(m., pl. “yerachim”); the moon, the heavenly body that revolves around the earth once each month. It was created by HaShem on the fourth “Day of Creation” and called the “Maor Ha-Katan” Bereshit (1:16), the “Small Light,” relative to the sun, the “Maor HaGadol,” the Great Light.”
Though it is the “Maor HaKatan,” it is the key element in the Hebrew Calendar. At each New Moon, the Sanhedrin in Yerushalayim would proclaim the “Rosh Chodesh,” the beginning of the New Month, which defined the Holidays of the Year for the Jewish People.