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Sponsored in memory of Fay and Nathan Holzman
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[00:00:02] Speaker A: And I know you spotlight me, but I'm going to un spotlight myself.
Thank you so much. So, Andrea, I have to say that when you ask me in the summer, oh, can you teach a class for the month of Nissan? I'm like, sure. It's so far away, right? Why not? But then when it comes down to it, you know, the tension of, like, am I preparing the shear? Am I cleaning out the closet? Which one is it going to be? The struggle was real. But I am so happy to be here tonight and to have had the opportunity to prepare a share on Khodesh Nisan, because as you know so much from the Masorah program, there is no better way to prepare for the hagim, but only through Torah study and really thinking what this Yantiv means to us. And tonight's class is taking a step back and looking at the broader picture of what the month of Nisan means and how Pesach fits into the bigger picture of that.
I'll begin by looking at the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh. I mean, this whole series is about the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh, but I'm the lucky one to actually have the opportunity to look at the pasak, which is the mitzvah we're commanded in, in the month of Nisan. So let's look. Sorry, just 1 second.
Maybe it will be easier for you. You know what? How about you share the screen so I don't have to worry about the screen sharing? Is that okay?
I'll stop sharing for a minute. Go ahead. That way I'll tell you when to toggle on and off so it's not blocking me.
Okay, thank you.
So the pasak tells us in parasha Shmos Hachodesh, Hadzalachem, Rosh Hadashim, Rishon, hulachem, Lechache, Hashanah. This is when B'nai Ishael are still in mitzrayim, and Hashem commands Moshe and all the jewish people the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh. And it's interesting, we have two ideas actually embedded in this very pasuk, which Rashi points out. The first idea is the idea that we count our calendar according to the moon. And Rashi quotes the mihalta, the midrashic explanation that Hashem showed him.
Hashem was showing Moshe the moon in its new crescent. And that's the significance of haza. Hashem is actually pointing to something this month. Hachodesh. What are we referring to? The moon in its chiddush stage in its mechudosh stage in its new crescent. And Hashem said, when you see the moon looking like this, that's when Rosh Chodesh is. And this is very important point. There's really two ideas embedded within this first part of Rashi. And that is, not only do we follow the lunar calendar, but when does the month begin? We might have thought that maybe the month begins, I don't know, in the middle of the month, when there's a full moon, or, I don't know, at any other point in the month. But Hashem is specifically telling Moshe that it's when the sliver, when the crescent of the moon is seen, that's when it's a new month. But of course, we know the concept of ein mikra yotse mide. The pasa cannot be taken out of its simple literal meaning and based on the flow of the entire pasuk. What is the second interpretation of rashi is not referring to the size of what the moon looks like when we establish Rosh kodesh, but rather, according to the peshat, it refers to the month that we found ourselves in at that point, which is the very first month, as Rashi says, is going to be the very first of the months. And we count from there onward. So that, er is considered the sheini and Sivan is considered the shlishi, and so on and so forth. So again, the two ideas that we see in this rasi is, number one, we follow a lunar calendar, and number two, the calendar begins with the month of Nisan. And these two ideas really beg the question. You can stop sharing the screen for a moment so I could see everybody. This really begs the question. And that is, why indeed do we follow the lunar calendar? Right? Most societies follow a solar calendar, and the truth is, we're coming off of the heels of Ajar Sheini. We have an added month of Adar to realign the solar and the lunar calendar. Because even though we're primarily a lunar calendar, we do have this concept that we need to have our Yemen tobim in certain seasons. And since there is a discrepancy of eleven days between the solar and the lunar calendar, after a few years, our yumm, Tobim would not be in the right season. Pesach would no longer be in the spring, and silkiness would no longer be in the fall. And so we have an added month like we have this year, to match them back up together.
So why do we need the lunar calendar at all? Like, we could have just the solar calendar. So clearly, we're primarily a lunar calendar where we also want to align with the solar calendar. And the question is, why? What is it about the moon that's so significant to us as jews? And the second question we want to understand is, we know that Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the new year, right? It feels like so long ago, but it's only been six months. So there's a kind of, like, we have this, you know, Rosh Hashanah six months ago, and then Nisan, and then since six months later, Rosh Hashanah again. So why indeed, is Nisan considered the rosh chadashem? Why not Rosh Hashanah? So to answer the first question, we're going to talk about the concept of Kodesh. What does Kodesh mean? Kodesh comes from the word kiddosh, which is renewal. Often we meet somebody, maybe you're walking down the street, and if you're in Israel, you say mahadash, or even in English, we say, what's new? And what often is the response that people say when you ask, what's new?
Feel free to chime in.
Same old. Right? And that's actually not really a jewish concept. The whole concept that Rosh Chodesh teaches us is that we're supposed to have his in our lives. We're supposed to have a sense of newness. We should not respond, same old. We have to find a way, and we'll develop this theme more, this concept of kiddush in our lives. And that's really what the moon is coming to teach us.
We cannot ignore the fact that tomorrow so many people are looking forward to the solar eclipse. It's a major event, and millions of people are planning to watch it carefully, safely, of course, with solar glasses. And it's not something, it's an event that's not going to happen again until 24.
Now, what's interesting is I started to look into this because I was like, wow, this is not coincidental. It's Hashgacha practice that where, you know, it's Nissan, it's, you know, the solar eclipse, that the solar eclipse always happens around the new moon exactly as we have it happening right now. And this time that it's happening, it's not only any new moon, but it's the rosh Chadashem. Right? It's the very first new moon that Hashem was telling Moshe about.
And what we see over here is this is the point where, you know, right before is the darkest part, before the moon becomes, you know, it's tiny little crescent, and it's at this moment, the merzem tomorrow, right before rosh Chodesh, that the moon, the little moon, is going to eclipse the sun, which is 400 times larger than it. And it's really an amazing thing. And I think Hashem, I hope Hashem, you know, we're davening that this is a message of hope for us, that just as Hashem told Moshe, this message, you know, look up, you know, you're still in the dark times of Gallus. You're still in Mitzrayim. But I want you to look up at our friend, the little moon in its new crescent, and I want you to know that the moon story Hashem is telling, moshe, is our story. And the fact that we go through periods, maybe there's a period of darkness, but there's going to be a period of light. There's going to be good times that are going to come.
