One of the seemingly ongoing battles being raged within the Torah Communities is that of the Calendar - "Sighted moon - Conjunction moon"; "Hillel II - Signs in the heavens"; "7th day Shabbat - Lunar Shabbat" and so the list goes on.
This debate, as with the Sacred Name debate is, in my opinion, very healthy for true growth, (1 Cor. 11:18-19) however we often tend to take matters a little too far and end up with controversies and division, and that should not be, we were never called to defend doctrines, but to seek The Truth, and this is my attempt at seeking the Truth and if anything found in this be True, praise YHWH.
I will say at the very outset that I, as with most others, have wrestled with this matter of the Calendar, the real "Name"', the Trinity concept and other "accepted Biblical" doctrines and I have yet to arrive at what I consider to be a definitive answer on most of them, and even if I have arrived at such an answer I still struggle because I can only see at best as through a very dark glass (1 Cor. 13:12) so my search for the Truth goes on.
At this moment as we once again approach the Pesach, the Calendar is again something we may need to look at, however this time with more urgency and persistence than before and below one can read my motivation for that, the reasoning behind why, as unqualified as I am, I really need to address this matter now before the advent of this years Pesach progresses much further. On this matter I will attempt to address a few issues now, and then I shall possibly have to send out a another blog later - there is just too much to cover in one blog.
So first and foremost let me make very clear that it is my spirit that is being stirred towards this subject and not a motivation to achieve some academic or theological thesis, and this stirring is of course is a desire to serve our King and Elohim, to seek Him and His Truth, but that is being driven on by something that I consider to be of absolutely fundamental importance, it is being stirred by what I am seeing around me concerning the rising up of the seemingly innocuous Noahide Laws preached and advocated by the certain Orthodox Jews pertaining to the behaviour expected of "righteous gentiles"; the building of the 3rd Temple and other related developments. This is a matter that, Abba willing I will also need to address as a matter of concern in the future but not here and not now, but please believe me when I say that these "Laws" (Talmudic) may be the very backbone of the NWO and this is being evidenced by the Evangelical denominations, RCC, UN, World Governments and other global bodies being drawn to this "doctrine" as flies to a honey pot!
So to kick this off - last year about this time I was led to look at a different Pesach date to that being advocated and observed by basically all Pesach observers. After due diligence and consultation with other Messianic brethren I arrived at the conclusion that Biblical instructions regarding the beginning of the Biblical year were not being applied correctly in accordance with Gen. 1:14 by those adhering to the traditional Hillel II Calendar and that the commencement of Abib (Aviv), thus the Biblical New Year as prescribed in Ex. 12:2 & Deut. 16:1 had absolutely nothing to do with the growth of the Barley or the Hillel II calendar, but had to do with the global position to the sun as designed by YHWH at creation and as advertised in His "Lights in the heavens" (stars and planetary alignment).
There are indeed occasions, as this year may show, where the Hillel II calendar lines up with the Vernal Equinox, an alignment and position to the sun which by necessity and the Laws of Nature will affect the climate and growth conditions of crops - my conclusion thus being that YHWH has given us the signs and season, we are now to trust that He will provide the necessary grain for our Festivals.
So in short I arrived at the conclusion that YHWH Elohim, The Creator and King; the One Who is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34-35; Rom. 2:11-13; Deut. 10:16-17) was, in my opinion, having to bow to a Calendar that was being manipulated by man as by and through our very actions we were adding to His Word and were thereby determining when His Divine Pesach Mo'ed was to be contrary to what the plain reading of Scripture says!
We really need to remember that a Mo'ed, which the Pesach season is, is when YHWH Himself makes an appointment to visit with His people (Lev. 23:4) we are required to just obey and prepare ourselves for His visit, and in order for us to prepare for Him and His visit to us, He has in His Grace and Mercy heralded the dates of His appointed times through His signs in the Heavens. The signs (and here in this blog I speak specifically about the Spring (Abib) season of the Northern Hemisphere) officially mark the beginning of His Year and separate the he old year from the new and the winter from the spring: Now how do we know this to be true? Well simply because it is written and secondly it is at the appearance of these heavenly constellations that we are assured that the sun has indeed crossed the equator and depending on whether we live North or South summer or winter begins in our hemisphere and preparations for planting can now be made.
There is much more that can be said but as at this time and for purposes of this blog I stop stop here and give my considered on this matter as I understand it right now:
Using the Hillel Calendar it was noted that we often called out the beginning of the New Year when the Old Year had not yet been completed according to Divine Instruction. Even though the Sun may be approaching the equator, IT HAS NOT CROSSED IT YET so in actual fact the world is still in the winter period (remember please I speak here on the Spring - Pesach for Yisrael, Northern Hemisphere, but the same argument would apply to Sukkot - Autumn Feasts as well) in a Biblical, Astronomical, time-wise and weather-wise attitude and position, which for me begged the logical questions:
How can we begin spring when officially we are still in winter?
How can we start a new year when the old is not yet completed?
Therefore - I answered my own questions with this hypothesis - would what we were doing with the Hillel Calendar not be similar to beginning a new day when the sun is still shining on the old one?
The hypothesis I posed to these questions seemed relevant, and if it was indeed relevant it then made the following of this man made Hillel Calendar if not extremely dangerous then definitely illogical.
We need to know that the Hillel Calendar was never used in the 2nd Temple period,instead there was a physical observation of the New Moon and these sightings would have led to the appearance over time to the constellations which the Word used to determine the months, seasons and therefore the Moedim (Lev. 23 Festivals) when we were to appear before YHWH our Elohim.
