Counting the Years From the Exodus and the Torah Given in the Open

"In the third month after the children of Israel went out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 19:1) - that they would count the months from their going out of Egypt. I know only the months; how do I know the years? Scripture teaches, "And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai... in the second year after they came out of the land of Egypt" (Numbers 1:1). I know only during that period; outside that period, how do I know? Scripture teaches, "And Aaron the priest went up to Mount Hor at the command of the LORD and died there... in the fortieth year after the children of Israel went out" (Numbers 33:38). I know only before they entered the land of Israel; after they entered the land of Israel, how do I know? Scripture teaches, "And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel came out" (1 Kings 6:1). Once the Temple was built they began to count by the years of kings and by the building of houses, as it says, "And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses" (1 Kings 9:10), and it says, "In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah" (Isaiah 36:1). They did not merit to count by its building, so they counted by its destruction, as it says, "In the twenty-fifth year of our exile" (Ezekiel 40:1). They did not merit to count by their own reckoning, so they counted by other kingdoms, as it says, "In the second year of Darius" (Haggai 1:1); "In the third year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar" (Daniel 8:1, cf. 1:1), and so by the era of documents. And so it says, "If you do not know, O fairest among women, go your way by the footsteps of the flock" (Song of Songs 1:8). And it says, "Because, even because" (Leviticus 26:43) - "because, even because" is nothing but eye for eye, measure for measure. "On this day" (Exodus 19:1) - this teaches that it was the new moon. It says here "on this day," and it says elsewhere, "This month shall be to you the beginning of months" (Exodus 12:2); just as there it is the new moon, so here it is the new moon. "They came to the wilderness of Sinai" (Exodus 19:1) - the place from which hatred came down upon all who come into the world who do not keep the Torah. And so Rabbi Yose would say: "I have not spoken in secret, in a place of a land of darkness" (Isaiah 45:19) - when I gave the Torah to Israel, I did not give it in secret nor in a land of darkness. "I did not say to the seed of Jacob" that it is yours alone. "Seek Me in vain" - I did not make it a mere deposit, but I set the reward for it beside it. "I the LORD speak righteousness" - I speak the righteousness of Israel. "Declaring things that are right" - I declare what they did before Me out of love. "He has not dealt so with any nation" (Psalm 147:20) - what shall the nations of the world do, seeing they did not learn Torah? "And as for His ordinances, they have not known them" (Psalm 147:20) - seven commandments I gave them, and they could not stand by them.