That's the message of the moon, and the fact that the moon is going to renew itself and is going to grow and get bigger.
His concept of ischatras does not only have to be born out of a negative experience. I mean, I don't think that anybody can ignore the difficult year that it's been and the fact that we really sense and are prone for the. To miraculous Kodesh Nissan. The miracle could happen even before Kodesh Nisan begins tomorrow night.
But this concept of Eshadjus applies even at any point, right? It's the concept that the moon is always going through periods of change, and that represents the concept of growth. So I'd like you to actually look at source number three, if you don't mind sharing the screen again, which is something very interesting that the medrash points out. I was kind of shocked when I saw this, and that is that fish, whenever it rains, I never check this out for myself, but this is what the Madrid tells us. They rise to the surface and open their mouths to taste rainwater. And that's a very strange phenomenon, if you think about it, because they live in the water, right? There's no shortage of water. So what is it that they're looking for? That they're opening their mouths to drink water outside of the ocean or whatever body of water that they're in? And the idea really is that people, and I guess fish, too, are always looking for something new and different. There's this sense of excitement and freshness that comes with something, with novelty. We don't want to experience the same old, the same old. So for the fish, they're surrounded with water, and they always have that water. It kind of reminds me, you know, people exchange recipes all the time, and like, oh, my gosh, your salad was amazing. I'm like, oh, really? I'm so bored of it. But you tell me your salad recipe, because I'm looking for something new and something different, and there's a. There is actually a. The Talmud Roshani talks about. You can stop sharing the screen for a second. How the sage Rabavahu once entered the yeshiva of Rav Yochanan in Tiberia, and he looked so excited and so enthusiastic in his Talmudima students asked him, like, what's going on? Like, why are you in such a great mood? You have, you know, a sparkle in your eye. And he said that he had discovered a new tosefta. The tosefta are teachings of the tanam. They're not included in the Mishnah. And this caused him to have tremendous excitement. Now you have the whole, you know, shisha sidra Mishna. But something new, a novelty. And obviously, for him, the enthusiasm was a novelty. In Hidoushe Torah was something that brought him great excitement, and that's the whole concept of his status. And we know that we mention in Davening that Hashem is mahadish Batuba Baholi yom Masih voracious. Hashem is constantly renewing the world. I mean, if we can live our lives, and I'm talking to myself and wake up in the morning and not just like, oh, what's all the things I have on my to do list for peace? But, like, yes, I get to experience a new day, and what newness and what novelty and what fresh approach can I approach the day with? That is a very jewish concept. That is the concept of his hatches. Now, something that's interesting to point out is that there's actually two words for months in Hebrew. We have the word. We always talk about Chodesh, but there's also another word, and that word is Yarach. And Yarach makes sense because Yarach is related to the word yereach, right? It's connected to the meaning of the word month. And Chodesh, as we said, is a reference in particular to the concept of the moon renewing itself.
So what's the difference between the two? Why do we specifically, Hashem is talking to Moshe in the posse that we referenced before, and Hashem says, hashem is not saying, hayer Hulachem Rosh Yarachem. So what's the significance? Is there any message embedded in that? So if you can look at the next source, which is source number four.
So we have two psuchim that we're going to point out. And. And one Possuk is in chumashtabarim, which talks about a man who's getting married, and it says, I'm not going to go through the rest of the pasuk. And it refers to a man who is marrying an Isha kadasha, a new wife.
On the other hand, we find the word Yarachim mentioned in a pasuk in connection with Moshe and Moshe's parting address to B'nai Israel before his passing. He mentions Mimegat Umimege Yarachem. He speaks about the sweetness of the produce of the sun and the sweetness of the moon's yield. And we find something interesting that over here, the word garish is referring to the produce things that are somehow influenced by the moon. There are certain vegetation that grows, vegetables that grow because of the moon's influence, and that is referred to as garish, the moon's yield. But the word garish is also related to the word girishen, which means divorce. So is there any significance that we can learn from that? So actually, the lavush, if you look at source number six, this is by Rashneer Ashkenazi from Israel shares this. And he points out, and I had the opportunity to be at a wedding today, so I was listening closely to the ksuba as it was being read. And in the ksuba, it mentions the date of the wedding on this and this day of the week, and this and this date of the kodesh. The word chodesh is used in a ksuba. On the other hand, in a divorce document, the word yerek is used. So that's interesting. The Levosh rab mor hafi explains the message and he relates it back to the posse that we mentioned, kiitach ish, isha kadasha. In source number four versus gera Shirachim. Right. In the context of Moshe's parting address, separation, leaving the b'nai Israel, the words yarach is used. And about Isha Kadasha, when it comes to a marriage, the word kodesh is used. And what Rabba Shkunazi develops in this idea is he's explaining is if a person wants to have a marriage that's alive and dynamic, and you can apply that to other context, you can broaden that to other types of relationships as well. We have to ask ourselves, do I want a relationship that's like a Yarach, or do I want a relationship that's like a kodesh? And Kodesh means that I'm always investing in the relationship so that there's a sense of newness and aliveness and vitality and freshness and always approaching our spouses in that way, the people that we meet that way, our children, our grandchildren. It's not just, oh, same old. Yeah, of course, you know, we've known each other, we've lived with each other for so many years, but can I see you from a fresh perspective and not just see you maybe locked into the personality traits that I've known you to be from the past, but can I have a growth mindset? You know, so much of modern psychology speaks about the difference between a fixed mindset. You know, things are fixed, and that's it versus a growth mindset. And that's really what the, the message of Chodesh and his status is not only in the way we see ourselves and the possibility for our growth, but also in the way we nourish our other relationships. And in particular, the message here related to marriage, having a marriage that's very much influenced by Kodesh and Kiddush.
