This Shabbat is Parashat haChodesh, the fourth of the special readings that we read to prepare ourselves for Pesach. In the beginning of the reading, which is where Parashat haChodesh gets its name,
Hashem tells Moshe and Aharon
בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם לֵאמֹֽר
הַחֹ֧דֶשׁ הַזֶּ֛ה לָכֶ֖ם רֹ֣אשׁ חֳדָשִׁ֑ים רִאשׁ֥וֹן הוּא֙ לָכֶ֔ם לְחָדְשֵׁ֖י הַשָּׁנָֽה
“This month, the month of Nissan, is the first of the months”
The very first Rashi in Bereshit,
( first chapter, first pasuk) says that Rabbi Yitzhak says,
“The Torah should have started with
הַחֹ֧דֶשׁ הַזֶּ֛ה לָכֶ֖ם
haChodesh HaZeh Lachem
This month is the first of the months....
because it’s the first Mitzvah. Why did it start from Bereshit, he asks. And the commentaries wonder- how could he suggest that the Torah ignore Creation?
What so important about this Rosh Hodesh message of הַחֹ֧דֶשׁ הַזֶּ֛ה לָכֶ֖םThis is the first of the months?
What is the lesson?
There is a beautiful Sfat Emet that explains, but we need an introduction first.
The Nefesh HaChaim says that there is a fundamental in our belief: we must believe that Hashem created the world, Yesh MeAyin- something from nothing.
It’s not enough to believe that Hashem started with a table of elements and created this magnificent world. We have to believe that He created matter as well. He explains the difference between a carpenter or craftsman, who takes existing materials and “creates” some thing, and Hashem. We can’t really call this item a “creation” however, because when the person leaves the scene, the item remains. The carpenter doesn’t need to be there to sustain his design. He’s not a creator, he’s just a former or designer. Hashem is the only Creator. Therefore, at every moment He must pump energy into creation. As we say, “G-d is constantly renewing creation in his goodness, every single day, and every single second.”
Therefore, G-d can change the world at any split second, because He wills it to be, and He can will it to “un-be.”
That is the message of the splitting of the sea: Hashem can make the water hard, or turn it back into water again, because G-d is constantly pumping energy into creation.
The Sfat Emet says that this the lesson of
הַחֹ֧דֶשׁ הַזֶּ֛ה לָכֶ֖ם haChodesh HaZeh Lachem.
It means that we look at the world as “new” Hodesh means month, but it is also “new.”
The moon renews itself, and we view the world as a world of renewal.
It’s not the “same old” world. It’s not the same old house, same old car, or the same old knees.
Your knees aren’t getting old because they’ve been around longer. Hashem wills your knees to be, and He wills them to start acting a little different one day. This isn’t because they’re old. There is nothing old. Old is when you look at the world through the eyes of nature. But we look at the world that everything is created constantly new.
Therefore, the Sfat Emet says that this is more important than the message of Creation.
Yes, G-d created the world, but does the world get old?
No. We say, haChodesh HaZeh Lachem
Everything is new. This is an important lesson in bitachon as well.
If a person thinks, “I have my house...I have my car...I have my family.. I have everything..” they are mistaken. We don’t have anything. It’s constantly being given to us. It’s constantly new, and therefore there is a constant appreciation for everything that we have, because it doesn’t have to be. It’s only there because Hashem wills it to be.
That is the important lesson of Parashat haHodesh, which we read on Shabbat. The Bet HaLevi says that this is also the lesson of Shabbat- G-d created the world in six days, and the seventh day is when Hashem decided to keep the world going, pumping energy into the world. That was the creation of Shabbat.
Therefore, as we start our Nissan season, the last thing that we read about is haChodesh HaZeh Lachem. Everything is new, everything is fresh.
The Sefer Sifteh Kohen, by the great Syrian kabbalist from the times of the Arizal says that every day in our prayers, we talk about how G-d took us out of Egypt.
ממצרים גאלתנו
We don’t say that G-d took our ancestors out, it says He took us out.
This is because, as it says in our Haggadah, every generation has to view it as if they themselves got out of Mitzrayim.
He says this is especially so in Nissan. We have to appreciate the fact that we got out of Mitzrayim. Why?
We just read Parashat haChodesh. Yetziat Mitzrayim has to be new.
It can’t be the same old Seder, the same old Pesach. No.
haChodesh HaZeh Lachem - haChiddush HaZeh Lachem
we have the ability to connect to newness,
Because we understand that Hashem is constantly pumping life into creation. There is nothing is old. Everything is new.
Go out and buy yourself a new Haggadah, and have a new and exciting Pesach.
Shabbat shalom and Hodesh Tov.