Parshat Bo  8 Shevat 5763, 11 January 2002

Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Bo    Exodus 10:1-13:16

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel -This week's Torah portion, which describes the culmination of the Divine plagues against Egypt, also presents the very first of the 613 commandments which the Almighty gives the Israelites: "This month shall be to you the first of the months (or "this renewal of the moon shall be to you the first of the month, Rosh Hodesh"), the first (month) of the months of the year." (Exodus 12:2). Is it not strange that of all the possible "candidates" for first commandment- "You shall love your friend like yourself," "You shall love the Lord your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might," "You shall be holy"- the Almighty chooses specifically Rosh Hodesh, the establishment of the first day of the month as the festival of Rosh Hodesh and the month of Nissan as the first of the months, as the recipient of this signal honor?!

Moreover, the Tractate Rosh Hashanah devotes many Mishnayot to the intricacies of declaring a renewal of the moon and thereby a new month; in Holy Temple times this required two witnesses who actually saw the renewal of the moon, the careful investigation of these witnesses by the great Rabbinic Judges of the Great Sanhedrin at the Temple Mount, and the public declaration by these Judges that "the month has been sanctified." Our Talmudic Sages even sanction the desecration of the holy Sabbath in order for the witnesses to arrive as quickly as possible to the Sanhedrin with their testimony. Is the renewal of the moon equal to the preservation of a human life, that one may desecrate the Sabbath because of it?

And if indeed this first commandment is of such prime significance, why not include it among the Ten Commandments? Why place it within the context of the last of the ten plagues? And finally, immediately following this commandment in our portion comes the command for every householder to slaughter a lamb, to perform the paschal sacrifice and place its blood on the door-posts just one day before the exodus from Egypt. What is the relationship between the renewal of the moon and the paschal sacrifice?

I would argue that the renewal of the moon each month- and the commandment to mark that renewal with a unique festival- is one of the most unique and significant messages of Judaism. Our modern Western society is based upon two profound and ancient cultures: Greece and Judea. The Greco-Roman civilization certainly bequeathed important treasures, such as drama, mathematics, art and philosophy; Judea bequeathed ethical monotheism, morality and a religion based upon justice and compassion. And to a great extent both of these cultures can be synthesized, as the Midrash suggests, "The esthetics of yafet (Greece) in the tent of Shem (Judea)," secular wisdom shaped and directed by the ethics and morality of Torah.

However, there is a profound distinction in mentality between the Greek mind and the Hebrew mind. The Greeks see the world as well as history in cyclical terms: everything returns to its origin, "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow beats on this petty pace to the last syllable of recorded time." The myth of Sisyphus- with the man carrying a boulder to the top of the mountain only having to watch it fall so that he must carry it up again- is the perfect metaphor for the Greek attitude. "Vanity of vanities (vapor of vapors), says Kohelet, vanity of vanities, all is vanity (vapor). What is the value for man of all his labor under the sun? A generation comes and a generation goes, while the earth lasts forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and to the place where it seeks, from there does it rise…" A cyclical world, wherein we merely iterate and reiterate our foils and mistakes, breeds an attitude of cynical pessimism. The unchanging sun rules over such a cyclical, meaningless, goal-less world.

How different is Judaism, which sees world and history in lineal terms, progressing towards a period in which "the lamb will lie down with the lion, the baby can play at the nest of the asp… swords will be changed into ploughshares, nation will not lift up sword against nation and humanity will not learn war anymore" (Isaiah 2,11). This is a world of optimistic faith, of belief in future, of expectation of change. The magnificent metaphor for this attitude is the moon, which in its renewal literally emerges from the black darkness of its waning to the glorious renewed light which will wax even more glorious. The historical moment which proved the possibility of change for the better was the seemingly impossible freedom of the Hebrew slaves, the almost instantaneous dissolution of the immoral social order of the Pharaohs, the exodus of Israel from darkness to light, from slavery to freedom. This is a world not under the sun, as in the pessimistic Kohelet, but rather under the moon- which expresses the possibility of change and renewal in its very essence- and under a living, redeeming G-d.

Hence Rashi explains- as the first of his two explanations- the first commandment must be the establishment of the festival of Rosh Hodesh with the monthly renewal of the moon, and cites the midrash that G-d Himself showed this to Moses. Hence the paschal sacrifice- which expresses Jewish willingness to place their lives on the line for freedom since the lamb was an Egyptian god- follows the renewal of the month; after all, no-one would risk his life for an impossible change, no-one would make such a sacrifice if he did not believe that change in the established social order and ultimate redemption could never be achieved. The renewal of the moon is a crucial message of our optimistic faith- and is worthy of standing as the first command with a Rabbinic ritual which only demonstrates its supreme significance.

Shabbat Shalom.

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