(א) וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהֹוָה֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֣ה וְאֶֽל־אַהֲרֹ֔ן בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם לֵאמֹֽר׃ (ב) הַחֹ֧דֶשׁ הַזֶּ֛ה לָכֶ֖ם רֹ֣אשׁ חֳדָשִׁ֑ים רִאשׁ֥וֹן הוּא֙ לָכֶ֔ם לְחׇדְשֵׁ֖י הַשָּׁנָֽה׃
(1)YHWH said to Moshe and to Aharon in the land of Egypt, saying: (2)Let this month be for you the beginning of months.
What generates Rashi's next two comments? In other words: What's bothering Rashi?
(א) החדש הזה. הֶרְאָהוּ לְבָנָה בְּחִדּוּשָׁהּ וְאָמַר לוֹ כְּשֶׁהַיָּרֵחַ מִתְחַדֵּשׁ יִהְיֶה לְךָ רֹאשׁ חֹדֶשׁ (מכילתא). וְאֵין מִקְרָא יוֹצֵא מִידֵי פְשׁוּטוֹ, עַל חֹדֶשׁ נִיסָן אָמַר לוֹ, זֶה יִהְיֶה רֹאשׁ לְסֵדֶר מִנְיַן הֶחֳדָשִׁים, שֶׁיְּהֵא אִיָּר קָרוּי שֵׁנִי, סִיוָן שְׁלִישִׁי:
(1) החודש הזה לכם ראש חדשים, from now on these months will be yours, to do with as you like. But in the years when you were enslaved your days did not belong to you, but were service to others and their wills. Accordingly this month will be the first one for you of the year, because in it starts your own reality in which you have choice.
God's Time
“That is to say, the power of the month will be for you, that you should be able to renew yourselves in words of Torah and in your actions” Mei Hashiloach
Mordechai Yosef Leiner of Izbica (1801 - 1854 CE) was a Hasidic thinker and founder of the Izhbitza-Radzyn dynasty.
Snowdrops
Do you know what I was, how I lived? You know
what despair is; then
winter should have meaning for you.
I did not expect to survive,
earth suppressing me. I didn't expect
to waken again, to feel
in damp earth my body
able to respond again, remembering
after so long how to open again
in the cold light
of earliest spring--
afraid, yes, but among you again
crying yes risk joy
in the raw wind of the new world.
Louise Gluck born in 1943 is an American Poet.
(3) 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. (4) But if the household is too small for a lamb, let it share one with a neighbor who dwells nearby, in proportion to the number of persons: you shall contribute for the lamb according to what each household will eat. (5) Your lamb shall be without blemish, a yearling male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
“The Egyptians were accustomed to worshipping the Zodiacal sign of the lamb. That was why they forbade the slaughter of cattle and despised shepherds...
For this reason we were commanded to slaughter a lamb on Pesach and sprinkle its blood in Egypt on the doors outside - to cleanse ourselves of these ideas and demonstrate publicly our rejection of them. . .” Rambam
2,Bo 5777
“The pagan shepherds offered the animal in order to ensure the fecundity of the flocks, just as the rites of the spring harvest festival were intended to secure the fertility of the soil. In Israel, each rite was severed from its magical and mythical roots.”
Nahum Sarna, Exploring Exodus: The Heritage of Ancient Israel (New York: Schocken, 1986), p. 89.
(ו) וְהָיָ֤ה לָכֶם֙ לְמִשְׁמֶ֔רֶת עַ֣ד אַרְבָּעָ֥ה עָשָׂ֛ר י֖וֹם לַחֹ֣דֶשׁ הַזֶּ֑ה וְשָׁחֲט֣וּ אֹת֗וֹ כֹּ֛ל קְהַ֥ל עֲדַֽת־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בֵּ֥ין הָעַרְבָּֽיִם׃ (ז) וְלָֽקְחוּ֙ מִן־הַדָּ֔ם וְנָ֥תְנ֛וּ עַל־שְׁתֵּ֥י הַמְּזוּזֹ֖ת וְעַל־הַמַּשְׁק֑וֹף עַ֚ל הַבָּ֣תִּ֔ים אֲשֶׁר־יֹאכְל֥וּ אֹת֖וֹ בָּהֶֽם׃
Abraham Joshua Heschel-The Sabbath
Judaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctification of time.
Unlike the space-minded man to whom time is unvaried, iterative, homogeneous, to whom all hours are alike, quality-less, empty shells, the Bible senses the diversified character of time. There are no two hours alike. Every hour is unique and the only one given at the moment, exclusive and endlessly precious.
Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time, to be attached to sacred events, to learn how to consecrate sanctuaries that emerge from the magnificent stream of a year....
If your household is too small for a lamb
If your household is too small for a lamb
Share with a neighbor who dwells nearby.
If you can’t bear to consider the implications of your existence
On future generations
Meet a friend for coffee, right away.
If you want to discover the kernel of truth in your fantasy
Put your microscope away
Tell someone about it and pay attention
When you notice you’re lying.
If you can’t speak about humans without using language meant for machines
Try a metaphor fast.
Fight for words
With a heartbeat.
Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld
Rabbi Steve Cohen
Friday night, March 27 2020
Congregation B’nai B’rith, Santa Barbara CA
(excerpted)
Passover is coming. In less than two weeks, Jews all over the world will retell our ancient story of one endless night over three thousand years ago, during which the Angel of Death moved through the land, and we sheltered in place. Huddled in our homes, with a mark of blood smeared on our doorposts, praying for protection, and for our lives, and the lives of our parents and our children.
This year the old Passover story, out of our distant past, is suddenly speaking directly to us. Not only to us, the Jewish people, but to all of us, the entire Human Family.
We all understand that right now we are living through the great story of our time. After this is over, the world will not be the same. Like the Jews huddled in their homes on the terrible night of the 10th plague, we have no idea how long it will last, or how it will end. But we do know that there will be a time, years from now, when people will tell the story of the Pandemic of 2020. Tonight I want to send a message to the future, to the storytellers of the future...a message from all of us here in the middle of the story...........
Perhaps one Passover night, thirty years from now, or fifty years from now, or one hundred years from now, you will raise the matzah at the start of the seder and proclaim “This is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt....let all who are hungry come and eat.” When you recite those words, you might add to those seated at your table:
“In fact it happened during the Pandemic of 2020, that as the world economy shut down, millions of good, steady jobs disappeared overnight, all over the globe, and hardworking responsible men and women found themselves without money to feed their families. It can happen to anyone. It did happen that year.”
Let the matzah of your seder remind you of our time, when the entire Human Family felt deeply insecure, and nevertheless, many came forward, in every land and also here in Santa Barbara, to donate money and food, to cook and to deliver, to call and check in, to assist and to encourage their friends, their neighbors, and complete strangers.
Finally, when you tell the story of this Pandemic....whoever you are, and in whatever year in the distant future you are living....please make sure to tell the praises of our health care workers. In fact, tell that part of the story in song. With music! Because words alone cannot capture the quality of heroism that we are seeing manifested every day in the Emergency rooms, the waiting rooms and the Intensive Care Units. The nurses, doctors, technicians, prehospital first responders...the police and the firefighters and the emergency medical technicians. When you come to tell the story of our world turned upside down, sing songs about these medical women and men.
Will you tell it, was it recorded and was it remembered, that in cities around the world, in Spain, in Israel, in Seattle, in India, people went out on their balconies at 8:00pm every night and made noise....cheering and clapping and banging on pots and pans...all in honor of the healthcare workers? That should be part of your Passover seder, whoever you are, telling this story years from now. Sing songs and bang pots in honor of our healthcare heroes!