This Shabbat is Shabbat Mevarchim ("the Shabbat that blesses" the new month): a special prayer is recited blessing the Rosh Chodesh ("Head of the Month") of the upcoming month of Kislev, which falls on Thursday and Friday of next week.
Prior to the blessing, we announce the precise time of the molad, the "birth" of the new moon. See molad times.
I am a stranger and a resident amongst you (23:4)
The Jew is a "resident" in the world, for the Torah instructs him not to escape the physical reality but to inhabit it and elevate it. Virtually all the mitzvot (divine commandments) of the Torah are physical actions involving physical objects, in keeping with the Jew's mission to make a "dwelling for G‑d in the material realm" by sanctifying the everyday materials of everyday life.
At the same time, the Jew feels himself a "stranger" in the material world. His true home is a higher, loftier place, the world of spirit, the world of holiness and G‑dliness from which his soul has been exiled and to which it yearns to return. Indeed, it is only because the Jew feels himself a stranger in the world that he can avoid being wholly consumed and overwhelmed by it, and maintain the spiritual vision and integrity required to elevate it and sanctify it as an abode for the Divine Presence.
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
No longer shall your name be called Abram. Your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you a father of a multitude of nations (17:5)
Abraham's name change, in conjunction with his circumcision and his entry into a covenant with G‑d, marked a profound turning point in his life. Up until this point, the thrust of Abraham's life was his spiritual relationship with G‑d; from this point on it was to be his role as a leader of the masses, a teacher of the divine truth to the "multitudes." Thus the Hebrew letter hei was added to his name. Abram (Avram, in the Hebrew) is a compound of av ram, which means "exalted father"; Abraham stands for av hamon goyim—a father of multitudes of nations.
But according to this, his name should have been changed to Abham. Why was the letter reish, which stood for the ram (exalted) in his name, left in? There is no reish in the phrase "a father of multitudes of nations."
Often, there is a tendency for teachers and leaders to water down their message to their constituents. For myself, they say, I must set the highest standards and strive to understand the most sublime truths. But it is foolish to expect the same of everyone else. If I speak of such matters and make such demands, I will only be perceived as out of touch with reality. Indeed, the rarefied insight and pious behavior I have attained will only be coarsened and debased by its communication to the masses.
Therein lies the lesson of the "irremovable reish" in Abraham's name. G‑d added a hei, anointing him as a leader for the hamon (multitudes), but left the reish of "exalted" in. For the true mark of a teacher is one who can convey the most sublime truths to the most ordinary of minds, and the true mark of a leader is one who can inspire the loftiest aspirations in the most mundane of hearts. Such a teacher and leader was Abraham, and such is the quality of leadership he bequeathed to his heirs in their role as a light unto the nations.
(From the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe)
