Kiddush Hachodesh ("Sanctification of the Month")

The Lunar Cycle The Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles. The lunar cycle which the Jewish calendar follows is called a synodic month—not to be confused with the sidereal month, the amount of time it takes for the moon to complete an orbit around the ...

"Creation" (beriah, in the Hebrew), which means bringing something into being out of a prior state of non-existence, implies a "before" and "after"; so to say that G-d created anything is also to say that He first (or simultaneously) created time...

On the first of Nissan of the year 2448 from creation (1313 BCE--two weeks before the Exodus), G-d showed Moses the crescent new moon and told him, "When you see the moon like this, sanctify [the new month]." This ushered in the first Jewish month, and ...

The Rebbe recites Kiddush Levana, Sanctification of the Moon, in front of his home on President Street.

Jewish mystics teach that judging others favorably is the true test of righteousness.

The lunar calendar must have a special quality beyond its specific function, a pervasive characteristic to merit its beginning Jewry's service of G-d.

Shortly before sundown on the 29th of Adar, G-d commanded Moses regarding the mitzvah of sanctifying the crescent new moon and establishing a lunar calendar. This is the first mitzvah the Jews were given as a nation. Moses had difficulty envisaging the ...

Once upon a time, time was round. Then somehow, we straightened it out, put an arrow on the end and took it for a ride. Now let me tell you how it happened...

In chapter twelve of Exodus, G‑d gives the Jewish people their first mitzvah: “sanctifying the month”—to establish the calendar based on the lunar cycle (the rebirth of the moon). Why is this the first mitzvah?

Imagine the scene. The Jews are still slaves in Egypt, and now for the very first time ever they will hear a Torah lesson. And it's about the moon. The moon?! Is that what's on the agenda?