Thus, we then must purify ourselves with the ashes of the red cow, the parah adumah (Parshas Parah), readying ourselves to be capable of bringing and eating from the korban Pesach. How is this purification accomplished? Through the sprinkling of the ashes. This signifies that the only way a person can purify himself is by nullifying himself, by making himself like ashes.
Once we have established purity, we can start anew, we can be mechadesh ourselves with Parshas HaChodesh, which reminds us of the mitzvah to establish a new month when the moon renews itself and to launch a new year of Jewish months with Nissan as the first: Hachodesh hazeh lachem rosh chadashim (Shemos 12:2). The Ramban explains that we count Nissan as the first month so as to recall and emphasize yetzias Mitzrayim, which occurred in Nissan, as the foundation of Torah and Yiddishkeit.
These four parshiyos are viewed as steps in a progression toward Pesach, the Yom Tov of teshuvah m’ahavah, of returning to Hashem out of love.
One final point:
The Sfas Emes (Parshas Mikeitz 5631) would lovingly quote a pasuk from the haftarah quite often. It describes an architectural feature of the future Beis Hamikdash (Yechezkel 46:1): “Shaar he’chatzeir ha’penimis, ha’poneh kadim, yiheyeh sagur sheishes yemei hamaaseh, u’beyom HaShabbos yipasei’ach, u’beyom HaChodesh yipasei’ach – The gate of the inner courtyard which faces eastward should be closed during the six days of the work week, but on the Shabbos and on the Rosh Chodesh it should be opened.”
The Sfas Emes sees something beyond the architecture in this pasuk. On Shabbos and Rosh Chodesh a special channel is opened to give us easier access to the world’s inner meaning, its spirituality and pnimiyus. They can also act as keys to enable us to access the pnimiyus even on weekdays. These special days are designed for us to leave the world of the mundane and enter the spiritual realm.
Interestingly, there is another association between Shabbos and Rosh Chodesh.
Rav Yosef Karo uses an entire siman in the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 300) describing Melava Malka. One would think that it is due to the amount of information he wishes to discuss. But there is only one se’if, sub-section, and only one sentence in the entire section!
The Mechaber could have easily put the brief halacha at the end of the siman about Shalosh Seudos. Why did he choose to give Melava Malka its very own siman, despite its brevity?
Explains Yalkut Gershuni (cited in Shemiras Shabbos K’Hilchasa, Volume 2, Chapter 63), Rav Karo understood that already in his times, people were not careful to fulfill the mitzvah of Melava Malka. Thus, he assigned it it’s own siman in Shulchan Aruch so that it would get “prime-time” attention.
The same can be said about the mitzvah of seudas Rosh Chodesh which also has its own siman (419) made up of one sentence stating that it is a mitzvah to have a special meal on Rosh Chodesh. Whenever the Mechaber felt that there was a weakening of a particular important mitzvah, he would give it its own siman no matter how short the siman would be.
In B’Mechitzas Rabeinu, which consists of brief Torah thoughts and anecdotes from the life of Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky, zt”l, (page 127), Rav Yaakov mentioned a sharp statement (derech tzachus) relating to this. The pasuk says (Melachim 1, 18:21) “Ad Masay Atem Poschim Al Shtei Se’ifim,” whichin context describes Eliyahu’s criticism of Jews who jump on two branches, going from one to another, from Hashem to the idolatrous Baal. But it can also refer to these two se’ifim, the se’if regarding Melava Malka and the se’if of seudas Rosh Chodesh. How long, Eliyahu is asking, will Jews skip over these two relatively easy mitzvos of eating, which the Shulchan Aruch tried to bring attention to by giving each se’if its own siman!