So at this point, we've spoken a lot about Chodesh his. And we're going to move on to the fact that Nisan is called in the Torah, Chodesh Harisha. There's actually three different names for the month of Nisan. Everybody says, you know, rolls over tongues. We say, oh, it's the month of Nisan. Right, it's time to start preparing for Pesach. But it's also known as Chodesharishon, and it's actually also known as chodesha'avef. So we're going to talk about each of those, and we'll start off by looking at this Ramban. I'm not going to read the whole thing inside, but we'll talk about the key ideas. And I also included in the english translation, in case anybody would appreciate having that to read after. And the Ramban goes on to explain how initially, and certainly the way we see it in the Torah is our months are referred to by numbers, not by names. Nissan, Iran, Thomas is not in the Torah. That comes later. We'll talk about that soon, but rather it's numbers. Okay, so I'll read a little bit of the Ramban. Vitamrosh, kadashim shayimu osera kodesh arishon umimenu yimna kala kadashim shanei vishnishi. Tashlam hashanah b's name Asar Kodesh. And what is the reason for this? Why are we counting the months by 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th? Here's the answer, says the Ramban Kedei. Shem wants us always to remember the big miracle that happened, and that's Yisiyas mitzrayim. Of course, Kibechol is shedashem. Ya nis niskar. Every time we mention the months we're going to, or we're supposed to be thinking about the big miracle, we're supposed to be thinking about Yitzyas Mitrayim. And if you could stop sharing the screen for a minute, because I want to just discuss this a little bit. And that is that Yitzhmet shrine is such a foundational element in jewish life. There are so many mitzvahs that we have Zechariah, there are so many practices that we have not only mitzvahs, right? We have mezazah, and we mention it in kiddush and a host of other things. Even the yantiv of Sukkis is connected to yitzhmatriam.
[00:17:48] Speaker B: And.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: And we have other mitzvahs, such as being kind to the widow and to the stranger, because Gerama, Yis and Beretz Mitzrayim. So yitzias mitzraim was something so foundational to our experience and transformed us to who we became as a jewish people, that this is something that we should remember all of the time. And so, honestly, until I read this Ramban, I really didn't think about this fact so much, because I'm so used to talking about Nissan II or Sivan Thomas. But there's something to be said with using also the names of Rishon and why the Torah references as Chodesh are Rishon. Because when you talk about second, the second month, the third month, it's always part of a sequence. The second to what, the third to what. And therefore, every single month, we're really connected to and remembering this tremendous miracle that Hashem did for us with Yitziyes Matrim. And then the ramban goes on to compare that to the concept of Shabbos, and how when we talk about Shabbos and we say the sher Shalom, he doesn't mention the sher Shelim in particular. But I'm connecting to the Sher Sheom. He mentioned specifically the fact that we say Rishon, the Shabbos, sheyni, Shlishi, Ravi, because we're all tying it back to Shabbos and the same concept is over here. And to explain the meaning of the pasuk, because if you looked at the pasuk, the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh, we see that Hashem says, hachodesh hat alachem rosh chad hashem Rishon hula, Shannon. What does it mean when the posse says that it is the first for you for the months of the year? And the point the Ramban says is it's not really the first month. In general, we have Rosh Hashanah, which is the new year for the creation of the world, which is a universal truth. But this is the first for you as a people. This marks the start of our nationhood, of our relationship with Hashem on a particular level as the jewish people.
And the next point that he says, which is very interesting, is that Nisani or Siva, and I don't know if this came up in other classes that you've done in the Rosh relish series, you can tell me if it did. But they're not actually jewish names. They actually came up from Babel. When the jewish people, when Benesh were living in Babel, they kind of adapted. It's an adaptation of persian words. And in Parasun Matai, they have similar words for their months.
And so once that's where it started from. And that's why we find in other books, you could share the screen another minute. We're looking at the last paragraph of the Ramban. The Ramban goes on to explain that Kasher Ali knew. I'm looking at the second line of the. Of the last paragraph. Kashar Alinumara Kasuba the Lo Yomar ut Hayashem Asher Hela as Ben Israel Mertz Mitzrayim Kim Hayashem Hashar Hela Vashar Hibi as Bene Israel Khazarnu Likrom Shanikram Bearetz Babel. Then it became normative practice, so we're in good company. Like, that's when it started, that we start referring to the months as Nisan iyar in order to remember. Kishamadu Mishamahalanu Hashemisbara ki allah ilah shemos Nissan iyar visulasam sheamos parsim. Below, yimsa rak bicephre nivel. So that's when, if you look in the books of the tanakh, you'll find, like in the sfurim, that are following Golas Babel. Right. Zechariah, Ezra, Nehemia. We're describing that time period. Migulos Esther where it speaks about the Chodesh Harishon, Hudesh Nisan. It's defining Chodesh Harishon is Chodesh Nisan.
So what's interesting is really, now we have both the phrase Chodesh Harishon, which reminds us of Gulas mitzrayim. And when we use the names Nissan ir Sivan, we're reminded that not only did Hashem redeem us from Golos Mitzrayim, but Hashem redeemed us from a future exile from Golos favel as well. And so both of those names, Nisan as well as Chodesharishon, remind us of our redemption and remind us of the miracles then Hashem created for us and Hashem performed actually for us. So that's the big idea of what the Ramban is teaching us. What is the origin of the names Nisani or Sivan? And what is the message? Why are we counting from Nisan, that's the first month and not Rosh Hashanah? Because Hashem wants us to know. This marks the start of our jewish nationhood. Our jewish nationhood originates in a time period that is embedded with miracles. That's who we are, our identity. Like the amazing. I think it's the Shreki song, right? We are a miracle, that one. Okay, so let's look at source number eight. The Sepharda goes on to talk about another interpretation about why the posse says so. You can say that the Ramban really, when he talked about the lachem, what does it mean for you? He was explaining the second lachem in the posse where it says, Rishon Hulachem Lechache Hashanah, that this is the first month for you as jews of your counting of the months of the year.
But the Sepharda was talking about, what does it mean that hachodeshaza this month is lachem for you? So let's look at the Sephardim.
Source number eight.
From now on, these months are yours, that you can do whatever you want with these months.
