Pri Etz Chaim

Ari Clark, Rabbinic Intern Parshat Bo- Recapturing the Light

If the Jewish people had a birth certificate, what would be the Date of Birth? When did the children of Israel truly come into existence? One could also argue that Avrahams decision to leave his family and accepts G-ds ways serves as the critical beginning to the Jewish story. Until that point, no man on the face of earth had taken up the calling of G-d, submitting himself wholeheartedly to His message and values. When Avraham leaves his land, his birthplace, and his family, he starts the legacy of the Jewish people, a nation who will eternally dedicate themselves to the Word and Will of the One Above. Yet we can also look to this weeks parsha as the first moments of the newborn nation of Israel. Yaakov brings his family down to Egypt, and they definitely grew from the 70 males that arrived. But during the entire 210 years, there was no national identity for these children of Yaakov. There were no laws, no uniting figures, and no uniting national spirit for this group of slaves. On 1st night of the month of Nissan, however, G-d spoke to Moshe and Aharon in Egypt, giving the first law to the new nation: : This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. While this surely qualifies as a law being given to a leader, why would G-d chose this law as the banner of Jewish spirit? What message does this commandment offer to the Jewish people that it should be the first commandment that the Jews would adopt in their national history? Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch provides an inspiring insight into both the commandment of sanctifying the new moon and the start of the Jewish people. In Jewish law, the months are not merely calculated (although that is the case today due to the lack of a High Court). Theoretically, the new moon must be seen by witnesses who then report it to the High Court in Jerusalem. The witnesses are not an archaic substitution for a calendar, but rather represent the model for which the nation of Israel should act during the course of the year: just as the moon receives its light from the sun anew, so too must the Jewish people find their Divine light every month. Jewish time doesnt simply pass by; it is established by those who wish to grab hold of it and use it for connecting with G-d above. In the pagan world, Rabbi Hirsch says, nature becomes the controlling aspect of the world; every day simply follows the next, with no chance to change ones moral trajectory and improve ones values. Judaism, however, believes in the " ,"the ability to create ourselves and our world anew with every month that approaches. On that day of birth, the first day of Nisan, G-d gave us our national identity through the commandment of sanctifying the new moon. In Judaism, there is never a month that isnt born under the banner of rejuvenation and hope, the chance for an individual and a nation to recapture its spiritual essence and reclaim its Divine light.