This Shabbat is a banner Shabbat in the Jewish calendar. We read parshat Pekudei, which completes our yearly reading of the book of Exodus. It is also Shabbat HaHodesh, which is the last of the four special Shabbatot before Passover. “HaHodesh”, literally “the month”, refers to the new Hebrew month of Nissan, which begins this evening and during which we’ll celebrate Passover, which is the most widely-celebrated holiday among Jews worldwide. 

Nissan, as described in our maftir aliyah, is to be the “first of the months”, and it is our original new year. It’s a sign that our Passover preparations should begin in earnest, which in my house means that we really begin getting rid of all of our chametz: eat all the cereal, bake a loaf of bread here, drink a beer there, eat all the tortilla chips…it’s a very “carby” time.

On Shabbat HaHodesh, our maftir reading is the first section of chapter 12 of Exodus, which describes how the Israelites are to eat the Passover sacrifice in perpetuity. It also describes how this month shall be “the first of the months” for us going forward, and how leaving Egypt and slavery behind means that we are to take stock of time differently. Slaves, for whom time is not their own, don’t have the luxury of keeping track of it in their own way. For the 430 years that the Israelites were slaves, one day simply blurred into the next in a seemingly unending progression of forced labor. Now, on the cusp of freedom, G-d commands the Israelites to........

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