Occasionally I go to Amazon.com just to see my book offered for sale. When I checked today, I discovered a book by Carol Diament, Moonbeams: A Hadassah Rosh Hodesh Guide. My curiosity led me to click on “see inside this book” where I read about the Jewish New Moon Festival, Rosh Hodesh, which is a symbol of renewal. Not wanting to plagiarize, I am prevented from quoting more than a few lines here, but please check it out for yourself on Amazon.

God is telling us that we need to renew ourselves. With each cycle of the moon, “…we have the opportunity to take stock of our lives and revise our behavior, our commitments, our goals. We, too, have the power to start over.”

I may never again look at the tiny sliver of a crescent moon without saying a prayer and to reevaluate whether or not I am on the path that God has called me. According to Diament’s book, the Rosh Hodesh prayer is for “life and peace, joy and gladness, deliverance and consolation.” May it be so for me and for each one reading this entry.