New Moon Sighting Affects Holiday Observances

[Trish]

Something that is new to me this year is learning about how the observances of some holidays depend on the sighting of the new moon. I am curious to learn more about this because there seem to be staunch supporters from both ends of the spectrum. Also, then, does the observance of Shabbat also depend upon the sighting of the new moon, counting every 7th day from the sighting (meaning it would sometimes fall upon a Tuesday according to the standard calender, or other day of the week)? This whole subject makes my mind swim! I've read up on both opposing POVs to some degree but that is only frustrating me more. Can anyone give me SCRIPTURAL backup for your reasons as to why you celebrate according to the rabbi's dates or according to the actual sighting of the new moon? Thanks!!!!

[Shalom2Uall]

Yahaloma, I will respond to U, late late this evening.

until then, blessings
Rebecca

[YAHaloma]

Don't mind me, just a dizzy blonde, lol. Sometimes trying to wrap my brain around stuff without visuals to accompany the text can just confuse the bejeezes out of me. I'll get it at some point. Even if in the end I don't agree with someone's take on something, I like to KNOW I understand it before I make that conclusion, kwim?

I am enjoying the discussion, and do hope we can keep it civil. We seem to be doing good so far!

Shalom....

[YAHaloma]

This is part of an article, More About Calanders, written by Yosef ben Ruach of Nazarene Israel (nazareneisrael.org). He makes some compelling points, and I'd like to see what the Lunar Shabbos keepers think, what their counter points might be?



Problems with the Lunar Sabbath Model

The real problem with the Lunar Sabbath model is the prohibition against the worship of the host of the heavens (e.g., Deuteronomy 17:3, Job 25:5, etceteras). However, for the moment let us put these aside, and focus on the more direct specific problems that the Lunar Sabbath model gives us.


How Can One Observe What One Cannot See?

The most obvious problem with the Lunar Sabbath model has to do with their idea of a “no moon Sabbath,” or what man calls the ‘New Moon Conjunction.’ This is the idea that one of the Sabbaths (and the beginning of each month) falls at the time of the conjunction, where the moon is on the same side of the earth from the sun (and cannot be seen at night). This simply does not work.

The idea behind the “new moon conjunction” is that when you can not see the new moon, then that is the Sabbath, and the start of the new month. The only problem with this is that in the Middle East, the period of time that the moon cannot be seen averages more than two days, but can fluctuate anywhere between 1.5 to 3.5 days (or even longer in cloudy weather).

If the moon is obscured an average of 2-2.5 days, then when (in this 2-2.5 day period) does one observe the Sabbath? Moreover, what does one do with the last week of the month, and the first week of the next month, which are likely to be either longer or shorter than the standard seven days?

The Lunar Sabbath Theory might work with a 28 day month, but in real life, the months average 29.5 days. This means that the last week of every month must last 8.5 days (on average). This 8.5 day average does not line up with the way YHWH taught the children of Israel to observe the Sabbath in the wilderness.


The “Count Seven”

In the wilderness, YHWH taught the children of Israel simply to “count seven,” and then the seventh day of the count was the Sabbath. This lines up perfectly with the Creation Week, in which there were exactly seven days (and not 8, 8.5 or 9 days).

B’reisheet (Genesis) 2:1-3
2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.
2 And on the seventh day Elohim ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
3 Then Elohim blessed the seventh day and set it apart, because in it He rested from all His work which Elohim had created and made.


We should also note that Elohim created the moon on the fourth day of the week.

B’reisheet (Genesis) 1:14-19
14 Then Elohim said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;
15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.
16 Then Elohim made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
17 Elohim set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth,
18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And Elohim saw that it was good.
19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.


What are we to conclude from this? If Elohim created the moon new on the fourth day, then is the fourth day of the week the Sabbath?


First Day Worship

Next, consider that if one begins the month with the obscuration (or with the Full Moon), and that is also one’s Sabbath, then (like the Christian Church) one is worshipping on the first day of the week.

In contrast, Scripture tells us that the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week.

B’reisheet (Genesis) 2:3
3 Then Elohim blessed the seventh day and set it apart, because in it He rested from all His work which Elohim had created and made.


If you observe a Lunar Sabbath, then you worship on the first day of your week.

There are many more holes in Lunar Sabbath Theory.


Manna in the Wilderness

When Israel was in the wilderness, YHWH taught them to gather each day for five days, and then on the sixth day, they were to gather for two days.

Shemote (Exodus) 16:22-30
22 And so it was, on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
23 Then he said to them, "This is what YHWH has said: 'Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a set-apart Sabbath to YHWH. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.'"
24 So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it.
25 Then Moses said, "Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to YHWH; today you will not find it in the field.
26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none."


