Bo – Controlling Time

We get our first mitzva as a nation this week. החדש הזה לכם ראש חדשים ראשון הוא לכם לחדשי השנה. This month is yours as the “head” of all months, it is the first of the months of the year to you. This mitzva defines our calendar and how we would be keeping track of time. All ancient civilizations worshipped the sun, it is the world’s source of light, of growth, of warmth and it was the primary time teller for the world until that day when Hashem told Moshe, My nation will follow the moon for time.

The frequently conveyed and exquisitely beautiful message is that the Jews would have the power to renew themselves just as the moon renews itself every month, indeed the word for month in Hebrew חדש is the same as חדש which means new. The Jewish people have been like the phoenix that rises from its own ashes and is always reborn fresh. We have been hunted, murdered, plundered, and burned, yet every time we are born again. We cycle and are renewed just like the moon. (Parenthetically, the word for year is שנה which relates to the word שינוי which means change, which would seem to contradict this idea. I could never figure out how to tie that in, if you have any ideas I’d love to hear).

I would like to bring out another point that I think teaches us how we are meant to see ourselves in God’s world.

The מדרש רבה פרק ט”ו says on the word לכם, that the מלאכים asked Hashem, when will you make the holidays throughout the year, and Hashem replied both you and I will agree to make the holidays when the Jews decide they should be [based on when they set the new month], like it says in the Pasuk אלה מועדי יהוה אשר תקראו אתם, these are the holidays of Hashem, that you will call them out. Hashem’s holidays follow our decisions and calendar, so to speak. But the word אתם (osam) can also be read to mean  אתם, with a פתח and סגול (atem), which means you [in plural], and so the מדרש explains that Hashem said, time itself and the holidays as a result of that are yours to control. And whether based on nature they are in the right time or not, the only holidays that I have are when you declare them. And the גמרא even discusses the right of the Jewish court to manipulate testimony in order to make the months longer or shorter if it would benefit the people (obviously this system was not taken advantage of). It sounds from this מדרש like time is something malleable and flexible that is in our hands to control and mold to better fit our wills. How is this possible? How can the Source of reality כביכול subjugate Himself to our decisions? And how can we in 2018 tap into this awesome power of controlling time?

I think the answer lies in the continuation of the פרשה. Right after the Torah tells how the Jews left Egypt we learn about the mitzva of פדיון הבן, how the firstborn is holy and belongs to Hashem and needs to be redeemed. קדש לי כל בכור פטר כל רחם בבני ישראל באדם ובבהמה לי הוא.

I think as we are born as a nation, Hashem is trusting us with time itself, but we must remember, all things really belong to Hashem. Paradoxically, we only have power over nature; to the extent that we are able to subjugate ourselves to Hashem’s reign and power.

The timeline from birth of a firstborn baby boy portrays this beautifully. Hashem Himself holds the keys to birth, it is a truly miraculous and awe-inspiring event. Life begins. Immediately the preparations for a bris begin. The mitzva of ברית מילה is paralleled to ראש חודש in the sense that they both portray our mastery over nature. With ראש חודש we master time, and with מילה we master our physical bodies. We have this incredible event of מילה which brings this tiny child into the Jewish nation, but there is another event which follows. The פדיון הבן which is meant to remind us that the amazing act of מילה we just performed a few weeks earlier which gives this child the power to affect the world around him as well as time itself is defined and contained by the knowledge that in truth everything belongs to Hashem.

In this week’s פרשה we are born as God’s firstborn. Hashem Himself held the key to leading us out of Egypt and our birth as a nation. It was an awesome process that showed the world that God existed. While that birth was happening, the planning of our first mitzva of קידוש החודש was simultaneously happening, the mitzva with which we would portray our mastery over nature. And right after that we get reminded on the national level that our power can not be linked to our ego. Our power comes from within us, but from a deeper place than our ego. It comes from the part of us that is rooted under the כסא הכבוד.

It is no easy feat to tap into this incredible and practically indescribable power that every single one of us has, but as we listen to the Torah’s recounting of these events on a national may we all be zoche to be lifted and feel our own personal powers.