רש"י: אמר ר' יצחק: לא היה צריך להתחיל את התורה אלא מהחדש הזה לכם ראש שהיא מצוה ראשונה שנצטוו בה ישראל. (בראשית א:א)

Rashi: R. Yitzchak said: “(God) could have begun the Torah from ‘This month shall be for you’ because it is the first commandment that Israel was commanded …” (Bereshit 1:1)

But, if so, what is the commandment that is reflected in these verses. Rashi offers two interpretations:

רש"י: הראהו לבנה בחידושה ואמר לו כשהירח מתחדש יהיה לך ראש חדש. ואין מקרא יוצא מידי פשוטו – על חדש ניסן אמר לו – זה יהיה ראש לסדר מנין החדשים שיהא אייר קרוי שני, סיון שלישי."

Rashi: God showed Moshe the moon in its state of renewal and said to him: “When the moon renews itself, it will be the beginning of the month for you.” But the verse cannot depart from its simple meaning – with regard to the month of Nissan, He said: “This will be the beginning of the order of the counting of the months, so that Iyar will be called the second month, and Sivan the third.”

Thus, according to Rashi, the simple meaning of the verse is that it identifies Nissan as the first month. According to the MidRashic interpretation, the commandment relates to the sanctification of the new month (קדוש החודש), the process by which the new month was determined.[1] According to the simple meaning, the word חדשmeans “month”, while according to the MidRashic explanation, it means “moon”.

What motivated Rashi to bring the MidRashic interpretation rather than being satisfied with the simple meaning of the verse. Apparently, Rashi is responding to two difficulties in the text:

1) The commandment is addressed specifically to Moshe and Aharon without an indication that they should teach it to Bnai Yisrael. As Ramban states:

רמב"ן: היה ראוי שיאמר תחילה דברו אל כל עדת בני ישראל לאמר החדש הזה לכם …

Ramban: It would have been appropriate for the verse to begin with the phrase: “Speak to all of the congregation of Bnai Yisrael saying: ‘This month shall be to you …’”

The fact that verse 12:3 does begin with this very phrase seems to emphasize the fact that verse 2 was addressed just to Moshe and Aharon.

2) The verse seems redundant in that it repeats two apparently identical phrases:

1) החדש הזה לכם ראש חדשים

2) ראשון הוא לכם לחדשי השנה

What is added by the second phrase?

By bringing the MidRashic explanation as well as the simple meaning, Rashi resolves both of these difficulties:

1) The sanctification of the new month was the ultimate responsibility of the court. Thus, the instructions relating to the identification of the new moon were not given to all of Bnai Yisrael, but only to those with judicial responsibility. This concept is expressed by Ramban as follows:

רמב"ן: לומר שקדוש החדש צריך בית דין מומחין ולכן לא נאמר בתחילה דברו אל כל עדת ישראל שאיו בקדוש החדש אלא משה ואהרן וכיוצא בהם.

Ramban: That is to say that the sanctification of the new month requires a tribunal of experts, and therefore it did not say at the beginning of the verse: “Speak to all of the congregation of Bnai Yisrael” – for the sanctification of the new month can only be effected by Moshe and Aharon, and people like them.

2) The apparent redundancy in the text is resolved by the implication that the verse is actually referring to two different issues. The phrase “החדש הזה לכם ראש חדשים” refers to the process of determining the beginning of the month, and the phrase “ראשון הוא לחדשי השנה” refers to the fact that Nissan is to be considered the first month of the year. This explanation is expressed by R. Samson Raphael Hirsch:

“ראש חדשים” does not mean the first month, for if this were the case, the second half of the verse, “ראשון הוא לכם”, would be a duplication without any purpose. In every place in the Bible that we find the words “ראש חדשים”, it does not refer to the “first months”, but to the “beginnings of the months”.

