Selected and Adapted by Rabbi Do\l Karon Quote from the Rosh Yeshiva How do tefillin cause the Torah of God to be "in your mouth?" ... The phrase emphasizes to us the importance of internalizing Torah, of ingesting it, of allowing it to enter not only our heads but also our kishkes, our innards ..... The phrase "in their mouths" appears also in the context of the mitzva of writing a sefer Torah ..... There is a crucial difference between tefillin and a sefer Torah .... We first put on tefillin, accept the Torah as God's Word, unchanging and unchanged by us. Once we have attained this acceptance, we are ready to read from the sefer Torah, to study it intensely, aiming to clarify its concepts, to explain them, and to analyze them, making these divine concepts our own as well. Through this process, we can say that the Torah of God has come to our mouths and has been put in our mouths. -Harav Aharon Lichtenstein zt"I Parashat Bo "This Month Shall Be for You the Head of Months" Based on a Sicha by Harav Baruch Gigi Based on: https://www.etzion.org.il/en/month-shall-be-you-head-months "The first commandment given to Israel" In our parasha, just before the Exodus from Egypt, we find the commandment of sanctifying the new moon (Sh . 12 :1-2). Rash i's very first comment on the Torah, at the beginning of Sefer Bereishit, cites the view of R. Yitzchak, who notes the importance of this mitzva. Although the Torah begins with the words, "In the beginning God created," R. Yitzchak draws our attention to the fact that the Torah's body of mitzvot actually starts in our parasha, with the command, "This month shall be for you ." While we encounter a number of mitzvot already in Sefer Bereishit, the sanctification of the New Moon is the first mitzva that Bnei Yisrael are given as a nation. Why does this mitzva come first? Solar calendar and lunar calendar In order to understand the importance of this mitzva, let us consider 2 fundamental disagreements relating to it. a. The first dispute was raised by the Judean Desert sects, who wanted to adhere to a purely solar calendar, because it was fixed and unchanging. This emerges clearly from the Book of Jubilees, which endeavors to negate the commandment of sanctifying the New Moon as familiar to us and as observed in our time. b. A second dispute arose when Hillel II proposed to establish a fixed intercalated calendar that would determine in advance all future dates. Rabbenu Chananel, in his Likkutim al ha-Torah, proves that the calendar was actually known before the time of Hillel II, and in fact there was no need for sanctification of the New Moon on the basis of eye-witnesses in order to know when the month began and when festivals would occur. In the absence of a fixed intercalated calendar, there are 3 possibilities for determining the length of a month: a fixed solar calendar; a fixed lunar calendar; and announcing a new month on the basis of eye-witness reports, as described in Massekhet Rosh Ha-shana. At stake here is more than just the technical issue of the length of the month. The ramifications are far more profound. Clearly, the most convenient option is simply to follow the solar calendar: that way we can know in advance the date of the Seder night, we can plan for festivals long in advance, preparations can be made for Chol Ha-mo'ed outings, etc. Seemingly, a very good arrangement. Why, then, does the Torah require sanctification of dates based on the testimony of witnesses, despite the significant measure of uncertainty that this introduces regarding the approaching festivals? The Gemara (Sanhedrin 12b) notes that a leap year (i.e., an extra month of Adar) may be added even up to the 29th of (the first) Adar. Think of what this means: a household that is in the midst of feverish cleaning, trying to finish of its chametz, suddenly discovers that Pesach is not 2 weeks away, but rather in another 6 weeks! An equally dramatic scenario might occur on Rosh ha-Shana: the family returns home from the synagogue, all dressed in festive finery, following the special evening service. They recite Kiddush with the special holiday tune; they eat apples dipped in honey and exchange new year greetings. The next morning, they discover that "Today is the 30th of Elul; Rosh ha-Shana begins tonight!" Silent hearts What, then, is the significance of sanctification of the New Moon based on testimony? It seems that Chazal are emphasizing the importance of being aware of our surroundings. The Gemara (Shabbat 147b) records what happened when R. Elazar ben Arakh