Back to Question of the Week Back to Archives Q: Hi Rabbi Neal: I'm trying to find out about Rosh Chodesh celebrations . . . . The internet wasn't much good. Any suggestions? Any suggested readings for how to have a Rosh Chodesh service/celebration for women? Any help you could give me would be great, including, if possible, any background to how Rosh Chodesh has recently (?) evolved as a women's "holiday". --Shayla
		A: Dear Shayla: Upon receiving your question, I reached for my handy-dandy Otzar Tamei HaMinhagim, or "Collection of Reasons for the Customs" (I believe there are similar books available in English), turned to the chapter on Rosh Chodesh [the semi-holiday at the beginning of the Hebrew month], and found that indeed the question mark in your last sentence was appropriate. This book quotes the Shulchan Aruch, which dates back about 400 years: "It is a custom that women do not work [on Rosh Chodesh], or they lessen their work on Rosh Chodesh." My reference book explains that this custom is connected to a midrash originating in the time of the Talmud, almost a thousand years earlier. This midrash says that when the men wanted to worship the Golden Calf (see Exodus 32), the women refused to hand over their jewelry to be melted down for the idol. As a reward, God gave them this holiday as a special women's observance. In fact, in a footnote the Otzar says that there is a reference in the Jerusalem Talmud [there are 2 Talmuds; we ordinarily learn from the one compiled in Babylon] to women refraining from work on Rosh Chodesh, so it's not clear to me whether the midrash came first or the custom. In either event, this is an ancient connection, going back to the period shortly after the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. I've seen and heard other explanations for this connection as well, including a medieval midrash that suggests that women get Rosh Chodesh as a special holiday once a month as a reward for going to the mikvah (ritual bath) once a month, in observance of traditional practices pertaining to menstruation. I saw this suggestion as midrash, but it's a plausible anthropological interpretation as well. Finally, it's important to note that when traditional legal texts use the word we translate as "work," they probably mean something technical and specific by it, which is the same kinds of "work" not done on Shabbat or holidays. This might include cooking, carrying things in public, lighting a fire, and so on, but doesn't necessarily mean a day completely off; nor does it mean that others couldn't do the work. I do not know how this custom was actually practiced in our ancestor's communities; that's for a more learned historian to figure out. Now, as to your complaint that the Internet wasn't much help, I couldn't find much about Rosh Chodesh in your specific locality either. But I found lots of Web sites about Rosh Chodesh in general, including a guide to Rosh Chodesh written by a Reform rabbi, an Orthodox explanation of the halachic sources of Rosh Chodesh, another Orthodox observance guide along with links to a Rosh Chodesh email discussion group, a special page of Rosh Chodesh links, and a bibliography of books and articles about the subject. Sometimes you have to vary your spelling a little bit, like "Rosh Chodesh " instead of "Rosh Hodesh;" or try different search engines, which sometimes have access to different Web sites. But keep clicking- there's a wealth of Jewish information out there! NJL
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