ADDITIONAL SERVICE FOR THE NEW MOON The New Moon, like the New Year, is understood in Judaism as a time of renewal and rededication, in which we pray for forgiveness and atonement and seek to begin again. In Temple times a special offering was brought, of which the Musaf prayer is a memory. The central blessing of the Amida begins with a brief statement of the nature of the day, followed by a prayer for the restoration of the Temple and its sacrifices, a biblical passage describing the Rosh Ḥodesh offering, and a prayer that the new month be blessed for good. A midrashic tradition associates Rosh Ḥodesh with Jewish women, as a tribute to their faithfulness and to their generosity in providing gifts for the construction of the Tabernacle. From the first month of the second year after the exodus, the day the Tabernacle was dedicated, it became a women’s festival (Rashi, Megilla 22b; Shulḥan Arukh OḤ 417:1).

רָאשֵׁי חֳדָשִׁים You have given New Moons to Your people: The Jewish people is compared to the moon because, whereas the sun shines with its own light, the moon shines with reflected light. So too with Israel: the light with which we shine comes not from ourselves but from God, of whose glory we are but a reflection (Seforno, Num. 28:11).

וּלְכַפָּרַת פָּֽשַׁע And atonement for transgression: Theere are six months from Tishrei (Rosh HaShana, the beginning of the year) to Nisan (the first of months: Ex. 12:2), hence the six double expressions of blessing. In a leap year there are seven months before Nisan, hence a seventh expression is added from Marḥeshvan to Adar II.