Torah Service

seder k'ri-at hatorah

סדר קריאת התורה

Israeli: ' marks a reduced vowel that Israeli speech drops (b'rachah); when the vowel is pronounced it is written e (lefanecha). - separates syllables that would otherwise run together.

How to read the transliterations

בִּרְכַּת הַחֹדֶשׁ

Announcing the New Month

Recited on the Shabbat before Rosh Ḥodesh (except Tishrei). We rise.

Hebrew

יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ
יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ [וְאִמּוֹתֵינוּ],
שֶׁתְּחַדֵּשׁ עָלֵינוּ אֶת־הַחֹדֶשׁ הַבָּא
לְטוֹבָה וְלִבְרָכָה,
וְתִתֶּן־לָנוּ חַיִּים אֲרֻכִּים, חַיִּים שֶׁל שָׁלוֹם,
חַיִּים שֶׁל טוֹבָה, חַיִּים שֶׁל בְּרָכָה,
חַיִּים שֶׁל פַּרְנָסָה, חַיִּים שֶׁל חִלּוּץ עֲצָמוֹת,
חַיִּים שֶׁיֵּשׁ בָּהֶם יִרְאַת שָׁמַיִם וְיִרְאַת חֵטְא,
חַיִּים שֶׁאֵין בָּהֶם בּוּשָׁה וּכְלִמָּה,
חַיִּים שֶׁל עֹשֶׁר וְכָבוֹד,
חַיִּים שֶׁתְּהֵא בָנוּ אַהֲבַת תּוֹרָה וְיִרְאַת שָׁמַיִם,
חַיִּים שֶׁיִּמָּלְאוּ מִשְׁאֲלוֹת לִבֵּנוּ לְטוֹבָה, אָמֵן סֶלָה.

Israeli

yehi ratzon milefanecha
Adonai Eloheinu veilohei avoteinu [ve-imoteinu],
shetechadesh aleinu et-hachodesh haba
letovah velivrachah,
vetiten-lanu chayim arukim, chayim shel shalom,
chayim shel tovah, chayim shel b'rachah,
chayim shel parnasah, chayim shel chilutz atzamot,
chayim sheyesh bahem yirat shamayim veyirat chet,
chayim she-ein bahem bushah uchlimah,
chayim shel osher vechavod,
chayim shetehei vanu ahavat Torah veyirat shamayim,
chayim sheyimaleu mishalot libenu letovah, Amen selah.

English

May it be Your will, Adonai our God and God of our ancestors, grant that this coming month bring us goodness and blessing, and bestow on us a long life, a life that is peaceful, a life that is good, a life that is blessed, a life with proper sustenance, a life with physical vitality, a life conscious of heaven’s demands and wary of sin, a life free of shame and reproach, a life of abundance and honor, a life of love of Torah, conscious of heaven’s demands, a life in which the worthy desires of our hearts are fulfilled. Amen.

The Sefer Torah is brought forward, and the leader holds it while announcing the new month:

Hebrew

מִי שֶׁעָשָׂה נִסִּים לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ [וְלָאִמּוֹתֵינוּ], וְגָאַל אוֹתָם
מֵעַבְדוּת לְחֵרוּת, הוּא יִגְאַל אוֹתָנוּ בְּקָרוֹב, וִיקַבֵּץ
נִדָּחֵינוּ מֵאַרְבַּע כַּנְפוֹת הָאָרֶץ, חֲבֵרִים כָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל,
וְנֹאמַר: אָמֵן.

Israeli

mi she-asah nisim la-avoteinu [vela-imoteinu], vega-al otam
me-avdut lecherut, hu yigal otanu b'karov, vikabetz
nidacheinu me-arba kanfot ha-aretz, chaverim kol-yisra-el,
venomar: Amen.

English

May God who wrought miracles for our ancestors, redeeming them from slavery to freedom, redeem us soon and gather our dispersed from the four corners of the earth. May the entire people Israel be united in friendship, and let us say: Amen.

Hebrew

רֹאשׁ חֹדֶשׁ __________ יִהְיֶה בְּיוֹם __________ הַבָּא
עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל לְטוֹבָה.

Israeli

rosh chodesh __________ yihyeh b'yom __________ haba
aleinu ve-al kol-yisra-el letovah.

English

The new month of ________ will begin on ________. May it hold blessing for us and for all the people Israel.

The congregation repeats the announcement of the month, and the leader then continues:

Hebrew

יְחַדְּשֵׁהוּ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא עָלֵינוּ
וְעַל כָּל־עַמּוֹ בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל
לְחַיִּים וּלְשָׁלוֹם, אָמֵן,
לְשָׂשׂוֹן וּלְשִׂמְחָה, אָמֵן,
לִישׁוּעָה וּלְנֶחָמָה, וְנֹאמַר: אָמֵן.

Israeli

yechadshehu hakadosh baruch hu aleinu
ve-al kol-amo beit Yisra-el
lechayim uleshalom, Amen,
lesason ulesimchah, Amen,
lishu-ah ulenechamah, venomar: Amen.

English

May the Holy One bless this new month for us and for the entire people, the house of Israel, with life and peace, Amen joy and gladness, Amen deliverance and consolation. And let us say: Amen.

Commentary

THE HEBREW CALENDAR. Since biblical times the Hebrew calendar has been based on the lunar year. Months were declared by the sighting of the new moon. The Mishnah describes an elaborate system of communication whereby the sighting of the new moon was announced from hilltop to hilltop by lighting signal fires (Rosh Hashanah 2:2–4). In the middle of the 1st millennium a perpetual calendar was instituted and the declaration of the month was no longer made on the basis of visual sighting. The time of the new month could then be announced in advance, in the synagogue. The Hebrew calendar runs on a nineteen-year cycle. Lunar months are actually 29½ days, so some months are 29 and others 30 days. The lunar year is 354 days, and in order to keep the lunar calendar in sync with the solar year, an extra lunar month—a second Adar—is added in the spring, seven times during the nineteen-year cycle.

BESTOW ON US שֶׁתְּחַדֵּשׁ עָלֵינוּ. The Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot 16b) mentions that this prayer was recited by Rav (3rd century) as a conclusion to the Amidah. Later liturgists incorporated it as a prayer for the new moon.

CONSCIOUS OF HEAVEN’S DEMANDS יִרְאַת שָׁמַיִם. Literally, “the fear of heaven.” This common rabbinic phrase has many shades of meaning. It implies a consciousness of God’s presence in one’s life, so that one does that which is right in the eyes of God.

Prayer for the New Month May the new month bring renewal to our lives: a renewal of wonder a renewal of freedom a renewal of love a renewal of justice a renewal of friendship a renewal of holiness. Amen.

Renewal The midrash teaches that while the Israelites were still in Egypt, God showed Moses the new moon, saying, “When the moon renews itself like this, it will be the beginning of the month for you.” The German Orthodox thinker Samson Raphael Hirsch understood this as a sign that the Jewish people would continually renew itself. Just as the rainbow was a sign to Noah that humanity would have a new future, in the same way, in Egypt, at the threshold of the new Jewish future, God called Moses and Aaron into the open, showed them the silver crescent of the new moon, and said, “The renewal of this moon is a sign of the call to continuous renewal.”