This week, in Parashat Bo, we read of the final preparations for the Israelites’ journey out of Egypt. God declares, “This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you” (Exodus 12:2). And so it is. From this point forward, the Torah refers to the month in which our ancestors left Egypt as the first month. As a result, the month which begins with “the day of the sounding of the shofar” – what we know as Rosh Hashanah – becomes the seventh month. That seems strange: how could Rosh Hashanah – the celebration of the beginning of the year – be in the seventh month and not the first?
Like with so many things, our tradition offers multiple explanations. Primarily, however, we understand from the text that we begin counting time from the moment of our liberation. This makes sense, because slaves have no need to count time: every day is the same as the last and the same as the next; there is nothing to plan for, nothing to look forward to. By contrast, free people must be responsible for their time. The Israelites needed to make plans for the future and organize themselves through a consistent accounting of time. In addition, they had the opportunity to track the events they had experienced as they looked back in time to their journey to freedom. So the time of the exodus becomes a critical juncture in the lives of our people. It marks the establishment of the unique identity of our people.
Rosh Hashanah, too, is an essential moment in our calendar. On it, we celebrate the anniversary of the creation of the world, which, according to the rabbis (but not mentioned explicitly in the Torah) occurred at that time. Rosh Hashanah, therefore, is associated with a universal theme, one that is associated with all of creation and all people everywhere. It stands in clear contrast to the particular nature of Passover as a moment of significance for Jews, and not specifically for all people.
So which one marks the beginning of the year? In true Jewish form, they both do. The first day of Nisan – the month of Passover – marks the new year for the Jewish people, and the first day of Tishrei – the month of Rosh Hashanah – marks the new year for the world. With a final note of perfect balance, those two dates stand exactly half a year apart from one another, so that when you reach the end of the cycle of the year on one calendar, you are exactly halfway through the other calendar cycle. In that way, we never reach a complete and final end. There is no moment where we are not somehow engaged in the work of improving the world. Even when we reach the end of the year, we find that we are still in the midst of a year according to another system of accounting.
May we continue to be worthy of living in both calendars of time, a universal one that guides us to bring goodness to the world, and a particular one that inspires us to live fully as Jews, affirming our covenant with God and embracing the richness of the traditions we have learned from our ancestors over so many generations.
I invite you to share your comments on this week’s Torah discussion here.
Shabbat shalom.
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