Rosh Chodesh Nissan, 5744 [1984]
Coming from Shabbos Parshas HaChodesh, and into this day of Rosh Chodesh Nissan, the first thought that immediately comes to mind is the first Rosh Chodesh Nissan in the Torah, in the said Parshah, when this day was designated as the first day of the first month, the month of Yetzias-Mitzraim, Zman Cheiruseinu (the Season of Our Liberation).
The Torah relates that on that day, Rosh Chodesh Nissan — two weeks before the deliverance from Egyptian enslavement — our Jewish people received the first Mitzvah: Kiddush-HaChodesh, Sanctification of the New Moon, whereby the first day of each month is sanctified as “Rosh Chodesh,” in conjunction with the Molad (“rebirth”) of the moon as it reappears as a narrow crescent. Together with this came other details of our Jewish Luach (annual calendar), including Ibbur Shonim (proclaiming a Leap Year by inserting an additional month of Adar). Thus our Luach was instituted on the basis of the Lunar year (twelve lunar months), coupled with an adjustment to the Solar year by the intercalation of an additional month after every two or three years, making that year a Jewish Leap Year (consisting of 13 months). In this way, the “accumulated” deficiency of the Lunar year relative to the Solar year is filled in, as required by the Torah that the month of Nissan — Chodesh haAviv (“Spring Month”) — be kept in the spring, as at the time of the Exodus; thereafter all our other festivals also occur in their proper season.
At the same time, on the same day of Rosh Chodesh Nissan, our Jewish people were instructed by HaShem concerning the Korban-Pesach (Pesach sacrifice) and Chag HaPesach, as to how Jews are to celebrate the Festival of Our Liberation, Zman Cheiruseinu, not only as the anniversary of our deliverance from physical slavery, but also — and especially — as our Festival of Freedom in the spiritual sense, namely liberation not only from enslavement to Mitzrayim of yore, but to all “Mitzrayims” at all times and in all places. This surely is a basic instruction in Torah (“Torah,” from the word hora'ah, meaning “instruction”), which, like all instructions of the eternal Torah, is eternal and valid at all times and wherever Jews live; certainly instructions that are connected with Pesach, the Season of Our Freedom, which is a preparation for Matan Torah and Kabbalas HaTorah (being given and accepting the Torah at Sinai and ever since)...
