Today's shiur will be concerning the קריאה of פרשת החודש. After the קריאה of פרשת פרה the next Shabbos is the קריאה, we read in the Torah the special פרשה of פרשת החודש. The פרשה of פרשת החודש is in פרשת בא, and it starts with the words וידבר etc., and then the first words of the פרשה itself is החודש הזה לכם ראש חדשים ראשון הוא לכם לחדשי השנה. That this month, meaning the month of Nisan, should be the beginning of the months, the first for all the months of the year. From this פסוק we learn out that there is a מצוה לקדש חדשים ולחשב שנים וחדשים בבית דין בלבד, that there is a mitzvah on the בית דין to be מקדש the חדשים, which means that every month they have to be מקדש, they have to make holy so to speak, the first day of the month, and they have to calculate the years and the months, and this is done by בית דין. As the Rambam says in ספר המצות, and also in the beginning, the מנין המצות that he wrote in the beginning of his ספר יד החזקה משנה תורה. So it comes out that the פסוק החודש הזה לכם, this is the mitzvah of מקדש חדשים and לחשב שנים וחדשים. This seems to be a very, very important mitzvah, because Rashi says that this is the מצוה ראשונה שנצטוו בה ישראל, the first mitzvah that the Yidden were commanded. Rashi on the first פסוק of the Torah, on בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ, רש\"י asks the question, he says: לא היה צריך להתחיל את התורה אלא מהחודש הזה לכם. That the Torah really should have started from this פסוק, החודש הזה לכם. Why from this פסוק? So he says: שהיא מצוה ראשונה שנצטוו בה ישראל. This is the first mitzvah that the Yidden were commanded. And he asks: why didn't this Torah start with this mitzvah? And he answers, it's משום כח מעשיו הגיד לעמו. Hashem wanted to show the world and the Yidden the koach of Hashem, that He created the world, so therefore, if anybody will ever complain how Hashem took away Eretz Yisrael from the goyim and gave it to the Yidden, the answer will be, it's Hashem's world, He created it, so He is able to do with it what He wants. But in the meantime we do see from Rashi that Rashi refers to the mitzvah of החודש הזה לכם as מצוה ראשונה, as the first mitzvah. But when we look into the מונה המצות, those that count the mitzvot, we don't find that they should count the mitzvah of קידוש החודש as the first mitzvah. For instance, the Rambam, when he counts the mitzvot, he counts the first mitzvah, as he says, מצוה ראשונה ממצות עשה, the first mitzvah of the positive mitzvot, is לידע שיש שם אלוקה, to know that there is a God, שנאמר אנכי השם אלקיך. Ha-pasuk says, Hashem said, \"I am Hashem your God.\" This is the mitzvah rishonah.

And the truth is, we find in the Zohar, in the third חלק, דף רנ\"ו עמוד ב', it says פקודא קדמאה, the first mitzvah is אנכי. And also in Zohar second חלק, on דף כ\"ה עמוד א' it says, on the פסוק ולקחתם etc. וידעתם כי אני השם אלקיכם, you should know that I am Hashem your God, it says there פקודא דא קדמאה דכל פקודין. This is the first commandment which comes first before other commandments. ראשיתא קדמאה דכל פקודין דמינדע ליה לקודשא בריך הוא בחיבוביה, that the first of everything, of all the mitzvot, is to know the Hashem. So it comes out that the מונה המצות don't count the mitzvah of קידוש החודש as the first mitzvah. So on one hand it would seem that it's a machloket between Rashi and other מונה המצות. But the truth is it is not a machloket as it is self-understood, because that is self-understood that the first mitzvah is to know Hashem, because before you know Hashem it is not possible to do any mitzvot. First thing you have to know that Hashem is there, He commanded you to do the mitzvot, and then you're able to do the mitzvot. And that's why the Rambam writes in the beginning of all his הלכות, in his ספר Mishneh Torah, that the יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות, the