Shabbat HaChodesh
The special maftir reading established by the Tana’im in the Mishnah for this Shabbat HaChodesh was meant to remind the congregation that the time to offer the korban Pesach, the paschal sacrifice, was quickly approaching, and that they must, therefore, prepare in advance for that rite. This reading from Sefer Shemot includes Hashem’s instructions regarding the very first korban Pesach, that which was offered in Egypt itself, with some of those instructions being unique for that first paschal offering alone. As our haftarah was meant to reflect the basic theme of the maftir reading, it too speaks of the unique laws that would apply to the future paschal offerings that would be offered in the Third Temple during the Messianic era. The selection from the 45th and 46th chapters of Sefer Yechezkel is part of the final perakim of the sefer, a section that posed great difficulties to our rabbis over the years, as so many of the laws taught by Yechezkel contradict those that are found in the Torah. In fact, the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat (13b) declares that were it not for Chananiah ben Chizkiyahu who reconciled the contradictions, the rabbis would have withdrawn the book from our holy writings (!) Unfortunately, as Rashi himself comments in the 22nd pasuk of perek 45, we no longer have a record of those resolutions.