Is any mention made here of gathering for an 8.5, or a 9 day week?

27 Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none.
28 And YHWH said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?
29 See! For YHWH has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day."
30 So the people rested on the seventh day.


There is no mention of gathering enough manna to fulfill up to 3.5 days of an obscuration. The only commandment is to take enough on the sixth day to last them through the end of the seventh day. This is the consistent pattern throughout Scripture, and the Lunar Sabbath theorists have no answer for it.

Moshe does not say that on the last week of the month you are to take in a little extra, “just in case the obscuration lasts a little bit longer than usual, or in case this happens to be an eight or a nine (or even a ten) day week.”

Moshe made no such exception.


What Did Yeshua Do?

But perhaps the most compelling evidence against the Lunar Sabbath model is Yeshua, who kept the regular Seventh Day Sabbath.

Lunar Sabbath Theory proposes that the children of Judah lost the correct means of calculating the calendar when they went in to captivity in Babylon around 586 BCE. They then postulate that the children of Judah left the (supposedly “correct”) Lunar Sabbath model behind, and began following a “corrupt” means of keeping time (that just coincidentally happens to fit the model handed down in the Torah).

However, if the Lunar Sabbath model is correct (and the ‘count seven’ is not), then why did Yeshua keep the Seventh Day Sabbath along with the rest of the children of Judah? Why did Yeshua not rebuke the Pharisees for counting to seven (as the Torah says), if they were (allegedly) supposed to keep the Lunar Sabbath instead?

Yeshua did not rebuke the Pharisees for keeping the seventh-day Sabbath. In fact, we see exactly the opposite, with Yeshua honoring the seventh-day Sabbath, by going into the synagogues on it:

Luqa (Luke) 4:16
16 And according to His practice, He went in to the congregation on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.


Prophecies in Daniel

Next, let us consider the prophesies over Yeshua in Daniel.

Daniel 9:27
27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.


Many scholars recognize how this passage speaks of how Yeshua confirmed the covenant with many, when He served as the Passover Lamb.

According to classical Nazarene thinking, Yeshua was cut off in the middle of the week (Pesach being in the middle of the week), and was then raised on the weekly Sabbath (as Master of the Sabbath).

However, depending upon which version of Lunar Sabbath Theory one listens to, the Passover is either the first day of their week, or the end of their week (a “seventh” day). However, if the Passover is at the start or the end of the week, then how could Yeshua Messiah have confirmed the covenant with many at Golgotha, in the middle of the week?

Clearly, the Lunar Sabbath model sounds great in theory, but it does not match up with Scripture, and therefore, it just does not work.

[YAHaloma]

And the first article Yoseph wrote, About Calanders, has these points to ponder:

"Sighting the New Moon Crescent

As we will see below, the priesthood declares a new month in the Hebrew calendar whenever the first crescent sliver of the new moon is sighted (but no more than the start of the 31st day after the priesthood declared the last new moon). The priesthood declares a the next Hebrew month whenever two or more reliable witnesses sight the new moon.

This sighting and declaration of the new month is both an event (a happening) and a period of time (a month). The event (day) and the time period (month) are both called a Hodesh (חדש) in Hebrew. [One pronounces the word Hodesh with a hard Middle-Eastern H (‘Khodesh’ or ‘Chodesh’).]

[5] “Behold, the New Moon (חדש) is tomorrow….” [1st Samuel 20:5]


This verse shows us that while the whole month is called a Hodesh (חדש), the word חדש also refers to the day of the sighting and declaration. The New Moon was tomorrow, meaning that it would be tomorrow with some certainty. What may have happened is that the new moon was not sighted on the start of the 30th day, and so David knew that the new moon would be declared tomorrow (on the start of the 31st day).

Contrary to popular assumption, this method of observation does not describe the Lunar Sabbath, Lunar Conjunction, or the Full Moon models.

In the Lunar Sabbath, Lunar Conjunction and Full Moon models, there is no one set pinpoint time which the priesthood can use to declare ‘the’ Hodesh (חדש). This is because in these three models, the period of time that the moon is full (or obscured) averages about 2.25 days, but can last anywhere from 1.5 to 3.5 days long (and thus, there is no pinpoint time).

Since there is no one pinpoint time when the moon is full (or obscured), it is impossible for man to say, “Behold, the New Moon (חדש) is tomorrow.” For this reason (and many others which we will explain), we know that King David did not keep a Lunar Sabbath (or a Lunar Conjunction, or a ‘Full-moon Sabbath’).

