A Kabbalistic instruction for the blessing of the new moon — Kiddush Levanah — arranges the worshiper's body and words like a careful spell. The mystic is to meditate on the initial letters of four divine epithets that together spell Jacob, because the moon — called "the lesser light" (Genesis 1:16) — is Jacob's emblem. In Amos 7:2 the prophet calls Jacob "little," and the moon is little against the sun, and both wax and wane through the cycle of exile and return.
The meditation is to be repeated three times. Then the worshiper skips three times while reciting a verse from Exodus 15:16 three times forward — Fear and dread shall fall upon them by the greatness of Thine arm; they shall be as still as a stone — and three times backward — Still as a stone may they be; by the greatness of Thine arm may fear and dread fall on them.
Then he turns to his neighbor and says three times, "Peace be unto you," and his neighbor answers three times, "Unto you be peace." Then — very loudly — he proclaims three times the ancient formula: David, Melech Yisrael, chai v'kayam! "David, King of Israel, lives and endures!"
Why link Jacob's moon to David's kingdom? Because Kabbalah reads the new moon as the renewal of the Davidic monarchy, the flicker of messianic light returning after its dark night. The worshiper dances under the sky with verses spinning forward and backward, and for a moment he is no longer a lone Jew in a narrow street — he is a note in the music of Israel's return.