Rosh Hodesh is described as a day when business is not conducted and which seems to have been devoted to worship and feasting. This is corroborated by an inscription from the Arad ostraca (c. 600 BCE) where a military commander is told to deliver goods on the first of the month, but only to record this delivery in writing on the second of the month (seemingly because writing was considered a forbidden melakha). In the Second Temple period, too, Rosh Chodesh was considered a day of rest according to some sources. In the Talmudic period, one passage considered Rosh Chodesh to be a day on which work ceased (bittul); another passage suggests that work ceased (bittul) but was not forbidden (assur). To explain the current acceptance of working on Rosh Chodesh, Shaagat Aryeh proposed that there indeed was a general prohibition on Rosh Chodesh work while the Temple stood, as the mussaf sacrifice was offered on behalf of the entire people, and a general principle exists that a person may not work on a day when their sacrifice is offered. Rosh Chodesh and women According to the Talmud, women do not engage in work on Rosh Chodesh. Rashi, in commenting on this passage, delineates the activities from which they must refrain: spinning, weaving, and sewing—the skills that women contributed to the building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle). The Shulchan Aruch writes that "Those women whose custom is not to do work on [Rosh Chodesh] have a good custom". The midrash Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer gives a historical explanation for this practice: Aaron argued with himself, saying: "If I say to Israel, 'Give ye to me gold and silver,' they will bring it immediately; but behold I will say to them, 'Give ye to me the earrings of your wives and of your sons,' and forthwith the matter will fail," as it is said, "And Aaron said to them, 'Break off the golden rings.'" The women heard (this), but they were unwilling to give their earrings to their husbands; but they said to them: "Ye desire to make a graven image of a molten image without any power in it to deliver." The Holy One, blessed be He, gave the women their reward in this world and the world to come. What reward did He give them in this world? That they should observe the new moons more stringently than the men, and