Try to imagine: a pitch black night, with no light pollution to dim the stars. The Milky Way is a carpet of pin-point bits of light. Low in the eastern sky is the merest sliver of a crescent moon, the same moon which two weeks earlier had been a glowing disk, bright enough to cast shadows; the same moon which had waned and disappeared, only to appear again, miraculously, as it did in its predictable four-week cycle.

Now, try to imagine how such a phenomenon must have seemed to our ancient ancestors, who had no inkling that the Earth was not the center of the universe, or that the surface of the moon was as solid as the Earth, and that we would some day walk on it and dream of living there.

The rotation of the moon around the Earth, while not understood in the scientific terms we today take for granted, was well-observed by ancient peoples. It was a constant in their lives, and a natural focus point for them to use to organize their lives, both ritual and mundane. Most calendars, from the Incan to the Celtic to the Babylonian, were predicated on the lunar cycle. Today, both the Jewish and Moslem religious calendars are still lunar-based. The importance of the new moon can be seen in the Moslem symbol of the crescent moon and in the monthly recitation of the Rosh Chodesh haftarah (Isaiah 66: 1-24) on the Shabbat before its expected appearance.

At first reading, there is little that Isaiah says that defines Rosh Chodesh as a day special to women. Indeed, there is little, until the end of the haftarah, that even connects his theme with Rosh Chodesh.

At the beginning of the haftarah, Isaiah rails against pride, hypocrisy, and insincerity. He decries those who believe that a human-built Temple is greater than anything God could create:

YHVH said:

The heavens are My chair
And the earth is My footstool:
Where could you build a house for Me,
What place could serve as My dwelling?
My hand made all these things,
And so it all came into being
– declares YHVH. (Isaiah 66:1-2)

He continues with a screed against those who bring sacrifices, but do not truly repent:

As for those who slaughter oxen like killing humans,
Who sacrifice sheep as though they were breaking a dog's neck,
Who present the blood of swine as an offering,
Who offer incense but worship false gods –
Just as they have chosen how to act
And take pleasure in their sacrilege
So I will choose to taunt them,
To bring on them the very thing they fear.
For I called and no one replied,
I spoke and no one paid attention.
They did what I deem evil
And chose what I do not want." (Isaiah 66: 3-4)

The connection with Rosh Chodesh is made at the end of the haftarah, in a message of hope for the future:

For as the new heaven and the new earth
Which I will make
Shall survive by My will
– declares YHVH –
So shall your seed and your name continue.
And new moon after new moon,
And Shabbat after Shabbat,
All flesh shall come to worship Me
– said YHVH (Isaiah 66:22-23)

In between these two sections are passages which ask the people to be patient, and which assure them that all will be well eventually. It is in these passages that we can see a link between women and Rosh Chodesh. Isaiah uses the metaphors of childbirth and maternal comfort to console the Israelites:

Before she went into labor, she was delivered;
Before her pains came, she bore a son.
Who ever heard the like?
Who ever witnessed such events?
Can a land pass through suffering
In a single day?
Or is a nation born
All at once?
Yet Zion went into labor
And immediately bore her children!
Shall I who bring on labor not bring about birth?
– says YHVH.
Shall I who cause birth shut the womb?
– said your God.
Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her,
All you who love her!
Join in her jubilation,
All you who mourned over her –
That you may suck consolation to the full from her breast,
That you may draw glory to your delight from her bosom.
(Isaiah 66:7-11)

It is interesting that the images Isaiah chose to assure the Israelites that they were not abandoned by the Divine, that they would once again be a great nation in a land of their own, are the images of a woman in labor who later nurses her child. It is in these passages that we can glimpse what may be the remnants of earlier fertility rites linking the New Moon with a woman's monthly cycle.

For, just as predictable as the appearance of the phases of the moon, were the phases of a woman's body. As remarkable and mystical as it seemed to the ancients for the moon to disappear and reappear every month, equally remarkable was the ability of women to bleed without being in mortal danger.

An interesting phenomenon called "synchronous menstruation" has been observed among women who live or work in close proximity. First substantiated by researcher Martha McClintock of the University of Chicago in 1971, women have long noted that female family members, roommates, dorm mates, work colleagues, and cloistered nuns tend to menstruate at the same time. In a tribal society, where proximity was a necessity for safety as well as cohesion, the women would have all gotten their menses simultaneously, at the same phase of the moon every four weeks, adding to their mystery and mystique. Indeed, the very words themselves – "menses," "menstruation," "month" – come from the Latin word for "moon."

In many ancient civilizations, the moon was personified as a goddess. The Aztec Moon Goddess is shown as cradling in her arms a rabbit, a fertility symbol in many cultures, including Christian. The Greek Selene, who bore 50 mortal daughters to her human lover Endymion, is sometimes identified as Apollo's twin sister Artemis, the goddess of fertility and childbirth, who is often depicted with a crescent moon above her forehead. The Roman Diana is goddess both of the moon and of fertility and childbirth. The Babylonian moon goddess Anunitu later became merged with the Summerian Ishtar, who, among her many other attributes, was the goddess of love and fertility.

Modern pagans and Wiccans have continued this tradition, with rituals timed according to the phases of the moon. One pagan resource website is called Moon Goddess Circles; another the Women's Moon Hut, describes itself as " a place for women on their noontime to come for rest, reflection, and sisterhood." Many other sites connect fertility and the moon.

In Judaism, too, from our earliest traditions, women have been associated with Rosh Chodesh. According to the Talmud (Megillah 22b), women are exempt from work on Rosh Chodesh, just as though it were a Shabbat or Yom Tov. In his commentary on this Talmudic passage, Rashi explains that women are exempt from spinning, weaving, and sewing, because these were the activities which women contributed to the building of the Mishkan. Midrash Pirke DeRabbi Eliezer (chapter 45) explains that women have been rewarded with a special holiday once a month because they refused to contribute their gold jewelry to the building of the Golden Calf.

Today, Rosh Hodesh celebrations and study groups for women have become part of Jewish expression throughout all facets of our community, from the most traditionally observant to the most devoutly New Age. Most of the groups incorporate prayer, study, and discussion in their celebrations of the New Moon. Some are organized by synagogues or other educational institutions and have a curriculum and plan that is followed every year. Others are more spontaneous. In all cases, these Rosh Chodesh groups have reinvented and revitalized the idea of Rosh Chodesh as a women's holiday.

The earliest commandment given to the Israelites in Exodus 12:1-2, even before they left Egypt, was to determine the new moon of the month of Nisan, and to use that date as the beginning of the year. Although we celebrate Rosh HaShanah, the new year, in the fall month of Tishrei, it is the spring month of Nisan that determines our liturgical calendar.

We cannot know if the Sages selected this passage as the one to be read on Shabbat Rosh Chodesh in order to remind women that the New Moon is a holiday specific to them. One suspects that the choice was made because of the closing passages, and because of the message of optimism it brings along with the returning of the moon.

But as women, we can look at these lines as ones which do celebrate our uniqueness. Even those who have not born children, through choice or through circumstance, can find resonance in passages which connect us with the natural rhythms of time. Each month we can remember that it is woman alone who has the ability to continue the miracle of creation.