How excited am I?! Despite the fact that it feels more like winter than spring I am excited, and I am hopeful. No, I don’t care about the Hockey playoffs. No, I don’t care that the interminable NBA season is almost finished and the playoffs will begin in a few weeks. I am excited because new beginnings are a time of hope and anticipation. Yes, spring training is over and Major League Baseball is days if not hours away. The “boys of summer” are bringing with them the anticipation of another year and the hope of a World Series.
We all have various ways of accounting for time. There are numerous calendars that help us account for days, months, and years. In the secular calendar, the New Year occurs on January 1st. Every company and organization has a financial year, the year in which it closes its financial books. Every student has the beginning of the school year and the end of the school year marked by final exams. Baseball fans have Opening Day and the World Series also known as the "Fall Classic". Judaism has several ways to count a “year”. We are all familiar with the Jewish Calendar and that Rosh HaShanah constitutes the first of the year. The date for Rosh HaShanah is the 1st of Tishrei. However the Torah teaches us that Rosh Hashana is B’Chodesh HaSHvii B’Echad L’Chodesh Yiheyeh Lachem Shabaton Zicharon Truah Mikrah Kodesh – In the seventh month on the first of the month there shall be rest day for you, a remembrance with shofar blasts, a holy convocation (Lev. 23:24). So the Torah explicitly teaches us that the first day of the first month of the calendar year is not The First Month. Instead Rosh HaShanah occurs in the seventh month.
This Shabbat we will read from Parsha Tazria. However this Shabbat receives a special designation due to the Calendar’s cycle. There are four special Shabbatot leading up to Pesach. This Shabbat, known as Shabbat HaChodesh is the last of these four special Shabbatot. The name of this Shabbat, Shabbat HaChodesh, is reflected in the Maftir Aliyah, the final Aliyah prior to the reading of the Haftarah and the Haftarah itself. This Maftir Aliyah has absolutely nothing to do with the weekly Parsha. However, this Aliyah has everything to do with Pesach. In case you haven’t noticed we are a couple of weeks away from celebrating Pesach. Supermarkets in Toronto are full of Pesach products. (Actually they were stocking the supermarkets with Pesach products even before Purim). Pesach preparations have begun as reflected in the grocery bill. Shopping for, cleaning for and preparing for Pesach becomes our focus. As a result, the second Sefer Torah contains a special Torah reading indicating the imminent approach of Rosh Chodesh Nisan the month of Nisan (Ex. 12:1-20). The Haftorah reflects the Prophet Ezekiel’s explanation of the role of the Prince as he dedicates New Moon offerings on behalf of B’nai Yisroel (Ez. 45:16-46:18).
While there are a variety of “New Years” celebrated in the Jewish Calendar; it is the Maftir Aliyah read on Shabbat HaChodesh that teaches us that Nisan is the first month of the year. HaChodesh HaZeh Lachem Rosh Chadashim Rishon Hu Lachem L’Chodshei HaShanah- This month shall be for you the beginning of the months, it shall be for you the first of the months of the year (Ex. 12:2). This month refers to Nisan. This was the month in which the Yetziat Mitzrayim took place. This was the month in which we took the first steps towards freedom via redemption from Egyptian bondage. This was the first month in which B’nai Yisroel stood together and received their first communal commandment. In the next eighteen verses, God commands Moshe and Aharon to instruct and teach Bnai Yisroel all of the rituals regarding Pesach: the Pesach offering, an unblemished lamb, the blood placed upon the doorposts, the offering completely roasted and completely eaten. The offering must be eaten with shoes upon one’s feet ready to leave Egypt. Then the commandments for Pesach follow including: the first day is a like a Shabbat, Chometz may not be owned, Matzo must be eaten on the evening of the 14th of Nisan. Just like the original command took place on the first of Nisan, we commemorate that moment by reading the narrative on the Shabbat in which we announce the new month, the first month of the year, the month of Nisan.
Of all the commandments to issue, the commandment to observe Nisan as the first month is rather at odds with our own expectations. One would have assumed that Rosh Hashana, New Year's, would occur on the first day of the first month. Yet, we must remember that these people, our ancestors, B’nai Yisroel, were slaves. A slave’s life does not belong to the slave. A slave has no sacred space. A slave has no sacred time. Sacred time and space belongs the Master, to the Slave Owner. The first step towards attaining freedom is the ability to acknowledge that the individual and the community possess sacred time. Ultimately that is a concept that comes from within. Certainly in modernity, the notion of sacred time comes from within one's soul. However our ancestors had been slaves for several centuries. Since they were so use to receiving orders and commands, perhaps they were incapable of recognizing and accepting sacred times as coming from within one’s self. For them, this commandment must come from God. For our ancestors the first step away from bondage and towards freedom must be a command from God rather than an intrinsically understood motivation. How many of us in modernity need to be reminded that we are not slaves. We are capable of creating sacred time. Sacred Time begins now, in the month of Nisan, in our New Year. As we prepare, once again, to understand what freedom means our continue striving towards the holiest aspects within our own souls, and towards God. May we be inspired by our freedom to to continue striving in holiness in all aspects of our lives.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
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