The Month Of Nissan, Spring and Rejuvenation

The Difference between the Jewish Calendar and the Secular Calendar .

We are about to start the month in which Passover occurs.

In the secular calendar, the new year starts at January and so also the counting of the months starts over. Therefore, January is called the first month. In the Jewish calendar it is not like that.

Although we know that Jewish Year starts on Rosh Hashanah, the month "Tishrei" in which Rosh Hashanah falls is numbered as the seventh month. The first month in the numbering of the months is the month we are about to start called "Nisan." Why it is like this is discussed in the Talmud and is not our discussion today. What we are concerned about is the fact that we are about to start the "First" of the Months.

Why is this so important, and how does this apply to us?. This Shabbos we read the fourth of four special readings added into the weekly Sabbath Torah readings. We started with the first special addition on the Shabbos before we ushered our present month of Adar. The last of the four, which we read this week, we read on the Shabbos before we usher in the month of Nisan.

What is this reading about?.

We read the section in the Torah in Exodus chapter 12 where G-d commanded us to observe Passover. This is understood simply, since we are now preparing for Passover which occurs during the month. Yet this Torah reading starts off stating openly that this month which we call Nisan is the first of months. Likewise it was here that G-d commanded Moses to count the months according to when there is a new moon.

The connection between the new month and rejuvenation. The Hebrew word for month is "Chodesh." When spelled in Hebrew the letters can also be read as "Chadash" - meaning "new." The commentaries point out this correlation. At the time of each new month there is a new moon. This is to teach us, and to become part of our lives, that each new month is a time for renewing ourselves.

This has even more meaning, though, now, when we are about to begin the new month of Nisan, which is the first in the counting of the months of the year. Now at the end of the counting of the twelve months of the year each of us finds ourselves at a specific point, wherever we each may be. No matter what has happened, or what we have been through, now is a time to begin again and move ahead. Now is a time of rejuvenation.

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