Binding the Paschal Lamb and the Fall of the Four Kingdoms

From where do we know that one does not count days to make up years? As it is said, "to the months of the year" (Exodus 12:2): months you count toward years, but you do not count days toward years. "This month shall be for you": it is handed over into your hands, and you are not handed over into its hand. An incident with Rabbi Hiyya the Great: the moon rose on the eve of the New Year, and the sailors traveled by its light a distance of three mil. Rabbi Hiyya saw it, took pebbles and dust and threw them at it. He said to it: tomorrow we wish to sanctify you, and you have already come up now! Immediately it was swallowed up in its place. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: in this month you are redeemed. They said to Him: do you say that we are redeemed, yet we will be enslaved another time? He said to them: renew your deeds. Until now you have had a "head" and a "first." "Head," this is the kingdom of Babylon, as it is said, "You are the head of gold" (Daniel 2:38), this is Nebuchadnezzar. "First," this is Esau, as it is said, "And the first came out ruddy" (Genesis 25:25). "Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: on the tenth of this month" (Exodus 12:3). Rabbi Yohanan said: but the lamb is at its best only from its pen, yet you say from the tenth? Rather, this teaches that they would tie it to the legs of their beds from the tenth, and the Egyptians would enter and see them, and their souls would fly out from upon them. Rabbi Hiyya son of Rav Ada: "Draw out and take for yourselves a lamb" (Exodus 12:21), that each one should drag the god of the Egyptian and slaughter it before him while his bedstead looks on. Rabbi Helbo in the name of Rabbi Yohanan: here it says "on the tenth of the month," and there it says, "and the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the month" (Joshua 4:19). Rabbi Hiyya in the name of Rabbi Yohanan: its taking stood by them at the Jordan, and its eating stood by them in the days of Haman, "and they shall eat the meat on this night" (Exodus 12:8), "on that night sleep fled from the king" (Esther 6:1). Rabbi Berekhyah in the name of Rabbi Avin: "And let them take for themselves each man" - this man is the Holy One, blessed be He, of whom it is written, "The LORD is a man of war" (Exodus 15:3). "A lamb for a father's house": Rabbi Yudan in the name of Rabbi Simon: no person ever lodged in Jerusalem with iniquity in his hand. How? The morning daily offering atoned for the transgressions done by night, and the afternoon daily offering atoned for the transgressions done by day. What is the reason? "Righteousness lodges in her" (Isaiah 1:21). Who exacts punishment for you from Media? "On the tenth." Rabbi Avin said: the tenth came, when Haman and his ten sons were cut off. Who exacts punishment for you from them? Their councillors, Mordecai and Esther; Mordecai from outside and Esther from inside. Who exacts punishment for you from Greece? The Hasmoneans, who would offer two daily offerings each day. Who exacts punishment for you from the fourth kingdom? "And it shall be for you a keeping" (Exodus 12:6). "Do not eat of it raw" (Exodus 12:9): do not seek it half-roasted. "Its head with its legs and with its inner parts": it and its dukes and its governors and its commanders. "And thus you shall eat it" and so forth (Exodus 12:11): Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahmani said: because in this world "you shall eat it in haste," but in the time to come, "for you shall not go out in haste, nor go in flight, for the LORD goes before you" (Isaiah 52:12).