Deadlines, deadlines. The perennial thorn in the side of any student. Considered fully, what often bother us most about an essay on the philosophyof 8th Century Prussian physicists is not the task itself, but the fact that one must do it by tomorrow. If one had a similar piece of work but with no deadline, it would pose no problems. Why? One would appear to have some real form of choice?

What am I driving at? The Jews in Egypt faced a parallel problem. They were under an absolute form of slavery. Absolute slavery (as distinguished form mental control) is when the slave not only has to do particularly strenuous work, but there is no choice as to when to do it. It is time that structures our existence - if that is controlled externally then so are we.

That is why the first law that the Jews were given, and indeed, the one that bound them together as an independent people was the establishment of their own calendar. Having witnessed the ten plagues, the Jewish people could sense a release form slavery round the corner, but could not feel psychologically free as their time-system still belonged to their Egyptian masters. "This month shall be to you...the first of the months". To you - and nobody else. Their first bond was an expression of unity, of choice and of the freedom that Judaism prices so highly.

Our calendar, like us as Jews, is based on the Moon. Each new moon covers a new month. Jews wax and wain, we grow, we shrink, sometimes shining with the brilliance of the reflected Sun, and at other times barely discernible. I am not saying that we are made of cheese, but that our strength lies in conquering the factors which control us. By mastering our workload, we cease to be enslaved to it. True freedom, therefore lies not in having nothing to do, but controlling our own lives. That to me is the point of the Sidrah.