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Shabbat Shalom. I want to add to the list of thank yous Rabbi Drill for blessing our son and for leading us today and so capably every day. There's a reason surgeons don't operate on their own family members. And I feel really blessed to be able to be an ABBA today and to share this moment with my community and with my family and with my friends. Thank you, Rabbi Drill, and thank you to each of you for being here and helping to raise our son, Gideon. You did a remarkable job this morning in general, but in particular, as you pointed out, in squeezing meaning out of a parsha that is notoriously difficult for people to relate to. But I'm gonna now teach you a trick that I learned a long time ago and has served me fairly well as someone who often has to work in the world of the archaic and difficult texts of our tradition. It's called the pivot. It's also useful in basketball. In public speaking, if you don't want to answer a question or talk about a particular topic, you simply mention it briefly and then quickly pivot to another topic that you do want to talk about. Here's how it's done. This week's Torah portion is Parshat Tazriam Itzorah, which continues the book of Leviticus's discussion of notions of purity and impurity. It's also Rosh Kodesh Eyar, the new moon, the new month of Ear in the Jewish calendar, which is why I would like to talk with you today about Judaism's relationship with the moon. See what I did there? At this point, I'm not sure if Gideon's more impressed or more frustrated that I didn't share this trick with him before he wrote his Devar Torah. Humanity's attention has once again been captivated by the moon. Last week, the Artemis II NASA space mission with its four astronauts completed its 10-day journey from Earth, slingshotting around the moon and returning safely to Earth, splashing down in the welcoming waters of the Pacific Ocean. I don't know about you, but I was inspired. We watched the launch together as we were about to sit down to our family Seder on the first night of Pesach, and we just gazed in amazement at what these people were about to do. And then we rejoiced as they returned safely home. This, as many of you know, is the first human mission to the moon since 1972, and it inspired many around the world. It certainly inspired me. Amidst all of the tension and the brokenness of our world, for a moment, we felt a sense of unity and awe just to marvel at the simple act of seeing our world, our moon, our earth, through God's eyes, so to speak. It was nothing less than transcendent. Now there's a lot to love about this mission and the people who undertook it. Here are just a few snapshots that stood out to me. The moment when the commander of the mission, Reed Weissman, named a crater after his late wife, Carol, who was a pediatric nurse. When Carol was diagnosed with cancer, Weisman thought to drop out of the space program to care for her. And she insisted that he continue. She died in 2020. Weisman left their two daughters behind on Earth to take a 10-day trip to the moon and back. And so he took the privilege of naming a bright spot on the dark side of the moon for her. When Christina Koch, the first woman to go to the moon, described what it looked like when she was looking back at Earth from the farthest spot that humans have ever viewed the Earth with their own eyes. She described Earth as a tiny life raft amidst the vast sea of space. And she said, You humanity are its crew. Our mission is to work together to keep this life raft afloat. Wow. Perhaps now is a good time to plug our upcoming event, a screaming screening of the brief documentary called Fiddler on the Moon, which explores the question of whether or not Judaism will survive in space. It's for another time. For now I want to keep us right here on earth, but lift our eyes to the heavens. Today is Rosh Chodesh, and our people have had a long history with the moon. As many of you know, the Jewish calendar is moon-based, it's lunar. And so as Jews, we are attuned to its cycles. We watch it wax and wane, we feel its gravitational pull on the tides of our planet and our oceans as if it's helping us to breathe, to inhale and to exhale this living organism that is Earth. The name Roshchodesh comes from the word kadash, which means new, a reference to the moon. Months in Hebrew are also called Yirachim from the word Yareach, which means moon. What is colloquial in English, it was many moons ago, is built into the Hebrew language. Last moon we celebrated the holiday of Pesach. Next moon we'll celebrate the festival of Shavuot. That's how people speak in Hebrew without even realizing it. In ancient Israel, a new month would be declared when the Sanhedrin, when the court in Jerusalem would receive testimony that two independent witnesses came before the sages and declared that they saw it. They saw in the sky a sliver of the new moon. It was a moment for excitement and rejoicing. Today we can mark our calendars predictably and reliably. I can tell you when Rosh Chodesh will be, 18 months from now. But back then they relied on people looking up at the sky and observing the cycles of the heaven and saying, it's now. Whenever people ask me, what time does Shabbos start? What time does Shabbas end? I say, look up at the sky. I always found it notable that Rosh Chodesh is celebrated at the new moon, when there is the faintest sliver of its shape visible to us. Many Jewish holidays fall on the full moon, Pesach, Sukkot, Tuba'av on the 15th of the month. Those are our holidays where we need to do things at night. And when there's a full night sky in a world before a full moon in the night sky before electricity, that's when you could actually have a gathering at night in your sukkah. Perhaps like God's presence itself, Rosh Chodesh is trying to teach us something a little different. We trust that the moon is there even when we can only see the faintest shape of its outline or a sliver of its existence. In time its fullness will be revealed to us, we trust, but we need only a hint at its steadfastness in order to celebrate. And when the moon is fresh, when the sky is dark, that's when the other stars in the heavens and the constellations shine most brightly. We have many teachings in our tradition about the moon, but there are two I want to share with you here today. They both come from the Talmud. The first is in Maseket Chulim, and it imagines an argument between God and the moon. When