Shabbat Shalom beloved of Yeshua Messiah.
I pray that this post finds you, your families, and your fellowships well and blessed on this hurried but expectant Preparation Day.
12 And יהוה spoke to Mosheh and to Aharon in the land of Mitsrayim, saying, 2“This new moon is the beginning of new moons for you, it is the first new moon of the year for you. (The Scriptures, 3rd edition. (Northriding: Institute for Scripture Research, 2009), Ex 12.)
3And Mosheh said to the people, “Remember this day in which you went out of Mitsrayim, out of the house of slavery. For by strength of hand יהוה brought you out of this place, and whatever is leavened shall not be eaten. 4“Today you are going out, in the new moon Aḇiḇ. (The Scriptures, 3rd edition. (Northriding: Institute for Scripture Research, 2009), Ex 13:3–4.)
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Shabbat HaChodesh? Maybe…
This particular Shabbat is traditionally referred to as Shabbat HaChodesh (aka the Sabbath of the first month). It is a memorial, if you will, on the Sabbath that precedes the first day of the month of the Aviv (aka the Biblical Rosh HaShannah — the Head of Yah’s Biblical New Year) each biblical calendar year. Its reading is Exo 12.1-10 with Haftaroth of Eze 45.16-46.18.
Although not a holy day apart from it being a weekly Sabbath day, it is a very important date on the Biblical Calendar, especially for those of us who keep Yah’s set-apart Moedim (aka the Feast of the LORD). It is an important Sabbath because it alerts us as to the imminent arrival of the Biblical Rosh HaShannah (aka Aviv 1). But this day, unfortunately, does not come without controversy.
Without getting too deep into the weeds of the mechanics of the various calendars that members of our faith community keep, allow me to clarify some of the confusion around the Biblical Rosh HaShannah that many of us will no doubt endure this season.
Distinguishing Between the Two Prominent Calendars
Our Jewish cousins, as you know, keep what I call the Rabbinic Calculated Calendar or the Jewish Calendar. As the name implies, it is a calendar that is based purely on mathematics and was originally introduced to the world by a Rabbi who went by the name of Hillel II around 359 C.E. At the time, the Sanhedrin, who had for centuries facilitated and regulated the Hebrew calendar from Jerusalem – a calendar that was based on biblically stipulated natural observable elements — was in an exile that has lasted for the better part of two millennia. The exiled Sanhedrin could no longer function as it once did in the Land, especially in terms of facilitating and regulating Yah’s calendar. So, in order to maintain some semblance of control over the Jewish religion while in exile, they commissioned Hillel II to develop and implement a mathematically based calendar that would function independent of the Land and keep the world’s Jewish population on the same page, so to speak, as it related to the annual feasts and traditional holidays.
We know that calendar today as simply the Jewish Calendar. It is a marvel of pure genius that served a vital purpose in keeping Yah’s exiled people united and informed as it relates to Yah’s appointed times. I believe that the creation and implementation and continued operation of this calendar was God-ordained. It was, in a sense, a necessary evil, given our Jewish brethren’s exilic plight throughout the world and throughout the ages.
It was a necessary evil in that Yah’s reckoning of time is an essential element of the Hebrew Faith and, since our Jewish brethren were no longer in the Land, they required some instrument or means by which the people that shared their faith throughout the world could all keep Yah’s appointed times uniformly. However, the implementation and keeping of that calendar came with very negative side-effects and costs. The Rabbis, being Rabbis of course, could not resist the temptation to tamper with and control when Yah’s appointed times would occur each year. Thus, throughout the centuries, the Rabbinic leaders made intentional adjustments to the calendar to coincide with their Talmudic/Mishnaic principles and edicts. These would decide for Yah’s people when Yah’s appointed times would take place each year; what and when their fabricated holidays would be kept; and so forth. Some of their changes to when Yah’s set apart days would occur each year were done in deference to Yah’s Torah, and they remain even today.
A Return to the Land and a Renewed Opportunity to Return to Abba Yah’s Reckoning of Time
Nevertheless, our Jewish brethren, through Yah’s miraculous grace, returned to the Land in 1948; indeed, a partial fulfillment of prophetic covenant promises. And with our cousins’ return to the Land came the opportunity to return to Yah’s true biblical reckoning of time. But in order to do that, it would mean that the modern-day Rabbis would have to give up their iron-clad control over the timing of the annual feasts and holidays of the Jewish people. Fortunately, a handful of Jews, primarily Karaite and Messianic Jews, seized upon this historic opportunity to spearhead a return of Yah’s chosen people to the Creator’s reckoning of time through a reintroduction and reinstitution of what I call the Observational Calendar. And for the last few decades, a remnant of Karaite and Messianic Jews and Nazarene Israelites have been keeping Yehovah’s Observational Calendar.