But during slavery, time was not yours.
But you had to be at the beck and call of your taskmasters. You had to be ready to serve the lafichach and therefore, Rishon Hulacham. Lachachana, this is your first month of the months of the year.
This is the point where you start your identity. You can stop sharing the screen for a minute. This is at the point where you have agency over time.
Raise your hand if you've ever thought or said to anybody. I have no time, right. Or I'm running out of time.
Yes. This is something that's so, like, natural for us to say. But what this sofarno is really telling us is that we are control. We are in control of our time. Time does not control us. Yes. We have a finite number of hours in the day, and we can certainly ask Hashem for Hatzlacha Bisman, which is, you know, that we can ask Hashem, help me be successful in time. Because, you know, if you've ever gone to the mall or with a teenager or with yourself, and you come home and your husband asks you, well, that's all you bought. I'm like, please don't talk to me about it. I really, really tried to find stuff, but, like, okay. And then sometimes you go, and it's amazing. You find, like, everything that's on your list, and that's a gift to have at Slachabisman.
But even with that, with that being said, we have to remember we're thinking about the concept of freedom, and many of us feel kind of a bit enslaved to time as the deadline of peace is coming towards us. And we have to remember that we control time, asking ourselves, how do we want to prioritize? What are the most important things for us? Or like the famous Mushall about what are the rocks in your life, and what are the pebbles in your life, and what is the sand? And if you put the rocks. If you fill up the container with the rocks first, then everything else will fill up. But if you fill it up with the sand first, which are the things that are less important, then there is no place often for the rocks, for the things that are most important to you. And that is a super important message in thinking about freedom is time doesn't control me, but I am in control of my time. How do I want to use my time? I am in charge of that. And I think about that a lot because I'm looking at my calendar, and you might say, if you look at somebody's calendar, you can see what they prioritize as being important. And, you know, Baruch Hashem, you know, my count, my. Some of. Some of my kids are away for yeshiva or out of town for school, and they have to catch up on all the doctor's appointments. I'm like, wow, you know, there's a lot of stuff going on, but we can also remind ourselves it's about how we view that and how we see that, that this is a priority, right. Taking care of our children's health and figuring out how to infuse meaning in even those very mundane activities. You know, you could just sit in the car and, you know, everybody's with their ear pods doing their own thing, or you can take that as an opportunity to really connect and have important conversations to maximize the usage of that time. So that's the message of the Sephornem and Hachodesh. Hazel Lachem, time is now yours. We are in control of time now. We are going to move on to the next name of the month, which is Chodesh Nissan. So if you can share the screen, we're looking now at source number nine. We already mentioned the origin of the name Nisan, right. It derives from the time that we spent in Goaslava in Persia. But it also has an important message. It's reminding us of our miraculous redemption from Galisbabel. And there's some interesting things that the Gemara talks about in relationship with the month of Nisan. Firstly, the very famous one. Benisa Ngalu Benisan asi Dinligaal. There's this whole notion of how Nisan is very much connected to redemption, and that's what we're dominating for so hard. That should happen immediately, both on a global level and also on a personal level, because sometimes we feel locked, we feel stuck, we feel limited. And Nissan is all about breaking limitations.
In addition to that, there's another very interesting Gemara. And sometimes when I'm preparing for a share, I don't realize, but I'll say things out loud, or I'll ask my husband a question and the kids overhear it, and then they'll tell it to me after I was like, oh, you were actually listening to what I was saying? That's really funny. So my son Shmuley was like, oh, come on. I heard you talking about, you know, if you see Huna in a dream, who was a great sage, then, because Huna has a nun in his name, you're going to experience a nice. You're going to have a miracle happen to you. But if you see Hanina Hanania Yochanan, you're going to have Nisse Nissim, you're going to have double miracles, because there are two nuns in those names. So my children started to think about all the names of everybody in our family and who has a nun and how many nuns. And we said, okay, we all need to see Menach Hamendel, their older brother, in a dream, to experience double miracles. But there are many. Svarm, it sounds like a gimmick or a funny thing, you know, seeing somebody in a dream. What's the message? But the Svaram explained that this is, you know, it's a concept. And the concept is it's kind of an illusion that the month of Nisan is very much connected to not just miracles, but double miracles, incredible miracles, all the miracles that were connected to Yitzias Mitzrayim and in thinking about the difference between Nisan and Tishrei. So if you can stop sharing the screen for a minute, I want to talk about this for a little bit. And that is that, as I mentioned earlier, there's a six month divide between Tishrei and Nisan. And really, there are two firsts that we have. We have Rosh Hashanah, the head of the year, and then we have Kodesh Nisan, which is Rosh Kadashem. What indeed is the difference between the two?
So the medrash actually talks about the fact that it says that Misha Bacharacha, the Rosh Chadashem Bashanem, when Hashem created the world, he established heads of months and the head of the year. But when did this concept of the Rosh Chadashem really kick in? Keshabachar Biyako Banib. When Hashem chose Ya'aqob and his children, when Hashem chose B'nai Yisrael, that's when the concept of Rosh Chadashem when really kicks in. What's the difference between the two? Hashem's creation of the world is a universal concept. Right? That's the creation of mankind. On Rosh Hashanah was the birth of Adam. And so that is the concept of Hashem running the world through nature. And it's a universal truth how Hashem relates to all of creation and to all of humanity. But Chodesh Nisan marks the beginning of our nationhood. And it's specifically ChodesH NISAN that's our, as the Ramban referenced before, that is Lachem. That's for us as the jewish people. That's our rosh Chadashem. That's the beginning of our jewish new year in a certain sense, not in our collective universal new year, but in our particular mission as the jewish people.
