Another interpretation: “This month shall be for you” (Exodus 12:2) – that is what is written: “He declares His word to Jacob” (Psalms 147:19); that [word] is the Torah. “His statutes and His ordinances to Israel” (Psalms 147:19) – these are the consecration of the months in which there are statutes and ordinances. “Statutes” – these are the festivals, on which ordinances are dependent; “His statutes” are nothing other than festivals, as it is stated: “For it is a statute for Israel” (Psalms 81:5).
How are ordinances dependent on it [the setting of the festivals]?60The festivals are fixed by the monthly setting of the calendar by the High Court’s consecration of the New Moon. A person sells a field, a house, or a slave, or borrows or lends to another; if a person wishes to steal from another, he produces a document and the judges examine how he wrote to him and from when he wrote to him this text, from what month, what day of the month.
Likewise, the judges examine him and say to the thief: ‘You may not steal from him.’ That is: “His statutes and His ordinances to Israel” – the judges examine the months, as the judges judge on the basis of the months.61The use the date to ascertain whether the document is authentic.