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Gentle Readers ... Moving?... New Address?
It costs THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE a costly and needew
dime every time we yet a paper retained because of a
wrong or antiquated address. Of all the rising costa In to
day’s struggle for newspaper survival this seems the most
wuteinl. If a subscriber b moving into a new home, leav
ing town, changing apartments In the same building or
whatever, it seems the least he or she could do Is pick up
the phone and notify us of the change—or drop a card.
Waiting until you’re all unpacked and settled in the new
address Is very thoughtless. By then, you’ve not only missed
several issues of the paper, but as many as six or seven
copies are by now often begun on their way back to us—
ail at ten cents apiece. We’re burned up over this needless
cost and ask the cooperation of our readers in the future.
—EDITOR
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Friday, Sept. 20, 1»63
appointed workings of the “wan
dering moon” an everlasting sign
of divine compassion.
sake
home
for
the
your
The Rabbis Reached for the Moon
By DR HARRY
Recent months have seen such
phenomenal advances In the con
quest of outer space that inter
planetary travel is no longer the
exclusive province of science fic
tion. Russia’s successful rocket to
the moon and moon rockets
launched at Cape Canaveral have
made men conscious of cosmo
graphy in a new and personal
way. Yet men have always felt
the magnetism of the moon, Shel
ley’s “orbed maiden with white
fire laden.”
Jewish writings have much to
say of Yerah, Levanah, or Hodesh,
as the moon is termed in He
brew, and the sages devoted much
time to the study of astrology. The
tribe of Issachar is said to have
produced many notable astron
omers, and the moon was one of
the symbols on the Issacharian
flag. Rabban Gamaliel (circa 80-
11-E.E.) had a diagram of the
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BINS
SNELVINI
TRUCKS
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RABINOWICZ
phases of the moon on a tablet
on the walls of his upper cham
ber. The Babylonian teacher Sam
uel (165-205 C.E.), who knew the
courses of heaven as well as the
streets of Nehardea, was called
“Yarhinai” (the expert of the
moon). Hillel the second, patri
arch in Palestine in the middle of
the fourth century, based the He
brew calendar on the motions and
phases of the moon, because it
was divinely appointed to be “for
a sign and a season.” In the Jew
ish calendar the months are
therefore based on the lunations
(the time-lapses between one
mopn and the next), and the
years are calculated according to
the position of the sun.
The ancient Israelites felt the
fascination of the moon and al
lowed their imagination to run
riot as they gazed upon it. They
thought they could determine the
features of a man in the moon;
some identified these features
with the face of the patriarch
Jacob. The rabbis tell us that the
“countenance of Moses was like
that of the sun while the coun
tenance of Joshua was like that
of the moon.” The moon was oft
en endowed with human attri
butes. Joseph saw in his dream
the sun and the moon and the
eleven stars making obeisance to
him. Regularly the sun and the
moon sing praises to God. The
moon was a symbol of beauty;
Joyous Greetings
from
Happy Valley Dairy
Solomon uses the expression “fair
as the moon" (Song of Songs/.
The inhabitants of Sodom and
Gomorrah paid the moon divine
honors. Even Abraham worshipp
ed the moon at one stage in his
spiritual development. Only when
clouds obscured it did the patri
arch perceive his error. “This,
too, is no god!” he declared. It
is to moon-worshippers and
pagans like them that Moses
refers when he thunders: “And
hath gone and served other gods
and worshipped them, or the sun
or the moon, or any of the host
of heaven which I have com
manded not.” People attributed to
“the lesser light” the power of
influencing the life of man, a
power malign or benign that could
be used for either good or evil.
The belief was based on the bib
lical phrases “precious things put
forth by the moon,” and the “sun
shall not smite thee by day nor
the moon by night.” The appear
ance of the moon was greeted
with great rejoicing, especially by
agricultural communities, but the
eclipse of the moon was greatly
feared.
The lunar months are twenty-
nine or thirty days long, depend
ing on the day when the moon is
first seen. Fixing this day is by
no means as simple as it sounds.
Even Moses was “in perplexity,”
our sages tell us, as to what con
stituted the beginning of the new
moon and the degree of the moon
that must be visible before the
moon could properly be consider
ed as a new moon. The rabbis
relate that God Himself pointed
it out to Moses with His finger
and said: ‘Behold, when the moon
is like this, consecrate it.” Upon
the president of the Sanhedrin
devolved the duty of solemnly de
claring the new moon consecrat
ed. The news was then carried
far and wide, throughout the land,
and throughout the Jewish world.
“A man would wave the fire sig
nal on the Mount of Olives, until
he could see the next one doing
the same thing on the next moun
tain, and so on to the top of the
third mountain . . . until he saw
the whole of the Diaspora before
him like one bonfire.” In effect,
by the time the news filtered
through the Jewish communities
scattered throughout the world,
there was some doubt as to the
actual time when the new moon
was consecrated. It was due to
the lack of precise information
on this point that the second day
of the festivals of Passover, Pen
tecost, and Sukkot was instituted
in the Diaspora.
Rosh Hodesh, the day of the
consecration of the new moon,
was an important day in the life
of the Israelite. A special sacrifice
was offered in the Temple in Jer
usalem and the ram’s horn (sho-
far) was sounded, and Jewish
mystics regarded Rosh Hodesh
as a minor New Year’s Day.
Even today, Rosh Hodesh is a
monthly festival. On the Sabbath
before the new moon, we utter
a prayer imploring the Almighty
“to renew unto us the coming
month for good and for blessing.
O grant us long life, a life of
peace, of good, of blessing, of
sustenance, of bodily vigor, a life
marked by the fear of heaven . . .
The moon is still 230,000 miles
away from the earth but it is
close to the hearts of the people
of Israel who see in the divinely
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