So, quickie overview: This portion finishes telling us of the plagues, quickly touches on the story of how the Hebrews are freed and become a nation, and the story of the Torah begins to shift from a narrative to a listing and detailing of mitzvot (plural of mitzvah), commandments. (Most folks today think the word mitzvah means "good deed." It actually means commands.)
So in this shift from narrative story to listing of mitzvot, you might be surprised to find out what the very first commandment is. Remember, the Hebrews are just being given their freedom and the ability to become their own nation. What in your mind might be the very first command to the Hebrews?
I took a quick random survey, and those I asked thought the first commandment would naturally be "Thou shalt have no other gods...". This sure seems to make the most sense, does it not? Yet, that is not it. I think you will be surprised.
The very first commandment given, strangely enough, is to count the months, and to mark the New Moon, which begins the new month, called in Hebrew Rosh Chodesh, "head of the month." So, you might be thinking, "The very first command to the Hebrews upon becoming a free people is to keep their monthly planners up to date? And if marking time was to be the first command, why Rosh Chodesh? Why not Shabbat?" This is certainly where my mind went.
So, why is it so important for the Jewish people, right after being freed from slavery, to keep a monthly calendar, so important, in fact, that it is our very first command? The Rabbis say that this commandment relates to freedom. The difference between someone who is free and someone who is a slave is that a slave’s time is not their own. For the first time, the Jewish people have control of their own time and so our first commandment is that we are to be responsible for how we pay attention to time. Yet, the very first command is neither about G!d being the only god nor about Shabbat, the two most critical hallmarks of Judaism there are! What is with this first commandment? Let's explore this a bit.
First, we need to establish that when it comes to 3-D in Jewish thinking, it is not the width-height-depth that defines 3 dimensional reality in common usage. In Jewish thinking, our 3 dimensional reality is composed of Olam, Shana, and Nefesh, that is, Place, Time, and Soul. This means, geography (Place) is multidimensional, Time is not only linear but also cyclical and spiral and sacred, and Soul infuses everything, including Place and Time.
If Time is only linear, this means that a purely astronomical basis for marking time would be fine. But that is not the commandment. Time is dynamic, and our command to mark the new month is connected to the cyclical nature of the year and seasons. This means Process, which brings Soul into the marking of Time, is equally as important as the linear marking of Time. Shabbat was not chosen as the first command (it came later), because Shabbat is cyclical (weekly), but not seasonal (it is every week).
Above, I have referred to "rosh chodesh" as meaning "head of the month." Literally, though, chodesh does not mean "month." Rather, it means renew. A word from the same root, chiddush, means innovation. The operative concept here is renewal. The mitzvah is literally, “hachodesh hazeh lachem”, and is usually translated as "this month shall be for you." Yet the words “hachodesh hazeh” ("this month") are actually literally rendered “this renewal.”
This means that when we arrive at the first day of this month every year, how are we different than when we arrived here last year? It is a cycle, yes, but it is not only a cycle; it is seasonal, and it is a spiral. We might come to the same point on a flat circle, but we are at a different level when we view that flat circle as a dimensional spiral.
And Process, Holy and Sacred Process is so very important. Everything we do, all of our words and learnings and life experiences and ways we relate with others, all of it is to be at a different level today than yesterday. Each day we can bring a new mindset, a new attitude, a new dimension than we did yesterday.
One of my favorite TV commercials (and I watch very few of them) is the one about face wrinkle creams, with one after another different jar of face wrinkle cream falling off a conveyor belt and into a pile with dozens of other jars, and one after another more jars are added, and the voice over says, "Oh look. Another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen!" Too often, our days can look like these jars of face cream falling off the conveyor belt and into the pile, one day blurring into another. And the opposite can be true as well. We can run at such a break neck speed in too much hurry to make everything happen that it all blurs together and we accomplish far less of depth, and only a lot of busy-ness at the surface which is impressive to most people. ("I don't know how you do it all!") Those days, too, can just fall one after another into a pile, with nothing of depth or Soul standing out. Accomplishing many things is not the same as the Holy, Sacred Process of relational growth.
Our first mitzvah reminds us not to let the days fall off and pile up mindlessly, not to waste the most precious resource of all: that of the Jewish 3-D of Olam, Shana, and Nefesh: Place, Time, and Soul. It's not the surface or appearances of what we might be accomplishing, but the deeper multidimensional levels of where we are on the spiral and how mindful we are with the choices we make each day which is the essence of this mitzvah.
Are your days mindlessly blurring one into another with your busy-ness, or in your counting of days, are you making the days count?
Not necessarily in accomplishing Big Things, but in your smaller thoughts and actions of being Soulful?
What connects you? In this day of networking being such a huge buzzword in business, we are called to be networked Soulfully.
I am friends with several different groups of people who do not know one another. Yet, at least three of these disparate groups often speak of book clubs. While I am a part of these various groups, I have not been invited to be part of any of the inner circle of smaller book clubs. This is for the best, I think, because the kinds of books which take my time and attention are those which nurture me at the level of Nefesh, Soul. One of my hopes for the secular year 2019, in fact, is to become more connected in a "soul club" rather than a book club. I need a more vital Soul network.
Bottom line, our very first commandment is to pay attention to time, to the seasons and cycles and spirals, and to bring that into Olam, Place, and to remember to infuse all of it with Nefesh, Soul. In a way, we could call Rosh Chodesh our Nefesh Refresh. Every month at the new moon we have the opportunity and responsibility to begin anew. May the moon cycle in its waxing and waning and tidal pulls and pushes remind us to take the real pause that refreshes!
While Ecclesiates (Kohelet) 1:9 tells us that "there is nothing new under the sun," our first mitzvah tells us that there IS something new under the darkness of the New Moon! The moon is always changing and renewing itself. And the "miracle" of a full solar eclipse? It is not that the sun does anything spectacular. No, it is the moon which places itself between the earth and the sun, and in fact, it is only the NEW MOON (Rosh Chodesh) which can cause a full solar eclipse! It is the shadow of that New Moon which passes over certain bands of totality on the earth, and the experience of that event is like none other I have ever experienced. And if the New Moon can do that, then our monthly observation of the New Moon giving birth to a new month can trigger a "SOULar eclipse" within.
Bo! Let us come to the New Moons and renew our SOULar selves!
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