Rule Over Time

This post is from a shmuz of Rabbi Elefant of the Mir.  The First Mishna in Rosh Hashana says rosh chodesh Nissan is the Rosh Hashana for kings and the Gemorah explains for Jewish kings (for when you count it as the next year of the king when writing a document.)  The Sfas Emes on Parshat Hachodesh 5637 says this is a lesson and a revelation for every one of us.  "בפסוק החדש הזה לכם כו'. דאיתא באחד בניסן ר"ה למלכים כי תשרי ר"ה לשנים הוא התחדשות השנה עפ"י דרך הטבע ובניסן ר"ה למלכים למלכי ישראל כדאיתא בגמ' והיינו בני ישראל שנקראו בני מלכים שהם בני חורין משיעבוד הסט"א שאינם תחת הטבע ולכן אחר שהתחילה הגאולה במצרים אז נאמר להם החודש הזה לכם כו' [נשכח ממני הסיום]."  The miracles that occurred in Nissan are not just external revelations that came into the world but have a personal message for all of us.  Just as in Nissan the regular order of teva was broken and there was a new order of nissim so too every Jew gets a special ability to rule over the yetzer hara and the teva.  To rule over one's teva is the middah of malchut that is revealed in Nissan.  How does one tap inot this middah of malchut?

The first mitzvah given to Klal Yisroel is the mitzvah of kiddush hachodesh.  Why is this mitzvah so central that it was given first and as Rashi at the beginning of Chumash says should have been the opening of the Torah?  And why was it given while Klal Yisroel were still stuck in Egypt?  It must be it was given before the Exodus because it is a necessary intro. to leaving Egypt.  It is a mitzvah one must internalize once one starts learning Torah.  What it the message of kiddush hachodesh?

Many seforim say how we learn from kiddush hachodesh to wax and wane.  Even as the moon reaches its smallest point, when it swallowed up by darkness, it has the ability to come back with renewed and greater vigor.  Klal Yisroel is compared to the moon and the lesson is that we can also renew ourselves and illuminate the darkness in our souls and around us.  But how does own tap into this ability of renewal? 

There is a dichotomy in the mitzvah of kiddush hachodesh.  On the one hand, Rosh Chodesh must be declared by a beis din; it must be initiated by man.  Man must renew himself.  On the other hand, as Rav Gedaylah Schorr point out in his maamer on Nissan, the moon merely lines up to reflect the light of the sun, it does nothing on its own, representing that own must merely turn toward Hashem but there is nothing new that a person must do.  How are we to make sense of this dichotomy, what is the role of the person?  And why is this message specifically represented by kiddush hachodesh?

The Messiat Yesharim in the very beginning of the book describes the arch rival of avodat Hashem is to remove one's ability to think.  This approach was initiated by Pharaoh in his insistence on constant work.  "ואולם הנה זאת באמת אחת מתחבולות היצר הרע וערמתו להכביד עבודתו בתמידות על לבות בני האדם עד שלא ישאר להם ריוח להתבונן ולהסתכל באיזה דרך הם הולכים. כי יודע הוא שאלולי היו שמים לבם כמעט קט על דרכיהם, ודאי שמיד היו מתחילים להנחם ממעשיהם, והיתה החרטה הולכת ומתגברת בהם עד שהיו עוזבים החטא לגמרי. והרי זו מעין עצת פרעה הרשע שאמר (שמות ה): תכבד העבודה על האנשים וגו', שהיה מתכוין שלא להניח להם ריוח כלל לבלתי יתנו לב או ישימו עצה נגדו, אלא היה משתדל להפריע לבם מכל התבוננות בכח התמדת העבודה הבלתי מפסקת."  This was the klipah, the טמטום of Egypt, to occupy a person's time so that one does not have a second to stop and think.  This is hinted to in the parsha setumah at the beginning of Vayechi.  Rashi says at the beginning of Vayikra that the spaces exist to give one time to absorb and think about the information he just received.  The descent into the golus of Egypt removed one's time to be able to pause and remember what they should be doing.  To be enslaved is not merely to do back breaking labor but to be enslaved to one's middot because there is no time to maintain control over one's self. It is no coincidence that the culmination of the geulah, the shiras ham has a lot of empty space.  The geulah from Egypt, the geulat hadaat means there was an explosion of ownership over one's time!  

In the ברית בין הבתרים Hashem tells Avrohom (15:13) ויאמר לאברם ידע תדע כי גר יהיה זרעך בארץ לא להם ועבדום וענו אתם ארבע מאות שנה, his descendants will be enslaved for 400 years.  Three pessukim later it says ודור רביעי ישובו הנה כי לא שלם עון האמרי עד הנה, the geulah is measured by number of generations.  Why is the golus measured in terms of years but the geulah is given in the number of generations?      The Pachad Yitzchak Yom Kippur maamer 21 brings the Gaon that explains golus is dependent on קלקולים בזמן but geulah depends on the tikkkun in a person's nefesh.  What does this mean?  Based upon what we have explained we understand that golus is to be ruled by one's calendar, one does not have time for themselves, it is measured by time.  Geulah is when one takes control of himself, it is expressed in terms of the persons.   He says golus is measured in time and geulah is measured by people, by generations.  This is why kiddush hachodesh is the intro. to yetzias mitzraim.  In order to be free one must first take control of their own time.  Because we are taking control of time.  That is the job of man represented by the need for beis din to proclaim the Rosh Chodesh to merely stop and take control of one's time.  The change in the person will come automatically like the moon that automatically reflects the light of the sun. 

How is this related to malchut?  The Ramban on Behaloscha (12:4) says the nature of the word פתאום is from the word פתי, a fool, כי פתאום על דעת המפרשים – דבר שלא עלה על לב, מגזרת פתי.  A fool is one who is never thinking, always doing things fast without fully contemplating the topic.  The Ramban in Mishpatim (22:15) says the word יפתה, to seduce, is also related to the word פתי.  The yetzer harah turns one into a fool by stopping one from thinking.  The word מלך is related to the word נמלך, to rethink, because the true melech is one who's מוח is שליט על הלב, one who takes the time to reconsider and analyze a question form all angles.  Nissan, the Rosh Hashana of kings is an auspicious time to be able to rule over the yetzer harah, the teva of the world, to be ממליך one's sechal over the natural middot.   

The Messilat Yesharim cites a maamer Chazal that because of the great skill of the yetzer harah one must have wisdom and vision to win over the yetzer harah. "וחכמינו ז"ל אמרו (מועד קטן ה): כל השם ארחותיו בעולם הזה, זוכה ורואה בישועתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא."  On this Gemorah in Sotah (5b) the Maharal says this very yesod that is not natural, not the teva for one to be able to rule over the yetzer harah, and therefore one merits to get a reward that is not in the realm of teva as well.