And the message there is that we are a miracle. Going back to the words of that song, we're very much connected to the month of Nisan because we're a people of miracles, and it's a month of miracles. And that's why it's very interesting that there's a very famous question by following, obviously, Yitzyas Mitzrayim is very much linked to Matantora. Right? When we talk about freedom, what is the purpose of freedom? You ask a kid what would make you feel free? And little children might say, oh, if I don't have any rules, if I could stay home, I don't have to go to school, I could eat whatever I want for supper. That's freedom. And of course, it doesn't take that much maturity to understand that that's not freedom. That's really slavery, right? Freedom means true freedom is being able to have things in place to allow you to express your essence, who you really are. And freedom for a jew, obviously, is the ability to be able to express your nishama, to be able to tap into the core identity of who we really are. We're not just bodies who happen to have a soul. We are souls. We are nishamos that happen to be in bodies. And that's who we are. That's really our core identity.
So if we think about freedom for different things, if you ask flowers, what would make you feel truly free? Raise your hand if you appreciate flowers, right? So, you know, the flowers that look so beautiful on our table, if you think about it, they're not really free because they were uprooted from the soil and they're actually going to die because they're no longer able to grow. So their life is short lived. So if you ask, in theory, if our plants, if our flowers could speak, they would tell us freedom for me would be being rooted to the soil. If we ask an animal, if we take our kids or grandchildren or we like ourselves to go to the zoo, not going to get into the debate about, you know, whether it's ethical to have a zoo or not. But some people argue and say, like, it's not fair to the animals, right? They should be allowed to run in the wild. That is true freedom. The poor tiger, the poor elephant, confined to this small space and really wants to be in the wild, because that's true freedom for an animal. And when we ask a human being, or we ask particularly the jewish people, what is true freedom for you? If our nashama, if we were listening to the voice of our nashama, true freedom would be if we have the opportunity to express our soul. Because what makes our nashama feel free sometimes may make our body feel, like, limited.
I'm giving to daka. That's true freedom for an oshama. But our body might feel like, oh, you're using that up, and you could just enjoy that for yourself. So you might feel. Your body might not feel so great, but your soul feels fantastic and you can think about that in regard to any other mitzvah as well. And of course, most mitzvahs in Yiddishkaya is really a way to bring unity between the guf and the nishama, because really it's true freedom for both. We can only express our nishama within the body. In a body, a soul without a body does not have the capacity to do mitzvahs. That's why when somebody passes away, we are their hands and feet to be able to continue doing mitzvahs, because they can no longer do that. So we're talking, we're on this theme of what is true freedom and how where are people of freedom? And the Rosh Chadashem is a month of freedom, because we are the miracle nation, and that's why we start the count counts of our jewish calendar. Well, obviously we have our shoshana, but in terms of our nationhood starts from Khodesh Nisan. And this ties, I was taught, I was going on this direction and talking about Yitzias Mitzrayim leading to Matantorah, because it's not just freedom from Yitzyas Mitzrayim, but it's freedom to be Avde Hashem, which is counterintuitive. But freedom to express ourselves actually comes through the limits that the Torah gives us, and that enables us to express our true freedom. So at Matzah Torah, Hashem introduces himself not as Anokhi Hashem Elokacha, who is the creator of Shemayim b'arch, the creator of heaven and earth, but Hashem introduces himself as Anoki Hashem alokacha asher hoti sicha may ere.
I am Hashem, your God, who took you out of Egypt. And many people ask, like, why don't you know? Many, many of them are for Hashem. Many of the commentaries asked, like, why doesn't Hashem introduce himself as creator of heaven and earth? Isn't that like the starting point of all of it, the foundation of our faith? God is creator. So there are different answers to that question, but I want to focus on one of them, and that is that Hashem is pointing out to us that we are in a relationship. Yiddishkad is a relationship. And in this relationship, I want to talk about the fact that I have a miraculous relationship with you that goes above nature. Yes, I am the God who created heaven and earth, but that's playing by the rules of nature. That's for everybody, that's for humanity. But for you, b'naisraw, I'm going to go above nature. So I'm introducing myself as an, because our relationship supersedes nature. And that's a two history, too, because we reciprocate in that way. I mean, think about the kinds of things the nature have done throughout the ages that don't make sense, right? That defy the laws of nature. And when we say defy the laws of nature, even when we think about something that seems like, come on, just be normal. Play by the normal rules. But even now, people picking themselves up and going to Eretz's thrall and helping, and they're like, you're leaving your jobs, you just stopping, and they're like, well, maybe that doesn't make so much sense, but no, but we are a people of miracles. We're here to help others. We're here to do good things. We're here to make this world a better place, even if it doesn't make sense, even if it doesn't follow the rules of nature. That's the definition of what it means to be a jewish person.
And the truth is mitzrayim. The word mitzrayim comes from the root mitsarem, which means confinement and limitation. Yitzias Mitzrayim was not just leaving a geographical place, a specific place, a certain country. But it's leaving yitzyas matrim. It's leaving our own meitzarem ugvulum. It's leaving our own limitations.
Egypt, Mitzrayim was a society that worshiped the power of nature. And they worshipped the power of people, right? They worshiped pharaoh as a God. They worshiped the Nile river, because it's the power of nature to irrigate the land. And they were very scientifically advanced.
They had a lot of ingenuity and people who read about the history of Egypt and the wisdom and how they built pyramids and how they baked bread, but that's the power of nature. And the whole concept of Yitzhma Chayim is not that we don't believe in the amazing concept of nature, but that we can go beyond nature. We're not limited by nature. That's the concept of both how Hashem is relating to Usicha Meiratz Mitzrayim, and also how we relate to him in the two way relationship. So that's the idea of Kodesh Nisan. And now we're going to move on to the fact that Nisan is also referred to as Khodesh Aviv. So what is Aviv?
It's amazing.
My sister from Canada came to visit us for Pesach. And she's like, wow, spring really comes really quickly in Baltimore. She's like, everything's green, you know, in Canada, I think, I guess, takes a little bit longer. But when we talk about Chodesha Aviv, we're really, when we talk about the seasons, we're talking about the seasons in Eretz Yisrael. I mean, I think it's nice that our seasons align pretty, pretty closely, but that's really, our minds and hearts are in Eretz Yashal. So what is the concept of Aviv? What is the concept of spring? So let's look at source number twelve.
