JANUARY 6 • 2022 | 37

because it was a call to the
entire nation that now was
the time for spiritual renewal.
One of the key teachings of
the Torah is our capacity for
renewal. We are not subju-
gated to the laws of nature.
We can rise above our own
instincts, our own nature.
We can make ourselves into
the people we were meant to
be and live lives of greatness,
and it’s in our hands to do
that. Like God, Himself, who
created the world from noth-
ing, we, too, have the power
to generate newness. And
that power to transcend our
circumstances comes directly
from our Creator.
The Jewish calendar
embodies this idea of renewal
because it calls on us every
month to renew ourselves. We
don’t live our lives in cycles
of years and decades. We live
our lives in cycles of months,
with the opportunity to renew
ourselves every 29 or 30 days.
This is what Rosh Chodesh
means. The word for “month,
”
chodesh, comes from the word
chadash, which means “new.
”
This was God’s message to the
people enslaved in Egypt —
that we have the freedom to
renew ourselves and achieve
spiritual and moral greatness
with the Torah’s guidance,
renewing not just ourselves
but the world in which we live.

PARTNERS IN CREATION
There is another idea here. We
see that this mitzvah of Rosh
Chodesh was really setting the
tone for the entire relationship
that God has with the Jewish
people. And what is that
relationship all about? In the
words of the Gemara, we are
called upon to be “a partner
with God in the creation of
this world.
” This mitzvah that

we are given right at the outset
exemplifies that partnership.
God says the Jewish calendar
will not be determined by
Him alone and by the laws of
nature He has created; rather
the calendar will be forged as
a partnership between God
and the Jewish people. When
the Sanhedrin declares that
it is Rosh Chodesh, the new
month, then that’s what it is.
They have the discretion to
move it, and even to add a
month to the calendar, thereby
determining when the festivals
fall and infusing those days
with holiness.
Rosh Chodesh is a reminder
to us that our relationship
with God is based on partner-
ship. It’s for this reason, also,
that God asked us to put the
blood on the doorposts. It’s as
if He was saying to us, “You
want to be redeemed from
Egypt? Become active in this
redemption.
” We weren’t just
passively freed from Egypt by
God’s miracles; we made our-
selves worthy of the redemp-
tion by slaughtering the gods
of the Egyptians — the lambs
— and sprinkling their blood
on the doorposts as a bold
declaration to the Egyptians
that we are loyal to God and
His Torah.
To live a Godly life is to be
His partner in making this
world a better place. And that
is why God predicated the
journey of the Jewish people
and their liberation from
Egypt on this mitzvah of the
new month, this representa-
tion of renewal, this declara-
tion of Divine partnership.

Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein, who

has a PhD. in Human Rights Law, is the

chief rabbi of South Africa. This article

first appeared on aish.com.

Hearing
God’s Voice
I

n the midst of our Torah
portion today, we read
(Exodus 12:1): “The Lord
said to Moses and Aaron in
the land of Egypt.” At first
glance, this verse seems very
common; we read
numerous times in
the Torah, “The Lord
said to Moses …” or
“The Lord said to
Moses and Aaron …”
But here, in our read-
ing today, there is an
additional phrase: “in
the land of Egypt.”
These words might
seem innocuous; after
all, the Torah often
identifies a partic-
ular location where
God speaks to Moses and
Aaron, such as in the Tent of
Meeting, on Mount Sinai or
in the steppes of Moab.
Today’s verse comes
between the telling of the
first nine plagues and the
10th plague. Because we
know that Moses didn’t leave
Egypt during the plagues,
why does the Torah bother to
add the phrase, “in the land
of Egypt”? Is it not perfectly
clear to us that Moses and
Aaron are still in Egypt?
Commentators have
approached this phrase in
differing ways. Rashi says
that Divine words were not
uttered in the capitol itself,
which was full of idols; so,
Moses went out of the city to
receive this revelation from
God. Nachmanides says
that the location is specified
because all the other com-
mandments of the Torah
were given at Mount Sinai.
Rahmbam agrees but takes
a more liberal approach

and says that the rest of the
commandments of the Torah
were given at Sinai, in the
Tent of Meeting or on the
plains of Moab.
I believe that revelation
is always here, in our
present moment. Rabbi
Abraham Joshua
Heschel wrote in God
in Search of Man, “God
is not always silent …
There are moments in
which … heaven and
Earth kiss each other; in
which there is a lifting
of the veil at the horizon
of the known, opening
a vision of what is eter-
nal in time. The voice
of Sinai,” concluded
Heschel, “goes on forever.
(Deuteronomy 5:19): ‘The Lord
spoke these words to your
whole congregation at the
mountain, out of the fire and
the dense clouds, with a great
voice that goes on forever.’” For
Heschel, revelation is both a
moment in time and eternal.
If God is always talking
to us, how do we hear that
message? I believe that we
have a chance to hear God’s
revelations through study,
prayer and living a life of
mitzvot. Torah is both eternal
and personal, meaning that
we study the texts of our tra-
dition “as if it were given to
us today.”
As the Talmud teaches,
every one of us stands at
Sinai; and every one of us
has the obligation to receive
God’s revelation of Torah in
our day.

Rabbi Robert Gamer is the rabbi at

Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak

Park.

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi Robert
Gamer

Parshat

Bo: Exodus

10:1-13:16;

Jeremiah

46:13-28.