foundation of all foundations and the pillar of all wisdom, is לידע שיש שם מצוי ראשון, to know that there is this first being. And therefore, it is self-understood that when we count mitzvot, so the first one, which is the most important one, and the yesod, the foundation of all other mitzvot, is the mitzvah to know שיש שם אלוקה, that there is a God. And that's why the מונה המצות count that as the first mitzvah. Rashi when he says that קידוש החודש, החודש הזה לכם, is מצוה ראשונה, the first mitzvah, what he means is, it is the first mitzvah which is written in the Torah. In the order of the way the Torah writes it, this is the first mitzvah. And even though we do find other mitzvot like milah and גיד הנשה, so the Raam on the first Rashi says that they are not counted, שלא היו ציוויין אלא ליחיד, they were only נצטוו, they were commanded to individuals, that's why they're not counted among the חשבון of the mitzvot, as long as all the other Yidden were not commanded. The first mitzvah that the Yidden as a group, as a nation was commanded, the first mitzvah that's written in the Torah is the mitzvah of קידוש החודש. Even though in חשיבות the first mitzvah is the mitzvah of אנכי ה' אלקיך. But nevertheless, even though we understand why the mitzvah of knowing that there is Hashem is the first mitzvah, because that is the source of everything, and as the Chazal say in the beginning of the second perek of Berachos, that the reason why the פרשה שמע comes before the פרשה of והיה אם שמוע is because יקבל עליו מלכות שמים תחלה, first you have to accept upon yourself the malchut of Hashem, then you could be מקבל עליו עול מצות, the yoke of mitzvot, and that is why the first thing is אנכי ה' אלקיך. Nevertheless, being that the Torah did start in order of the way it wrote it with the mitzvah of קידוש החודש, there must be something special in the mitzvah of קידוש החודש why that came first.

Now one of the things that's special about the mitzvah of קידוש החודש will be understood through what the Ibn Ezra says. The Ibn Ezra there on that pasuk in Parashat Bo asks a kashya. He says that how come משה לא פירש לנו בתורה איך נקבע השנים והחדשים? Why didn't Moshe Rabbeinu explain in the Torah how we establish the years and the months? If we look into the Torah, he says, we see that for instance all the דינים of a נגע concerning a מצורע, which is something happens to an individual person, the Torah goes into all the details. Even though this is something that didn't last forever. There was a certain time there was an ענין of מצורע, later on there is no more such thing as a מצורע. Nevertheless, the Torah went into the details. But concerning the קידוש החודש, which is a very important thing, it's נוגע to all the Yom Tovim, it's נוגע to so many mitzvot, it's נוגע when you're not allowed to eat chametz on Pesach, which is a very important mitzvah because if you eat chametz you get karet chas veshalom, when Yom Kippur is, and it's also נוגע to כרת, and it's נוגע to גאנץ כלל ישראל, nevertheless, the Torah doesn't mention a word about how to do it. And the Ibn Ezra says that זה לאות, this is a sign, כי סמך על קריאת בית דין בכל דור ודור, that he relied on what בית דין will learn out in every generation. Which really means that this is a sign to the truth of תורה שבעל פה. Being that this is such an important matter, and nevertheless it's not written in the Torah, it's obvious that probably Hashem gave this over to Moshe Rabbeinu בעל פה without writing in the Torah. So from this we see the truth of תורה שבעל פה. Now since this shows the truth of תורה שבעל פה, this is a very, very important mitzvah, because then it's not just one individual mitzvah, but it's a mitzvah that the way the Torah put it is a mitzvah that shows on the truth of תורה שבעל פה.

