A New Seder

The Seder night is of course called the Seder because of the order of events that we follow.  Of course, the very fact that the night of the foundation of our Emunah and relationship to God shows us the importance of seder and how it is an integral theme in Judaism.  It is quite interesting that we put this emphasis on seder on this night for the events involved in the exodus from Egypt seemed anything but seder.  There were open miracles, changes of nature and all sorts of wild and crazy things going on so why is this night called the Seder, it should be called the night of chaos?

Pesach was not chas v’shalom a lack of seder.   What was  being revealed was a new type of seder. 

The first mitzvah given to Klal Yisroel is to be mekadesh the month.  Everyone asks why is this the first mitzvah given, is this mitzvah so fundamental that it must be first?  The Ritvah on the Haggadah says on the passage of מרא גדל – זו השכינה that in the process of the Exodus Hashem revealed himself three times, once at the time of saying the mitzvah of kiddush hachodesh, a second time at the night of the geulah and the third time at krias yam suf.  That means there was the same revelation in the giving of the mitzvah of kiddush hachodesh as there is at the night of the geulah and krias yam suf.  Why does the giving of this mitzvah need to be accompanied with such a revelation? 

 The first mitzvah fulfilled by Adam was kiddush hachodesh (see Tosfos Rosh Hashana 8a ד"ה לתקופת.)  The first mitzvah was for man, Adam to recognize that all the natural order of the world, demonstrated by time are set in place and controlled by Hashem.  Adam was being mekadesh time, acknowledging the seder of tevah is controlled by Hashem.

Nissan is considered month #1.  Why is it #1 if the world was created in Tishrei, what sense does it make to consider it month #1?  Tishrei was the creation of the world, it is month #1 in the seder of tevah.  Gentile kings count it as a new year in their reign from Tishrei, they follow the pattern of tevah.  Nissan is #1 to the seder.  This is a seder of Nissim (Maharal terminology.)  This isn’t the normal seder, it is a seder of Divine interference, of גילוי שכינה.  Just as the first mitzvah given to mankind in the seder of tevah is kiddush hachodesh, to recognize Hashem controls that order, so too the new order starts with kiddush hachodesh.  However, the mitzvah of kiddush hachodesh given to Klal Yisroel isn’t merely to be mekadesh time, it gives us the power to rule over time as is known from the Yerushalmi Ketubot (Ch. 1 halacha 2.)  It is a kiddush of Divine interference, when the seder is determined by the mitzvah, not just the natural order (largely based upon Shiras Dovid, but I  explained the part about Adam differently.)  [The two kinds of seder is in Maharal second intro. to Gevurot and the difference between Tishrei vs. Nissan is explained in the Torah of Chabad (see for ex. The maamarim on parshas hachodesh) and its in Rav Eizek Chavar, though I don’t remember where.]