The Shabbat which either coincides with or immediately precedes Rosh Chodesh Nissan is Shabbat HaChodesh, and the Maftir, instead of being a repetition of the last several verses of the Torah-reading (as is usual) is Exodus 12:1-20 (vide Talmud, Megillah 29b; also the Rambam, Laws of Prayer 13:20, and the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 685:4). This paragraph commands us to calibrate our own calendar, with the Month of Aviv (Spring) as the first month and to bring the first-ever Pesach Sacrifice, in our final few days in Egypt. In later Jewish history, with the exile to Babylon, this month was renamed Nissan (as in Esther 3:7 and Nehemiah 2:1). So the month which will begin as Shabbat ends will mark the start of the Jewish year for certain purposes (which we will specify in another 4 paragraphs). “We read the section ‘HaChodesh’ (Exodus 12:1-20) on the Shabbat immediately preceding Rosh Chodesh Nissan in order to sanctify the month of Nissan, as is written in the Torah, ‘This month is the beginning of your months’” (Mishnah Berurah 685:1). The Maftir opens: “Hashem spoke to Moshe and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying: This month is the beginning of your months; it will be the first of the months of your year” (Exodus 12:1-2). This, the command that we establish our own calendar, is the first national mitzvah that G-d gave us. The Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 1:1) tells us that there are four beginnings to each year; and the 1st of Nissan is New Year for Kings. This means that regardless of when a King begins his reign, his second year of kingship begins on the 1st of Nissan. Even if he began his reign on the 29th of Adar, then the next day, 1st of Nissan, he enters the second year of his reign (Rosh Hashanah 2a). This has practical Halachic implications: for example, legal documents would typically be dated “In the third year of King Such-and-Such’s reign”, so the king’s year beginning on 1st Nissan was the halachic-legal method of dating a legal document correctly (see Chiddushei ha-Ramban, Bava Metizi’a 72a, s.v. אבל יש לדקדק). The 1st of Nissan is also the New Year for the annual cycle of Festivals; that is to say, Pesach is the first of the Festivals. Therefore when the Torah commands the Festivals, it begins with Pesach (Exodus 23:14-19, Leviticus 23:4-44, Numbers 28:16-29:39, Deuteronomy 16:1-16). We, the Jewish nation, reckon our national calendar from Nissan. That is to say, our annual cycle of Festivals begins on the New Year for Kings; because G-d Himself defined us as His “Kingdom of Priests and holy Nation” (Exodus 19:6). Every Jew must see himself or herself as royalty, as a son or daughter of the King. This is not merely some exalted theoretical concept: it has practical Halachic consequences in our day-to-day lives. The Jew’s day begins with קְרִיאַת שְׁמַע, the recital of the Sh’ma, and the latest time for reciting the Sh’ma is “by the third hour, because such is the way of sons of kings, to rise at the third hour” (Berachot 1:2; also the Rambam, Laws of Reciting the Sh’ma 1:11, and Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 58:1). It was Rabbi Yehoshua in the Talmud who defined that the Shema must be read “by the third hour, because such is the way of sons of kings, to rise at the third hour”. This prompts the question: What connexion is there between reading the Shema and the hour at which kings’ sons get up? The Tosafot Yom Tov cites the Gemara (Shabbat 111a and 128a), which laconically says that כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּנֵי מְלָכִים הֵם, “all Israel are sons of kings”, and bases practical halakhot on this idea. In fact, this has tremendous, awesome ideological implication: Whenever the Talmud speaks of Rabbi Yehoshua without defining which Rabbi Yehoshua (there were more than fifty rabbis in the Talmud called Yehoshua), it always refers to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiyah of Peki’in. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiyah was the student of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai – the man who tried with all his power to prevent the destruction of the Second Temple and to preserve Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel; and after the Destruction, he did all he could to preserve and to strengthen and to encourage the shattered and conquered Jewish nation in the Land of Israel. And Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiyah was the teacher and rabbi, the mentor and inspirer of Rabbi Akiva – the man who led the Jewish revolt against the Roman occupation and restored Jewish independence and sovereignty and kingship to Israel for almost three years. Rabbi Yehoshua was intimately acquainted with Jewish kingship, with Jewish royalty; he epitomised the concept of “a kingdom of Priests and a holy nation”. Rabbi Yehoshua, who had such a powerful connexion with kingship, transformed the very concept of royalty into daily practical halakhah. In 1932, the great Jewish visionary Ze’ev Jabotinsky penned the Beitar Anthem: הָדָר – עִבְרִי גַּם בְּעֹנִי בֶּן-שַׂר, אִם עֶבֶד, אִם הֶלֶךְ, נוֹצַרְתָּ בֶּן-מֶלֶךְ בְּכֶתֶר דָּוִד נֶעֱטָר. בָּאוֹר וּבַסֵּתֶר זְכֹר אֶת הַכֶּתֶר עֲטֶרֶת גָּאוֹן וְתַגָּר. Hadar (Glory) – A Hebrew even in poverty is the son of a prince; If a slave or a wanderer You were created the son of a king, Crowned with the diadem of David! Whether openly or in secret Remember the crown – The diadem of magnificence and struggle. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiyah infused the principle of majesty into the nation at this critical juncture of history – immediately after the Destruction of the Second Temple, at the onset of exile. Such is Judaism: the Jew is obligated to read the Shema by the third hour of the day, because sons of kings begin their day at the third hour of the day – and every Jew, though he be impoverished, though he be a wanderer in exile, is the son of the King, crowned with the diadem of King David. A Yiddish song of yearning expressed this idea beautifully and powerfully: “A Yiddishe Malchus, Rabbosay – Kennen ihr farshtein? A Malchus von leuter Hellkeit, A Malchus von Melochim alein” A Jewish kingdom, gentlemen – Can you understand that? A kingdom of absolute brilliance, A kingdom of Kings alone . This even stretches to the halachot of Shabbat: Items for which we have no use on Shabbat are defined as “muktzeh”, literally “set aside”, and we are forbidden to handle them. Money, for example, or a pen, or a box of matches: because we are forbidden commerce, writing, and lighting fire, we have no use for these items, therefore they are muktzeh. Chicken bones, likewise, are muktzeh, unless you have a pet dog or cat, in which case you have a use for bones on Shabbat (feeding your pet), therefore they aren’t muktzeh. What about broken glass shards? – It would appear that since we have no legitimate use for glass shards on Shabbat, they should be muktzeh. – Yet we are allowed to handle glass shards on Shabbat, says the Talmud (Shabbat 128a): they are not muktzeh, because ostriches eat glass shards, ostriches are birds of royalty, and all Israel are royalty, therefore every Jew has [potentially] a valid use for glass shards on Shabbat (see Melechet Sh’lomo, Shabbat 18:1, s.v. ולא את הלוף, and Rabbeinu Nissim’s elucidations to the Ri”f, Shabbat 50b, s.v. ומסקנא בגמרא). So it is eminently apposite that Jewish national history begins on Rosh Chodesh Nissan, the New Year for Kings.