Then there is something else that we see in the mitzvah of קידוש החודש why that's such an important mitzvah, and that's why it's written first. Because קידוש החודש shows how the Torah is really the baal habayit, the one that controls the world. As we find in the Chazal in Yerushalmi in כתובות פרק א׳ הלכה ב׳, it quotes the פסוק in תהלים, קפיטל נ״ז פסוק ג׳, אקרא לאלקים עליון לא-ל גומר עלי. And on this פסוק it explains that if בית דין changes the date of the חודש, this will actually change the physical part of the world. For instance, if there is something that we know על פי הלכה happens after three years old, for instance by a בתולה we say בתוליה חוזרין after three. If she became three years old already, and then בית דין they changed and decided to add a month to the year, now that we have a second אדר, she really is not three yet, she'll become three next month. So physically her body changes that now בתוליה will still be חוזר. So from this מצוה of קידוש החודש we see the כח of בית דין, which is given by the Torah, by Hashem, that it has a balebatishkayt, it has the control over the physical part of the world. Now this, being that it's a מצוה that shows the כח of the Torah, that's why this מצוה is written first in the Torah. And this shows something else. The way Rashi says that really the Torah should have started with החודש הזה לכם. But for whatever reason the Torah did not do it, and it changed and started with בראשית ברא אלוקים, so even though there was a reason why it changed, but nevertheless it would make sense that even though the Torah did not start with החודש הזה לכם, but still the Torah would not have missed out by telling us what it wanted to tell us with החודש הזה לכם. In other words, probably in בראשית ברא אלוקים we also have the concept of what is brought out through החודש הזה לכם, and that's why the Torah was able to change, instead of starting with החודש הזה לכם, to start with בראשית ברא אלוקים. And the פשט is, as Rashi says, what do the words בראשית ברא אלוקים mean? בראשית, בשביל התורה שנקראה ראשית ובשביל ישראל שנקראו ראשית. That the word בראשית is made up of two words, ב׳ ראשית, or the ב׳ is an abbreviation of the word בשביל, בשביל ראשית, which means that the Torah was created because of two things which are called ראשית, and that is the Torah and בני ישראל. Now, it's self-understood that if the whole purpose of the creation was because of the Torah and the Bnei Yisrael, so obviously the Bnei Yisrael, with the כח התורה, have the control over the world, because the whole creation of the world is because of them. So obviously they have the power to change the world. And this is the concept that's brought out with the mitzvah of קידוש החודש, as we said before, that when the beit din is מקדש the חודש, that actually changes the physical part of the world if it has to. So this is the same inyan as what the pasuk means to say with בראשית ברא אלוקים. בראשית ברא אלוקים means to say that the whole world was created because of the Torah and the Bnei Yisrael, and the mitzvah of קידוש החודש shows that too. That the Bnei Yisrael, the beit din, with the כח התורה, have a control over the world because it was created only for the sake of the Torah and the Bnei Yisrael. So so far we explained why the mitzvah of קידוש החודש is the first mitzvah, and we said one thing was because this shows on the truth of Torah, the truth of Torah shebaal peh. The second thing, this shows the כח of the Torah, that it has the power to control the world.

But in truth, the reason this is the first mitzvah is also because in this mitzvah we see the whole tachlit of תורה ומצות. We see the whole purpose of what Hashem wanted with giving us the Torah. Because as we know that from matan Torah and on, every time we do a mitzvah with a physical object, we bring kedusha into that physical object. The cheftza, the object itself, becomes a חפץ of kedusha, an object of kedusha. It becomes sometimes תשמישי קדושה, sometimes the category of תשמישי מצוה, but whatever it is, we bring kedusha into that physical object. And not only that, every time we do a mitzvah, we bring kedusha into the world as a whole, because the mitzvah is, so to speak, a messenger of Hashem. As the Midrash says, כבדו את המצות שהם שלוחי, respect the mitzvot, they are My messengers, and we know the halacha is שלוחו של אדם כמותו, the shaliach of somebody is like the person himself, so the mitzvot are really Hashem himself. So every time we do a mitzvah, we bring down more of Hashem into this world. And the more mitzvot we do, the more kedusha and Shechinah we bring into this world. And when we will do so much, the kedusha of the world will be so strong that this will be seen in the world, and that will happen when Mashiach will come, as the pasuk says that when Mashiach will come, ונגלה כבוד השם, the honor of Hashem will be revealed, וראו כל בשר יחדו כי פי השם דיבר, and all the flesh even will see that the mouth of Hashem spoke, that everything comes only from Hashem. But how will we reach that point? Because through all these years we do mitzvot, and the mitzvot that we do and the Torah that we learn brings kedusha into the world and brings the Shechinah down more into the world till it will finally be revealed. This happened after Matan Torah. Before Matan Torah, being that Avraham Avinu and the other Avot, even though they fulfilled