Shabbat Shalom beloved of Yeshua Messiah.
I pray that this post finds you, your families, and your fellowships well and blessed on this hurried but expectant Preparation Day.
12 And יהוה spoke to Mosheh and to Aharon in the land of Mitsrayim, saying, 2“This new moon is the beginning of new moons for you, it is the first new moon of the year for you. (The Scriptures, 3rd edition. (Northriding: Institute for Scripture Research, 2009), Ex 12.)
3And Mosheh said to the people, “Remember this day in which you went out of Mitsrayim, out of the house of slavery. For by strength of hand יהוה brought you out of this place, and whatever is leavened shall not be eaten. 4“Today you are going out, in the new moon Aḇiḇ. (The Scriptures, 3rd edition. (Northriding: Institute for Scripture Research, 2009), Ex 13:3–4.)
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Shabbat HaChodesh? Maybe…
This particular Shabbat is traditionally referred to as Shabbat HaChodesh (aka the Sabbath of the first month). It is a memorial, if you will, on the Sabbath that precedes the first day of the month of the Aviv (aka the Biblical Rosh HaShannah — the Head of Yah’s Biblical New Year) each biblical calendar year. Its reading is Exo 12.1-10 with Haftaroth of Eze 45.16-46.18.
Although not a holy day apart from it being a weekly Sabbath day, it is a very important date on the Biblical Calendar, especially for those of us who keep Yah’s set-apart Moedim (aka the Feast of the LORD). It is an important Sabbath because it alerts us as to the imminent arrival of the Biblical Rosh HaShannah (aka Aviv 1). But this day, unfortunately, does not come without controversy.
Without getting too deep into the weeds of the mechanics of the various calendars that members of our faith community keep, allow me to clarify some of the confusion around the Biblical Rosh HaShannah that many of us will no doubt endure this season.
Distinguishing Between the Two Prominent Calendars
Our Jewish cousins, as you know, keep what I call the Rabbinic Calculated Calendar or the Jewish Calendar. As the name implies, it is a calendar that is based purely on mathematics and was originally introduced to the world by a Rabbi who went by the name of Hillel II around 359 C.E. At the time, the Sanhedrin, who had for centuries facilitated and regulated the Hebrew calendar from Jerusalem – a calendar that was based on biblically stipulated natural observable elements — was in an exile that has lasted for the better part of two millennia. The exiled Sanhedrin could no longer function as it once did in the Land, especially in terms of facilitating and regulating Yah’s calendar. So, in order to maintain some semblance of control over the Jewish religion while in exile, they commissioned Hillel II to develop and implement a mathematically based calendar that would function independent of the Land and keep the world’s Jewish population on the same page, so to speak, as it related to the annual feasts and traditional holidays.
We know that calendar today as simply the Jewish Calendar. It is a marvel of pure genius that served a vital purpose in keeping Yah’s exiled people united and informed as it relates to Yah’s appointed times. I believe that the creation and implementation and continued operation of this calendar was God-ordained. It was, in a sense, a necessary evil, given our Jewish brethren’s exilic plight throughout the world and throughout the ages.
It was a necessary evil in that Yah’s reckoning of time is an essential element of the Hebrew Faith and, since our Jewish brethren were no longer in the Land, they required some instrument or means by which the people that shared their faith throughout the world could all keep Yah’s appointed times uniformly. However, the implementation and keeping of that calendar came with very negative side-effects and costs. The Rabbis, being Rabbis of course, could not resist the temptation to tamper with and control when Yah’s appointed times would occur each year. Thus, throughout the centuries, the Rabbinic leaders made intentional adjustments to the calendar to coincide with their Talmudic/Mishnaic principles and edicts. These would decide for Yah’s people when Yah’s appointed times would take place each year; what and when their fabricated holidays would be kept; and so forth. Some of their changes to when Yah’s set apart days would occur each year were done in deference to Yah’s Torah, and they remain even today.
