“Hashem said to Moshe and Aharon in the land of Mitzrayim … ‘This month shall be the first of the months for you’ ” (Shemos 12:1-2).

G-d began the construction of the inner life of His people by the institution of a sign that would be repeated at regular intervals ... call[ing] on it for a rebirth from the murkiness of confusion and corruption.

It is neither the coming together of celestial bodies nor the renewed contact between the moon and the sun with the corresponding outpouring of the sun’s light on the moon that causes the beginning of the month and the festivity of Rosh Chodesh. Rather whenever the moon meets the sun again and receives its light anew G-d asks only one thing — that His nation return to Him and let Him shine His light on it again.... The moon’s approach to the sun is a symbol of our renewed connection with Hashem. The new moon symbolizes our reconnection with Hashem with leads to our own renewal. (Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch)

Tonight there is no moon and even the stars’ shine has been dulled. People’s homes are dark — many bereft of their own moons others bereft of hope. They believe that neither they nor their situation will ever be able to change.

Once they had dreams aspirations strung on a thread of hope and woven together with yearning. They aspired to be better purer. But now everything is dark and those dreams have melted away into the long night. They have already failed a thousand times — smaller than their mistakes smaller than those ugly traits that do not allow them to change.

They are small and they are filled with despair.

It is not the astronomical phenomena that create our new month our moed the day when we “meet” with Hashem. Rather it is we the representatives of our people. The sanctification of the Jewish month is ... a moral and spiritual rejuvenation that will always reach them and restore their bond with Hashem. (ibid.)

They remove the broken shards of dreams from their hearts. They wipe away indifferently the faint traces of the lofty ambitions that still lurk deep in the depths of their souls.

I wanted my home to be different. How many times have I promised myself I wouldn’t do certain things?  But the darkness is too great and the journey too long. My home is fait accompli and so am I. My dream is too far away and I am tired of chasing it.

Rosh Chodesh heralds redemption from sin...it represents the cornerstone of our Jewish awareness and distinguishes us most powerfully from all forms of idolatry. Idolatry does not recognize renewal — not in the world not in man.... Everything is determined by ironclad rules; today follows yesterday and tomorrow follows today and the course of events is inevitable and unchanging. Just as idolatry denies the concept of creation ex nihilo that Hashem freely created the world of His own free Will it denies the concept of ex nihilo in the moral development of man and in man’s fate.

Darkness falls again the next night but this time there is a tiny sliver of silver in the sky. The moon has been reborn; mazel tov! Yesterday it was obscured hidden in darkness. Tonight it once again met the sun and reflects a thousand rays of light.

We can do this too. We can return to the source of endless light and bring the light back into our lives and ourselves. No one can take away our ability to choose our determination to begin again. Every month the moon is renewed lighting the vast darkness and promising that we can do the same. Only we can sanctify the new month.

Therefore in the land of Egypt the land filled with the most extreme depraved idolatry G-d ... showed them the crescent of the new moon struggling to emerge from darkness into a new light. Then He said to them “Let this be a symbol for you. Just as the moon achieves renewed strength you can also give yourselves renewal. Whenever the moon appears let it remind you of the rejuvenation you have experienced of the freedom that comes from your renewal of yourselves and from My renewal of you.

The moon spreads a radiance of renewed hope. I can still begin anew. Tomorrow will be a new day. Tomorrow we will begin again.