THE PROMISE OF REDEMPTION: SURE, AS IF IT HAD ALREADY OCCURRED

Translated by Boruch Merkur

How is it possible to say that, prior to the exodus, when the Jewish people were still entrenched in exile, from the time of Rosh Chodesh Nissan (“This month shall be for you”), Nissan is referred to as the Month of Redemption? Security was so controlled at the Egyptian border, throughout the entire country, that the Torah testifies, “Not a single slave was able to escape Egypt.” So how is it possible to say that from the time of Rosh Chodesh it was the Month of Redemption?

THE MONTH 
OF REDEMPTION

We are presently in the month of Nissan, the Month of Redemption. [At that time, however, the Jewish people were still steeped in exile, imprisoned in a foreign land, in Egypt. It wasn’t until the fifteenth of Nissan when they were actually redeemed. Nevertheless, the entire month of Nissan is referred to as the Month of Redemption, a curiosity that requires further analysis.] At what point exactly did Nissan begin to be known as the Month of Redemption?

It is written in the Midrash, “When He [G-d] chose Yaakov and his descendants, He established the Rosh Chodesh of redemption.” G-d “established” within Creation – that is, He founded within the world – various cycles, amongst which is the concept of months. To that end, “When He chose Yaakov and his descendants” from among all the nations, “He established the Rosh Chodesh of redemption,” as it is said, “This month shall be for you the first of months,” referring to the month of Nissan. This concept – that “when He chose Yaakov and his descendants, He established the Rosh Chodesh of redemption,” as well as, “This month shall be for you the first of months” – took place prior to the Giving of the Torah, when the Jewish people were still in Egypt.

BEHIND THE IRON 
CURTAIN – OF EGYPT 

Now, the exile in Egypt was the harshest of all exiles, to the extent that the Torah says, “All the kingdoms are called by the name ‘Egypt’ (Mitzrayim), for the Egyptians were the tormentors (meitziros) of the Jewish people.” Thus, if there is a Jew in a certain region who has difficulties and tribulations, irrespective of which kingdom or which regime these problems arose from, his plight is reminiscent of the first and most difficult exile, the exile in Egypt, for “All the kingdoms are called by the name ‘Egypt,’ ‘Mitzrayim.’”  

How then is it possible to say that prior to the exodus [when the Jewish people were still entrenched in exile], from the time of Rosh Chodesh Nissan (“This month shall be for you”), Nissan is referred to as the Month of Redemption? Security was so controlled at the Egyptian border, throughout the entire country, that the Torah testifies, “Not a single slave was able to escape Egypt.” So how is it possible to say that from the time of Rosh Chodesh it was the Month of Redemption?

This was still at a time when Pharaoh and his ministers stated unequivocally that they would not emancipate the Jewish people in any way. Even when it came to the 10th of the month, just four days before the exodus from Egypt, Pharaoh and his administration put their lives on the line [to keep the Jewish people enslaved]. And this was despite their witnessing that G-d had brought about [a civil war, as it is said] “To smite Egypt with its firstborn.” Out of concern for Pharaoh and his regime, the Egyptians, along with their children, urged them to free the Jewish people, nevertheless Pharaoh remained steadfast in his resolve not to let them go.

As discussed above, the severe stance Egypt took against the Jewish people was not an empty threat. Rather, the Torah states that until the moment the Jewish people left Egypt, on the fifteen of Nissan – “On that very day” – Egypt maintained such secure borders that not even a single, solitary slave could escape.

In what sense then is it possible to call [the entire month of] Nissan the Month of Redemption?

BANKING ON 
THE WORD OF G-D

The explanation is as follows.

In the midst of even this type of harsh exile [even when there is no end in sight, no way to escape], when Moshe Rabbeinu proclaims (on Rosh Chodesh Nissan) that the redemption will come and they will leave exile, “with our youth, our elders, etc., our sons and our daughters,” saying that they will leave the Land of Egypt all together in one instance – then it is indeed called a Month of Redemption.

As stated in the verse (Bo 12:28), immediately when the Jewish people heard this news, “va’yaasu,” “(The Jewish people went) and they did (as the Lord commanded Moshe and Aharon, so they did))” – meaning that the event had already taken place, and Rashi elaborates that this was [prior to its actual occurrence] on Rosh Chodesh. [That is, Rashi writes: “But was it [i.e., the commandments regarding the Pascal sacrifice, etc. (and by extension, the exodus that would follow)] in fact done [at that point]? Rather, from the moment they accepted it upon themselves, it is considered as if they had done it.”] 

The exodus took place on the fifteen of Nissan. So, at first glance, what is meant by saying that it had already transpired on Rosh Chodesh Nissan?

The answer is that the faith and certainty of the Jewish people in the fulfillment of the words of G-d, precisely as they were stated by Moshe Rabbeinu, was with such strength that, from their perspective the events had already occurred. Thus, it is written in the Torah, “and they did,” meaning that the exodus had already taken place on Rosh Chodesh Nissan.

NOTHING LESS 
THAN A GUARANTEE 

Of course, the Torah does not relate these events for the sake of storytelling. Rather, this story contains a significant message and a lesson in our service of G-d.

Irrespective of the state we find ourselves in today, there is the promise and the assurance of the Torah – the Written Torah as well as the Oral Torah – [as Rambam writes in Mishneh Torah] that “The Torah promises that the Jewish people will (certainly) repent and immediately they will be redeemed.” That is to say, when Jews turn themselves around to face G-d, G-d certainly brings them from one extreme to the other, from a doubled and redoubled darkness of an extremely harsh exile to the true and complete redemption, which will never be followed by another exile. Therefore, every Jew (“our youth, our elders, etc., our sons and our daughters”) must be certain of this guarantee, exactly as if the matter has already come to pass.

It is just that it takes a few moments [before the redemption is fully realized, in the literal sense], as it was “in the days of your exodus from the Land of Egypt,” for at that time they got word of the exodus on Rosh Chodesh Nissan but it wasn’t until the fifteenth of Nissan that they actually left Egypt “marching out triumphantly.” 

(From the address of 11 Nissan 5736, bilti muga)