The Torah tells us, keep the month of spring. So here, this month is referred to as the month of spring, not just what you mentioned earlier, chodesharishon, and make sure that you offer the peace offering. Make it peace in the Chodesh ha aviv, because this is when hashem took you out of mitzrayim. And this word shammar is a bit curious, right? It's interesting. What does it mean? Shamor? Shamor is from the word like shabbos, shamar bazokar. What does it mean to, to keep it? What are we trying to do? So rashi in source number 13 goes on to explain that we need to make sure to keep Pesach in the spring. Make sure to figure it out that your calendar, even though hachodeshazalacham, rosh chadashem, we observe a lunar calendar, we need to make sure, make sure that Pesach stays in the spring. And before Pesach arrives, you should make sure that the aviv can also be referring to the barley ripening. So it means spring. And it could also be referring to the carbon Omer. And in order for it to ripen, it needs to be the spring weather outside the spring season, because we need to bring the carbon omer on Pisach. And so that's also a reason why Pisach needs to be in the spring. And here we see this concept of aligning the solar and lunar calendar by making sure to add a leap year before the month of Nisan, in case it's not going to, its case has moved too far away, that it wouldn't be happening in the spring.
And another interesting point that we see in the word Aviv, which I came across this year, is that Aviv actually in source number 14, Rabbeinu Bakhya says, can be broken down into two words of yud biz, the father of twelve. This is going back to the idea that the month of Nisan is the starting month. ROSH CHADASHEM right. It's the father, the starting point of the twelve months of the year that follow. So I want to stop and speak about that for a few minutes. And the concept that spring is very much about renewal.
I think we're so ready for spring, right? The past, past week, it's been so rainy and every day we look and we're hoping. I think this week is supposed to be a lot better. But there's something that gives everybody a sense of freshness and vitality when we look outside and there happens to be an apple tree on my block. My neighbor has an apple tree, and it's amazing to see, like, those tiny little buds starting to sprout and that sense that, you know, we can also grow, the sense of vitality and newness and his chachos that we were talking about earlier when we spoke about the concept of Chodesh versus Yerach and kiddosh, that's also very much embedded in the world that's surrounding us. The growth that's happening outside very much reminds us and is reflective of the spiritual growth that we're supposed to be happening, that we're supposed to be experiencing inside of us. I just have to share something funny. One of my kids feeling a little bored in school when Azar Alef came around. He's like, ma, you know, I'm so bored, or whatever, a bit of complaining. And he's like, oh, there's nothing new. Like he was, I guess he was missing this, like, feeling of Israel in his life. And I don't know how, how it came up, but I kind of made a joke, like, okay, what do you need? Like a new pair of socks. And it was like, you know, a funny pair of socks. Like, what are we going to do? Fun for Khodeshadr. And he's like, actually, you know, how about if I get a pair of funny socks for every peric I finish learning? And it became like this shtick. Like, all his friends are waiting to see what socks he's wearing and how it's connected to what they're learning. And, you know, sometimes it's a little thing, you know, his hatchas, you know, it's human nature. We're always looking. That's how we were created. We're looking for the next, the newest, right? You know, for some people, it's like the newest iPhone, the next upgrade, the new car. And, you know, hashem created us with that nature, but really, you know, the new outfit we need for pesach yes, everybody should make the time to go shopping to get something new. But when we think about this concept of the growth and the, it's really supposed to be something. It's our shama really looking for scotch and looking for growth and finding ways to tap into that spiritually. And I think Misora, you know, always has these opportunities. You have no shortage of opportunities for learning and for tapping into personal growth. And the more we learn, the more we're exposed to new ideas, the more you hear an insight, even for me. That's why I love teaching. And preparing is like, it gave me a new excitement that I didn't have in thinking about approaching rosh Chodesh tomorrow and like, wow, you know, just walking outside today and seeing, and it was a very beautiful, sunny day. And seeing everything growing made me feel about, like, okay, so what are the things? What is the new growth? I want to bring into myself, into my family, into the students that I teach, and into the people that I, that I connect with. So that's the KOdesh ha'aviv. And what's also very interesting is this concept of growth. You know, when we look outside and everything seemed like they were dead, but really there was like, life growing that, you know, the japanese maple that's outside on my, you know, front yard, and I'm looking closely, I was like, oh, wow, you look dead. But I believe there was no leaves. But like, wow, there really is growth underneath that. The tour quotes rav hai ghon, and he says that in the month of Nisan, talking about the miracles and the miracle of miracles, the double miracles is going to be Trias Hamasim.
Because. And that's why he says lahallacha. It's not just like, oh, yes, you know, concept in theory, but lahalacha. That's why on Shabbos Chalamet, on Pesach, we read the haftar of Yecheskal about the Atzamos Hayevishos, the dry bones. Right? That famous prophecy. Because there is this concept of the things that look dry and brittle are going to come back to life. So it's true both on a level outside in the vegetation and also on a spiritual level and the possibilities of growth that we can experience within ourselves.
So we've spoken about Kodesh Harisha. We've spoken about Kodesh Nisa. We've spoken about Kodesha Aviv. And I know a key emphasis of this course is what are getting a bit, maybe mystical. What is the zodiac? What is the sign of this month? So we're going to be looking at source number 15.
And the Maslow of this month is the tlah, the lamb. And there's many associations. I'm seeing this fuzzy. I'm not sure why. Maybe I'll come to in a minute. There's many associations that we can think about in terms of this sheep, this lamb. First of all, of course, we think about the carbon pesach, right? We offer the carbon pesach during the month of Nisan, and we remember this at the Seder table as well. And it also represents who we are as a people. Right.
