Netvort
Parshas Bo 5771: Time to Go
Why was the mitzvah of sanctifying the new month of such importance as to be the first mitzvah given to the Jews, and why was the mitzvah of the Pesach sacrifice so important that it was given immediately afterwards? In regard to sanctifying the new moon, my teacher, Rav Aharon Soloveichik, zt'l, cited the short poem of Rav Yehudah HaLevi, who wrote that slaves of time are slaves of slaves, while only a servant of God isruly free. A slave is not the master of his own time, but is under the control of his master as to how to order his time. The mitzvah of determining the time that the new month starts gave the Jews a mastery over time, and so made them into free men.Rav Kook says that to be free means to be able to act in accordance with one's inner self. Given this definition of freedom, by undertaking the mitzvos and submitting oneself to God's authority, a person becames truly free, because God, is the Creator of man, and understands human nature better than anyone else. Through committing oneself to God's time schedule, as embodied in the mitzvos of the Torah, the Jew is guided towards actualizing his true inner self, and thereby becomes a free person.
We may add the comment of the Netziv in his Ha'amek Davar in the beginning of the parsha ( Shemos,10:2) where He says that God demands of non-Jews only a general affirmation of His existence and presence in the historical process. This requirement, being of a general nature, does not change from day to day. We find, however, that in regard to the Jews, God speaks of their recognition and service of Him 'all of the days' ( see, for example, Yehioshua, 4:24).This kind of cognition involves an ongoing process of growth in his relationship with God, and an elaborate system of mitzvos which must be done to serve Him. This distinguishing characteristic of the Jews' obligation to God underscores their need to order their time, on a daily basis, around their commmitment to God, which is the message of the mitzvah of sanctifying the new moon.
. Perhaps we can also add that it was for this reason that when Moshe first spoke to Pharaoh about releasing the Jews from thier servitude, the result was that their daily wiork load was increased. according to Rav Kook in his Olas Reiyah,, the experience of serving Phaaaoh was a kind of preparation for serving God,andthisis the meaning of the Talmudic requirement of structuring the Passover Haggadah, through which we fulfill the mitzvah of of telling over the story of the exodus from Egypt, around the principle of beginning with the nation's degraded state and ending with its exalted state. The idea here, says Rav Kok, is to show that the degraded state actually generated the exalted state. According the opinion that these two states refer to the physical enslavement of the people, and their subsequent release from slavery, serving Pharaoh was a process of training the people toward serving God. Since God would have to be served on a daily basis, the redemption process began with an emphasis on the daly obligations that the perople had to Pharaoh.
The mitzvos of the Pesach sacrifice, given immediately after the mitzvah of sanctifying the new moon, points to another important aspect of Jewish peopled, in contrast to character of the Egyptian people, and, in a more general sense, of the non-Jewish world as a whole. Rabbi Mordechai Elon, in his Mikdash Mordechai, writes very beautifully that when the Torah describes the situation in Egypt during the plague of darkness, it describes, in fact, a fundamental difference between the Jewish nation and the Egyptians. The Torah tells us that during the plague of darkness, " no man could not see his brother " ( Shemos, 10:23). Rabbi Elon says that the Egyptians were so wrapped up in their own suffering due the darkness surrounding them that they could only see what was within their own private space, and did not see what was happening with their brothers. In regard to the Jews, however, the verse ends by saying that for the Bnei Yisroel, there was light in their dwellings. The Jews did look at the predicament of their fellow Jews, and they helped each other out. This is the symbolism of the Pesach sacrifice, which was brought by different groups gathered together to share in their commitment to God through sacrificing the animal that constituted the object of the Egyptians' idol worship.The individual Jew is always identified with the collective, and feels a bond with his fellow Jews. This experience of national brotherhood was a corrective to the event that triggered the exile in Egypt, namely, the conflict between Yosef and his brothers.
Returning to the mitzvah of sanctifying the new moon, the mitzvah is incumbent upon beis din, the highest Jewish court.Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, zt'l, in his celebrated essay on this mitzvah, demonstrates that beis din, in performing this mitzvah, acts as a representative of the entire Jewish people. In Egypt, when the mitzvah was first performed, it was, as Rashi points out, Moshe and Aharon who carried it out. This example of Moshe and Aharon working together, in contrast to the conflict that existed between Yosef and his brothers, that generated the exile in Egypt, thus served as a representative characteristic of the Jewish nation as a whole, with each person seeing his brother and working together with him. This joint message of these two mitzvos served as the first step of the nation toward the great event of the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai, when the entire nation stood as one man with one heart in service of God.
By Rabbi Joshua (obligatorily known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
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With
thanks to the Almighty for sustaining me, and a prayer that He continue to
do so, this week's message marks the completion of thirteen years of Netvort.
Thanks to the readers for their comments, criticisms and patience with my
typos, a tip of the Hoffer cap to my gabbai/editor for his continued
assistance, and a special note of thanks to all those who helped publish
Netvort during my stay in the hospital this past October.
In memory of Rav Moshe Soloveichik, zt'l, whose 70th Yahrzheit occurs this
Shabbos, the 3rd of Shevat. Rav Moshe, together with his sons Rav Yosef Dov
and Rav Aharon, played a major role in bringing Toras Brisk to America. May
his memory be a blessing.
In this week's parsha, Pharaoh finally grants permission to the Jews to leave Egypt. On the cusp of that event, God gives Moshe the first mitzvos that are to be commanded to the Jewish nation. This section of parshas Bo, beginning with the mitzvah of sanctifying the new month, and continuing with the laws of the Pesach sacrifice, is read as the maftir for parshas HaChodesh every year.The series of laws regarding the Pesach sacrifice begins with the requirement, for the sacrifice that was brough\t in in Egypt, to separate the animal and inspect it for blemishes on the tenth of Nissan, four days before it was slaughtered. This was actually the first mitzvah that was performed by the nation itself. Although the mitzvah of sanctifying the new moon was the first mitzvah given to the nation, that mitzvah was done by teir representatives. The Pesach sacrifice could be done by a shliach, or agent, but each person had to at least appoint an agent, so that, in effect, each person took part in bringing the sacrifice, in some way. Rabbi Shlomo Freilich, who served as rabbi of Sons of Israel in Mt. Vernon for over fifty years, once told me that one of the reasons for calling the Shabbos before Pesach by the name of Shabbos HaGadol, is that it was the Shabbos on which the nation became obligated in its first mitzvah, and so, just as a boy who turns thirteen is henceforth halachically considered as a gadol, meaning, an adult, because he has entered the yoke of the mitzvos, so too did the Jewish nation attain the status of adulthood. on this Shabbos. In Egypt, the Shabbos before the exodus fell on the tenth of Nissan, which was four days before the redemption.
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