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On the Shabbat that falls on or before the 1st of Nissan, a special reading called "Hachodesh" (Exodus 12:1-20) is added to the regular Shabbat Torah reading. Hachodesh recounts G-d's historic communication to Moses in Egypt on the 1st of Nissan (2 weeks before the Exodus) regarding the Jewish calendar, the month of Nissan and the Passover offering.
Time is the first creation (see Sforno on Genesis 1:1); thus, the sanctification of time is the first mitzvah commanded to Israel.
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
The head of months (Exodus 12:2)
When G‑d chose His world, He established heads of months and years. When He chose Jacob and his sons, He established the head of the month of redemption.
(Midrash Rabbah)
Thus there are two "heads" to the Jewish year. The 1st of Tishrei (Rosh Hashanah), the day of the creation of man, is the head of the natural year—the year which the Jew shares with all of creation. The month of Nissan, marking the Exodus and the birth of Israel, is the head of a miraculous year: a dimension of time inhabited solely by the Jew, in which the miraculous—i.e., the power to transcend nature and norm—is the very stuff and substance of life.
(The Chassidic Masters)
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/in-depth/default_cdo/aid/74478/jewish/In-Depth.htm
The Torah reading of Parah (Numbers 19) is added to the weekly reading. Parah details the laws of the "Red Heifer" and the process by which a person rendered ritually impure by contact with a dead body was purified.
(When the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, every Jew had to be in a state of ritual purity in time for the bringing of the Passover offering in the Temple. Today, though we're unable to fulfill the Temple-related rituals in practice, we fulfill them spiritually by studying their laws in the Torah. Thus, we study and read the section of Parah in preparation for the upcoming festival of Passover.)
This Shabbat is Shabbat Mevarchim ("the Shabbat that blesses" the new month): a special prayer is recited blessing the Rosh Chodesh ("Head of the Month") of the upcoming month of Nisan, which occurs next Shabbat.
Prior to the blessing, we announce the precise time of the molad, the "birth" of the new moon. See molad times.
It is a Chabad custom to recite the entire book of Psalms before morning prayers, and to conduct farbrengens (chassidic gatherings) in the course of the Shabbat.
It came to pass on the eighth day (Leviticus 9:1)
That day took ten crowns: It was the first day of creation (i.e., a Sunday), the first for the offerings of the nesi'im (tribal heads), the first for the priesthood, the first for [public] sacrifice, the first for the fall of fire from heaven, the first for the eating of sacred food, the first for the dwelling of the Divine Presence in Israel, the first for the priestly blessing of Israel, the first day on which it was forbidden to sacrifice to G‑d anywhere but in the Sanctuary, and the first of months.
(Talmud, Shabbat 87b)
That day was as joyous to G‑d as the day on which heaven and earth were created.
(Talmud, Megillah 10b)
Please click here for a Halacha Guide, relevant to the month of Nissan and Pesach.
Please click here for a Halacha Guide for Eruv Tavshilin, performed this year on Thursday, Erev Shvii Shel Pesach.
We are grateful to Rabbi Shmuel Lesches of Young Yeshivah for sharing this with us!
May we all celebrate the ultimate ΧΧΧ ΧΧ¨ΧΧͺΧ Χ today!
Regards,
Yeshivah Shule