The Rosh Chodesh Moon Cycle
Avener Quigley & Sidney Stier 

Our names are Avner, Shlomo, and Sidney. To represent Sacred Time our group decided to make the Rosh Chodesh moon cycle and the signal fires they used to signal when the Rosh Chodesh was here. We chose to make this because we thought this would be a very cool and fun project. Our quote is from the Mishna in Masechet Rosh Hashanah, Chapter two Mishna two, בָּרִאשׁוֹנָה הָיוּ מַשִּׂיאִין מַשּׂוּאוֹת. This translates to, “Initially, after the court sanctified the new month they would light torches on the mountaintops, from one peak to another, to signal to the community in Babylonia that the month had been sanctified.” We have the full moon cycle, and after the Jewish New Moon, we have the three fires.

 

On the baseboard we put pegs to put the second layer on. Underneath we put the batteries. On the second layer we glued seven mountains to the base. On the first four mountains we have the moons, two to each mountain. There are a total of eight moons. We made the moons with the 3D printer. The full and new moons, the waxing crescent moon, the waxing quarter, and the waning gibbous. The moons are made with a clear white plastic. The moons are held in the air by wooden skewers which are glued to the baseboard. On the other three mountains we have the signal bonfires which are also made from the 3D printer, and are a translucent red. The bonfires are hot glued to the peak of the mountains. In the middle of the baseboard we have a blue acrylic lake with the pasuk embedded in it. We decided that we wanted to make the moons light up so in the gap between the base layer and second layer we have the light box. The string lights go inside the moons and are taped to the side of the mountain.