[Avodah] Shabbos Hachodesh

[Cantor Wolberg via Avodah]

1) It says (Ch.12:verse 2): "This month shall be for you..."  Before this, God had reserved the right to fix the months; now He surrendered it to the Children of Israel. (Midrash)
    Another explanation by Sforno: Heretofore, time was at the mercy of Israel’s masters; now it was at its own command.
 
2) "Sun and Moon" (from the Sefat Emet) - Israel orders its calendar by the moon, for it is used to living in the night of history.
 
3) I came across a very strange Midrash which is quite contrary to what we assume the spirit of Passover to be.
    It is entitled Passover and Kol Nidre.  Ch.12:43 "(Hashem said to Moses and Aaron, 'This is the decree of the pesach offering: no alienated person may eat from it).”  
    The word for alienated person is ben naychor which refers to two kinds of people: (a)a Jewish mumar, apostate, i.e. one who worships idols, desecrates the Sabbath 
    or denies the validity of any of the Torah's commandments; and (b) a non-Jew.  Rashi comments that neither may participate in or eat from the pesach offering, 
    because they are alienated from belief in the Torah.  So the Midrash renders "apostate" as the sinner par excellence. This rendition makes possible a comparison        
    between the eve of Passover and the eve of Atonement when, in the Kol Nidre prayer, the congregation is expressly allowed to include sinners.  Why the difference?  
    If sinners come to weep and atone with us (on Yom Kippur), they are welcome; but when they join us only to rejoice and eat with us (on Passover), they are not.  
    On closer examination this does make sense.  It is in a sense saying that even the worst sinner can repent and THEN be part of the fold.  
    But if all he or she wants is to reap the benefits of religion, then it is unacceptable.
 
4) (A quote from the Talmud: Nazir, 23b) "As one should not be slow when baking matza, lest it leaven, so one should not be slow when performing a mitzvah.


"Time goes by so fast. Nothin' can outrun it. Death commences too early—almost before you're half acquainted with life—and then, you meet the other..."  
Act 3 of Tennessee William’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof