On the new moon This is NOT an extensive study or essay, but just some considerations.... In case we are not all on the same page. The reason why i think it is important on what day we celebrate the feast is because we are commanded in the Scriptures over and over to celebrate them on the appointed time. It is true that Yah loves us every day of the year, but how many of you that love your husband or wife, would go to them and wish them happy anniversary a day after it passed? How much more should we be doing our best to meet with The Creator at the time he asks us to be there? Before 358 AD, when the Hilel II calendar was established because of the Diaspora (this is the Jewish calendar of today), we were going by the SIGHTING of the moon to determine the first day of the month. There are historical records that testify of this, among which we see the Mishna and Philo the historian... “[A]t the time of the new moon, the sun begins to illuminate the moon with a light which is visible to the outward senses, and then she displays her own beauty to the beholders.” (The Works of Philo) - 1st Century Mishna, tractate Rosh HaShana 2:6 How do they examine the witnesses? `The pair which makes its appearance first do they examine first. `They bring in the elder of them and say to him, “Tell us. How did you see the moon? Was it facing the sun or turned away from it? Was it to the north or to the south? How high was it, and in which direction was it leaning? And how broad was it?” `If he said, “It was facing the sun,” he has said nothing at all. `Then they would bring in the second party and examine him. `If their testimony coincided, their testimony was confirmed. `And in the case of all the other pairs of witnesses, they ask the main points, `not because they needed their [evidence], but so that they should not go out disappointed, `so that they would make it a habit of coming along in the future. Also in the book of Enoch (found in the ethiopian tradition, in qumran caves and quoted in the leter of Juda) it says.... Enoch 73:4 And thus she rises. And her first phase in the east comes forth on the thirtieth morning: and on that day she becomes visible, and constitutes for you the first phase of the moon on the thirtieth day together with the sun in the portal where the sun. There is enough proof that this was the calendar they would go by at the time of Yeshua and according to the moon sighting is that on the evening on the 14th day of the 1st month Yeshua was killed as the passover lamb. I do not believe, he could have been sacrifice on a different day than this appointed time. According to Genesis 1, the moon is a SIGN (Ot) to mark the times. An ot is almost always something visible; circumcision, the blood on the door posts, the rainbow after the flood, are all ots. The argument that is presented to support the conjunction of the moon as the method to determine the beginning of months does not present enough (actually not any at all) historical record to back up that somebody ever went by this method in the history of israel. The two pillars of this theory are Samuel 20 and Psalm 81. In the first one, one can arguably say that the reason why david knew that tomorrow is the new moon would simply be that he said that on the 30th day of the month, meaning, by default, the day after would be a new month, since it cannot have more than 30 days... In psalm 81 we are told to blow the shofar on the new moon (hodesh) and on the Kaseh, FOR (Le) the day of our feast. The preposition Le does not mean toward (which is El) but rather means for (li: FOR me, lecha; for you, etc). So, when we are told to blow the shofar also on the kaseh, for the day of our feast, the only conclusion we can arrive is that Kaseh means full moon, which is how they called it in aramaic. Since in hebrew the root of Kaseh is related to the verb covered...could we not say that the moon is coveredwith the light of the sun??? This would not be the only case that the psalmist is using an aramaic word. The astronomical full moon does not consistently fall at the exact midpoint between two lunar conjunctions. The full moon may follow the lunar conjunction by as little as 13 days, 21 hours and 53 minutes, or by as much as 15 days, 14 hours and 30 minutes. That is why months vary in length between 29 and 30 days. This anomaly is because the moon’s orbit is not perfectly circular. If you check out this year....most of the 100% illuminated moons will fall out if you count 15 days from the sighting and not from conjunction......not that i think this is a decisive matter but conjunctionist sometimes present it as such. Lastly, the word itself for New Moon, Hodesh According to Gesenius Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon derives from a word which means to be new, or to polish a sword. Etymologists have observed that the basic sense is that of cutting and polishing. And the significance of newness relates to a polished sword. The new moon resembles a scimitar or curved sword. Hodesh (New Moon), is derived from the root H.D.SH. meaning new or to make new/ renew. The Crescent New Moon is called Hodesh because it is the first time the moon is seen anew after being concealed for several days at the end of the lunar cycle. At the end of the lunar month the moon is close to the sun and eventually reaches the point of conjunction when it passes between the Sun and the Earth. As a result, around the time of conjunction very little of the moons illuminated surface faces the Earth and it is not visible through the infinitely brighter glare of the sun. After the moon moves past the sun it continues towards the opposite side of the Earth. As it gets farther away from the sun the percentage of its illuminated surface facing the Earth increases and one evening shortly after sunset the moon is seen anew after being invisible for 1.5-3.5 days. Because the moon is seen anew after a period of invisibility the ancients called it a New Moon or Hodesh (from Hadash meaning new). The moon has been sighted from Israel last night, which would make the 1st month of the hebrew year line up with the pagan month of april, which would put the 14th day of the month at eve (pesach) on april 14th, and the 15th day of the month (1st of Unleavened bread) on the 15th of april. May you all have a blessed Hag and lets keep in mind that despite all the differences that we may have in our understanding of the Scriptures, we have even more things that unite us. We all have different pieces of the puzzle and we need each other to be complete. The main thing is that we all want to serve YaHuaH and to please Him to the best of our ability. May Messiah come soon and teach us the Real Thing from His Throne in Yerushalem.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 20:31:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015