Lead Tidbit
Prerequisites of Nationhood
In Parshat HaChodesh, we find the mitzva of setting up the Jewish Calendar and the mitzvot and details concerning Korban Pesach. In a real way, the Korban Pesach is the annual membership rite and confirmation for Klal Yisrael. It symbolizes our enslavement in Egypt, our emergence from slavery to freedom, and our birth as a nation.

Setting up the Calendar, sanctifying the first of the month, is a prerequisite to bringing Korban Pesach. If the Sanhedrin does not sancify Rosh Chodesh Nisan, G-d forbid, then there is no Pesach fifteen days later. There is no Yom Tov, no prohibition of chametz, no mitzva of matza and hagada. And no Korban Pesach.

The Jewish Calendar is one of the things that defines our status as a nation distinct from the nations of the world. The Calendar, and what it represents, is a NATIONAL prerequisite for the Korban Pesach.

There is also an INDIVIDUAL prerequisite for a Jew’s participation in Korban Pesach - namely, Brit Mila. An uncircumcised Jew may not eat Korban Pesach. If a baby boy has his brit postponed for health reasons, his father does not participate in Korban Pesach until after his son’s brit.
So we can say that membership in KLAL YISRAEL has two kinds of prerequisites: National and Individual.

The point is (it’s only a set of first thoughts on the subject; treat it thusly):
We as Jews are individuals who are joined collectively as the Jewish People. We do not surrender our individuality as part of the Klal. We retain our identities and lend them to the whole, modifying them a bit, no doubt. For us, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but each part is something on its own. We stand a silent Amida, and then join for the repetition. We are a great People of great people.