It was a double celebration for Pinner Ladies, with a beautifully catered lunch in the Shul, marking not only the start of a new term of weekly shiurim, but also Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of the new month of Cheshvan.
Brainchild of Pinner member Mel Lawson, the Ladies Shiur group has grown in numbers and popularity since its inception last year. Thirty ladies attended the lunch, during which Pinner Synagogue Rabbi Jason Kleiman spoke on the subject “Rosh Chodesh – a Yomtov for women?”
Rabbi Kleiman explained that Rosh Chodesh was the very first mitzvah given to Bnai Yisrael as they were delivered from Egypt. It marked the month of Nissan, and signified a new era for a people who had been slaves for so long, to be able to measure time in a meaningful way, with a mitzvah marking the appearance of the new moon.
Back in Temple times, continued Rabbi Kleiman, Rosh Chodesh was indeed celebrated as a Yomtov for everyone, but women especially, considered by Hashem as having more innate faith and therefore being exempt from having to perform time-bound mitzvot incumbent upon men, were on Rosh Chodesh exempt from household work.
Notwithstanding the prophecies of Ezekiel that with the establishment of the Third Temple, Rosh Chodesh as a bona fide Yomtov will be officially restored, the concept fell somewhat out of fashion. However, Rosh Chodesh as a holiday for women has now seen something of a modern-day revival, which has more to do with individual communities deciding how to celebrate it, rather than mandating what should or should not be allowed as ‘work’. Rabbi Kleiman did however mention the idea of husbands marking the day by giving their wife jewellery or flowers!
Pinner Synagogue member Hilary West said, “I really enjoyed the Lunch and Learn, and didn’t realise there was so much to know about Rosh Chodesh as a holiday for women”. Susan Coleman agreed that the event was “inspiring”, adding that “it shows how Rosh Chodesh can be a real focus in Jewish women’s lives today.”