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From
Eliyahu
The new Torah Year is upon us! Happy New Year!
The new year comes in amidst some confusion among some folks over the exact starting day. As you may know, the first day of the Torah month is properly determined by the sighting of the new moon in Israel. This sighting is important for each of the months, but especially so for the first month of the Torah Year, since that sighting sets the date for Passover and the other important days of the first month. The reason the sighting of the moon is so important is because the Biblical calendar is a lunar calendar which is entirely counted from the sighting of the new moon in Israel. For that reason the moon is called in Scripture both a "sign" and a "witness" - since it is the new moon that signals the start of months and years, regulating, in turn, the appointed days that YHWH has set. (See Gen 1:14, Psalm 89:37)
So where is the confusion coming from? Well, there were sightings of the new moon in Israel on March 31, 2014. However, I know of no sightings from Jerusalem, and the sightings that did occur elsewhere in Israel were seen after sunset. Thus, these sightings were a bit "iffy" for two reasons:
1. Since "Torah goes forth from Jerusalem" and there were no Jerusalem sightings we might wonder if the March 31 sightings are valid.
Here at Tsiyon we prefer sightings from Jerusalem, since everything rightly starts there. There was no sighting there on March 31, but sightings in Jerusalem are assured on April 1 since skies are mostly clear and the visibility of the moon there is now good.
2. If the sightings are valid, but were seen after sunset, what day do they indicate as the first day of the new month - the day before, the day they occurred, or the next day?
The sighting of the new moon indicates the next day following the sighting to be the first day of the month. That's because the new moon is a sign of what is coming up - not what has already happened. Consider a red light or a stop sign as an example. These are signs of conditions ahead of you. If they placed these in a position only visible to you after you had already gone through the intersection they would not be a sign of anything. They would be of no use to you at all. The nature of signs is that they signal conditions that are ahead, since in real life we cannot retroactively go back and change things. If you go through the intersection and then see the red light that cannot undo the wreck you may have had in the process.
Apply this principle to these moon sightings. If these sightings were twelve hours later, but still in the same Hebrew day, we would all know these indicated the coming day as the first day of the month. This should be true for all sightings where ever they occur in a given day - the next day after the sighting is the indicated first day of the month. That these sightings occurred only a short time after the Hebrew day began does not indicate the previous day or the present day. The first sightings always indicate the next day - in this case the day starting at sundown of April 1, 2014, Jerusalem Time.
All of that is to say this: The new month and the new year begin at sundown of April 1, 2014. Since the Biblical days start at sundown, the first day of the month spans parts of two Roman days - going from sundown April 1 to sundown April 2 - and so on throughout the month. The Torah Calendar we publish at Tsiyon always follows this rule. We list the starting Roman day as the day on which the Hebrew day begins. You must remember that day continues until sundown of the Roman day following. Yes, that can be confusing, but blame Rome not YHWH and not us. It was Rome that changed the days, not the Scriptures!
Find the Tsiyon Torah Calendar here: http://tsiyon.org/message/more/calendar/
Eclipse in Jerusalem, Passover Day, Tuesday, April 15, 2014
As you will see when you consult the Tsiyon Torah Calendar linked above, Passover will occur after sunset on the evening of April 14, this year. Passover day continues through to sundown of April 15. During that Passover day (April 15 from 10:08 AM to 11:23 AM to be exact) a total lunar eclipse will be occurring from Jerusalem! This is the first of four tetrad moons which set apart the Hebrew years beginning in 2014 and 2015. At Tsiyon we started talking about this far in advance of the present Tetrad frenzy you may have noted out there. Indeed, many of us feel an added sense of anticipation due to the tetrad moons as we begin the new year. You can see our most recent video on the topic here: http://tsiyon.org/message/more/freebies/tsiyon-videos/
Aviv Exodus Extravaganza
At Tsiyon we are celebrating this first month of the 6014 Hebrew Year on Tsiyon Road with some special programming we've named the Aviv Exodus Extravaganza! We will be playing our entire Exodus series throughout this Hebrew month, on the radio, for free. This is a great time to introduce a friend to Tsiyon radio, while also catching up on any programs you may have missed. I've put together a schedule indicating which programs will play each day, so you can plan your listening in advance. You can find this schedule linked from our calendar page at: http://tsiyon.org/message/more/calendar/
A highlight of the Aviv Exodus Extravaganza will be some mini-interviews with Tsiyon volunteers who are working on our building project. I know you will enjoy meeting these volunteers who are working so hard to build a platform for the future from which Tsiyon can serve the remnant better than ever before. We are building a worship center where you can come and visit in person - or by live streaming audio and video. When we are finished with this project you will be able to virtually sit right in the midst of us at Tsiyon Headquarters to fully participate in our worship here! We feel a real urgency about this as we enter into this new year. Time is passing quickly and we are so aware of the scattered remnant out there who need what we have to share, or more correctly, what we all need to share together. Truly, we are a scattered nation, and we must have an eye towards unifying together. That's what I'm thinking about as we venture into what could be a momentous year.
Blessings and Shalom!
Eliyahu ben David
www.tsiyon.org
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