פרשת שמיני תשכ"ב - פרשת "החודש הזה לכם"

החדש הזה — He showed him the moon in the first stage of its renewal, and He said to him, “The time when the moon renews itself thus, shall be unto you the beginning of the month”. (The translation therefore is: “This stage of renewal (חדש) shall be the moment of beginning the months”; cf. Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:2:2). But no Scriptural verse can lose its literal meaning, and He really spoke this in reference to the month Nisan: this month shall be the beginning in the order of counting the months, so that Iyar shall be called the second, Sivan the third.

This month shall be unto you the beginning of months is the first commandment which the Holy One Blessed Be He commanded Israel through Moses, and therefore [the previous verse] says "in the land of Egypt," for the remaining commandments of the Torah were [give] at Mount Sinai. Or it means to say in the land of Egypt, and not in a city of Egypt, as our Sages said (Mekhilta 12:1:4), "outside of a town."
It would have been fitting for [the verse] to say first, "Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying," [and then] "This month shall be unto you" and the remainder of the section, but Moses and Aaron stand in place of Israel, and [the verse] says "unto you," referring to all the generations of Israel, and then it returns and says "Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel," that [Moses] should command them in the one-off command of taking the Passover sacrifice of [the generation of] Egypt on the tenth [of the month of Nisan].
According to its drash, "unto you" means that sanctification of the month requires a court of expert [judges] (Rosh Hashanah 25b), and therefore it was not written earlier, "Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel," for sanctification of the month applies only to Moses and Aaron and [experts] of their kind. And the reason for, "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months" is that Israel will count the first month, and from there will count all the months as second and third until the completion of the year with the twelfth month, so that this will be a reminder of a great miracle, for any time that the months will be mentioned the miracle will be remembered, and therefore the months have no names in the Torah, but rather it says, "in the third month" (Exodus 19:1), and, "in the second year in the second month...that the cloud was taken up" (Numbers 10:11), and, "in the seventh month on the first of the month, etc." (Numbers 29:1) and so with all of them [i.e. all verses mentioning dates].
And just as the Sabbath Day is remembered by our counting from it the first [day] from the Sabbath and the second [day] from the Sabbath, as I will explain (Ramban on Exodus 20:8:1), so too the Exodus from Egypt is remembered by our counting of the first month and the second and the third from our redemption, for this counting is not for [numbering] the year, for the start of our year is in Tishrei, as it is written (Exodus 34:22), "and the feast of ingathering [i.e. Sukkot] at the turn of the year," and it is written (Exodus 23:16), "(and the feast of ingathering), at the end of the year." If so, then when the month of Nisan is called the first [month] and Tishrei the seventh, the solution is that [Nisan is] the first [month] from redemption and [Tishrei is] the seventh. This is the reason for, "it shall be the first...to you," for it is not the first in the year, but it is the first for you, for such is it called as a remembrance of our redemption.
And our Sages have already mentioned this topic, and said that the names of the months came with us from Babylonia (Jerusalem Talmud Rosh Hashanah 6a), for at the start we had no names. The reason for this is that at the start the order of [the months] was as a remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt, but when we left Babylonia and the verse was fulfilled (Jeremiah 16:14-15), "that it shall no more be said: 'As the LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' but: ‘As the LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north," we returned to calling the months by the names by which they were called in Babylonia, as a reminder that there we stood and from there the Lord drew us out. For the names Nisan, Iyar, and the others are Persian names and are only found in the books of the Babylonian prophets (Zechariah 1:7, Ezra 6:15, Nehemiah 1:1) and in Megilat Esther (3:7). Therefore the verse says, "In the first month, which is the month Nisan," similar to, "They cast pur, that is, the lot" (ibid.). And until today the nations in the lands of Persia and Media call [the months] Nisan and Tishrei and all the rest like us. And these [names] recall through the months the second redemption just as we did until now for the first one.

"Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it:" after being commanded to have faith in the Unique One, may he be blessed, who is Existing, Creator, Knowing, and Able; and that we are to combine faith in all this with honor due to Him alone, and commanded to honor the mention of His name - we are commanded to establish a continuous sign and memorial to publicize that He created all. This is the commandment of Shabbat, which commemorates the act of creation. And it is written "Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it," while Deutoronomy (5:12) has "Guard the Sabbath day to sanctify it." Our sages comment on this (TB R"H 27a): "'Remember' and 'Guard' were said simultaneously." They were not concerned about other linguistic changes [between the commandments in Exodus & Deutoronomy]. [Our Sages] of blessed memory explained this one, because "remember" is a positive commandment -- that we are to remember the Sabbath day and sanctify it without forgetting it -- but they interpret "guard" as a negative commandment; since the biblical words "guard," "lest," and "don't" always imply a negative commandment (TB Eruvin 96a). ["Guard" instructs us to] be careful to observe it and sanctify it, that we do not desecrate it. It was not appropriate for Moses to change G-d's words from a positive to negative comment. However, when, in the second commandment, [Moses] changed [in Deutoronomy] "and any image" to "any image," leaving out [the conjunctive letter] vav, and added it to "and upon the third generation" [compare Deut. 5:9 & Ex. 20:5], or anything similar with the remaining commandments, this [change] is nothing, for it is all one [meaning]. And only one who is not familiar with Talmud will deny this reason. They [our sages] said (TB Brachot 20b) that women are biblically obligated in making Kiddush from the [double] language of "remember" and "guard" [from which we derive that] all who are obligated in in "guarding" are obligated in "remembering." Hence, beacause women are obligated in "guarding," they are obligated in "remembering," since they are obligated in all negative commandments, and they would [ordinarily] not be obligated in "remembering," since that is a positive time-bound precept, from which women are [normally] exempt.

ושמרתם את המצות AND YE SHALL WATCH THE UNLEAVENED BREAD that it shall not reach the stage of becoming leavened; hence the Rabbis said, if it (the dough) is rising (a sign that the leavening process is setting in) she (the woman kneading the dough) polishes it with cold water (i. e. she slaps the dough with hands dipped in cold water). Rabbi Josiah said: Do not read “את המַּצּוֹת”, the unleavened bread, but את הַמִּצְוֹת “[ye shall watch] the commandements” — just as we may not cause the unleavened bread to become leavened by letting the dough remain in its raw state too long so we may not let the commandment become “leavened” by waiting too long before we perform it; but if it (a commandment) comes to your hand, perform it immediately (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:17:1).

ושמרתם את המצות, to eat them on this day as a memorial. 'כי בעצם היום הזה הוצאתי, וגו, as a result their dough did not have time enough to rise before baking, resulting in it becoming cakes of unleavened bread. It was all due to the haste of being expelled (compare verse 39)

ושמרתם את המצות, “you shall observe the commandment to eat unleavened bread on these days for the future.” We find this formulation being use in this sense also in Numbers 28,2 in connection with the daily communal offering where the Torah writes: תשמרו להקריב לי במועדו, ”make sure that you offer it at the time appointed for it.”