New Years?

There are many new years in the Jewish tradition. Mishna Moed, masechet Rosh Hashanah begins by speaking of four of them. One in Nissan for the kings, one in Elul for the tithing of the cattle, one in Tishrei for the years and shmita, and one in Shevat, the new year of the trees. There is no mention here of how Nissan is the first month of the year. However, in this week's Torah Portion, pars hat Bo, we are told החודש הזה לכם ראש חדשים, "this month is for you the beginning of the year" ראשון הוא לכם לחדשי השנה "it is for you the first of the months of the year (Shemot 12:2). Rashi translates this to explain that this first month is the month of Nissan. Also, according to some, this also means that the month of Nissan is the most important. Yet, if this is the case, why does the Mishna not mention Nissan as the Rosh Hashana, the new year for the years?


Truthfully, this leaves me baffled. The only mention of any season or time of year is a whole chapter later, in Shemot 13:4, when we hear that the Israelites are leaving in the month of Aviv (which in modern Hebrew is actually the season of Aviv, of spring). No month names are given and no understanding of why this particular month is named Nissan, or why we know it happens at the turn of spring.
Some possible explanations are as follows:


1. Nissan might be translated as our miracles, meaning that this is the foremost miracle to befall the jewish people and therefore the most important one. Therefore, the month of the miracle should be the beginning of the year and should mark how we tell time from here on out. Yet, what about when Chanukkah happens a few centuries later? Should we then change the months to better represent the events which have befallen us? Later in the Tanach we get mention of Nissan as the first month. Esther 3:7 begins that "in the first month, that is the month of Nissan…" purposely mentioning Nissan as the first month (yet Esther is considered one of the later books and so does not necessarily mean it was written around the same time as the Torah).

2. The Torah was written based on the agricultural calendar. That means that the first harvest and the end of the harvest happen around the same time each year. Were we to look at the cycle of nature here in Israel, we see that the first fruits (Shavuot) are taken in Sivan and that the seventh month, Tishrei, in which we celebrate the festival of booths (Sukkot) corresponds with the end of the harvest. These months are counted backwards from the first month, which we think of as Nissan. In this sense, it makes more sense that Nissan is the first month.

3. The word Aviv has come to mean spring and Nissan does mark the beginning of spring, of rebirth. The exodus from Egypt is a rebirth, a recommitment from a people who knew nothing but slavery and suffering. Therefore, the name of Aviv may represent the beginning of the year, and show us that time began when the Jewish people began to experience life outside of servitude. It makes sense, then, that time would begin in the spring, where all is newly born and blessed with life again, because the Jewish people are also experiencing the same unique metamorphosis that the world undergoes.

4. Mechilta on Shemot 12:2 (2:7) basically uses Tishrei being the seventh month as the proof for Nissan being the first month.


5. Basically, the three pilgrimage festivals are used as proof texts for each other, mentioned in both Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16. Deuteronomy 16 actually does mention the first month of the year as Aviv again, with regard to Passover. However, it says שמור את חדש-האביב, literally guard/keep the spring holiday. If we read it as two nouns, this is a description of the time, not the specific holiday. However, commentary takes it to mean that the month is the month of Aviv.


Taking all of this into consideration, where this first month is the month of Nissan and the seventh month is the month of Tishrei, and there are many other new years which we have not even discussed, we see that the Torah does not give us a straight answer. We do not definitively know which month is the first month or what we should call it, nor where exactly to place it on our calendar (the lunar cycle aids with that preciseness). However, what we do know is the importance of the month of Aviv, of Nissan, of this new year. This is the new year that marks the new birth of the Jewish people. This is the beginning of the formation of our peoplehood and identity, our personhood narrative. Regardless of what the proper name for the month is or why it is where it is, we find our identity is solidified and made constant by the practice of counting time and recalling momentous occasions.

There is no explanation of why the mishna choses to not name Nissan as the month meant for the celebration of the new year. The seventh month is only mentioned in Leviticus 23 as a time for sacred occasion, not necessarily as the month in which we should celebrate the years. These semantics are not important, however. Rather, we must focus on the recognition of the time when our people was saved from slavery and brought out into Aviv, spring and in Nissan, our miracles.

Even as we as a people see Passover as a time of newness and our miracles, we see that there are many moments when we can find rebirth and beginning. The secular New Year is one such time. So even though there is a definitive name for our secular calendar months and we know exactly where we stand in the calendar year, we can still find renewal at this time of year.