וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹקים יְהִי מְאֹרֹת בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמַיִם לְהַבְדִּיל בֵּין הַיּוֹם וּבֵין הַלָּיְלָה וְהָיוּ לְאֹתֹת וּלְמוֹעֲדִים וּלְיָמִים וְשָׁנִֽים׃
“Then G-d said, “Let lights in the expanse of the sky be for separating the day from the night. They will be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.”
Genesis 1:14, Tree of Life Version
המאורות הגדולים
“THE GREAT LUMINARIES — They were created of equal size, but that of the moon was diminished because she complained and said, “It is impossible for two kings to make use of one crown” (Chullin 60b).”
Rashi, cited at Sefaria.org
He must become greater. I must become less.”
John 3:30
Time
is the first creation
thus, the sanctification
of time is the first mitzvah
commanded to Israel.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe
cited at Chabad.org
“Time itself is a creation spawned �by the word Bereishit (Chagigah 12a).”�
REBBE NACHMAN'S TORAH: GENESIS�Breslov Insights into the Weekly Torah Reading (p. 45).�Breslov Research Institute. Kindle Edition.
“HaShem said to Moses, “Hold out your arm toward the sky that there may be darkness upon the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be touched.” Exodus 10:21
וַיֹּאמֶר ה׳ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֗ה נְטֵה יָֽדְךָ עַל־הַשָּׁמ֔יִם� וִיהִי חֹשֶׁךְ עַל־אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם וְיָמֵשׁ חֹשֶׁךְ׃
"This is also the reason that when these plagues materialized the Torah employs the kind of expression we find during the story of creation, i.e. ויהי or "there came into being hail,” or “there came into being darkness.” Some of our sages debate the origin of this darkness. Whereas Rabbi Yehudah holds that it originated in celestial regions, Rabbi Nechemyah holds that it originated in gehinom, in hell.”
R’ Bachya on Shemot 10:21, translated by R’ Munk, Lambda Publishers
“There is no greater darkness than one in which “a man did not see his fellow”—in which a person becomes oblivious to the needs of his fellow man. When that happens, a person becomes stymied in his personal development as well—“nor did anyone get up from his place.”
Chiddushei HaRim, cited at Chabad.org
“All seems blackest at midnight, yet it is precisely then that redemption and salvation began. “Around midnight” indicates that it is very difficult to know exactly when salvation will come, but we must know that it lies waiting to spring at the darkest moment (Likutey Halakhot I, p. 117a)."
REBBE NACHMAN'S TORAH: EXODUS-LEVITICUS - Breslov Insights into the Weekly Torah Reading (Kindle Locations 1411-1415). Breslov Research Institute. Kindle Edition.
“By calling the Jewish nation “My firstborn son” (Exodus 4:22), G-d saw the good in the Jews in Egypt, even at their lowest point and darkest moment ( Likutey Halakhot I, p. 5a).”
REBBE NACHMAN'S TORAH: EXODUS-LEVITICUS - Breslov Insights into the Weekly Torah Reading (Kindle Locations 1402-1405). Breslov Research Institute. Kindle Edition.
“There is a profound distinction between ‘solar time’ and ‘lunar time’. Sun-time is rigid, dictated by an easily predictable, set pattern of movement. The sun rises and sets day in and day out; the sun is always in the sky, even when it is behind clouds. With the completion of each cycle of seasons, the exact same cycle is repeated. In the Book of Koheles, it is written, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Koheles, 1:9). In a rigid, predictable universe, there is no newness. The sun represents all rigid linear structures and inevitability…”
“Regarding the statement “There is nothing new under the sun,” the Zohar adds, “While under the ‘sun’ there is no newness, the moon is new; the moon is in fact a ‘newness’ that is under the sun” (Zohar 1, 123b). Bnei Yisrael / the Children of Israel, when receiving the Mitzvah to sanctify the months, were initiated into a different paradigm, a paradigm in which there could be newness, change, and eventually, liberation.”
Pinson, Dovber. Awakenings: Drawing Life from
the Weekly Torah Reading (pp. 154-155). (Function).
Kindle Edition.
“The word ChoDeSh (חודש, month) is related to the word hitChaDShut (התחדשות, renewal). Just as the moon wanes and waxes anew, the Jewish people—who possess the power of self-renewal—count their months according to the lunar cycle (Likutey Halakhot I, p. 136).”
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“The Hebrew month of Nisan is the first of all the months. But Scripture states: “This month will be for you the head of the months (ראש חדשים, RoSh ChaDaShim),” indicating that the entire month of Nisan is considered like a RoSh ChoDeSh (ראש חדש) vis-à-vis the rest of the year. The Exodus took place during Nisan. This event parallels the sanctity of Rosh Chodesh, which was established to reveal the Kingdom of Heaven. The twelve months of the year correspond to the Twelve Tribes who received the Torah and thus revealed Godliness in the world (Likutey Halakhot III, p. 176).”
REBBE NACHMAN'S TORAH: EXODUS-LEVITICUS - Breslov Insights into the Weekly Torah Reading . Breslov Research Institute. Kindle Edition.
“The moon begins to shine on the first of the month, and increases in luminance till the fifteenth day, when her orb becomes full; from the fifteenth till the thirtieth day her light wanes, till on the thirtieth it is not seen at all. With Israel too, there were fifteen generations from Abraham to Solomon. Abraham began to shine . . . Jacob added to this light . . . and after them came Judah, Peretz, Chetzron, Ram, Aminadav, Nachshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse and David. When Solomon appeared, the moon’s orb was full. . . . Henceforth the kings began to diminish in power. . . . With Zedekiah [in whose time the Holy Temple was destroyed], the light of the moon dimmed entirely.
