Time as Renewal

And God said to Moses and Aaron in the Land of Egypt, saying:

This month shall be for you the beginning of months, it shall be

the first month of the year.                                    Exodus 12:1,2

Midrash Mechilta comments on “this month shall be for you …”: “Adam did not count (time) this way … which teaches us that Israel counts according to the moon, while the nations of the world count according to the sun”.

Midrash Pesikta d’Rav Kahana has the teaching of Rabbi Levi, who quotes the verse [Leviticus 20:26] “and you shall be holy to Me … and I will distinguish you from the nations”. Rabbi Levi commented: “in all their ways are Israel different from the nations … in their counting and accounting … for the nations of the world count according to the sun, and Israel according to the moon, as it is written ‘This month shall be for you the beginning of months’.”

From Rabbi Levi’s words, one may, perhaps, infer that Israel counts according to the moon specifically in order to distinguish it from the nations of the world.

Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch translates our verse thus: “This renewal of the moon (of Nissan of the year of the exodus, which God showed Moses) shall be unto you the beginning of New Moons (literally, the beginning of renewals, of revivals) …” Rabbi Hirsch notes that the verse conveys two mitzvot:

1] sanctifying the month through seeing the moon in its renewal;

2] establishing the order of the months starting from Nissan, the month of redemption.

Rabbi Hirsch explains that the institution of sanctifying the new month is intended to provide Israel with a regularly recurring opportunity to rejuvenate itself morally and spiritually. This idea is conveyed by our Sages’ comment: “this month is for you – this month is the paradigm for you”. Just as the moon is renewed, so Israel must renew itself.

The nations of the world count time and base their years upon the sun, which is not renewed. Contrary to the nations, Israel’s time and years are measured according to the renewal of the moon.

Clearly, the Torah saw great significance to the symbolism of renewal. Pesaḥ must be in “the month of spring”. In order to insure this, it is necessary to have the institution of leap years. Seemingly, it would have been much simpler for the Torah to establish a solar calendar and thereby obviate the need for leap years. Rather, the Torah wishes to teach us the lesson of the moon’s renewal so we can apply that lesson in our lives.