read this verse (12:2) after having forgotten all he had learned: "R. Elazar ben Arakh's ... learning vanished. When he returned, he arose to read from the Torah . He came to the verse, 'This month is for you ...' (ha-chodesh ha-zeh lakhem) but said instead, 'Their heart became silent' [ha-charesh haya libbam - one letter in each word is altered, changing the meaning]. The rabbis prayed for him, and his learning returned to him." What is the significance of R. Elazar ben Arakh's mistake - "ha-charesh haya libbam"? Why did he utter these specific words instead of "ha-chodesh ha-zeh lakhem"? Because these phrases are the inverse of one another. The opposite of the commandment of sanctifying the New Moon is "silence" (or "sealing") of the heart; it is the participation in ordinary, repetitive ritual that has nothing new about it. It is the manifestation of a sealed heart that is deaf and insensitive to the events of the time. Time is sanctity Often, during the course of their military service, religious soldiers in Israel discover that they are denied what is considered by many to be a fundamental right. While under "Shabbat mode" conditions a non-religious soldier might sleep until noon, a religious soldier will not permit himself to do so. All week he gets up early for his morning routine, but his fantasy of sleeping later on Shabbat is never realized. He must still get up early in order to recite Shema and pray at the proper times. Sometimes we internalize this understanding at various stages in life, in different contexts. A Jew cannot go to sleep at night without an awareness of his obligations and tasks for the following day. He must constantly be aware of himself and pay attention to what is happening and what needs to happen. In contrast to the state of having a fixed calendar and knowing long in advance when Pesach will fall, he must pay attention to the waxing and waning of the moon. "You are not in its hands" The mid rash (Tanchuma Yashan, 8) graphically describes how time is given into man's hands - "It is given over to you; you are not given over to it" - and man is responsible for his use of time. God gives Chazal control over the calendar and the responsibility for it, and, as the midrash describes, R. Chiyya manages to drive the moon back because it was rising before the time he had intended to declare Rosh Chodesh. How? By virtue of the fact that "It is in his hands." Other midrashim also deal with the power of Am Yisrael. For example, in Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer (7), we find a description of the joy expressed by the Divine Presence at the time of sanctification of the month, citing the verse: "Happy is the people that know the joyful note; they shall walk, 0 Lord, in the light of Your countenance" (Tehillim 89:16). The mid rash adds that at the initial sanctification of the moon with Moshe and Aharon, God told them: "From now onwards, the counting will be up to you." May we merit to resemble the moon in its renewal: "To the moon He said that it should renew itself as a crown of splendor for those ... who are destined to be renewed like it, and to glorify their Maker for the Name of His glorious kingdom." (Kiddush Levana) (This sicha was delivered on leil Shabbat parashat Bo 5774 [2014]. Summarized by Binyamin Fraenkel, Translated by Kaeren Fish) 2 Parashat Bo The Korban Pesach - Sacrifice or Feast? By Prof. Yonatan Grossman Based on: https://www.etzion.org.il/en/korban-pesach-sacrifice-or-feast One of the central features of this week's parasha is the discussion of the korban pesach, the paschal lamb slaughtered on the fourteenth of Nissan. This is the first detailed mitzva received by the Jewish people, and we shall see that it directly relates to the founding of the Nation of Israel. One fundamental question arises as we study this mitzva: is this a "korban" (sacrifice), or should it be viewed simply as a family meal? When a sacrifice is offered in the Beit Ha-mikdash, God "receives," as it were, two parts of the animal : A) The animal 's blood is sprinkled or placed on the altar. The underlying principle behind this requirement relates to the blood's status as the body's critical life-source. B) Certain limbs of the animal's body ("emurin") are burnt on the altar. Although only a small portion of the body is placed on the altar (as demonstrated by the symbolic nature of this offering), the limbs offered are the choicest parts of the animal's meat. The pesach offered by Bnei Yisrael in Egypt featured neither of these components.