The Moon’s Glow

This week we read of the final plagues visited upon the Egyptians: locusts, darkness and the death of the first born. We learn of our going out from slavery in Egypt. In the middle of this dramatic story the Torah proclaims: “This month shall mark for you the beginning of months.” (Exodus 12) It then offers details about our Passover celebrations.

Why does the Torah interrupt this story with the how-to of a holiday? Why do we need to learn about the calendar as we are gaining our freedom? One can imagine the Israelites saying, “We will get to those holidays when we arrive at the Promised Land.”

It is because marking the holidays are reminders of our history. On Passover we celebrate our going out from Egypt. On Sukkot we mark our wanderings in the wilderness. And on Shavuot we rejoice in the giving of the Torah. The holidays remind us of where we come from.

Our holidays are also expressions of our freedom. Slaves do not control their own time. They live by the schedule of their masters. The Israelites days were ruled by the Egyptian calendar not their own. One of the first steps in our liberation was to have our own calendar. Our taskmasters’ calendar was governed by the sun. The Hebrew calendar is dictated by the moon. Our calendar must be different than that of our oppressors and tormentors.

Its difference serves as a reminder of our freedom.

The Hasidic master, Sefat Emet, adds, the moon, unlike the sun, waxes and wanes. It almost disappears and then grows bright when it is a full moon. So too the Jewish people go through cycles of prosperity and suffering. When times are dark, the full moon brightly illuminating the nighttime sky reminds us that there are brighter days ahead.

Look up at the sky.

At least once a month you can gain a measure of hope in the full moon.

Garner hope from the moon’s glow.