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.