Midrash Rabbah cited at Chabad.org
“R. Joshua says, ‘In Nisan they were delivered, in Nisan they will be delivered in the time to come’. Whence do we know this? Scripture calls [the Passover] a night of watchings, [which means], a night which has been continuously watched for from the six days of the creation.”�Rosh HaShanah 11b, Soncino Press Edition
“On that night [the fifteenth of Nisan] they were redeemed, and on that night they are destined to be redeemed,” The words of R. Joshua . . . R. Eliezer says: On that night they were redeemed, but in the age to come they shall be redeemed only in Tishri.”�Mekhilta de Rabbi Ishmael, Brown University Press, pg. 85
“On Tishrei, the first month of the new year, the constellation of Moznayim (balance scales) is first to appear in the east, for it is during that month that man’s deeds are weighed.”
Signs of the Times: the Zodiac in Jewish Tradition,
Gad Erlanger, pg. 13
“In the month of Nisan, says Rashi, as the constellation Taleh, rises in the east, the Moznayim sets in the west.”A Taleh was the animal sacrificed on Passover when the Temple stood in Jerusalem.
Signs of the Times: the Zodiac in Jewish Tradition,
Gad Erlanger pg 11, 34
“According to R. Berechiah, citing R. Abbahu, Nahum bar Simai, discoursing in Tarsus, took the verse to read ‘They shall take unto them the Man’ (Exod. 12:3), that is, take the Holy One, of whom it is said, ‘The L-rd is the Man – [that is, the manager] – of war’ (Exod. 15:3. How do you take Him? With the two lambs offered up daily in the Temple, [even as you took God unto yourselves when you daringly took the lambs in Egypt.”�Pesikta de-Rab Kahana, Piska 5.17, translated by William G. Braude, Jewish Publication Society, pg. 160
וְיִקְחוּ לָהֶם אִישׁ שֶׂה לְבֵית־אָבֹת שֶׂה לַבָּיִת
“On the tenth day of this month, they shall take for themselves, a man, a lamb, to the house of the fathers, a lamb per house.”
Exodus 12:3
“Then six days before the Passover, Yeshua came to Bethany, where Elazar was, who had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. On the next day a great multitude had come to the feast. When they heard that Yeshua was coming to Jerusalem, they took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet him, and cried out, Hoshia’na! Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the L-rd, the King of Israel! Yeshua, having found a young donkey, sat on it.”�John 12:1, 12-13
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
6 5 4 3 2 1
“With the coming and arrival of the season of God’s love…the gazelle (God) observed through the lattice windows, and applied a cure to the bloodied nation. He leaped across time to perform wonders and to multiply new commandments upon the old…From the beginning the Lord established Nissan as the first, but He did not reveal its understanding in the book possessed by Adam…it was sanctified at its beginning, after a third [the tenth of Nissan], in its middle and after its majority to observe, to sanctify the new moon, to take a lamb for the Pesach…its beginning is reserved in every generation, for the coming of the pauper riding on a donkey [Messiah]…”�Yotzer for Parashas HaChodesh, Artscroll Nusach Sefard Siddur, Mesorah Publishers, pg. 949
“And When He Sees the Blood. He sees the blood of the sacrifice of Isaac, as it is said: “And Abraham called the name of that place HaShem-Yireh” (the L-rd will see), etc. (Gen. 22:14). And it is also written: “And He was about to destroy, the L-rd beheld and it repented him” (1 Chron 21:15). What did he behold? He beheld the blood of the sacrifice of Isaac, as it is said, “God will Himself see the lamb for a burnt-offering.” (Gen 22:8).”� �Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, Tractate Pischa, Chapter 11, Translated by Jacob Z. Lauterbach, Jewish Publication Society, pg 61.
“In the month of Nisan, the Patriarchs will arise and say to the Messiah: ‘Ephraim, our true Messiah, you are greater than we are because you suffered for the iniquities of our children, and terrible ordeals befell you, such ordeals as did not befall earlier generations or later ones; for the sake of Israel you became a laughingstock and a derision among the nations of the earth, and sat in darkness, in thick darkness, and your eyes saw no light, and your skin cleaved to thy bones, and your body was as dry as a piece of wood; And your eyes grew dim from fasting, and your ‘strength was dried up like a potsherd’- All of these afflictions on account of the iniquities of our children…the Holy One, Blessed be He, will lift the Messiah up to the heaven of heavens, and cloak him in something of the splendor of His own glory…”�Pesikta Rabbati, Piska 37, translated by William Braude, Yale University Press, Pages 685-686
“The central idea of PeSaCh (פסח) is Peh SaCh (פה סח, a mouth that speaks). When a person articulates his good desires and longings for G-d�he merits to a Pesach, an exodus from his spiritual exile (Likutey Halakhot IV, p. 38a)”
REBBE NACHMAN'S TORAH: EXODUS-LEVITICUS - Breslov Insights into the Weekly Torah Reading (Kindle Locations 1854-1860). Breslov Research Institute. Kindle Edition.
“And the light of the moon shall become like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall become sevenfold, like the light of the seven days, when HaShem binds up His people’s wounds and heals the injuries it has suffered.”
Isaiah 30:26