The Importance of Being NEW!

The first Rashi I ever learned (and this is probably true for many others) is the very first comment by our greatest expositor on Chumash: Rabbi Yitzchak said, ‘The Torah should have begun with “this month is the first of months,” which is the first Mitzvah given to Yisrael’. Why would Rashi think that the Torah should begin with the first Mitzvah? Because Rashi wants us to know that it would be reasonable to think that the Torah is primarily a book of laws. That’s reasonable, but wrong! The primary purpose of the Chumash is to teach us: He has shown His people the power of His works, giving them the lands of other nations (Tehillim 111:6). It’s about appreciating God and the gift of Eretz Yisrael to us, God’s people.

That’s a ‘Wow!’, but not the direction I’m heading to right now. Instead I want to know: Why is the first Mitzvah ‘this month is the first of months’? Shouldn’t I have expected ‘Hear O Yisrael’ or ‘I am the Lord, your God’? Maybe, but I’d be wrong.

We’re being taught that God sanctifies the Shabbat, ‘And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy’ (Breishit 2:3). But we, the Jews, sanctify the holidays. This explains the structure of the blessings in the Amida and Kiddush for those respective occasions. 

On Shabbat, we say: Blessed are You, O God, Who sanctifies the Shabbat. However, on Chagim we declare: Blessed are You, O God, Who sanctifies Yisrael and the Z’MANIM (special times, that is the ‘festivals’). 

So, before the Jews had left Egypt, we are being instructed to set up a calendar system based upon the moon’s phases, when the new sliver of moon appears in the evening sky. This emphasis on CHADASH (‘new’) is significant. Because just as we experience a renewal of the moon every month, we, the Jewish people, have this power to renew ourselves. As we say in the Musaf prayer every Rosh Chodesh: You have given New Moons to Your people as a time for atonement for their offspring.

The S’fat Emet emphasizes this idea in his comments on this Mitzvah:

This idea of renewal is about being redeemed from Egypt. Because in exile, this renewal is missing. As it says, “and a new king arose” (Exodus 1:8). And at the time of redemption, which is when it is made clear that everything is based on the life force of Hashem. And from this comes renewal. Because the life force of Hashem has constant renewal, as it says, ‘renews every day, constantly’ (Morning Prayers). And the explanation of ‘constantly’ is every day. Only one who forgets and who is enmeshed in the physical realm, about him it is written that ‘there is nothing new under the sun’ (Ecclesiastes 1:9). But someone who is clinging to the eternal nature of the life force of Hashem has constant renewal. And that is what is written, ‘this month (‘newness’) is for you’ (Exodus 12:2). 

The Izhbitzer Rebbe, in his Mei Shiloach, adds to that point:

That is to say, the power of the new moon will be for you, that you should be able to renew yourselves in Torah and in your actions. The Holy One of Blessed Be He gives to the Children of Israel this power. And even though it is apparent that this renewal is not organically from them, since it is a renewal, the Holy One Blessed Be He inscribes/seals Godself in that this is a renewal for you.

The power of CHIDUSH is a gift from God!

During our exile and bondage in Egypt we had no CHIDUSH (newness or power of renewal), instead the Egyptians, who were in charge, could have a ‘new’ king. We just had the slavery and torture, constant ‘sameness’. The tragedy of slavery wasn’t just that the accomplishments of our hands went to another, but that we could never recover or reinvent ourselves, as long as others controlled our ‘time’.

And, perhaps that is the greatest tragedy of slavery. As the S’forno explains:

from now on these months will be yours, to do with as you like. This is in contrast to the years when you were enslaved when you had no control over your time or timetable at all. While you were enslaved, your days, hours, minutes even, were always at the beck and call of your taskmasters.

This new mindset is central to the Exodus experience and, indeed, to the Jewish experience. A slave is never master over time. However, when I create a calendar I am clearly stating: I am in control of my time, my life! Freedom emerges and flowers from that idea. 

The ancient world believed that they were under the control of the heavens. That’s the idea behind astrology. So, as Nissan begins we are entering the Zodiac sign of Aries, the ram or male of the sheep (normally March 21). The world felt under the sway of this constellation. It somehow affected or controlled each one of us. But on that very day back in Egypt, God said,’Speak to the community leadership of Israel and say that on the tenth of this month each of them shall take a lamb to a family, a lamb to a household’ (Shmot 12:3). You control and dominate Aries, the male lamb, not vice versa.

We slaughter and offer up their god, and, simultaneously, make two announcements: There is but one God, and that God gives us control over our minutes, hours, days, months and lives. Our verse is really declaring to every Jew: You are Master and Commander of your fate! You can renew yourself!!