New Beginnings

By Hazzan Jenna Greenberg.

Today is Rosh Chodesh Nisan and we begin the two-week countdown to Pesach. It is also the week in which we begin reading the third book of the Torah whose first parsha shares the name of this book, Vayikra. Also known as Torat haKohanim, this central book of the Torah discusses the various and sundry rituals around our ancestral form of prayer: offering gifts to God, korbanot, sacrifices to be offered on the Mishkan’s altar.

We begin anew with a new month, the month that biblically represented the beginning of all months, the beginning of the year.  We begin a new book of the Torah, after just having completed Sefer Shemot, the second book of the Torah which recounted Moshe’s rise to leadership of B’nai Yisrael, the Jewish people, the story of our Exodus from Egypt to the culmination of our people’s wanderings with the gift of Torah at Har Sinai. Shifting gears, the second half of Shemot then gave us the blueprints for and the creation of the Mishkan whose altar finally gets put to use for the first time in Vayikra.

This theme of new beginnings is a beautiful confluence when Nisan and Vayikra coincide. 

While Vayikra is the third book of the Torah, when a Jewish child begins learning Torah, traditionally they do not begin at Breishit, the beginning of the Torah. Rather they start here, with Vayikra. They do so because of the Midrashic principle: “Let the pure ones (children) come and engage in the pure ones (sacrifices/korbanot)“. Vayikra deals with Temple offerings, focusing on purity, holiness, and developing a close relationship with God, making it an ideal starting point to teach these essential and foundational Jewish values.

This connects back to Nisan as we now enter our period of intense preparations for Pesach, both physically and spiritually. And how do the children prepare for this holiday? Through questions, through curiosity which is nurtured throughout the Seder, throughout the entire holiday. 

The Seder is a night of questions after all. The Four Questions are only a springboard for further questioning. And when addressing the child who does not know how to ask,  she’eino yode’a lishol, about the story of the Exodus, the Haggadah tells us: “At P’tach Lo,” you open up for him. As the Hadar Team shares in their opening page of their 5786 Pesach reader: “These [three] simple words teach us that when we share our story, we open up for each other, creating a relational bond…binding us in relationship with our people and with God.”

We are all a combination of the Four Children from the Haggadah, where sometimes, even as adults, we may feel like the child who does not know how to ask, she’eino yode’a lishol. But we can all reset, at any age, at any Rosh Chodesh, anytime we begin a new book of the Torah. Sometimes, especially in this crazy world in which we live, we don’t always have the words to ask the questions that are not on the tip of our tongues. We depend on others to help us find the right words. And this is what helps to bind us in our interactions with others and with God. 

May the new month of Nisan bring new perspectives to our Pesach experiences this year. As we begin the book of Vayika, may we be inspired by its themes of purity, holiness, and deepening our relationship with God.

Chodesh Tov and Chag Pesach Sameach!