Hachodesh
This month shall mark
for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the
year for you.
12:2
The verse contains a hint as to
the amount of months in a year. It
states that Nisan will be “Rishon Hu,” the “first month of
‘hu’”, the numerical value of “hu”
is 12.
David Feinstein (Contemporary)
Adam did not reckon it (that Nisan
was the first month). Adam’s year
commenced with the month of Tishri (Rosh Hashana). It was Israel who began counting from
Nisan…The individuality of human beings is so great, temperaments differ so
greatly, that one might be tempted to view two persons as two species…In order
for people to come together, there must be a breaking down of
natures. Torah is predicated on
the concept of human solidarity. The
essence of Torah is the ability to see the underlying unity of human beings…The
act of creation corresponds to the collective state of being. For this reason, Adam counted Tishri as the
first month. Only with
Avraham Isaac Kook (20th
Century)
Unlike most ancient calendars,
which were based on natural phenomena, the Hebrew calendar chose a historical
event – the exodus from Egypt – to mark the beginning of the year…This first
commandment of the people as a whole charts a new and original understanding of
time measured from a point that characterizes and emphasizes the identity of
the people of Israel as a free nation. A
slave does not control his time…The implicit message is that Judaism is not
based on nature. Jews live in another
dimension. We celebrate and sanctify
historic events…
Aaron Demsky
(Contemporary)
At this season I always recall my
late grandmother who told the time by the holiday season. She ignored the months of the year. Her anticipation of Pesach did not begin with
a glance at the calendar. March and
April meant absolutely nothing to her.
Rather, every year at our Purim celebration, she would announce to the
assembled family, “Pesach is around the corner,” because Pesach follows Purim
by a month. Scholars refer to this
pattern as liturgical time, measuring days, weeks and months by the liturgy
that we recite and the rituals we observe.
It is experiential time, or felt time, not chronological time. No child has ever forgotten dipping a finger
in the wine on Pesach, or waving the lulav and etrog, or hearing the shofar
blast…Very often it is the memory of those rituals that we retain throughout
our lives.
Neil Gillman (Contemporary)