The Significance of Nissan as the First of the Months

What is the significance of the identification of Nissan as the first month of the year? Ramban suggests that the numeration and identification of the months in relation to Nissan is similar to the numeration and identification of the days of the week in relationship to Shabbat:

רמב"ן: החדש הזה לכם ראש חדשים - שימנו אותו ישראל חודש ראשון וממנו ימנו כל החדשים שני שלישי עד תשלום השנה בשנים עשר חודש כדי שיהיה זה זכרון בנס הגדול כי בכל עת שנזכיר החדשים יהיה הנס נזכר. ועל כן אין לחדשים שם בתורה…. וכמו שתהיה הזכירה ביום השבת במנותינו ממנו אחד בשבת ושני בשבת.

Ramban: This month shall be to you the first of the months - That Israel will count it as the first month, and based on it, they will count the other months as second and third until the completion of the year with twelve months, in order that it be a reminder of the great miracle – for each time that we mention the months, the miracle will be remembered. Therefore, the months are not referred to by name in the Torah[2]…. And similar is the reminder of Shabbat when we count (the days of the week) from it as in “the first day of (i.e. after) Shabbat” and “the second day of Shabbat”.

Thus, Ramban posits that the numeration of the days of the week and the months of the year are designed to maintain in our consciousness the two fundamental formative events in the history of the Jewish people - the creation of the world (זכר למעשה בראשית) commemorated in the days of the week and the redemption of the Jewish people from Egypt (זכר ליציאת מצרים) commemorated in the months of the year. In this way, the Ramban also resolves the confusion as to whether Nissan or Tishrei is considered the first month of the year.

רמב"ן: ראשון הוא לכם -… שאיננו ראשון בשנה אבל הוא ראשון לכם שנקרא לו לזכר גאולתינו.

Ramban: It shall be the first to you: … That it is not the first month of the year, but it is the first to you in that it is thus called as a remembrance of our redemption.

The Significance of the Sanctification of the New Month

Why did the commandment of the sanctification of the new month, which was not relevant to the practices of Bnai Yisrael in Egypt, merit to be the first commandment given to the Jewish people? Why was it given in Egypt, rather than at Mount Sinai? Hirsch suggests that the concept of the sanctification of the new month contains an important message of repentance and renewal that was to be a cornerstone of the national existence of the Jewish people:

Hirsch: The renewal of the moon will be for you a symbol of your renewal. That is to say, that observing the renewal of the moon will lead to your own self renewal…. Therefore, it does not say “החדש הזה ראש חדשים”, but “החדש הזה לכם ראש חדשים” – to teach you that it is not talking about the astronomical months, but about the introspection into our souls…. The renewal of the moon serves as an example and as a model - that without a periodic desire for renewal, without return to God anew, and without continuously renewed reception of divine light and warmth, we would grow farther and farther from Him…. Therefore, this commandment was set at the very establishment of our nation. The truth that this commandment teaches is a cornerstone of the Jewish heritage that separates us completely from the gentiles.

[1] The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar in which the months can be 29 or 30 days in length. During Biblical times and in part of the Second Temple Period, the length of each month was established by actually observing the moon. Witnesses who saw the moon in its state of renewal would come to the court, which would then decide to accept or reject their testimony. According to Rashi, God is here instructing Moshe and Aharon how the court should determine the length of the month based on observing the moon.

[2] The Ramban brings in his commentary the Rabbinic opinion that the months were always identified in relation to Nissan (for example, “on the first day of the second month”) until the return from the Babylonian exile, at which time they adopted the names of the months (Nissan, Iyar, etc.). Ramban posits that at that point, the Babylonian names had significance as a reminder of the return from exile. He brings the following verses from Yermiyahu as a proof text for this claim: “Therefore, behold days are coming, says the L-rd, when it shall no longer be said: ‘As the L-rd lives that brought up Bnai Yisrael from the land of Egypt’, but ‘As the L-rd lives that brought up Bnai Yisrael from the land of the north …” (Yermiyahu 16:14-15)