Notice that Ezekiel 46:1 gives us a second witness to this, since this verse tells us that the חדש takes place on one single day:

1 Thus says Adonai YHWH: “The gate of the inner court that faces the east shall be shut six working days: But on the Sabbath Day it shall be opened; and on the day of the New Moon (חדש) it shall be opened.”
[Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 46:1]


This passage tells us that the gate of the inner court that faces east shall be open on the day of the New Moon. Since the moon is full (and obscured) on an average of two-plus days (from 1.5 to 3.5 days) in the Middle East, there is no one set specific 24-hour day that the moon is ‘full’ (or obscure). Therefore, we know YHWH does not want us to use the Lunar Sabbath, Lunar Conjunction, or the so-called ‘Full Moon Sabbath’ models.

Proponents of the Lunar Conjunction model(s) will argue that ancient Israelites calculated the day of the New Moon, rather than sighting it. Not only will we see from the historical record in the Talmud that this assertion is false, but the Babylonian (and not the Israelite) astronomers were the ones who later learned how to calculate the exact length of the Conjunction. Therefore, the Lunar Conjunction model is a Babylonian model (not a Scriptural one).

As we will see, the method of determining the New Month (חדש) in Yeshua’s day was by direct sighting (called “raw observation” in modern parlance), and not by prediction or interpolation of any type."


Counter points??

[Dinah]

whoosh, that's a lot of stuff...what do you think? I will have to take time later to go through it all, but it definately will solidify what the truth is wouldn't it - to come up with an understanding & some answers....Baruch Hashem...He will & is able to give light in the darkness...thus the MOON!! lol:) more later...
In Yeshua's love,
Dinah

[Shalom2Uall]

Wow, I am so amazed, this is a hot topic. 78 replies (I think). Mine now makes 79.

[YAHaloma]

I think it's a good one. One that is important to be addressed. YHWH has a set time, set appointments, Shabbat is one of the most important ones. We should discuss these things, to at least do our best to get on the right track, imho. We may not get it, we may not manage to work it out as Abba wants us to, but we have to make the effort. Sane, gentle, well thought out discussion on any subject helps everyone grow.

Kudos to you guys, we are doing very well, I think.

[YAHaloma]

I have to look at it more, compare it to the arguments for lunar shabbos, and get a better feel for that side of things before I can use what I've been taught AGAINST it, to defend my post. Personally, so far, the Lunar Shabbos makes sense to me, spiritually and logically, with only a few hiccups here and there, I need to solidify before I say it throws the whole case out the window.

I know it's a lot, but I wanted to offer it up for use in the debate. Might have brought up some points, and questions others may have not thought to ask.

[Jody]

Shalom, First let me say I think a great deal of the confusion is linked to misunderstanding by many of you as to what "the day of the new moon" is. It is a day unto itself. There are "new moon" days, "Sabbath" days and "work" days. Notice the day of the new moon is NOT (I have said this before so please excuse my repetition) a "Sabbath" day. Just as it is also NOT a "work" day. Throughout Scripture it is mentioned and listed separately from work and Sabbath days. So please cease using that as a basis for what you understand. Maybe we should do some study and set that foundation before trying to grasp the rest of calendar.
I will have to read the articles by Norman from Nazarene Isra'el. I have never known him to be much of a scholar in his own right, and I doubt he has much of an understanding on the Biblical calendar. But I will need to go through his article when I have more time to see what he has to say..

[Dinah]

Hmm, I see your understanding now, let me clarify; you believe the Rosh Chodesh or New Moon Day is not a Shabbat or "extended Shabbat" but a seperate day all of it's own?!...what kind of scripture helped you to come to that conclusion? I definately would love to look into that....

[Dinah]

Hi Cindy, I looked on your blog & it wasn't there...am I looking in the wrong place? Is it through Our Hebrew Roots?-Dinah

[Dinah]

Shalom & Shavuah Tov Nitza & Cindy:)

Thank you Cindy for posting this on your blog!!! ( I also e-mailed this to Nitza also):)

Nitza, thank you so much for your labor of love in writing the letter about Torah Time:) I was thouroughly blessed reading it...thank you for being a Titus 2 woman teaching younger women like me to love their husbands & be busy at home for the kingdom!!! I am so happy to meet other women who are so similar to me in all the wonderful things Adonai is teaching me.

Tit 2:3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
Tit 2:4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
Tit 2:5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

Since learning about Torah Time is so new to me, the things you shared really enlightened me...I look forward to reading more of your writing on this... I use facebook to share with friends...can I post this there?



I pray that if it be YHVH's will you will continue your writings ....the homeschool community could definately benefit from all of this truth!!! As a matter of fact, I'm going to a homeschool convention soon & I was just thinking that there has to be an avenue there for all the wonderful things I've been learning with Eliyahu & Dawn & now with you:) - Maybe there is?...Baruch Adonai who is drawing his remenant people to him & using vessels like you for his glory!!



All my Love in our Messiah Yeshua,

Dinah