The Sanhedrin was assembled in the courtyard ("bet ya'azek") of Jerusalem on the 30th of each month from morning to evening, waiting for the reports of those appointed to observe the new moon; and after the examination of these reports the president of the Sanhedrin, in the presence of at least three members, called out: "The New Moon is consecrated"; http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11493-new-moon
Originally, the New Moon was not fixed by astronomical calculations but was solemnly proclaimed after witnesses had testified to the reappearance of the crescent of the moon. On the 30th of each month, the members of the High Court assembled in a courtyard in Jerusalem, named Beit Ya'azek, where they waited to receive the testimony of two reliable witnesses; they then sanctified the New Moon. If the moon's crescent was not seen on the 30th day, the New Moon was automatically celebrated on the 31st day. To inform the population of the beginning of the month, beacons were kindled on the Mount of Olives and thence over the entire land and in parts of the Diaspora.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/new-moon
The history of the Jewish calendar may be divided into three periods—the Biblical, the Talmudic, and the post-Talmudic. The first rested purely on the observation of the sun and the moon, the second on observation and reckoning, the third entirely on reckoning. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3920-calendar-history-of
We are also told that the Hillel Calendar was first used only towards the middle to late 4th century CE, and that it was the Rabbinic Jews in this period that changed the beginning of the Biblical Year to the 7th month of Tishri!
In the reference I am to make we will also read that the use of the conjuncture moon for determining the new month was also not used in Biblical times, but I shall write more on the conjuncture moon theory in a later blog.
According to Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy by W. M.. Feldman, “the Phase Method of determining the beginning of a month...prevailed until the time of Abbaye and Raba (middle of the 4th century), when it was REPLACED by the fixed calendar Method which makes use of a Mean Conjunction or Molad to determine the beginning of a month” (page 185). After the year 359 A.D. the rabbinic Jews began to observe the 1st of Tishri on the day of the conjunction (called the “molad”) rather than on the day of the visible crescent according to all previous tradition. The astronomically inclined rabbis acknowledge today that the current calendar used among them IS NOT the same as the ancient calendar used during the Second Temple Period. http://www.hope-of-israel.org/crescentmoon.html
The historical precedent is VISIBLE crescents. Notice what Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible says --
It is common knowledge that Hillel Calendar is of Rabbinic tradition and not Biblical, it is also common knowledge that on many occasions dates of the Hillel Calendar do not line up with dates deduced by observance of the practiced method of a sighted moon in Jerusalem, a practice that it seems Yeshua would have observed:
"There was no fixed calendar till the fourth century...and the New Moon was declared from ACTUAL OBSERVATION. The EYE-WITNESSES were carefully examined on the 30th day of each month...if no witnesses were available, then the following day was New Moon" (article, "New Moon," p. 522). http://www.hope-of-israel.org/crescentmoon.html
(I) mMeg. 1:4, in the time frame of Rabban Gamliel (80 - 116 C.E.):This article referred to above makes an interesting read, HOWEVER I would caution you that these people seem to adhere to the un-Biblical doctrine of a Lunar Sabbath. I shall hopefully also address that later, but suffice to say that those adhering to this practice base it on their take of Gen. 1:14 arw Gen 2:2-3, the Creation account that after each New Moon (here seen created on the 4th day) one must now count off 2 days and the evening of the 3rd day after the new moon one would set aside as a Shabbat again. They try and support that with the reading of Lev. 23:3 by saying that Shabbat is a Mo'ed (Festival) just like the other Jerusalem Moedim (Pesach etc.) and thus must be determined by each New Moon:
"If the Megillah has been read in the First Adar [during Purim], and then the year is intercalated, it must be read again in the Second Adar."
[NOTE: This demonstrates that, even after the time of the Messiah, the decision to intercalate months could still be made, at any time, based upon actual observation, and was not determined ahead-of-time, nor by a fixed 19-year cycle. The Hillel II Calendar is based on a fixed 19 year cycle, and has all months and the number of days within each month fixed, without regards to actual observation.] http://www.yhwhis1.com/PpCal_Hillel_A01.php
An example of what the Lunar Sabbath application would mean could look something like this:
If their Lunar calculations would make tonight, which is a Friday for us, or the beginning of our Sabbath in our 7 days cyclical Shabbat week, a Lunar Shabbat for them, and then tomorrow night, which would then end their Lunar Shabbat, a New Moon is sighted, then they, the Lunar Shabbat keepers, would immediately count off tomorrow night (Saturday night) as Day 4 of the week, our Sunday night as their day 5, Monday night as their day 6 and Tuesday night would then be their weekly Shabbat & start their Shabbat cycle over again with their Sabbath then falling on every 7th day until another New Moon is sighted, then the Sabbath day will change again and a complete new Shabbat cycle would be implemented. However this whole argument can be quickly debunked by just looking at Lev. 23:15-16 - It would be a mathematical impossibility to use a Lunar Sabbath (potentially starting on a different day each month) and still comply with the requirements in Lev. 23:15-16 to count of 7 Sabbaths after the day of the Sheaf Offering (First Fruits) and still complete a total of 50 days which include exactly 7 x 7 days Sabbaths.
YHWH, Blessed be His Name, has hidden all His answers in His Word, may we be blessed to allow Him to show us where they are so that we can draw closer to Him through our Yeshua.
I shall leave this here for now and Abba willing will continue next week, but please check out all I have said with prayer and Scripture, check if I am correct.
Until next time Shabbat Shalom.
Bo'az
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