Our first commandment - Parashat Bo
By Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
"This month [of Nissan] shall be unto you the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year to you." (Ex. 12:2-3) The Midrash describes the competition of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet as they vied for the honor of beginning the Torah. Similarly, we can imagine the request of each of the 613 commandments to be the first statute given to our emerging nation. The recipient of that much-coveted honor is cited above.
Of course, the idea of sanctifying time is one of Judaism's contributions to the world; but wouldn't a more logical choice for "first commandment" have been "remember the Sabbath to keep it holy" or, better still, the universal "love thy neighbor as thyself'"?
Let us first pose several other questions generated by the commandment "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months...."
First, to the untrained eye, Jews who gather once a month under the open sky, usually on the Saturday night between the third and 14th day of the new month, seem to be participating in some sort of lunacy. Not only do the congregants go outdoors, look at the moon and recite blessings and psalms, but they even join hands, singing and dancing!
Second, the words of the musaf amida (additional prayer) which we intone at the end of each rosh hodesh service refers to the day as a period of forgiveness, and at least one Talmudic source suggests that it is the day of God's atonement!
This idea is the subject of a Talmudic passage in which R. Shimon b. Pazzi analyzes Creation: "And God made two great lights, the great light to rule the day, the small light to rule the night." (Gen. 1:16)
R. Shimon examines the seeming contradiction wherein the verse opens with two great orbs, but concludes with one large orb and one small one.
R. Shimon explains: "The moon said unto God: 'Master of the Universe, is it possible for two kings to rule with one crown? He answered: 'Go then and make yourself smaller! 'Master of the Universe', cried the moon. 'because I made the right suggestion, should I be the one who ends up smaller?'.... On seeing that it [the moon] could not be consoled, the Holy One, blessed be He said: 'Bring an atonement for Me for making the moon smaller.'' (B.T. Hulin 60b)
What a difficult and amazing notion: God needs atonement! And consider the sin: He made the moon small! Apparently profound symbolism is involved here, touching the foundations of Creation. And this fundamental truth is somehow bound up with our celebration of the new month.
During the week of Creation, God created the two great orbs. But something was amiss, almost as if these two lights foreshadowed the tragedy about to transpire with the first human beings.
Since envy is one of the most universal sources of evil - indeed, the root of the sixth, seventh, eight, ninth and tenth commandments can all be traced to aspects of envy - the moon's seemingly innocent observation as to the impossibility of there being two kings and only one crown expresses the evil in the very fabric of human nature. The moon wanted to be number one.
But if the moon is guilty, why does God require atonement? The answer to this question is perhaps the answer to many others.
The Almighty chose to create a world containing envy as well as graciousness, evil as well as good. God wants us to be aware that evil is not to be assigned to some shady underworld, as is often the case in polytheistic systems, dividing reality between divinities.
We have to understand that God is the only God there is. And He chose to create an incomplete, imperfect world - a world containing evil and envy, good and graciousness - and a human being who will be free to choose between them.
If we choose wisely, mankind will become God's partner in perfecting the world.
Without the potential for evil, there can be no free choice, and without free choice, we're either wholly angels or wholly beasts. Free choice inevitably results in some people choosing virtue and others choosing vice - as well as the shades and paths in between. Free choice means that we may not always rise to the occasion, that good people will sometimes suffer as a result of the evil of others, that an imperfect and unredeemed world will often be filled with tragedy and suffering.
It is for this fact that the Almighty Himself requires atonement.
Thus when God tells us that marking the renewal of the moon is our first commandment, He is telling us that in the "imperfection" of the moon is reflected the imperfection of human nature, the imperfection of the world as it was created, and the atonement that God Himself requires for having created such a universe.
But the source of this "original" sin is also the source of potential redemption. One can choose, like the moon, to raise all sorts of arguments in order to gain the "crown" for oneself, or one can sanctify the moon as it is, and so bring the world to redemption in the month when we were redeemed from Egyptian servitude.
According to Rashi, God Himself teaches Moses how to look at the moon. God wants us to sanctify the possibility of change - hodesh and hidush and hadash. Hodesh is month, hadash is new, and hidush is renewal. God wants us to sanctify the fact that there can be a renewal, that there can be a change for the good, that there can be development and growth.
Kiddush levana, the ritual of the Sanctification of the Moon, closes with these words: "May it be Your will.... to readjust the deficiency of the moon, so that it may no longer be reduced in size. May the light of the moon be again as the light of the sun as it was during the first seven days of creation, before it was reduced..."
This prayer brings us full circle.
When the day of redemption finally arrives, the moon will return to its former glory, and jealousy will no longer exist - neither between the lights in the sky nor between the lights on earth, the human lights.
Shabbat Shalom.
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