Humans have always
looked up to the sky for a clue into the mystery of the universe, and for an
understanding of their place within it.
Some fell in love with
the moon. Intrigued by her soft and gentle glow, comforted by her light illuminated
the night sky. As they watched the waxing and waning of the moon, completing a
cycle in just about thirty days, they realized that she offered a convenient
and straightforward way to mark the passage of time.
As people became more
sophisticated, inventing technology and developing agriculture, they began to
realize the power of a solar calendar. although the changing in the sun's
position in the sky is harder to notice as compared with the changing shape of
the moon, they understood the power of the solar calendar to predict major
economic events. From following the agricultural cycle to predicting the
overflowing of the Nile , you need to look to
the sun. Craving the sun’s power, strength, and brilliance, they began moving
away from the lunar calendar and adopting the solar one.
The first Commandment
G-d commanded the Jewish people, just as he was about to liberate them from Egypt
So which calendar
should they choose?
Which would be their
primary one? would they identify with the mighty, powerful, masculine, sun, or
with the more subtle, reflective, feminine, beauty of the moon?
The essential feature
of the Hebrew calendar, is that it synchronizes the lunar and solar cycle. It
does so by establishing a leap year, adding a lunar month approximately every
three years, closing the eleven day gap between the lunar and solar cycle.
While not the first to
do sync the calendars (ancient Egypt, for example, eventually moved to
eliminate the discrepancies between the solar calendar, wit's primary one, and
the lunar calendar, by introducing a leap year with a thirteenth month), the
Hebrew calendar is the first to place the synchronization of the sun and the
moon as it's central feature.
The way we think about
time informs our attitude to the universe as a whole: Is there a purpose to
creation? Is there meaning to life? Is there meaning to the time that is
ticking by? The Jew’s answer is that the purpose of everything is the
unity of the sin and the moon, of giver and receiver, of G-d and the Jewish
people.
The brilliant sun
symbolizes the consistent, powerful and illuminating light of G-d. The moon
shining in the dark sky represents the Jewish people, whose job it is to
reflect the light of G-d into a dark world. The Jewish people, therefore, are
subject to challenges imposed by the world, at times they shine in all their
glory and at times their light is invisible.
The first commandment
demonstrates the goal of all the following commandments, which is to
synchronize the sun and the moon. Every Mitzvah we perform draws down Divine
energy and connects the light of G-d with the Jew in this world, uniting them,
forming one reality where “in the heaven above and on the earth below there is
nothing beside him[1]”.
No surprise then, that
the commandment to establish the calendar was one of just a few commandments related
to both Moses and Aaron: “ The Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt
Both the word of G-d
and the way the people absorb and reflect it are important to our mission. We
need a Moses and an Aaron. A sun and a moon.
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