Shabbat Mevarchim HaChodesh

It is very close to Shabbat; I will need to light candles in approximately 15 minutes, but I wanted to express to you, my reader(s), that I thank G-d every minute of every day (a figure of speech) for Shabbat Kodesh; it is truly a taste of "The World to Come," or as we say in our zmirot, "mey'en olam habah."
I haven't yet fully 'recovered' from our trip to Israel & our son's wedding; it was quite a stressful, if happy, time. And after an awful week, my feeling sick and coughing and my starting a new work project, I am grateful for the respite of Shabbat.
There is nothing like it: we are commanded (yup!) to lay our stressful work-week aside, and devote our attentions to spiritual matters, to 'resting from creation,' to emulating Ribono-shel-Olam (as much as we humans can), and remembering the Holy One and from whence we came...we study the Torah, read holy works and stories, express our love of Hashem in prayer and song.
This Shabbat is even more special, because it blesses the new coming month of Nissan, the month in which the Jewish people became a nation. It also commemorates the very first mitzvah, or commandment, which the Children of Israel were told to do by G-d. As it is written on the Chabad.org site:

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 moon's appearance at the exact moment of its monthly rebirth. After the sun set, G-d showed Moses the crescent new moon of the new month of Nissan, showing him the precise dimensions of the moon at the moment the new month is to be consecrated.
For the generations that followed, each new month was ushered in when two witnesses testified before the Sanhedrin (rabbinic supreme court) that they had seen the molad, the new moon. In the 4th century CE, Hillel II foresaw that the Jews would no longer be able to follow a Sanhedrin-based calendar. So Hillel and his rabbinical court established the perpetual calendar which is followed today -- until Moshiach will come and reestablish the Sanhedrin

There isn't anything like it, and I am thankful I am able to celebrate it with family and friends. Just wish my kids were here, together with us. . .
Shabbat Shalom.

Comments

yingerman said…
I love the yomim tovim.
We gotta get some more.
Can you beleive that in Israel they only have 1 seder?
ONE?
2:35 PM
Lady-Light said…
yingerman: please forgive the delay in my response (thank you for your comment): Pesach preparations is my excuse. And work. And sick.
Truth is, I always loved the second seder; I don't know how I'll get along without it, when and if I return to Israel to live.
9:40 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Great Debate: Is it Itsy Bitsy, or Inky Dinky, of Spider Fame?

Image
For the better part of a year, I've had an on-again, off-again debate with my D.H. as to the "correct" adjective in the children's finger-play nursery rhyme, "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" (now you know which one I favor). My D. H. insists that the correct descriptive is "inky dinky," whereas I demur.  I vaguely recollect from my own childhood, either hearing " itsy-bitsy spider ," or even more familiar to me, the description "eency-weency," referring to said spider's miniscule size, yet plucky persistance, and how he (she?) braved the violent rainstorm which "washed it out" after the arduous climb up the water spout, yet doggedly climbed the spout again, after the sun came out and 'dried up all the rain.' Many, if not most of our American nursery rhymes originated on the other side of the pond, in England, for obvious reasons: the American colonists were British in origin, and brought with them the culture an...
Read more

The End. Is there a Beginning...?

This is my first post back on Tikkun Olam since April 23rd, 2015. It does not feel real. Why is it that we never think we will ever have a JOLT in our lives that will change the entire life course we have been traveling? We continue on, day by day, complacent, even in the face of serious illness--believing that what we are living is the only reality; that it is immutable, that it is PHYSICAL: you can touch it, feel it, and it will continue to be there for you tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow... But it isn't. And it won't.  Because the unthinkable can, and does, happen, in time. To everybody. As it happened to me, almost a year ago, on August 10, 2015, when my DH - Dear Husband, of 46 years, died. I am living in an Alternate Universe. Because the universe in which I was living all my life until now, is gone. I still want to slap myself in the face and wake myself up. It's a dream. A terrible nightmare.  It's a horror movie with a frightening ending, but I will...
Read more

Hijab for Jewish Women?

Image
Someone used this phrase in a comment on a post about the hijab wearing Jewish women in Ramat Bet Shemesh Alef: "modern Hareidi community;" this is an oxymoron. Just for the record, I rarely agree with a Hareidi interpretation of anything. This mode of dress is just a bad interpretation of a good concept ( tzniyut ) taken to extremes. Personally, I cover my hair because I feel it increases my humility by remembering that there is a G-d above me ( not because of the reason of less attraction to men). I chose many years ago to do so; but I have come to believe a woman can be Orthodox without covering her hair all the time; just while in shul, and where it shows respect for the Torah, such as at shiurim, or where it is the preferred mode of dress, such as at yeshiva dinners and the like. But to go to the grocery? Not necessarily . I think the whole message of tzniyut is lost in those hijab cases: where will they go next? Hiding in the home and not going out? Sitting behind a cur...
Read more