One and All Together

Passover 2012

(Exodus 12:21-51)

Précis: In the special Torah reading for the first day of Passover, Moses instructs the elders of Israel in the laws of Passover. All generations are to observe the Passover traditions. The reading concludes with the last of the ten plagues: the slaying of the Egyptian firstborn. Pharaoh summons Moses and Aaron and tells them that he wants them out of Egypt as soon as possible. Moses and Aaron comply, and the children of Israel begin to make a quick exit, not allowing time for their bread to rise.

Exodus 12:2  “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.

For this d'var for Passover, I wanted to focus on a verse related to Passover which comes just a bit before the “official” reading in the text.

In the verse above, we read God’s command that the month of Nissan is to be the "first month of your year." One traditional commentary suggests that it is the first month because it is the onset of transformational freedom for the Jewish People. They "went down" to Egypt as an extended family; they "go forth up out" from Egypt as a new and unique People.

On the other hand, we know that Passover is not “really” the Jewish New Year, which we celebrate on Rosh Hashanah. One might say that we number our months from Nissan, but count our years from Tishrei. JTS Chancellor Schorsch pointed out in his weekly commentary (4/19/03) that the different ways of counting these “years” arose in Mishnaic times, when the sacrificial system was gone and Rosh Hashanah had growing importance with its focus on an individual's relationship to God. Passover remained an expression of the collective fate of the People, particularly as they were scattered throughout the Diaspora.

But the rabbinic emphasis on Rosh Hashanah did not transform Judaism. As Schorsch teaches, Rosh Hashanah joins Passover; it does not replace it.  While the importance of the individual has intensified on Rosh Hashanah, the significance of the group remains powerful. On Pesach, we focus on the collective story of the emergence of a People, celebrated by beginning a new way to count the months. Yet by tradition, each of us individually personally participated in the Redemption, and each individual is responsible to add to the telling of the story of the Exodus.

So this Pesach, we individually join in the collective People of Israel, expressed not only around the seder table, but around the world and across the centuries to Egypt and Sinai.

Have a Shabbat Shalom, and a Chag Sameach.