I think that for a long time, my grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, and it was hard for me growing up as a teenager. And World War Two, the Holocaust, it was very much a part of my childhood growing up, because my grandmother would talk about it and we'd hear about it, but it also seemed very distant from my experience as an american teenager. And I think that what's been going on this year really has reminded us, unfortunately, that we are this sheep amongst the 70 wolves. And whether it's overt anti semitism or, you know, covert antisemitism, unfortunately, it is there. And this lamb, this hashem, is. We're being reminded that, you know, when hashem took us out of its tribe, this little sheep amongst the 70 nations, and hashem can do, create this miracle. The same for us. Again, other symbolisms related to the sheep is the sheep. When you think about the sound that the sheep makes, it's a sound that arouses compassion. It's like, you know, like that. Like, poor, poor little sheep. And we hope and pray that, you know, Hashem has the compassion on us. We, David Hashem, that hashem should have this compassion, just like the shepherd has towards his sheep. And one last idea related to the sheep is the concept of, you know, you can kind of see it as, like, the two sides of the same coin, right? You know, every character trait has a positive and a negative side.
A lot of people, you know, some people saw the Jews going to their deaths during the Holocaust is like, oh, they went like sheep to the slaughter, and we're not going to let that happen again.
And so that's like, oh, sheep, you know, they're very meek. They don't have an identity, right? They're not able to defend themselves.
And maybe in Mitzrayim, we felt like that sheep. But on the other hand, Hashem is protecting us. Right? Hashem took us out of the exile, out of Galas Mitzrayim. And the positive aspect of the sheep represents the concept of humility, which is a beautiful trait, not allowing people to step on you, but being humble. And humility is actually the foundation of growth. Humility is the foundation of Yiddishkay, and it's not the time right now. We have other things I wanted to discuss, but I'm just going to mention very briefly, is that's REalLY the whole message of eating matzah. When we're eating matzah at the seder taBle, the matzah is the message of humility. It's flat, it's simple, and that's how we approach our relationship with HASHEM. The foundation of the relationship is a simple, pure commitment, which is kind of the message of the humility of the sheep. And then we grow in that relationshiP, and we add more flavor to it. But that's the foundation of Arab JudaisM. That's the foundation of Ara Yiddishkayo.
Every month you've been learning also is connected to a shave it to a particular tribe, and this month it's the month of YEhuda. So what is the message of YEhuda?
Every shaved is special in its own unique way. BUT YEhuda reminds us of the fact that we are called. Firstly, we're referred to as YEhudiM, the jewish people. In the Torah, we're referred to as Bene Israel, or Bnei Yaakov. But at a certain point in history also, we became Yudin. That was also around the time of the GAlas favel. And it's related to Hoda. Hoda has two connotations. It has the connotation of humility and also that concept of gratitude. A humble person is grateful. An arrogant person thinks that I came to everything on my own. A humble person recognized the people in their lives that helped them get to where they were. And a humble person is also comfortable expressing gratitude. An arrogant person doesn't want to be beholden to anybody, so they're never going to say thank you. But that's the trade of Yehuda and Yehuda, of course, we know, is the origin of where Mahesh Yehuda comes from. Right? The kings, our jewish kings come from Malchos, Yehuda, of course, there was also Machos, Yisrael, but Mashiach David comes from Malchos, Yoda, as a descendant from Yehuda and Yuhuja is. So, as we said, he's connected to the concept of gratitude, humility, that's also the concept of a king. In Judaism, the concept of kingship is not arrogance. Right? You're amazing, but your humility that you're here to serve others, that, you know, we're all BehOlden to HAShem and Pesach is all about stepping into our nobility, tapping into. We all come from different ShVaten. That's true. But we're all part of the collective JewiSh people. And there's a message embedded within each of the Shvatim and SHiva. Yuhuda teaches us about the concept of stepping into our nobility, stepping into our ability to be leaders, each in our own spheres of influence, and using our power of speech to express gratitude. And this also connects to the fact that we talked about RoSh HAsHaNaH and we talked about RoSh Kodesh, AlfnisaN being the start of the particular, our nationhood. But it's interesting that Rosh Chodesh Nissan is actually Rosh Hashanah for kings and for festivals, right? There's four ROsh Hashanah's on the jewish calendar. There's Alefnistan, Rosh Hashanah. There is Rosh cholesh Nissan. There is two bishop Rosh Hashanah for the trees, and there's Elo, which is, sorry, not Rosh chladesh. I meant to say, for all these, I meant I'm so busy talking about Rosh Chladesh, I meant to say Rosh hashanah. There's four rosh hashanahs. Rosh Hashanah, two bishop Rosh Chladesh. Ell is Rosh hashanah for tithing the animals. And Rosh Chladesh, Nisan is Rosh hashanah for the kings. So it's very much connected to YEhuda kingship and stepping into our nobility. And the last point that I wanted to conclude with is, what is the faculty of the month? The sense that the month is related to. And Nisan is connected to the power of speech.
And that's really what we do at the Seder, the mitzvah of the Seder. Of course, we have, you know, mitzvahs that are de oraisa, such as eating matzah. And then there's mitzvahs that are durabanan. And then there's minhagim. And one of the other mitzvahs to Orisa is to tell the peace story. Le saper bts mitrayim, the chohamar, bela saper bizias mitzrayim, hare ze meshubach. So ever since we started using zoom during COVID one of the most popular famous words was mute yourself, right? Or unmute yourself. You're muted. So on Pisa, we're not supposed to be muted. We're supposed to unmute ourselves, and we're supposed to express ourselves and talk about the story of etism Israel, and talk about what redemption looks like for us, how to leave our own Meitzerm ugvulum, as we spoke about before, how to break out of our own limitations.
So sorry, give me 1 second. I'm just checking that I'm not missing anything from what I wanted to share. Yes. So here's something very interesting. In the Book of Shemos, you know, the Book of Shemos begins with the names of the Shvatim, right? These are the names of the Shvatim that went down to Mitraim. But then when you get to perek bez, it's very interesting. There's no names.
It just talks about, you know, baikach ish mibe slavey. Baikach ba slave, right? A man, a nameless man marries a nameless woman, and there's no names. And we also don't see a lot of talking going on.
This is the time period of the slavery, and that is the definition of being a slave, that you have no identity, you have no name, as we saw during the Holocaust.
You're not a name, you're a number, you're not an individual, and you have no voice. You're a slave. You don't get to speak.
You get to be told what to do. And like we spoke before about what the svarna said, as a slave, you have no control over your time. People control your time.
