9 minute read
Renew Us in Days of Old by Rav Moshe Weinberger
From the Fire
Parshas Bo Renew Us in Days of Old
By Rav Moshe Weinberger Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf
The first mitzvah Hashem gave the Jewish people was the mitzvah that the beis din sanctify the new moon every month. If this is our first mitzvah, it is no coincidence. It must be that it demonstrates that all of Yiddishkeit, on a national level and on the individual level, is dependent on this mitzvah. In addition, because it was given while we were still in Egypt, it must also be that mitzvah to sanctify the new month is also a prerequisite for leaving Egypt. We must understand why this is.
In addition, Hashem told Moshe to command the Jewish people to fulfill another mitzvah as well (Shmos 13:2): the mitzvah to sanctify the firstborn. Strangely, though, Moshe began speaking to the Jewish people in the next pasuk but taught them a number of other matters, including the prohibition of chometz and the mitzvah of matzah, before finally teaching them the mitzvah to sanctify the firstborn several pesukim later (ibid. at 12-13). Why is this?
The word for the new month, chodesh, is related to the word for renewal, hischadshus. The concept of the sanctification of the firstborn is also connected to the idea of something new. By studying several teachings related to newness and renewal, we can understand the answers to these questions.
The Chofetz Chaim says that there was one mishna in Pirkei Avos (2:11) that he could not understand. Raban Yochanan ben Zakai recounted the praise of his top five students. He said that (i) Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenus was a sealed pit that did not lose a drop, (ii) the one who gave birth to Rabbi Yohoshua ben Chananya was fortunate, (iii) Rabbi Yossi Hakohein was pious, (iv) Rabbi Shimon Shimon ben Nesanel was G-d fearing, and (v) Rabbi Eliezer ben Aroch was like an ever-strengthening wellspring.
The Chofetz Chaim points out that all of the traits for which the students were praised were the result of a lifetime of work. But Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenus’s phenomenal memory was a blessing of birth. It is wonderful that he blessed in such a way, but why should he be praised for something that came naturally to him? A photographic memory is something that a person either has or does not have. But it is not comparable to being pious or sin-fearing!
After pondering this question for a number of years, the Chofetz Chaim finally found the answer to his question when he witnessed a conversation between two elderly men. One of them was telling the other about an experience he had eighty years earlier, when he was only five years old. The Czar and his wife had passed through his town, and everyone gathered to watch their procession. He recounted every detail of the event to his friend. He told him about the color of the Czar’s shoes, his clothing, what his wife was wearing, exactly what his beautiful carriage looked like, and many other details of the amazing experience.
Listening to this conversation, the Chofetz Chaim realized that a person remembers every detail of something when it makes a profound impression on him. It must be that Raban Yochanan ben Zakai was not praising Rabbi Eliezer Ben Hurkenus for being born with a naturally powerful memory. Rather, he was praising him that he loved Torah so much that he was deeply affected by every word that entered his mind. He felt, when he learned every halacha, like he was a five-year-old child witnessing the Czar’s procession pass by. The key was that every word of Torah was new and exciting to him. That is an exalted level, worthy of praise.
Everyone loves new things. If a person heard a joke forty years earlier, he waves it off as an old joke. My father used a hand signal that he brought with him from Hungary that he used when someone told an old joke. The gesture consisted of holding his hand horizontally in front of his stomach, first holding his palm down toward the floor, and then up toward the ceiling. I once asked him what the gesture meant exactly. He said that when someone uses that gesture, they are saying, “When I was this high, that joke already had a beard down to here.”
One of the most beautiful things about children is that everything they experience is new and fresh. A person can play “peek-a-boo” with a young child a hundred times, and he will squeal with glee every time he uncovers his face and says “boo!” The goal of life is to be more like that child. That is why we say in benching, “I was a child and now I am an elder.” We should have the wisdom of an elder along with the wonder and freshness of a child.
The Gemara (Brachos 54a) teaches that when a person sees the Mediterranean Sea or other wonders of Creation, he should say a blessing praising Hashem for the beauty and awesomeness of His creation. However, if one sees the same sight less than thirty days from the last time he saw it, he should not make a blessing because he still feels the novelty and amazement of the experience from the last time he saw it and made the blessing. But if he sees the same wonder more than thirty days after the last time, then the feeling of amazement will have worn off such that when he sees it again, he will feel a new sense of wonder. He therefore may make the blessing again.
We see from this that, for most new experiences, their novelty wears off after thirty days. I once heard, perhaps in the name of the Sfas Emes, that there is remarkable connection between the mitzvah to sanctify the new moon and the thirty-day expiration date on the
novelty of a person’s experiences. He pointed out that the new moon occurs every twenty-nine and a half days, forty-four minutes, and 3.3 seconds, slightly under thirty days. It is beautiful. Hashem designed Creation in such a way that thirty days never goes by without a new moon. We are always in a state of renewal. We are meant to live in such a way that our Yiddishkeit never gets old. We constantly live less than thirty days from the last time of renewal. We must never allow the Torah we learn or the mitzvos we do to get stale and old. Creation was designed to help a Jew live in a state of awe and wonderment.
The calendar of the nations of the world is measured by the year, whereas ours is measured by months. Even the word for year, shana, means to “repeat,” something which is old, while the word for month, chodesh, means newness and freshness. The numerical value of Pharaoh’s name is equal to the word for year, shana. His essence was repetition, oldness. Our Yiddishkeit, on the other hand, must be like the moon, which doesn’t let thirty days pass without renewing itself. We must remain fresh, new, and warm. Moshe and Aharon left Pharaoh’s word of (Shmos 5:2) “I do not know Hashem,” that world of forgetfulness and oldness, to the world of newness, the world of “this month shall be to you the first of the months” (ibid. at 12:2).
That is why, when Hashem told Moshe to give the Jewish people the mitzvah to sanctify the firstborn, Moshe prefaced the mitzvah with several other mitzvos. The mitzvah to sanctify the firstborn means that one must dedicate times of newness, like the birth of a new child, to Hashem. He therefore teaches the Jewish people about several other mitzvos that relate to this. He first says, “Remember this day that you went out of Egypt!” We
must not forget the profound effect this experience had on us. It must remain with us to inspire and enliven our service of G-d. He tells us that we went out of Egypt in the month of spring, when the whole world is renewing itself. He teaches us the mitzvah to eat matzah and avoid chometz. Chometz means that something was left out too long, it is old. Matzah means that something is new. The water and flour are mixed together, and it goes straight into the oven. It means that our Yiddishkeit must be fresh and warm like the matzah. This dichotomy between chometz and matza is the manifestation of our obligation to live a life of the freshness and warmth of matzah and not the stale oldness of chometz.
May we merit to serve Hashem with newness and freshness, never letting it get old. By experiencing the wonder of our service of Hashem while in exile just like our grandparents experienced it when they left Egypt, may we merit to see the renewal of the world with the arrival of the final redemption in fulfillment of the Navi’s words (Micha 7:15), that “as in the days of your exodus from the land of Egypt I will show wonders.”
Rav Moshe Weinberger, shlita, is the founding Morah d’Asrah of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, NY, and serves as leader of the new mechina Emek HaMelech.
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