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OF M MM M O O O O N N N The Jewish Year
M M O O O O N N N seen through its months
THE M M O O O O N NN
M M OOOO OOOO N N
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Issue #7 Vol #2 Nissan 5757 / 8 April 1997 - 7 May 1997
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This publication is available in Adobe Acrobat format
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Get Ready for Pesach with Ohr Somayach:
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THIS MONTH'S SIGN: T'leh / Aries
Nissan, the first month of the Jewish Year, is called the king of the
months. Its sign is T'leh -- the lamb (Aries).
When the Jewish People were about to leave Egypt, G-d commanded them
to take a lamb, which the Egyptians worshipped as a god, and lead it through
the streets to their homes.
They tied the lamb to their bedposts, and three days later, it was
this lamb which served as the Pesach sacrifice. Its blood was used to mark
the doors and lintels so that G-d would `passover' the Jewish homes, and it
was eaten at the first Seder on the very night that the Jewish People left
Egypt.
On Shabbat, the tenth of Nissan, the Egyptians saw the Jews leading
lambs through the street and asked "What are those lambs for?" The Jews
replied "We're going to slaughter them as a Pesach sacrifice, as G-d has
commanded us." You can imagine how the Egyptians felt, seeing their god led
through the street and tied to a bedpost! Miraculously, however, they were
prevented from harming the Jewish People. They ground their teeth in fury,
but did not utter a murmur.
We commemorate this miracle on the Shabbat immediately preceding
Pesach, on Shabbat Hagadol, `the Great Shabbat'.
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The Sun and the Moon
The Sun is the most prominent feature of our solar system. It is the
largest object and contains approximately 98% of the total solar system's
mass. One hundred and nine Earths would be required to fit across the Sun's
disk, and its interior could hold over 1.3 million Earths. The Sun's outer
visible layer has a temperature of 6,000 C (11,000 F). This layer has a
mottled appearance due to the turbulent eruptions of energy at the surface.
Solar energy is created deep within the core of the Sun. Here, the
temperature (15,000,000 C; 27,000,000 F) and pressure (340 billion times
Earth's air pressure at sea level) are so intense that nuclear reactions
take place. Every second, 700 million tons of hydrogen are converted into
helium by nuclear fusion. In the process 5 million tons of pure energy is
released.
The Moon is the sole satellite of the planet Earth. It is an inert
body 384,403 kilometers (238,857miles) from the Earth. Its diameter is
3,476 kilometers (2,160 miles). Both the rotation of the Moon and its
revolution around Earth takes approximately 29 days, 12 hours, and 43
minutes. This synchronous rotation is caused by an asymmetrical
distribution of mass in the Moon, which has allowed Earth's gravity to keep
one lunar hemisphere permanently turned toward Earth.
The Moon has a crust 60 kilometers (37 miles) thick at the center of
the near side. If this crust is uniform over the Moon, it would constitute
about 10% of the Moon's volume. It has a maximum surface temperature of
123 C, and a minimum surface temperature of -233 C.
You could hardly find two objects that are more different than the sun
and the moon. Almost the only thing that they have in common is that they
are both roughly spherical celestial bodies belonging to our solar system.
Almost...
However, there is another similarity which is rather strange. It's
everyday knowledge, but when you think about it, there's no ostensible
reason why it should be so.
Take a piece of cardboard and make it big enough that if you were to
hold it up to the Sun, the Sun would be obscured. Now with that same piece
of cardboard, hold it up to the full Moon. That same piece of cardboard
will cover the Moon and the Sun.
In other words, from our perspective the Moon and the Sun are almost
identical in size.
Isn't that strange? That of all the places our planet could be
located in space, we happen to be exactly where the Moon and the Sun look
the same size to us.
In the Talmud (Chullin 60b), Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi poses a
contradiction between two verses in the Book of Genesis: In one place it
says "And G-d made two great orbs of light." In another place it says "The
great orb of light and the small orb." How can it be that in one place it
says there are two great orbs of light, and in another, only one?
At the dawn of creation, Hashem created the Sun and the Moon of equal
size and brightness. Said the Moon before the Holy One Blessed be He.
"Master of the World, is it possible for two kings to use one crown?"
Hashem said "Go and diminish yourself."
The Jewish People are compared to the Moon. Every month the Moon gets
smaller and smaller until it disappears completely. And then, seemingly
miraculously it's `new.'
The Jewish People have seen times in their history when they seem to
have vanished completely, and then seemingly miraculously they are `new.'
This power of renewal is intrinsic to the Jewish People. For that
reason, we count our calendar by the Moon. On the first day of the month of
Nissan (Rosh Chodesh Nissan), the Jewish People received as a nation the
first of the 613 mitzvos -- the sanctification of the Moon.
Our year consists of lunar months. The word for month in Hebrew is
`chodesh' which comes from the same root as `chadash' which means `new.'
Each month the Moon is `new'. It is renewed. Almost all the nations of the
world count by the Sun, by the year. In Hebrew, the word for year is
`shana' which comes from the same root as the word `yashan' -- old. The Sun
is without renewal. It is always the same unchanging yellow orb.
We are not the largest of all the nations. The Torah calls us the smallest.
The Moon has no light of its own. It is a reflector. And like the Moon,
the job of the Jewish People is to be a reflector. The reflector in this
world of the light of the Holy One, may His Name be blessed.
Hashem's light is concealed in this world. We don't see it clearly
and brightly. Similarly the Jewish People are not recognized as His
emissaries. Thus, it is fitting that the Moon is small and diminished.
When Mashiach comes, then the primeval light which shone at Creation
will again be restored and there will be total clarity. One end of the
universe will be visible from the other.
When we look up to the sky, the Moon and the Sun look the same size to
us. We know that one is millions of times the size of the other. But they
look the same size.
Maybe this is a hint. A hint of a time that was. A hint to a time to
come when the lacking and the blemish of the Moon will be filled; when the
radiance of the Almighty will fill the world as it did in the six days of
Creation.
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The Darkest Hour
Freedom is something only a slave can really appreciate. Only someone who
emerges from darkness to light can really have any idea of what light is.
Had the Jewish People never been enslaved in Egypt, we would never have
experienced the true freedom that we commemorate on the festival of Pesach.
In our long history, in times of the greatest darkness, when we have
emerged, it has been to the greatest light. Our era has seen some of the
darkest nights of our history. G-d has promised us that, exactly when the
night is darkest, He will bring the final redemption. And when will that
moment be? In the month of Nissan. For Nissan is the appointed time for the
redemption of the Jewish People. May it be this year in Yerushalyim!
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Dawn At The Wall
He was standing behind our Wall,
Watching through the windows,
Peeking through the lattices.
Have you ever stood at the dawnsbreak
In front of the Holy Place?
When, at that very moment, the Sun peeks
Over the lattice of the horizon,
And a cacophony of voices whisper in silence
"Ga-al...(Yisrael)"
The Redeemer of Israel stands
behind the Wall of the World,
Peeking through the cracks
filled with moss and lichen,
The birds wheel overhead,
Speaking the language of redemption.
He has not moved from this Wall
for two thousand years.
He will never leave here
He will never leave us.
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Sources:
o This Month's Sign/ The Darkest Hour... : Sefer HaToda'ah, by Rabbi Eliahu
Kitov, translated by Rabbi Nachman Bulman
o The Sun and the Moon: Talmud Chullin 60b; Rabbi Reuven Subar; Calvin J.
Hamilton
o Dawn At The Wall: Song of Songs, Midrash Rabba
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