God created the world, apparently there was tension between the moon and the sun. God, hoping to make peace in the heavens, asked the moon, would you mind diminishing yourself? And so Genesis tells us, God placed ma'or hagadol lemem shaletbayom, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. But the moon was not satisfied. So she, and yes, in Hebrew, moon is feminine. I don't think that's coincidental in light of the story. She brings her complaint before God. She says, That's not fair that I should diminish myself. I want to shine too. And God tries to appease her. And God says, Don't worry, the sun will only be visible during the day, but you will be visible both during the day and at night. She was not satisfied. She said, What good is a candle shining in the middle of the day? God makes a few more attempts to calm her down. Never in the history of calming down has anyone ever calmed down because they were told to calm down. And the moon is not appeased. And so God finally says the words that Gideon chanted this morning in his maftir Aliyah. Usiir Echad Chatat Ladonai. Speaking of the sacrificial offerings of Rosh Chodesh, a single male goat shall be brought as a sin offering for God. When we read this text, we wonder, what sin needs purifying on Rosh Chodesh? Why does the Torah command us to bring a chatat on Rosh Chodesh? And the story offers an interpretation that dramatically changes the meaning of the verse. Instead of chatat ladonai an offering to God, this is an offering for God, meaning on behalf of God. God is the one who has sinned and needs to repent for this crime against the moon. And so the story concludes with God taking responsibility for this action. This goat is atonement for me that I diminished the moon. Now, based on this story, when we observe Rosh Khodesh, we are partnering with God to rectify a past injustice perpetrated against the moon. And its newness offers us a chance for renewal, for rededicating ourselves to principles of equality. As Victor Glover, one of the Artemis II crew and the first person who's black to visit the moon, said, from space, you look like one thing to me. Human. And I kept thinking, why can't we hold that perspective here on Earth? Why is it so difficult for us to see us that way? Artemis II is a mission for scientific discovery and exploration. There's hope to set up a listening station on the dark side of the moon so we can hear the expanses of space without the same interference that we encounter here on Earth. What is more spiritually poignant than that, I ask you? Going to the moon so we can finally have some peace and quiet to listen to the universe. And so I was inspired, but I was also immediately depressed when I heard that there are also interests in mining rare resources like helium-3 on the moon. We're going to set up a mining production system on the moon. And perhaps there's also hope for expansion and colonizing the moon so our country can exert its dominance over the heavens. After all, what if Russia and China get there first? What if they set up military outposts there and it gives our adversaries strategic dominance over space? And immediately I felt gewalt. We're taking the same things that plague us here on earth. A desire for dominance and using everything we encounter for our own benefit. And we're copy-pasting it onto the heavens. Shouldn't the moon inspire us to a different way of existing in relationship to nature, to God's creation, and to each other? Ancient Egyptians worshiped a sun god, Ra, because the sun is associated with dominance, like a burning fire. So when God approaches Israel to be God's people, while still in slavery in Egypt, God's first mitzvah to us, God's first instruction for us is Hachodesh Hazel. This month, this moon is for you. It gives us control over our own time. We can mark our calendars in a way that is different from the dominant culture, but also a blessing God is giving us. You, my people, will be guided by the moon, not by the sun. Being a people of the moon is meant to teach us that we are not the center of the universe. Which brings me to my second text. Our tradition teaches why is the people of Israel compared and connected to the moon? Because, like the moon, the Jewish people does not produce its own light. We are merely, merely a reflection of God's divine light. We are the people of the moon. The people who, if we are able to shine, it's because we have reflected the radiance of God whose glory fills the earth and the firmament above. We are not the source, but when we are at our best, we are a reflection, a vessel of something far greater than any of us. And now I want to say a few things, not as a rabbi, but as an Abba who is celebrating his son's bar mitzvah. We don't usually let parents speak to their children on Shabbat morning B'nai mitzvah, but I'm going to take the privilege. Gideon, if your mother and I have been able to shine even a modicum of light to guide you on your journey of life, it's because of those who went before us whose radiance illuminated our world. We are reflections of the abundant love and blessing they have given us, and we hope we've been faithful in transmitting a portion of all that love and kindness and goodness that we have received to you. We want you to have it. Let it fill you up so that you can shine brightly every day as you have here today. You see, the journey of parenting is like a journey farther than any human has ever traveled before. And you don't even have to leave Earth to take this journey. It's a process of exploration and discovery that causes us to go deeper into ourselves, deeper into relationship with each other and deeper into relationship with you than we ever imagined. Sometimes it can be as mysterious as the dark side of the moon. But we will try to delight in the unknown and the unexpected as we enter this new stage of life together. You see, we've never been parents of a teenager before. And as our first, we're learning all sorts of new things in love and relationship to you. As you become a bar mitzvah in this community, which we cherish, in the presence of this incredible crew of friends and family, we give you the gift of the moon, which our ancestors were guided by, and astronauts fly around. And as we behold this young man who stands before us, mature, capable, kind, tenacious, funny, and always on the move, we say to you, this moon is for you. May you be blessed for many moons to come. May we all be blessed. Shabbat shalom.