We still have one more opportunity this year. It will happen in about ten days and it will be the tenth opportunity this year, all over a seven month period. I refer to the two words that, during the latter half of a leap year, we insert into the musaf of Rosh Chodesh: "kaporas pesha". At that point in davening, after asking that the new month bring to us twelve blessings of life and peace, we slip in this one more request for one more type of forgiveness.
Why do we add this request only during a leap year? Does organizing our time differently and adding a new month create another source of sin or a new and distinct kind of need?
Clearly this thirteenth request is related to the extra month. We begin asking for "kaporas pasha" in Tishrei of a leap year and conclude saying it during the actual leap month, the second Adar. I believe that the reason for inserting this phrase only during the second half of the year brings us back to the days long before our established and entirely predictable calendar. At that time Rosh Chodesh was determined by a central beis din of Yerushalayim only after the sighting of the new moon was convincingly reported by two witnesses. At appropriate sessions, the beis din would also consider establishing the year as an extended "leap" year. The Rabbis needed to assure that Pesach would indeed come in spring and that the climate would be friendly to those travelling the roads to and from Yerushalyim for yom tov. However, irrespective of how obvious the need would be, the bais din could not declare the extended year until Tishrei. Thus the maximum amount of time that we would be aware of the upcoming Adar Sheni would begin in Tishrei. It follows that the rabbis included the "kaporas pasha" phrase in the Rosh Chodesh liturgy during the leap year in accordance with our awareness of the leap year in pre-calendaric times. I recently discussed this idea in our shul in Bergenfield, and was very gratified to learn from a listener that he had heard the same interpretation from the esteemed Rav Eliezer Teitz from Elizabeth (it must be Jersey Torah!)
However the riddle of the extra request, namely the rational of its inclusion and its relationship to the added month, has bothered me for many years. Therefore I was so happy to see a "one liner" that sheds light and adds kavono to a prayer that we frequently recite. It was part of Rav Shlomo Breuer's drosho delivered on Shabbos haChodesh, probably to the German Jewish community in Frankfort. (The collection of Rav Shlomo Breuer's addresses was recently republished by Feldheim under its original title, Chochma uMussar.) Rav Shlomo Breuer was an ideologue who advanced the vision of his father in law, Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch, through his powerful and prudent leadership in Frankfort. Rav Shlomo's son, RavYosef Breuer, had a similarly illustrious career as he effectively and uncompromisingly rebuilt his Frankfort community on these shores.
Rav Shlomo Breuer was taken by the novel ideas of his father in law and he was inspired by the creativity with which Rav Hirsch reinvigorated a well worn community. Rav Breuer, himself attempted to bridge worlds of ideas to which he had been introduced only after having been a formidable young torah scholar.
Perhaps that is why Rav Shlomo Breuer explained that the extra Adar month, and more precisely the extra celebration of the new month, should draw our attention to the recurring newness of the lunar cycle. Incorporating "newness" into our lives, refreshing and recharging, are invaluable tools in our service to Hashem which is rife to become routine and mechanical.
The lunar cycle is part of a natural world ever changing and ever drawing us to notice those changes. We know well how the moon has seduced men to explore it, and it shares that role with so many parts of nature that have inspired explorers, mountain climbers, and research scientists of all disciplines. The purity of the new moon and the pride of the full moon all creep upon us to keep us mindful of the many and varied beauties of G-d's world, if we can be moved to stop and notice. The halochos regarding the calendar charge the beis din with the bold responsibility of delaying Yom Kippur and creating the sanctity of every yom tov.
In sum, the lunar cycle and the Rosh Chodesh observances carry the message that Hashem's world of Torah and of nature is replete with opportunities to discover or just notice newness in its multiple and diverse forms. The proper observance of Rosh Chodesh would internalize this message and encourage us to seek new strength, think creatively, renew commitments to study and prayer, refresh and repair relationships, and enjoy the "new" in the many blessings that we have.
Rav Breuer suggests that every leap year gives us an extra chance to recharge and to ponder where we may have missed similar promising moments. For that we add "kaporas pasha". We ask for forgiveness for disregarding the mandate of the Rosh Chodesh message and for allowing our avodas Hashem to become perfunctory and stale, our ambitions to become diminished and unfulfilled. Yet at the same time we are reminded of the endless occasions that we can find to take pleasure from what is indeed new and to benefit from its sparkle and build on its energy.