| This week's Torah reading contains a special section pertaining to the upcoming holiday of Passover. In addition to the regular weekly reading, we read about the first Passover the Jewish people observed while still in Egypt, when they were commanded to prepare a sheep for the first "Seder" in history. Before they were able to observe Passover, and before they even knew when the holiday would be, they first had to create a system for determining the dates of the Jewish calendar. In fact, this was the first mitzvah the Jews were given as a nation – to establish a Jewish calendar based on the monthly lunar cycle. Every month, the High Court in Jerusalem would hear testimony from witnesses who saw the new moon, at which point the court would then establish that day as Rosh Chodesh – the beginning of the new month. Today, in the absence of a High Court in Jerusalem, we follow a perpetual calendar that was set some 2,000 years ago. But even the calendar we use today still uses the same guidelines as our ancestors' calendar did, following the lunar calendar and ensuring that all holidays occur at their appropriate times. The reason the mitzvah to establish a calendar was chosen as the first of all 613 mitzvahs to be given to the Jewish people, is to remind us that mitzvahs are human activities. The only way to perform a mitzvah is by physically engaging with it, and only then does it have spiritual ramifications. We can't meditate on a mitzvah, we need to actually do it. So with the calendar, G-d shows us how even the most spiritual activities of the Jewish people, such as observing the festivals set forth in the Torah, depend on human involvement. The new months must be determined by a human court, and so too all of our mitzvahs must be as practical and down-to-earth as possible. With prayers for the coming of Moshiach and the reestablishment of the High Court, when we will once again observe the mitzvah of determining the Jewish calendar in the most optimal fashion. Shabbat shalom, | 
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