In light of all the above, we can now understand the connection between “He opened with Bereishis... ‘He declared the power of His works to His people, to give them the heritage of the nations’” and “This month shall be for you, which is the first mitzvah commanded to Israel” — two themes whose connection was noted earlier (section 3).
The idea of “He declared the power of His works... to give them the heritage of the nations” — i.e., the conquest of the Land of Israel — also alludes to {the broader mandate of} “and subdue it”: the conquest of the (material) world itself. This refers to the task of the Jewish people to “take possession” of the world and transform it into holiness, just as the Land of Israel {is defined as} the Holy Land. In other words, this represents the extension of holiness into the dimension of space.
This, then, is the connection to the concept of “This month shall be for you.” The essence of this mitzvah is the extension of holiness into the dimension of time. Although time is an element of creation that cannot be lengthened or shortened at will, and although it is defined by its fixed parameters — past, present, and future — which apply equally to all, the Jewish people transform time itself into an object (cheftza) of Torah and mitzvos.
This transformation applies not only to the lunar months — by which the Jewish people reckon their calendar (as they are likened to the moon) and which directly determine the dates of the Festivals — but also to the solar years. {Although the sun is typically} associated with the nations of the world, who calculate their years by the solar cycle, the Jewish people transform this dimension as well, such that “the years we follow are solar years.” {Through this mitzvah,} the solar year itself becomes “Jewish time” — a Jewish year — and an integral component of the mitzvos of the Torah: “It shall be for you the first of the months of the year.”
Through this {dual} service of spiritually conquering the Land {space} and conquering time, we hasten the actual, physical conquest of the Land of Israel with the coming of our righteous Moshiach, who will “gather the dispersed of Israel.” At that time, the promise will be fulfilled: “I will restore your judges (whose function is Torah) as at first” and once again we will “calculate and establish months and intercalate years... in the Land of Israel,” based on the testimony of witnesses, by the Sanhedrin. The authority and place of that Great Court are rooted in the Chamber of Hewn Stone, adjacent to the Altar in the Holy Temple in the Land of Israel — {may it be rebuilt} speedily in our days, in the literal sense.
From sichos delivered on Shabbos Parshas Tazria 5717 (1957) and Shabbos Bereishis (during the second farbrengen), 5744 (1983)
