New Moon – FAQ

What do you think today’s Messianic people should do regarding the New Moon?

The New Moon or Rosh Chodesh is not listed as one of the Lord’s appointed times of Leviticus 23. However, because the Hebrew rosh chodesh means the same as “new month,” determining the rosh chodesh can be important as it relates to the timing of the Biblical festivals. Prophetically, in the Millennial Reign of Yeshua, Rosh Chodesh will be a time of great rejoicing and festivity: “‘And it shall be from new moon to new moon and from sabbath to sabbath, all mankind will come to bow down before Me,’ says the LORD” (Isaiah 66:23, NASU).

The problem with “keeping” the New Moon, is that the Bible itself is largely mute on how God’s people are to keep it. Numbers 29:6 describes “the burnt offering of the new moon and its grain offering” (NASU). Psalm 81:3 says, “Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our feast day” (NASU). And the New Moon is mentioned in Colossians 2:16, “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day” (NASU). Because of the lack of information in the written Scriptures themselves about what do about the New Moon, many are often forced to turn to Jewish custom and tradition, witnessed over the centuries since the destruction of the Second Temple, and accounting for a wide Diaspora. Because the New Moon in ancient times was innately connected to the Jewish people in the Holy Land, and a Sanhedrin council which could determine when the New Moon was sighted—Jewish observance of the New Moon or Rosh Chodesh today is widely limited to various traditional liturgies in the Synagogue.[1]

A wide number of those in the Hebrew Roots movement who observe Rosh Chodesh, do not tend to observe it along the lines of present Jewish tradition.

NOTES

[1] For a further review, consult the summary provided in Ronald L. Eisenberg, The JPS Guide to Jewish Traditions (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2004), pp 166-167.