First Day of First Month - a Day of Creation and Redemption

Parshat Fekudei

by Rabbi Avi Billet

The Torah tells us that Moshe was given an instruction that “On the day of the first month, on the first day, you shall erect the Communion Tent Tabernacle.” (40:2). Of course, this was fulfilled in 40:17, “In the first month of the second year [of the Exodus], on the first of the month, the Tabernacle was erected,” as a follow up to the verse that informs us that “Moshe proceeded to do exactly as God had commanded him.” (40:16)

The Midrash is fond of the sentiment that the Mishkan was assembled and disassembled on a daily basis over the course of its first week of operation, leading up to the anticipated “Eighth day" of Vayikra 9:1. The Midrash Tanchuma goes so far to say, based on the three appearances of the verb “KM” (erect, assemble) (40:2,17,18), that this process took place 3 times a day during the 7 days of Miluim - the dedication days leading up to the final consecration of the Mishkan!

The language the Torah uses to introduce us to the day the Mishkan was to be erected is strange in two regards. The Ibn Ezra, in his Peirush Ha’Arokh, recounts a debate as to whether the 1st of Nissan (per the name we now give to the first month) was the first day when the Mishkan was erected, or whether the 1st of Nissan was in fact the 8th day of the Miluim. He notes, of course, that if indeed the 1st of Nissan was the 8th day of the Miluim – the main dedication day as noted in Vayikra 9 – then the Mishkan was actually first assembled on the 23rd of Adar! Why doesn’t the Torah mention this date? And why doesn’t the Torah mention the daily ups-and-downs of the Mishkan?

Secondly, as Meshekh Chokhmah argues, the phrase “b’yom hachodesh harishon” – on the day of the first month – seems superfluous, since the Torah then says “on the first of the month!" He learns from the extra word, therefore, that the word “b’yom” indicates that all Mishkan work was done literally during the day, and not at night.

While this simple answer seems to resolve the second issue regarding the seemingly extra word “b’yom,” we are left to understand the focus on the 1st day of Nissan, and whether it is the first day Moshe assembled the Mishkan, or, in fact, the eighth day. Ramban answers this question by saying that the day the Mishkan was erected, as well as the day of the dedication after the Miluim days, were both special. Whether the first of the month equals the first day the Mishkan was erected, or the final day, it and its partner date are special. This is called having your cake and eating it too, and is reminiscent of the famous response of Daschel Parr to the words “Everyone is special,” when he said, “Which is another way of saying no one is.” (:44 seconds mark)

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch notes that the phrase “on the day of the first month, on the first of the month” may be referring to the origins of the concept of the New Moon, which took place one year earlier, when the nation was established in the final days before the Exodus. While it is obvious that the Mishkan was not erected on a day when they were still in Egypt, the call to attention to the date could be a reminder to the people to remember where they were a year ago, and to note all their experiences and to see how far they’d come.

Perhaps most fascinating is the comment of Ibn Ezra in his Peirush HaKatzar. On “on the day of the first month, on the first of the month…” he says “This is a beginning of the world, and it is a Sod (סוד - secret).” Could he be referring to the opinion of rabbi Yehoshua that the world was created in Nissan (Rosh Hashana 11a)?

Usually when Ibn Ezra mentions a “sod,” there is an explanation for what he means, often a kabbalistic one. Yosef Ibn Caspi wrote a book, “Peirush HaSodot” to analyze and explain each time Ibn Ezra notes a “sod.” Unfortunately, Ibn Caspi missed this one.

Perhaps, in his attempts to equate the Mishkan’s ascent with a beginning of a world, Ibn Ezra is hinting to what Kli Yakar says outright.

Quoting a midrash that indicates the world was created in Moshe’s merit, the thought extends to indicate that the Mishkan, also put together by Moshe, is modeled on the structure of world. The three verbs describing the erecting of the mishkan (as noted above) can be applied and compared to the manner in which the 3 temples were or are to be built. The first two points of putting together the Mishkan require input from people. The last one, “that the Mishkan stood” indicates that somehow it put itself up on its own the final time, after all the efforts Moshe made of assembling and disassembling the Mishkan. This, explains Kli Yakar, reflects how the third and final Beit haMikdash will be brought to the people, regardless of their worthiness.

While the final message is certainly one that can give us hope, we must continue to look to the first day of the first month as a source of inspiration. Whether it might be the day of the birth of the world, it certainly is the day when the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh was given to us, and when a slave people received a calendar which helped define them as a free people. It is the day the Rabbis have declared when the final redemption will come, in the month of Nissan, and in it being the day the Mishkan was consecrated, it changed the world, for it finally gave God a resting place on earth.