Renewing Torah: Rosh Hodesh Shevat

Rosh Hodesh Shevat | ראש חודש שבט

Rosh Hodesh Shevat: A Prayer for Faith and Action

By Rabbi Daniel Klein, Dean of the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College

The fullness of the moon, when it lights up the sky, came to represent the felt presence and redemptive experience of God in our lives. It is not an accident that some holidays, including Purim, Passover, and Sukkot, begin when the moon is full. The darkest of nights, when the moon has waned and is not visible, came to represent the experience of God’s hiddenness and distance from our lives. The moment of the moon’s emergence from darkness they marked as the beginning of the month and developed a practice of marking it each time it occurred in its cycle. They called it, evocatively, Rosh Hodesh, which means both ‘new month’ and the ‘beginning of renewal’.

Our ancestors’ custom of marking time by the cycle of the moon is an expression and practice of faith. It is based on a recognition that all experiences, whether dark or light, traverse a never-ending loop, one inevitably yielding to the other. By making the beginning of the cycle the moment of rebirth, just as the darkness is turning back towards light, they plant a flag on the side of faith and hope. They orient us towards the inevitability of renewal at the time we need it most. In the practice of Rosh Hodesh, we affirm and accept this eternal cycle of nearness and distance from God and cultivate faith and hope in God’s return. In this insight and ritual, I feel the loving accompaniment of our ancestors who knew we needed this ritual.

70 FACES OF TORAH

The Blessing of Uncertainty

By Rabbi Gita Karasov`22, Hebrew College Dean of Students & Admissions

This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you (Exodus 12:2).

As the Jewish people leave Egypt and become a free people, they will now keep time in a new way. They will build their calendar around the cycles of the moon. And how will they know when in the moon’s cycle to begin counting a month? At the moment when they see the moon renewing itself each month, that is when they will begin their counting.

The placement of this mitzvah is striking. While we are in the middle of reading about the momentous event of the Exodus, the Torah offers an interlude to explain where this one night of knowing will live in Jewish time. The Jewish people will order their lives and their relationship to God not around a single event, but according to the ever-changing cycles of the moon. The moon represents process; in fact, the only kind of certainty that the moon represents is that every stage is temporary — every ounce of light that exists today will be different tomorrow.

HEBREW COLLEGE ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT 2024

Our Community of Purpose and Belonging

We are living in a time when it is so easy to feel buffeted by the news and noise coming at us from every direction. To be part of the Jewish story is to be part of the people who faithfully tend the “perpetual flame” of the Ner Tamid — a light that is both timeless and present for us in every moment. It is to infuse our lives with a deeper and more enduring sense of belonging and of purpose.

In this Report, we highlight the educational work we are doing at Hebrew College and the “perpetual fire” we are tending with your support — the fire of Jewish learning, communal resilience and human creativity, commitment and compassion. We draw inspiration from all that we have accomplished together over the past year, and we look toward the future with a renewed sense of resolve and an insistence on hope. We do so with immense gratitude for your unwavering partnership and shared vision.

Read the Annual Impact Report

HEBREW COLLEGE SPRING SOUL SOUNDS CONCERT SERIES

Neta & Stav Open Series on February 6

Hebrew College's Soul Sounds concert series kicks off on February 6 with Neta Weiner and Stav Marin (above), independent artists from Jaffa who create collaborative works that defy categorization. Neta, a musician, actor, and director, and Stav, a choreographer, dancer, and performer, bring their multidisciplinary artistry to the stage. Taking place on the eve of Shabbat Shirah, Neta and Stav will present their signature blend of accordion-powered hip hop, dance, and multicultural Israeli musicality. Choreographer Hadar Ahuvia, a third-year Hebrew College rabbinical student, will appear as a featured performer.

For Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer, Hebrew College Rosh Tefillah & Artist-in-Residence, the goal of Soul Sounds is to build a meeting-ground “where prayer and ritual and music-making bump up against each other in interesting ways.” As Rabbi Meyer sees it, Soul Sounds is dialogue between past and present, prayer and performance, individual expression and communal tradition. Please join us to bring this dialogue to life with music and ritual in a space of learning and spirituality.