So what is the definition of freedom? Why is the faculty of the month speech? Because a free person is a person that gets to express themselves. A free person gets to ask questions. That's why in the haggadah, we're not afraid by questions. The jewish people celebrate questions. That's part of who we are as jews, we celebrate the questions. Sometimes the questions are better than the answers. We hope that mashiach will come very soon and give us the answers to those questions that we still don't have an answer to. But that's what the haggadah is all about, stepping into our freedom and sharing the story and asking questions. And what's so beautiful about Pesach is it's this opportunity to not only tap into our collective family story, but it's also a time that people get together with their individual families, right, and create their own stories. And there's so many rituals that people have created over Pesach. You know, ma, when are you making the strawberry ice cream? You know, to them, it's like, maybe I made it once, but, like, in their mind, it's like tradition. Right? Right. This is like, this is, how can we have pizza without strawberry or ice cream? So that's, that's the stories that we create, and we have the opportunity to create the story, to tell that story.
And it's very interesting point that the rapture Sir Rebbe actually points out, and he says that the word paro can be broken up into he ra. I hear Julie adlibbing with me. Right. Bad speech. When we talk about speech, it's not just like, oh, talk, you know, say whatever comes to your mind. But there is, there's. There is no speech. You're speechless or you have no voice. You don't get to speak. And then there can be negative speech, and then there is Pesach. Pesach, the preetreim, the arizal quoted in the Preetchayim explains Pesach can be broken down into a mouth that speaks, transforming the perah paro pera, the negative speech into Pesach positive speech. And so as we conclude tonight's share, I want to wish everybody a very, very happy rosh kodesh. If you have the opportunity to observe the solar eclipse and to offer Tefillah to hashem that the message of the moon and this tiny crescent of the moon overpowering and over eclipsing the light of the sun, which seems so much stronger, but we are the people of the moon, so that miracle should come true. And especially this is a class of women. We all know how much women are associated with the moon and how the mitzvah Vosh Chodesh, is a gift for us women.
So that's also something for us to think about and to especially maybe, maybe Kodesh Nissan should be a month that women celebrate it in an extra special way because it's their rosh chadashem. And to summarize, you know, the key points that we spoke about is to remember that Kodesh Nisan is a month of his, to tap into our power of his hatches, and especially in the realm of Brookhis, in the realm of spiritual growth and emotional growth and connection with Hashem, and to remember that we want to celebrate. We celebrate the kodesh. And the word Chodesh versus Yarach is used because it's not same old, but I want a life of Khidosh, a life of newness, a life of vitality, and to remember that this is also Kodesh Harishon. We are a people of miracles. That's the Chodesha Rishon. Rishon from what? Rishon from Yitzias Mitzrayim. This is the month of Yitzias mitzrayim. And also Itzhodesh Nisan. Not only did Hashem do a miracle for us back then with Yitz Mitzrayim, but Hashem continued to do miracles for us with the miracle of the redemption from Galos favel, where the names Nisan Ir originate from. And, of course, it's Chodesha Abiba. The growth that is happening outside reminds us of the birth of new possibilities that we can experience inside. And all of this very much connects to the miracle that we can create in our own lives. Of course, we want the miracles from top down, but we can create our own miracle. We can create our own story. And to remember Hachodesh Hazel, I am in control of my time. I can think about how I want to best maximize the time that Hashem gives me here on earth. And I am also stepping into my freedom, my capacity of speech, that I have the power to create my own story. Just to add a point to that part of telling our own story is, you know, many times we experience this. The same experience can be seen in two different ways. It depends the story that we tell ourselves. So also thinking about that, I'll never forget one year peace. I was feeling particularly overwhelmed, and I went down to my Pesach kitchen. I had a new baby, and my husband was out of town, and it was, like, four days before Pesach. And I was like, I don't even know where to begin. There was like. And our family, Minhug, is, like, to make everything from scratch. So there were, like, cases and cases of produce to peel. And I make my own tomato sauce and my own everything.
And I'm like, hashem, help me. I'm feeling like, this is a lot. And my daughter turns to me, and she says, I love Pesach. She was all of eight years older then. And I'm like, really? Tell me why, please. And she's like, oh, I love the sound of the silver foil crinkling, you know, when you cover the sink?
And I love the sound of the water on the silver foil. She was picking such interesting things that I honestly didn't even notice. Like, she was giving me a new pair of eyes to look at. She's like, and I love the meat that you make on Pesach and the strawberry ice cream. And when I saw it through her eyes, I kind of, like, mustered up the energy to like, okay, you've got this. You're, you know, Hashem is going to help you. And I started peeling that first item that I needed to peel, but it's like, okay, what's the story that we tell ourselves? Is it a story of overwhelm? Or is it a story that, you know, you got this. And what a gift, Baruch Hashem, that you have people in your life that you can cook for, and you have the ability to be able to enjoy, you know, Pesach. So that's the message of creating and telling our own story. The power of speech of Chlonisan. And also, it's the month of Yehuda stepping into our nobility and expressing gratitude. And may Hashem make this month, as we said, if you see double nuns, it's a month of double miracles. And may this happen speedily in our days, even before she. So I'll stay on. If anybody has any questions, I'm happy to.
[01:02:14] Speaker B: Thank you so much. That was amazing. Thank you so much.
Are there any questions? If anyone has any questions, you can sort of raise your hand or let us know. If not, I will wish everybody a good night, an early hope desh tov and hope to see everybody Tuesday night in person as well as Wednesday. And then I. Then we're leaving you on your own for a few weeks.
[01:02:41] Speaker A: Thank you so much.
It was beautiful. Very special. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. A lot of his. Thank you. Thank you so much. You're welcome.
Thank you.
[01:02:58] Speaker B: Thank you so much.
[01:02:59] Speaker A: You're welcome.
[01:03:04] Speaker B: It's very inspiring, really.
Thank you.
[01:03:08] Speaker A: Thank you for having.
[01:03:09] Speaker B: Good night, everyone. Good night.
[01:03:11] Speaker A: Good night.
[01:03:12] Speaker B: Good night.
Bye.
