Alef Kaballah - Vayakhel-Pekudei 1987 - This month is to you the first of the months

The Alef Kabbala Group (13 Mar 07) discussed a discourse by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, beginning 'This month shall be for you the first of the months' (HaChodesh hazeh) said on Shabbat of the Sedra Vayakhel Pekudei, in 1987. These words begin the passage in the second Torah Scroll read on that Shabbat, when the coming month of Nisan is blessed. Rashi, at the beginning of his commentary on the Torah, declares that this is the real beginning of the Torah, as a book of halachic teaching. If so, what is the earlier part of the Torah? An account of the spirituality of existence. So the Torah divides in two: the account of the spirituality of existence, and the more ethereal teachings which guide the lives of the Jewish people.