A Note from Dori: This is the first in a series of guest blogs that introduce Our Own Deep Wells: Awakening Soulful Practices for Wellbeing. Our Own Deep Wells supports human belonging, connection, and community through curating soulful practices from the world’s spiritual traditions in ways that honor the cultures and contexts from which they emerge. Each guest blog will describe the practice and include tips for how to lead it with a group.
Moon-Seeking: A Practice for Reclaiming Time
By Eleiza Braun
“For though my faith is not yours and your faith is not mine, if we are each free to light our own flame, together we can banish some of the darkness of the world.”
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
Historical and Cultural Context:
Rosh Chodesh translates literally to “Head of the month” and is one of the many ways that Judaism, like all traditions, marks the passage of time. Marking the passage of time is a valuable mental health practice. The first commandment the Jews were given as a people is the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh, the New Month:
“And God said to Moses… in the land of Egypt… This month is for you, the head of the months. First it is for you among the months of the year.” (Exodus 12:1-2)
In the book of Exodus, after leaving Egypt, the first commandment G-d gave to Jews as a people wandering in the desert was to mark the new moon, underlining the inextricable link between freedom and agency over one’s time. Marking the new moon reminds us of our personal and collective freedom. The mitzvah of sanctifying the new moon was a rather involved process. In biblical times, “moon seekers” were designated to climb to a high point and find the sliver of light in the dark sky to return and inform the community. From there, someone would climb to the top of a mountain and light a fire, and when the neighboring village saw that, they would light a fire, setting off a chain reaction that would continue until the outer edges of the land were illuminated.
While the moon appears to wax and wane beyond our control, awareness of and ritual to mark the new moon was placed squarely in human hands. G-d is giving the Jewish people an empowering message with this first commandment. Up until now, the Jews had been enslaved. Their time was not their own. Now, says God, “You are becoming masters of your time. And not only of your own time but of my time as well.”
There are no prescriptive ways to celebrate Rosh Chodesh. Some communities celebrate with a collective meal. Others do acts of service or Torah study groups. The only practice necessary to fulfill the commandment is to mark the new month as special, actively calm the outside voices, and own our time. Because it could sometimes take up to two weeks for all villages to recognize the moon and illuminate their villages, the Rosh Chodesh holiday is celebrated for two days, acknowledging our human participation and the necessary and beautiful fallibility that comes with being mortal.
We are told as a people that, like the moon, we have the gift of renewal and change inside us. As a people, we can forever expand, brighten, and grow big after being diminished.
How I’ve adapted this practice: Marking Rosh Chodesh is, at its core, an active and mindful recognition and ownership of time. To do this, we must take a moment to think of our time as our own, to acknowledge and decide how we spend our time is a choice and a precious gift. In this spirit, moon-seeking can be done individually or in a collaborative setting, honoring the historical tradition and personal relationship we all have with our most precious resource.
How to Lead this Practice: If doing this in a collaborative setting, I would begin with setting the stage about our relationship to time. How many of us feel like we don’t have enough time and how many of us feel like we honor our time and use it wisely. You can explain that social science research uses the terminology around time affluence and feeling time famished, and that people who persistently report feeling time famished show the same physical effects of people facing long-term unemployment. We know that feelings of time affluence are beneficial to our mental and physical health, and it turns out that long before we had the research to support it, ancient religious comunities recognized the value of honoring our time and created ritual and stories to do just that. From here I leave it to each leader to tell the story of the Rosh Chodesh moon-seekers with as much or as little scripture feels appropriate.
Knowing that young people report high anxiety over feeling time famished, I would ask all participants to think of their time as a sacred gift and recognize that we honor this commandment and ourselves through an active practice of what can sometimes feel like “doing nothing.” If gathering for a collective meal, I would ask how, even during that gathering, people felt like their time was promised and split beyond their control. For many, this is the presence of our phones, and I would provide a basket for people to place their phones for the duration of the gathering.
We can claim our time and honor the commandment in the smallest moments, so I would ask participants to begin a “time windfall list.” How can we claim our time with 1 or 5, or 20 minutes? This can be taking deep breaths, acknowledging gratitude, or quiet meditation. With that list, I would encourage participants to keep it running, try to insert a booster shot into their daily time, and commit to a time-honoring practice for the first two days of the new month. This can be as simple as eating lunch without working, taking a scenic walk instead of driving to work, or even a personal promise to abstain from tedious household chores like laundry or dishes for those two days.
To finish, the group leader can light a candle, and use that to light the candle of their fellow moon, following from one to the next until all of the candles are lit, symbolizing the ancient practice of the moon-seekers’ collective illumination.
with a reminder that time is a gift and should be treated as such, I ask every participant to write down or say aloud how they will gift their time in one or all of her life-affirming directions. How can you give the precious gift of time to yourself, another person, and your larger community over the coming month?
Author’s bio: Eleiza Braun uses her communications skills and expertise to advance positive social change and impact. She’s worked closely with leadership and communications staff at some of the country’s largest foundations and social change organizations, such as The AFL-CIO, Center for American Progress, and Food Tank. Eleiza has B.A. in International Relations and Affairs from The George Washington University, where she developed her interest in global issues and human. Eleiza is a founding member of Our Own Deep Wells and can be reached through ourowndeepwells@gmail.com rights.
Sourced by: Jewish Tradition
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