By Rabbi Moshe Pogrow
While the Jews were still in Egypt, Hashem gave Moshe and Aharon a new mission. Until now, they had been Hashem’s messengers to Pharaoh. Henceforth, they would be Hashem’s messengers to klal Yisrael.
Until now, their task had been to perform osos u’mofsim in Egypt, to call attention to natural phenomena that revealed Hashem and stirred human emotions. Through these phenomena, they would attempt to induce change and renewal in Pharaoh’s heart. But Pharaoh had been corrupt for too long. Only dread and fear could wrest submission from his heart.
Folly and corruption do not give way even in the face of awesome signs and wonders. To prevent them from taking root in His people, Hashem began the formation of His people with an os, a periodically recurring sign that would redirect their attention to Him. Each time they saw it, this sign would rejuvenate them and ensure eternal vitality for truth and purity, ensuring that klal Yisrael would be forever immunized against the spiritual laziness of Egypt. On the threshold of a new Jewish future, Hashem showed Moshe and Aharon the silver crescent of the new moon, saying “Hachodesh hazeh lachem rosh chadashim,” this renewal shall be for you a beginning of new moons (literally, a beginning of renewals).
Thus, the Jewish sanctification of the new moon provides spiritual rejuvenation for klal Yisrael. Through Rosh Chodesh, they are reminded at regular intervals to strive once again. Through their monthly reencounter with G-d, they will achieve that renewal. That is why Rosh Chodesh is our first mitzvah. It forms the foundation of our Jewish consciousness, distinguishing it from paganism.
Paganism does not know of renewal, not of the world, nor of man, nor of its gods. It determines everything by ironclad necessity. Today is formed from yesterday, and tomorrow from today. Just as it denies yesh mei’ayin, creation from nothing by the free will of a Creator, it also denies yesh mei’ayin in man’s heart. To paganism, man has no godlike freedom. Evil produces evil, in an endless procession, all free choice is but an illusion, anything new was already present in the old.
It was in Egypt, a pagan land where even the social caste system was rigid, that Hashem called the leaders of His people, showed them the crescent moon struggling to emerge from darkness to light, and said, “This is your model!” Each time the moon renews itself, let it remind you to renew yourselves. Wherever we go, klal Yisrael proclaim a message of chiddush, the teaching of G-d who creates in freedom through Whom men become morally free, and masters of their own destiny.
Based on the commentary of Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch zt”l on Chumash, with permission from the publisher.
