The Stranger in Your Midst
by Reuven Hammer "This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you" (Exodus 12:2). One might have thought that Nisan, the month of springtime, was designated the "first of the months for you" because it is the time of the renewal and rebirth of nature, but that is not the case. Nisan is the first because it is the beginning of the renewal and rebirth of the people Israel, the time when Israel gained its freedom and emerged from Egyptian slavery. "Remember this day, on which you went free from Egypt, the house of bondage, how the Lord freed you from it with a mighty hand... You go free on this day, in the month of Abib" (Ex. 13:3-4). It is part of the revolutionary nature of the religion of Israel that it downplayed the cult of nature, which was so important in many pagan religions. It did so mainly in order to stress the idea that nature is subservient to God, the creation of God, and is not...