Syrain Greek king which caused the Maccabees to revolt (we will learn about this at our next lesson) and why we celebrate hannukah did not allow the jews to continue celebrating Rosh Chodesh. And much later, we calculated the months differently. Rosh chodesh is a celebration of starting anew. And this new month we’re entering is called Kislev on the hebrew calendar and during Kislev we celebrate Hannukah
Rosh Chodesh story read today :
In the beginning the sun and the moon were the same size,
Two equally great lights, lighting all creation
Two equally great lights, lighting all creation
The moon dared to wonder... “Is it possible for two rulers to wear one crown?”The Holy One responded by shrinking the moon to it’s present size to be ever smaller than the sun.
The moon was angry. “Just because I questionned the wisdom of creation should I be punished for all time?”
Ok, how about this said the Holy One,... “The sun shall rule by day, but you the moon shall rule by night”
“Oh that’s good” said the moon, “but not quite good enough”
“What about this... ” “The nations of the world will set their calendars by the sun, but the people of Israel will set their sacred times by the newest and fullness of the moon”
“This too is good, but not enough. You must find a way to fix all the brokeness and mistakes in your creation’
The Holy One thought a long time, and finally came back to the moon and said “When all creation will learn to live together and when all have an equal share in the blessings that fill the world, then you will be restored to your rightful size.”
“Oh this is good” said the moon
‘For this I and your smaller creations will wait’
And so the Holy One promised to fix all the mistakes in creation with the promise that one day all children will grow to be old, and all the oppressed will be set free and the world will know Shalom – Peace and so,
Once every month when the moon is full, we sing and dance in her light and remember the Holy Ones promise
May It Come so....
Ok, how about this said the Holy One,... “The sun shall rule by day, but you the moon shall rule by night”“Oh that’s good” said the moon, “but not quite good enough”
“What about this... ” “The nations of the world will set their calendars by the sun, but the people of Israel will set their sacred times by the newest and fullness of the moon”
“This too is good, but not enough. You must find a way to fix all the brokeness and mistakes in your creation’
The Holy One thought a long time, and finally came back to the moon and said “When all creation will learn to live together and when all have an equal share in the blessings that fill the world, then you will be restored to your rightful size.”
“Oh this is good” said the moon‘For this I and your smaller creations will wait’
And so the Holy One promised to fix all the mistakes in creation with the promise that one day all children will grow to be old, and all the oppressed will be set free and the world will know Shalom – Peace and so,
Once every month when the moon is full, we sing and dance in her light and remember the Holy Ones promise
May It Come so....
And we sang with our musical instruments :
Oseh shalom,
Bimromav hu ya’aseh
Shalom aleinu
v’al kol yisrael
v’imru amen
We also learnt to say good-bye together and wish our friends a good week :
Shavuah tov, shavuah tov, shavuah tov, shavuah tov (x 4 times again)
A good week, a week of peace,
May gladness reign and joy increase
A good week, a week of peace
May gladness reign and joy increase
And then our artists went to work...
And the hard work paid, they all went home with their very own mezuzah for their bedroom...
Next Sunday Funday, Nov 21 at 3.30pm in St Germain en Laye.
Its a great Blog.Our goal is to offer Jewish families a place were theycan find authentic and original Judaica items and Jewish art to decorate their homes throughout the year or for the Jewish holidays.So buy our jewish wedding gifts a\for your loved ones.
ReplyDelete