“This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be for you the first of the months of the year.” (Shemot 12:2)
An appropriate explanation can be given as to why it was necessary to tell Israel the section regarding the sanctification of the month before they departed from Egypt. We must also carefully analyze the meaning of the words: “This month shall be for you.”
We find in the Mishnah (Eduyot 2:10) that the judgment of the Egyptians lasted twelve months. The Midrash (Shemot Rabbah 9:12) says that each plague lasted a quarter of a month, while the remaining days at the beginning of the month served as the warning period.
At first glance, it would seem that the judgment of the Egyptians lasted only ten months, as there were ten plagues. The Maharsha (Rosh Hashanah 11a) explains that there must have been intermediate periods during the year in which there was neither plague nor warning; therefore, when the Sages say the judgment of the Egyptians was twelve months, they mean that twelve months elapsed from the beginning of the plagues and their warnings until their conclusion.
However, even according to this explanation, it is necessary to understand why the process was structured this way and did not simply consist of ten consecutive months of plagues without interruption.
It can be explained as follows: the Divine Name Havayah (the Tetragrammaton Y-H-V-H) expresses that Hashem is the One who gives existence to all things. Just as He created the world out of nothing and granted it existence and permanence, that very principle was denied by Pharaoh, who maintained that everything stemmed from fate, the stars, sorcerers, and the like.
For this reason, HaKadosh Baruch Hu desired that the punishment of Egypt last twelve full months, so that the judgment would be extended throughout that entire time. In this way, Pharaoh could not say: “If this month had passed, the fate or the influence of that [next] month would have saved me.”
Therefore, his judgment deliberately lasted twelve months, corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and also corresponding to the twelve tribes—who are compared to the stars and constellations—as well as the twelve diagonal boundaries that HaKadosh Baruch Hu established in the creation of the world, which was created through His Name.
These also correspond to the twelve combinations of the Divine Name Havayah, for in each month a different combination of the Name and one of the twelve constellations dominates. All of this corresponds to the twelve tribes and the twelve boundaries of Creation. Therefore, Egypt was punished and judged under all the combinations of the letters of the Divine Name.
Now, twelve times the Name Havayah (26 times 12) has the numerical value (Gematria) of the word chodesh (חֹדש—‘month’, which equals 312). Therefore, at the conclusion of that judgment which the twelve combinations exercised over Egypt—since the wicked convert the Attribute of Mercy into the Attribute of Justice—Hashem gave Israel the mitzvah of sanctifying the month and said to them: “Hachodesh hazeh (החודש הזה: ‘This month’) shall be for you.”
That is to say: those twelve combinations, whose numerical value corresponds to that of zeh (זה: ‘this’, which equals 12) and chodesh (חֹדש: ‘month’, which equals 312), which acted with judgment against Egypt, shall be for you a source of goodness and mercy.
Based on the above, it can also be explained that the mitzvah of sanctifying the month was commanded because when a person sees the renewal of the moon and recites the corresponding blessing, they are proclaiming the renewal of Creation, which is one of the foundations of faith. Thus, one recognizes the Divinity of the Creator of the World, who renewed Creation in the same way He renews the moon each month, as Rabbeinu Bachya writes (Shemot 12:2).
And this is precisely the opposite of the belief held by the wicked Pharaoh.
(Zera Shimshon, Parashat Bo, Art. 6)
