HaChodesh

Overview

Parshas HaChodesh is the last of the four special parshiyos, read on the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Nissan (or on Rosh Chodesh itself). It opens with the very first mitzvah given to the Jewish people as a nation: sanctifying the new moon and marking Nissan as the head of the months, followed by the laws of the Pesach offering. Its theme is renewal (chiddush) and the sanctification of time, as Nissan inaugurates the new year of redemption and Bnei Yisrael are empowered to become masters over the calendar and over creation itself.

Themes

• Renewal hidden within nature
• Sanctifying time
• Nissan, new year of love
• Bnei Yisrael, masters of time
• The hidden inner vitality
• Three seals: world, year, soul

Must-read teachings

1. 1Four parshiyos as stages of rectificationWe have already written elsewhere the words of my grandfather, of blessed memory, that before the sin the Mishkan was mentioned before Shabbos, and afterward Shabbos before the Mishkan. The Chiddushei HaRim noted that in the Torah's account…תרל"ד
2. 2Finding renewal of holiness in every deedIt is written "Vayakhel (and he assembled)" before the mitzvah of Shabbos, because on Shabbos [all] unite in the secret of the One (raza de-echad). This is the essential matter of Shabbos: that all of a person's desires and powers be attach…תרל"א
3. 3Three seals of holiness in world, year, soulThe continuation of the parsha, "and Moshe gathered..." (Shemos 35:1). The Sefas Emes connects to the parsha in which Moshe gathered the people and conveyed to them the laws that follow. And he told them the parsha of Shabbos and the Mishka…תרנ"ט
4. 4Two formations: outer body, inner neshamahIn the Midrash: "Back and front You have formed me" (Tehillim 139:5) — if one merits, he inherits two worlds. The Midrash reads "achor vakedem" as alluding to two dimensions of a person, and teaches that one who is worthy gains a share in b…תרמ"ו
5. 5Sanctifying time and the inner gate"This month shall be for you" (Shemos 12:2). Chazal said that Moshe Rabbeinu found this difficult to grasp, and Hashem showed him as it were a vision of the moon, saying, "Like this, see and sanctify." Moshe could not picture exactly how to…תרמ"ז-תרמ"ח
6. 6Bnei Yisrael as masters over timeIn the Midrash on "This month shall be for you (the head of months)" (Shemos 12:2): "The voice of my Beloved, behold, it comes" (Shir HaShirim 2:8), etc. The Midrash links the first mitzvah of the month to the verse describing the Beloved (…תרמ"ה
7. 7Bnei Yisrael awaken creation's renewalIn the Midrash: "Wisdom has built her house" — the days of Bereishis (creation), etc.; "she has sent out her maidens, she calls," etc. The Midrash applies the verses of "Chochmah built her house" to the work of creation, the seven days, and…תרל"ח
8. 8Hidden order of creation revealed through TorahNow the Maharal wrote in the introduction to his sefer Gevuros Hashem, to refute the words of the philosophers who do not believe that the Holy One performs a miracle to change the order of nature. The Maharal sets out to answer the philoso…תרמ"ז-תרמ"ח