The Midrash calls Rosh Chodesh Nisan, “the day of the ten crowns,” a phrase alluding to the ten rituals that were performed for the first time on this day; for it was on this day that Moses erected the Tabernacle in the desert and the cohanim, the priests, began performing the Priestly service on Israel’s behalf almost a full year after leaving Egypt (Bereishit Rabbah 3:12). These events and the instructions for the ten rituals performed in the Tabernacle were recorded in the book of Leviticus, which in Hebrew is called Vayikra, meaning “and He called.” In fact, the book of Leviticus begins with the word “vayikra,” as God calls to Moses from the newly erected Tabernacle, inviting him to initiate the new Tabernacle service, the model or template for all future Divine service.
Parenthetically, this same service was also performed in the Temple, and even became the basis for synagogue prayer after both Temples were destroyed. We can see from this that much of a Jew’s daily spiritual practice and liturgical obligations are rooted in the meta-historical events of Rosh Chodesh Nisan, as it marks not only the beginning of our liberation, but also our elevation and purification.
Additionally, Rosh Chodesh Nisan is significant for several other reasons. As discussed above, the first mitzvah the Jewish people received as a nation was to establish Nisan as the year’s first month and to set up the Jewish calendar according to the secrets of time that God taught Moses. Besides being read in its usual place in the weekly public readings of the Torah, this first mitzvah is publicly recited once again before Rosh Chodesh Nisan as part of Parashat Hachodesh, one of the four special portions read between the new moon of Adar, the last month of the year, and Pesach, which occurs in the first month of the year, in Nisan.
Furthermore, Rosh Chodesh Nisan is also one of Judaism’s four New Year’s days. Specifically, it was established by the Sages as the New Year of Kings, as Jewish royalty in the biblical era would count their reigns from this day. Additionally, according to one Rabbinic tradition, the world was created on this day (this will be discussed at greater length in the next section). And, finally, the cycle of the three major Pilgrimage Festivals of Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot begins in this month. Based on all these examples, Rosh Chodesh Nisan obviously manifests its importance in many different ways, and therefore we must attempt to determine how all the various aspects of this auspicious day are connected with each other, as well as with the parsha of Vayikra, which, as we mentioned, begins on Rosh Chodesh Nisan.
One hint to these various connections may be discovered in the letter alef being written especially small in the word “vayikra” in traditional Torah scrolls. The mystical tradition teaches that the 600,000 men between the ages of twenty and sixty who left Egypt represent the archetypal root soul sparks of the entire Jewish nation. According to the Sages, these root souls are further connected to the 600,000 letters of the Torah as each Jewish soul spark has its own letter, its very own unique gate or pathway to understanding the Torah.
Rosh Chodesh Nisan, the day on which Moses was called with a small alef, possesses great significance for each individual Jew in every generation, as the small alef represents the ideal service of God to which all Jews ultimately aspire. Furthermore, the small alef, as we will see, alludes to the process of creation, as well as its ultimate purpose, including the prospect of human beings relating to an Infinite Creator within the temporal parameters of a finite world. All this and more is available for each of us to contemplate and connect to on Rosh Chodesh Nisan.
In order for us to more fully understand this small alef, it would be helpful to compare it to another letter, the large beit of the opening word of the Torah, bereishit. The Zohar (2:161b) teaches that, “God looked into the Torah and created the world.” Therefore, the Torah’s depiction of the seven days of creation not only recounts the unfolding of the Divine creative process, but is itself the very blueprint, or script, that God “consulted” before speaking the world into existence. Just as scientists designate atoms, particles, molecules, and elements as the building blocks of energy and creation, Jewish tradition characterizes the Hebrew letters as prototypes of spiritual energy, the building blocks through which the world is constructed and maintained.
The first letter in the Torah, a beit, is written especially large in our Torah scrolls, and has the numerical value of two. This is a remez, a hint, to the dualistic nature of the world: infinite and finite, spiritual and physical, soul and body, life and death, night and day, woman and man, moon and sun, and so forth. The question naturally arises: why does the Torah begin with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, beit, and not the first letter, alef?
The Zohar answers this question with the following parable or derash (Introduction to the Zohar, 23). When God decided to create the world, all the letters came to Him asking for the merit of being the first letter in the Torah. Each letter, beginning from the end of the alphabet, came before God and argued that it should be first since a certain word with positive connotations started with it. God countered these arguments one by one by explaining that certain words with negative connotations also started with these letters. God disqualified all the letters until the letter beit successfully argued that the people of the world would praise their Creator with the word baruch (blessed). Since the first letter of the alphabet, alef, had still not made its case, God now offered it a chance to argue, even though He had already accepted the beit. The alef, instead of complaining that it had not been given a proper chance, answered that since the beit was already chosen, it would forego making an argument. God replied that since the alef displayed such humbleness, it would merit becoming the first letter in the Ten Commandments, which in numerous ways mirror and more fully manifest the Ten Utterances of Creation, which begin with a beit.
The two tablets containing the Ten Commandments were kept in the ark in the Tabernacle’s Holy of Holies, and later in the Temple’s Holy of Holies in Jerusalem. Even before Moses inaugurated the Tabernacle, God had told him that He would speak to him from between the two cherubs on top of the ark. The Holy of Holies in the Temple represents the central point, the spiritual vortex, around which the entire world revolves. Alluding to the alef’s crucial appearance in the word vayikra, God calls to Moses on Rosh Chodesh Nisan from this very place, the Holy of Holies which housed the Tablets containing the Ten Commandments, which, as mentioned, begin with an alef. The alef therefore, instead of appearing at the beginning of the Torah describing the creation of the world, thus adopts a central role in the creation of the Jewish people on this day, Rosh Chodesh Nisan, in the holiest of places.
The alef being written especially small in the word “vayikra” is explained in the pshat or simple meaning of the text to reflect Moses’ great humbleness when called by God to enter the Tabernacle, as will be discussed further in a later section. Additionally, the small alef reflects the necessary state of mind for each of us as we approach our own Divine service and spiritual practice. Like Moses and the small alef, we must contract our egos in order to make room for the presence of God in our lives. On a deeper level, the small alef also alludes to the great secret of tzimtzum revealed by the Kabbalah, a theme we will now explore.
When God “thought” of creating the world, an existential problem became immediately apparent. Since no reality can exist beyond (or outside) the infiniteness of God, where could a finite, “independent” world possibly find “space” to exist? The Arizal explains that God “contracted” Himself, as it were, in order to create a “vacuum” or womb-like space in which a finite world could then be created. Into this “vacuum” God shone a ray of light from which the world came into being. The small letter alef, thus represents this primordial act of contraction in both the creation of the world, as explained, as well as in the initiation of the Tabernacle service.
The act of tzimtzum, which allowed the world to come into existence, is the sod, the foundational secret, of the Tabernacle in the desert and later the Temple in Jerusalem. Just as God contracted Himself in order to allow the world to come into existence, He likewise contracted His infinite presence, as it were, in order to allow the Jewish people (and the world) to perceive and connect to Him in a finite place. The small alef alludes to our ability to actually experience and comprehend this paradox.
In a sense, we spend our lives trying to live within the paradoxical context of God both revealing and hiding Himself in the world. Jacob called the ladder – stretching from the earth to the heavens, in the very place where the Temple was eventually built – the “gateway to heaven” (Genesis 28:10-17). A Jew must constantly be a ladder between eternal and temporal time, between infinite and finite space. The small alef, revealed on Rosh Chodesh Nisan, represents the paradox of creation, as well as the relational nature of Divine service, beckoning us to connect ourselves to the mystery of all life.
