Rosh Chodesh: The Perfect Moment of Redemption It might have been thought that the obligation to tell the story of the Exodus was at the beginning of the month: We have already explained that Israel’s redemption took place on the highest divine level outside of realm of time. It was fitting that it should occur on the first day of the new month. ¹ The Midrashstates that from the time that the Holy One created the world, God set the times for the beginning of the months and the years. And from the time that God chose Jacob and his sons, the Holy One set the month of redemption in which they would be redeemed from Egypt. It was in that month that Jacob would receive his blessings, in which Israel was eventually be redeemed, in which Isaac would be born and would be bound on the altar. In that month there would be a hint that it would be the month of salvation, as it is stated: “This month shall be the beginning of months for you, the beginning of all months of the year.” (Ex. 12:2) From this it is proven that redemption should occur on the first moment of the first month since it is singular and not connected to the continuity of time. That is why the sages suggest that one might assume that the obligation of telling the story should be on Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of the new month. Therefore, the sages interpret the verse to mean that even though you might have thought we should begin telling the story of the Exodus at the beginning of the month of Nisan that is not the case. The essence of the commandment to tell the story does not begin until the redemption was completed (in the middle of the month).

footnotes: ¹ Passover occurs on the fifteenth of the month – at the time of the full moon. The holiday is connected, then, to the natural cycles of time. The Maharal suggests that the redemption from Egypt was a timeless event and not part of the natural cycles of time and nature. As a result it should have occurred on the new moon – when “time” begins and the moon is absent from the sky. The fifteenth of the month becomes a historic moment that arises again and again in the history of the people of Israel.