New Moon Service
By Kadijah Spence
Kadijah Spence is part of the education team at Central Synagogue, as a grade lead and curriculum developer. There, they draw on their environmental education studies, with a focus on Jewish values and social justice, in their lesson plans. Kadijah integrates their cultural and social identities into their work to create welcoming and affirming educational spaces. They write that their passions overlap with their work and include gardening, nature walks, writing poetry, coloring, and watching action movies.
New Moon Service
Timing: 45 - 50 mins
Introductions/Welcome (5 - 10 mins)
This New Moon Service can be practiced during any Hebrew Moon. This particular service celebrates queerness, blackness, and their silenced voices and hidden truths. The New Moon celebrates a new month and a new day in the Hebrew calendar. The New Moon and Jewish/Hebrew calendar follow the waxing (increased light) and waning (decreased light) of the moon. In this way, the New Moon also celebrates hidden truths and transitions.
Before we begin this service and celebration, please introduce yourself and share a truth you are celebrating.
Intention Setting for the New Moon (10 mins)
Rabbi Sharon Brous, IKAR High Holy Day Sermon 2018 (The Darkness and the Moon via sefaria.org)
The image of the moon, rising in the dark of night, gave me a God I could believe in, a source of unending hope. And it helped me understand why we, Jews, are moon people. Why we orient time around the lunar cycle. But there is a problem with the moon as a beacon of hope, a source of divine promise. The moon is not always visible. Sometimes it’s radiant and full bellied. Sometimes, it’s only partially visible. Some days, when we look into the night sky, we see no moon at all. Only darkness. What does it mean to orient your heart around a great light that you sometimes can’t even see? The moon plants in our hearts an eternal message: the light of hope that emerges in the dark of night is not steady and consistent. It’s fluid. Sometimes, it’s brilliant and bright and ambitious, and sometimes, it’s but a sliver of light.
And that’s not all. Rabban Gamliel taught already 2000 years ago: sometimes the moon comes by a long path, and sometimes it comes by a short one - which is why some months are shorter and some longer than others. From this we learn that sometimes the cycle of pain and healing will be very quick, and sometimes, it will feel interminable.
The important thing is to remember: the moon, like our spirits, is an object in motion. It will always come back around. For moon people, that is the essence of our spiritual mobility. Finally, the moon teaches us that even when no light is visible at all, even in the deepest darkness, our hearts trust and remember that the light will shine once again. Maybe even tomorrow. And—though it seems impossible to imagine today—it will even eventually reemerge in its fullness. Orienting our calendar around the moon means that hope is a muscle we practice month after month, year after year, generation after generation. It is a muscle that gets stronger as we use it.
Moments for Reflection and Introspection (10 mins)
Take this time to redefine the new moon ceremony using the lense of the movement of the moon and its capacity to shine light at different times, while still giving light to all
During this time you can draw, write, or meditate upon the intention set for the service
Here is a melody to play during this time - Faith's Hymn
Here is a reflective piece written by Kadijah that you can use as a chant:
Our bodies are like the moon…
We are energized and give to others and ourselves
We are tired and need to rotate our attention inward
We are whole, half, hidden, and darkened depending on where we are
We hope to show our full selves in each space
We hope to remain mysterious by choice
Songs (10 mins)
Choose a set of songs from black queer artists to play
Focus on the message left for us or just feel the music and be happy you can do so
Bessie Smith - Standin' in the Rain Blues Lyrics | SongMeanings
Bessie Smith - I've Got What it Takes Lyrics | SongMeanings
Josephine Baker - Always Lyrics | SongMeanings
Josephine Baker - Dinah Lyrics | SongMeanings
Billie Holiday - Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do Lyrics | SongMeanings
Billie Holiday - Don't Know If I'm Comin' or Goin' Lyrics | SongMeanings
Billie Holiday - Havin' Myself a Time Lyrics | SongMeanings
Original Poem by Kadijah Spence (5 mins)
May this month be full of all the things I need
I need (fill in the blank with a need you’re experiencing now)
I also need ( fill in the blank with an additional need or “ask”)
I ask for healing and happiness for others
When I am at peace and others are at peace, we can work together
There are many hurting as I celebrate the new moon
Many hurting from hunger, sickness, war, fear, discrimination, sexism, racism, and all the ‘isms
Many are silenced, threatened, and looked down upon
Many are abusing their power and access to power
Many are misusing resources and their words bring destruction
Many are intimidating and persuading others from doing what is just
May we rise up and help them so they can live the life they wish to live
May we be strengthened with love, encouragement, food, rest, and resources
May we help ourselves and each other
May we rest, fight, and recover
Let us give thanks that we can rest, fight, and recover
Let us give thanks for the balances in the world
The night and day, the hot and cold, the moon and sun, the earth and sky
Fire and water, oceans and streams, fish and birds, giraffes and gnats
People like me and people different from me
Let us give thanks for the similarities in the world
Beautiful and creative, strange and curious, gladness and joy
Grace and patience, love and admiration, creation and newness
Thank you for me
Thank you for you
Thank you for us
Let us celebrate the night and each other with an ending piece (5 mins)
This prayer called ‘Twilight People’ was written by Rabbi Reuben Zellman. It is often recited for Transgender Day of Remembrance. The prayer celebrates the in-between and the light that shines from the cracks in space and time. It also celebrates the transitions of nature and how those transitions influence the many aspects of nature. Those many aspects make up the diversity of the world, our ecosystems, and our communities.
Twilight People Prayer
“As the sun sinks and the colors of the day turn, we offer a blessing for the twilight,
for twilight is neither day nor night, but in-between.
We are all twilight people. We can never be fully labeled or defined.
We are many identities and loves, many genders and none. We are in between roles, at the intersection of histories, or between place and place.
We are crisscrossed paths of memory and destination, streaks of light swirled together. We are neither day nor night.
We are both, neither, and all.
May the sacred in-between of this evening suspend our certainties, soften our judgments, and widen our vision.
May this in-between light illuminate our way to the God who transcends all categories and definitions.
May the in-between people who have come to pray be lifted up into this twilight.
We cannot always define; we can always say a blessing.
Blessed are You, God of all,
who brings on the twilight.”
Rabbi Reuben Zellman, TransTorah.org
Twilight People Prayer