The weeks between Purim and Pesach are ones of preparation for the Festival of Redemption that we experience during Pesach. The sages presented for us four weeks of special readings on Shabbat in which we take out an additional Torah Scroll for the final reading from the Torah—the Maftir section. The last of these is Shabbat Hachodesh—the Shabbat before the beginning of Nissan— emembering this commandment given to he whole people of Israel, to remember the new month, this being the foundation for keeping the sacrificial calendar.

Shabbat Hachodesh reminds us of the unique role Hashem gives to mankind in the creation. He brings the change of seasons, through the gravitational orbit of the Earth around the Sun. He directs us in the Torah that the festivals need to be kept in their proper season, and he directs man to recognize and confirm the beginning of the new month. Man must make sure that the months stay in sync with the seasons, which requires a balancing of the lunar and solar calendars. One without the other will create a calendar that will soon lose it’s purpose, as the various harvest festivals will be kept at times when there is either not a harvest at all or the wrong harvest. Imagine celebrating the barley harvest in the fall at the time of the fruit festivals. He leaves to us to work the festivals into this reality. In Exodus 12:2, he gives his first command to the people of Israel: “This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.” Until now he had given commands to the Avot—the Patriarchs—as individuals, and here he begins to direct the people of Israel as a collective. The whole order of the Torah was dependent on the agreement of the leaders of the people as to when this month would begin.