Discuss the month of redemption Aviv-Nisan, with sages and disciples

MISHNA: They are four days in the year that serve as the New Year, each for a different purpose: On the first of Nisan is the New Year for kings; it is from this date that the years of a king’s rule are counted. And the first of Nisan is also the New Year for the order of the Festivals, as it determines which is considered the first Festival of the year and which the last.

Rabbi Yehoshua disagrees and says: In Nisan the world was created; in Nisan the Patriarchs were born; in Nisan the Patriarchs died; on Passover Isaac was born; on Rosh HaShana Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah were remembered by God and conceived sons; on Rosh HaShana Joseph came out from prison; on Rosh HaShana our forefathers’ slavery in Egypt ceased; in Nisan the Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt; and in Nisan in the future the Jewish people will be redeemed in the final redemption.

The commandment of sanctifying the new month To sanctify months and intercalate [months into] years in the court [whose members are the] great in wisdom and ordained in the Land of Israel, and to establish the year's holidays according to that sanctification; as it is stated (Exodus 12:2), "This month shall be to you the first of months." This means, when you see the renewal of the moon, establish for yourselves the new month - or even if you do not see it, since it is appropriate for [the moon] to appear according to the accepted calculation. Likewise, this commandment includes the commandment of intercalation, since the basis of the commandment to sanctify the month is for Israel to observe God's holidays at their appointed times. And the commandment of intercalation has the same basis. However, beyond this verse are more Torah passages concerning the commandment of intercalation, and that is what is written (Exodus 13:10), "You shall observe this commandment in its proper time"; and likewise, "Observe the month of Spring" (Deuteronomy 16:11).

Rabbi Yoḥanan said: And both of them, Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Elazar, who disagree about how much time must pass to count as a year, expounded the same verse. As the verse states: “And it came to pass in the one and six hundredth year, in the first month on the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from off the earth” (Genesis 8:13). Rabbi Meir holds: From the fact that it was only one day into the year, as it was still the first day of the first month, and yet it is called the six hundred and first year, learn from here that one day in a year is already considered a year.