Rosh Hodesh Adar

Blessed One-ness 
Eternal

Blessed HaMavdil,
Dividing time into years and months and days:

We imagine that long ago

We might have been afraid

When the moon disappeared.

It was so dark at night

Like the end of the world.

We howled at the empty sky

And then, like a miracle,

A sliver appeared.

Whatever arrives, leaves,
Whatever is gone, returns.

We gave thanks for the returning moon then,

We give thanks for the returning moon today.
We give thanks for the regularity of nature.

Adar is the month to schedule a court case, say the sages,

And it’s the month to have an operation.

Why?

It was on the first day of Adar that Moses and God brought upon the stubborn Egyptians

The ninth plague,

Darkness

And this month that begins in sorrow and blindness

Ends, says the Talmud, in joy.

Purim!

What an auspicious month,

Full of escapes from certain doom!

Blessed One-ness 
Eternal

Blessed HaMavdil,
Dividing time into years and months and days,

Pushing back the darkness with the light of the full moon,
For that and so much more, we give thanks.

Hodesh Tov!