Weekly Dvar Torah: The Secret of Jewish Renewal
“This month shall be for you the head of the months.” = החודש הזה לכם ראש חדשים
At first glance this verse raises a question. Isn’t Rosh Hashanah the head of the year? The year consists of twelve months, so why does the Torah call the month of Nissan “the head of the months”?
The answer lies in the wording itself: “This month shall be for you the head of the months.”
In Hebrew, the word for month is Chodesh, from the root Chadash, meaning renewal. The Jewish month follows the cycle of the moon. The moon appears as a thin sliver, grows into a full shining disk, then gradually fades until it disappears, only to be reborn again. Every twenty-nine and a half days the cycle repeats itself.
When Hashem revealed this mitzvah to Moshe just before the Exodus from Egypt, He was teaching a profound lesson: the story of the moon is the story of the Jewish people.
Sometimes the moon seems almost gone, barely visible in the night sky. Yet it always returns. So too the Jewish people. At times in history we appear small and vulnerable, like a thin sliver of moonlight. Sometimes we even seem to disappear into darkness. Yet the Jewish people never vanish. The cycle of renewal begins again and the light returns.
This is why Nissan is called the head of the months. Nissan is the month when the Jewish people were born as a nation through the miracle of the Exodus from Egypt. It revealed that Jewish existence is not governed only by the predictable laws of nature.
The Jewish calendar itself reflects two ways in which Hashem runs the world.
The month of Tishrei, when we celebrate Rosh Hashanah, represents the creation of the natural world. The sun governs that system. The solar year produces the steady rhythm of the seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter, repeating themselves year after year. The Hebrew word for year, Shana, comes from a root meaning repetition.
But the Jewish calendar follows the lunar cycle, the cycle of renewal. This represents another dimension of existence: the dimension of miracles.
Nature follows fixed patterns. Miracles transcend those patterns.
This idea appears not only in the calendar but also in the way we serve Hashem.
There is one dimension of serving Hashem that operates within human understanding. When we study Torah, we absorb Hashem’s wisdom according to the capacity of our minds. Each person understands Torah according to his intellectual ability.
But there is another dimension of serving Hashem that goes beyond understanding: the fulfillment of Mitzvos.
A Mitzvah is not dependent on intellectual comprehension. A Jew performs a Mitzvah simply because Hashem commanded it. Even when a Mitzvah makes sense, its ultimate reason is not logic but obedience to the Divine will.
Our sages illustrate this difference with simple examples. Food must be internalized in order to nourish the body. This resembles Torah study, which must match the intellectual capacity of the student.
Clothing surrounds the body and protects it, even if it is not perfectly tailored.
A house surrounds a person even more broadly, providing shelter without needing to fit the individual precisely.
Torah resembles food, internal and measured.
Mitzvos resemble clothing and a home, surrounding the person and connecting him to something greater than himself.
Because Mitzvos connect us directly to Hashem’s will, their reward ultimately transcends limitation. Our sages teach that there is a reward corresponding to our efforts, the spiritual delight of Gan Eden, where the soul enjoys the Divine wisdom it studied in this world. But there is an even greater reward awaiting the Jewish people when Moshiach comes: the revelation of Hashem Himself, beyond comprehension.
Jewish history itself reflects the cycle of the moon.
Empires rose and attempted to destroy us. Egypt enslaved us. Babylonia exiled us. Persia threatened annihilation. Greece tried to erase our identity. Rome destroyed the Temple. Later came the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, Nazi Germany and Communist Russia.
Each believed they would succeed.
Yet history asks a simple question: Where are they – and where are we?
Like the moon, the Jewish people always renew themselves.
Even today we see this pattern. The Jewish people face enemies and dangers, and our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisroel sometimes must run to shelters. Yet alongside these challenges we witness remarkable miracles as those who seek to harm the Jewish people fall from power and the nation of Israel continues to endure.
Powerful enemies once again rose up declaring their intention to destroy the Jewish people. Leaders of terror such as Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, and Yahya Sinwar, together with their patron Ali Khamenei and the Iranian regime that openly calls for Israel’s destruction, believed they could bring about a new “final solution.”
They built armies, tunnels, rockets, and militias dedicated to one goal: the annihilation of the Jewish people. Yet history continues to ask its eternal question: Where are they, and where are we? The enemies of Israel rise with great noise and power, but they eventually fade from the stage of history, while the Jewish people continue to live, renew themselves, and shine like the ever-returning moon.
Darkness appears, but renewal follows.
On a personal level we must also recognize the miracles in our own lives. Baruch Hashem, in our own family we experience waves of blessing; new grandchildren, weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, Bat Mitzvahs, Opsherenish, and countless moments of joy. Every Simcha reminds us of Hashem’s kindness and the renewal He brings into our lives.
For all of this we say simply: Thank You, Hashem.
The moon’s cycle always leads back to fullness. What begins as a thin sliver ultimately becomes a radiant full moon.
So too Jewish history is moving toward its ultimate renewal.
The month of Nissan, the month of miracles, reminds us that redemption does not come through the predictable rhythms of nature. Redemption comes when Hashem reveals Himself beyond nature, just as He did during the Exodus from Egypt.
And just as Nissan once brought the first redemption, Nissan will bring the final redemption.
May we merit the coming of Moshiach very soon, when the presence of Hashem will be revealed openly and the world will experience true peace.
Have a Shabbos of miraculous renewal,
Gut Shabbos
Rabbi Yosef Katzman