A Return to the Land and a Renewed Opportunity to Return to Abba Yah’s Reckoning of Time
Nevertheless, our Jewish brethren, through Yah’s miraculous grace, returned to the Land in 1948; indeed, a partial fulfillment of prophetic covenant promises. And with our cousins’ return to the Land came the opportunity to return to Yah’s true biblical reckoning of time. But in order to do that, it would mean that the modern-day Rabbis would have to give up their iron-clad control over the timing of the annual feasts and holidays of the Jewish people. Fortunately, a handful of Jews, primarily Karaite and Messianic Jews, seized upon this historic opportunity to spearhead a return of Yah’s chosen people to the Creator’s reckoning of time through a reintroduction and reinstitution of what I call the Observational Calendar. And for the last few decades, a remnant of Karaite and Messianic Jews and Nazarene Israelites have been keeping Yehovah’s Observational Calendar.
Shabbat HaChodesh and Guarding the Month of the Aviv Thoughts and Reflections
Our Biblical-Observational Calendar
The Biblical-Observational Calendar is a Luni-Solar-based calendar where 40% of the observational witnesses to Father’s set-times (i.e. His Moedim) are predicated on the sun’s influences on various natural elements in the Land such as those things having to do with wildlife and plant life. These natural elements include reduced rainfall levels, the flowering of trees and plants, and the migration of birds native to the Land, all witness to the coming Spring Feasts of the LORD (i.e. Pesach, Unleavened Bread, Wavesheaf/First Fruits). The remaining 60% of observational witnesses fall within the realm of the maturation of the Land’s barley crop, the birth of lambs, and the sighting of the first renewed moon at the end of either the 12th or 13th month.
The maturity of the barley crop and the sighting of the first renewed moon are critical to determining (1) the start of Yah’s biblical calendar year and (2) when Yah’s sacred Moedim will occur throughout that year. The maturity of the barley crop is critical in determining whether we will have a proper offering for the Wavesheaf Offering, sometime between the 15th and 22nd days of the first Month or in the Month of the Aviv. The birth of lambs prior to the start of the month of the Aviv are critical for our keeping the Passover (i.e. the Pesach).
Please note: Since we no longer have an existing and functioning Temple in Jerusalem, my mentions of possessing aviv barley for the Wavesheaf/Firstfruits offering and a yearling, unblemished lamb for Passover/Pesach is meant to be taken as rhetorically biblical in nature.
Of the natural elements that signal the onset of the Spring Feasts of the LORD and Biblical Rosh HaShannah, scripture notes:
7“Even a stork in the heavens knows her appointed times. And a turtledove, and a swallow, and a thrush guard the time of their coming. But My people do not know the right-ruling of יהוה.
8“How do you say, ‘We are wise, and the Torah of יהוה is with us’? But look, the false pen of the scribe has worked falsehood. (The Scriptures, 3rd edition. (Northriding: Institute for Scripture Research, 2009), Je 8:7–8.)
11“For look, the winter is past, the rain is over, gone. 12“The flowers have appeared in the earth; The time of singing has come, And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land. 13“The fig tree has ripened her figs, And the vines with the tender grapes have given a good fragrance. Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away! (The Scriptures, 3rd edition. (Northriding: Institute for Scripture Research, 2009), So 2:11–13.)
The Negative Influences of the Rabbis on Determining God’s Reckoning of Time
Hillel’s calendar (aka the Jewish Calculated Calendar) does not take these observational elements into account, yet most in our Faith community, for whatever reasons, still hold fast to their keeping of his calendar. And I must ask: Under whose authority are we to walk out our Faith: Father Yah and His Son Yahoshua HaMashiyach or the Rabbis? Yeshua spoke to this when He instructed His disciples:
(2) The sages and Pharisees (aka Prushim) sit in the seat of Moshe. (3) Therefore, whatsoever He, Moshe, commands you to do and observe, that [you are to] do. But do not follow the takanot and ma’asim of the Pharisees, because they say that they follow Moshe, but they do not do what Moshe said to do” (Mat 23; Shem Tov translation as gleaned from Rood’s Chronological Gospels).
Understanding God’s Reckoning of Time
For those of us who keep Yah’s reckoning of time as attested in scripture (and more and more of us are coming into this understanding each year — praise Yah), each day begins at sunset; each week begins at sunset at the end of the 7th day; each month begins with the sighting of the renewed moon, and each year begins with the sighting of the renewed moon with the witness of the barley being in an aviv state of maturation along with the other aforementioned natural elements in the Land.
This was the reckoning of time that we followed at the time of our Exodus from Egypt, sojourned/traveled in the wilderness, and in our life in the Land after the conquest of the Land under Joshua’s leadership.
The Best Case in Favor of Keeping the Biblical Observational Calendar
Our Master Yahoshua Messiah and His anointed-appointed disciples kept this reckoning of time, and because we are also disciples of Yisra’el’s Messiah, we are compelled to follow His example even today.
