New moon

The New moon is the Torah’s recurring monthly observance, marked by trumpet blasts and a set of offerings. It gives each month a ritual beginning and places the turning of the calendar within Israel’s covenantal worship of the LORD.

Trumpets and Communal Remembrance

The silver trumpets have several appointed uses: they summon the congregation, signal the camps to set out, sound an alarm in war, and accompany days of gladness, appointed seasons, and New moons. On these occasions they are blown over burnt offerings and peace offerings as a memorial before God. The New moon thus belongs to a wider pattern in which ritual sound marks both communal time and worship.

Monthly Offerings

The prescribed New moon burnt offering consists of two young bullocks, one ram, and seven unblemished year-old lambs. Fine flour mixed with oil accompanies the animals: three-tenths of an ephah for each bullock, two-tenths for the ram, and one-tenth for each lamb. The accompanying wine measures half a hin for a bullock, a third of a hin for the ram, and a quarter of a hin for a lamb.

One male goat is also presented as a sin offering, in addition to the regular continual burnt offering and its drink offering. The monthly rite therefore adds a substantial, carefully measured sequence of offerings to the regular cycle of sacrifice.

Place in the Festival Calendar

The New moon offering appears alongside prescriptions for the Sabbath and the annual festivals. The calendar passage moves from the regular morning and evening offerings to the Sabbath, then to the New moons throughout the year, and onward to Passover and the Feast of Weeks. This ordering makes the monthly observance a recurring measure of sacred time between the weekly Sabbath and the major annual gatherings.