the mitzvot, but they were not commanded to do the mitzvot, ממילא when they did a mitzvah, it did not really bring down the kedusha into the cheftza. And that is why when Avraham Avinu wanted Eliezer to swear, and he wanted him to hold a cheftza of a mitzvah, he didn't give him his pair of tefillin, even though he wore tefillin because he kept all the mitzvot. He didn't give him a Sefer Torah. He gave him the mitzvah of milah, because that was the only mitzvah that he was commanded, and that was the only mitzvah that had this inyan that through doing the mitzvah brings kedushah into this world. So it comes out that the inyan of doing a mitzvah and learning Torah accomplishes that it brings down Shechinah and kedushah, etc., into this physical world, and it changes the world. And using the lashon of the Midrash concerning the building of the Mishkan, it says, why did Hashem command them to build a Mishkan, which later on was also the mitzvah for a Beit Hamikdash, is because נתאוה הקדוש ברוך הוא להיות לו דירה בתחתונים. Hashem desired to have a dwelling place in this low world. This is concerning the Mishkan. They made a house, so to speak, for Hashem, where Hashem, so to speak, dwelled. But really, this is a general concept in bichlal, gantz, the whole of Torah u'mitzvot. That when we do a mitzvah, we make a דירה לו יתברך בתחתונים. We make a dwelling place for Hashem, we make Hashem live here, we bring Him down more into this world. The truth is He's here anyway, because the whole world is only because of Him, but every time we do a mitzvah, we reveal it more, we bring it out into the open more, and that's the dwelling place that Hashem wants. And this is connected to what we said before that Rashi says, that בראשית, בשביל התורה, בשביל ישראל. The whole world was created because of the Torah and because of the Bnei Yisrael, it means that the world was created so that we, Bnei Yisrael, through the Torah and the mitzvot, will bring down the Shechinah into this world. So the whole purpose of the creation, why is there a world? So we should be able to change that world and make it holy and bring more of Hashem into this world. If this is the purpose of all objects of the world, because everything in the world was created only בשביל התורה, בשביל ישראל, so certainly this is true concerning a general concept of creation. Because all the different things that we use to do mitzvot are specific, individual things of creation. But there is one general concept of creation which includes the whole creation, and that is זמן ומקום. The whole world, the whole creation could be included in these two words: זמן and מקום, time and space. Time and space includes the whole creation. Everything in the world is under the category of זמן ומקום. So it's self-understood that if every object of the world was created in order for the Yidden to bring kedushah in it, certainly the general concept of זמן, of time, was certainly created only because a Yid should be able to bring kedushah into zman. How do we bring kedushah into zman? This is the mitzvah of החודש הזה לכם ראש חדשים ראשון הוא לכם לחדשי השנה, which is the מצוה לקדש חדשים ולחשב שנים, קידוש החודש בבית דין. That when the Beit Din calculate the zman, and makes up that a certain time of the zman is Rosh Chodesh, is a holy day, and a certain time of the zman is a Yom Tov, etc. So this is the way we bring kedushah into the general concept of zman. We use the inyan of zman for the sake of Torah and mitzvot. So just like when we take a piece of leather, and we use that for a mitzvah, for tefillin, it brings kedushah into that physical piece of leather, and the same is with any other object that we use, the same is when we calculate the time in order to figure out when should be Yom Tov and when should be Rosh Chodesh, and then the Beit Din actually is mekadesh the chodesh. The Beit Din actually says that the chodesh is mekudash, and they make a certain day, which if not for the Beit Din would have been a secular day, they make it holy, which automatically means that a different day in the month becomes Yom Tov, which if not for the Beit Din wouldn't have been Yom Tov. This is the way you bring kedushah into zman. And being that zman is not just an individual, specific thing of the creation, but this encompasses the whole concept of the creation, so therefore the idea of bringing kedushah into the inyan of zman is so important, because this brings out the general idea of what we accomplish through learning Torah and doing mitzvot. So this is another reason why the first mitzvah, the mitzvah of קידוש החודש, because this brings out the general idea what we accomplish through learning Torah and doing mitzvot, that we bring kedushah into the physical part of the world, and this mitzvah shows that we bring kedushah into the general concept of creation, which is time. And this also explains why this was substituted by בראשית ברא אלקים, which Rashi says is because to show the world that Hashem gave us the right to conquer Eretz Yisrael, because conquering Eretz Yisrael is the same idea. Eretz Yisrael represents kedushah. When we conquer the land from the goyim and make it Eretz Yisrael, this shows how we bring kedushah into the world. So really, conquering Eretz Yisrael is the same idea as the mitzvah of קידוש החודש, which starts with the פסוק החודש הזה לכם.