I find it somewhat disappointing that so many Sabbath and Feast keeping believers today are so anti-Jewish in their thinking and in their various teachings, theologies, and doctrines, yet they are staunch keepers and adherents of the Rabbinic-Pharisaic-Hillel Calendar. The Rabbinites took unto themselves the authority to supersede the primacy and authority of Torah with their own Torah (i.e. their Talmud and Mishnah) — their takanot — and their ma’asim, and to insert and move Yehovah’s appointed times (i.e. His Moedim) throughout their calendar to fit their purposes and conveniences.
So, I will say this:
To adhere to Hillel’s (aka the Jewish Calculated) Calendar is to bow to and come under the authority of the Rabbis over one’s life. However, to adhere to the Creator’s biblically based calendar that Yah Himself embedded into the heavens and the earth, is to walk in faith and obedience. Thus, settling upon which calendar one follows matters! Yah set the precise times that He chooses to meet with His elect. Who are we or our Rabbinic cousins to tell Yehovah when we will meet with Him?
A Call to Obedience and Faith in These Perilous Times
There has been no time more important in recent history than now to get this right. With all the wokeness, persecutions of those who worship the God of Avraham, Yitschaq, and Ya’achov; the Yisra’el-Gazan War; and the Signs of the Times so glaringly calling for our attention, we would be foolish not to do everything in our power to walk obediently in our Master’s footsteps. Master Yeshua gave Himself for His chosen ones to set them apart and cleanse them with the washing of water by the Word in order to present them to His Father as a splendid assembly, not having spot or wrinkle (Eph 5:25-26). We are called then to be a light and salt to this fallen world (Mat 5.13-14). That means that we walk in strict obedience and faith with love for our Creator and for our neighbor.
Waiting for the Call
So, we are at the cusp of finding out when Biblical Rosh HaShannah will fall-out in the next 72 or so hours. From recent reports I’ve received from trained observers in the Land, all the observable natural elements are where they should be in terms of the imminent arrival of Rosh HaShannah 2024. And barring any unforeseen delay in the progress or maturation of the natural witnesses (i.e. the barley crop, the bird migration, and the flowering plants), Rosh HaShannah 2024 will take place on either 3/11 or 3/12 of this year, depending on the date of the sighting of the renewed moon. If the natural witnesses are not in the optimal state for Rosh HaShannah at this time, we will enter a 13th month that will facilitate the continued maturation of these natural elements.
Beloved, it is vitally important that we get the timing right, for Yah commands us in His Torah to “guard (i.e. “Shamar“) the month of Aviv” (Deu 16.1). To “shamar” the month of the Aviv is to not only observe and keep the Month of the Aviv and all the Moedim contained within that month, but also to ensure that we get the date of Rosh HaShannah right.
Speaking of a 13th month (also referred to as an intercalation, related to Gregorian Calendar leap years), the Hillel/Jewish Calculated Calendar has a 13th month (referred to in Hebrew circles as Adar II or Adar Bet) incorporated into it this year. That calendar is set and has been set for many years. Thus, it is not a calendar that demands faithful obedience on the part of Yah’s set apart people. Regardless, with this year’s Adar 2 of the Jewish Calendar, Biblical Rosh HaShannah will hit on 4/8/2024, which also means that keepers of this calendar will not observe Passover until the 22nd of April 2024. So, it is very likely that there will be a month disparity between our two calendar camps this year as it relates to when we keep Yah’s Feasts. In other words, members who keep the observational calendar depending on whether the observational natural elements are at their proper state, could be keeping the Spring and Fall Feasts of the LORD a month earlier than our brethren who keep the Jewish calendar. And I know that this frustrates a lot of folks in and without our faith community who demand that we all come together under one calendar: namely the Jewish Calculated Calendar. But the way I and many others like me see this situation, we all must walk out our respective salvations with fear and trembling (Phi 2.12). I desire to walk in faithful obedience to Abba Yah, not the Rabbis. (I have nothing against Rabbis. I just don’t answer to nor subject myself to their authority and neither should you.)
So, with that all said, I wanted to give you a head’s up as it relates to the coming Spring holy season and urge you to prepare to receive and shamar the month of the Aviv. Regardless of how our observational calendar falls out this year, whether it hits at sundown on this coming Monday/Tuesday, or at sundown on April 9th, it behooves us to prepare to receive Rosh HaShannah 2024 with rejoicing and trusting obedience. Please consult our website, www.themessianictorahobserver.org, for up to the moment updates on the findings of the searchers in the Land.
Shabbat Shalom, Shavu’atov, until next time beloved, take care.