Rosh Chodesh controversy, still
Here is an article from Michael Rood on the Rosh Chodesh controversy, with his Jubilee calculations thrown in for good measure. He appears to accept the Rabbinic practice of allowing new moon reports to come into Jerusalem from other places the next day – though the Torah certainly doesn’t say that. My personal opinion is that if they didn’t sight the new moon in Jerusalem, then it isn’t Rosh Chodesh – it’s the 30th day of the month. Avi’s arguements that “presuming” there are only a maximum of 30 days per month is somehow human speculation are rediculous – the Tanakh itself lists days in multiples of 30 and then declares those days are so many months on numerous occasions. From Noach to Daniel to Revelation it is very clear that a standard Hebrew month is 30 days – months where the moon is sighted on the 29th would be deficient months. That’s not speculation, that’s Elohim’s Word. I personally believe strongly that if Elohim had wanted Rosh Chodesh declared then He would have made sure they saw the new moon, period. However, in matters of practice I defer to my husband’s decisions, as I am under his talit and he is the defacto priest of the family – this is right and proper.
Concerning the Schmitta Cycle, Michael agrees with me that the Rabbinic counting is off. I don’t know how he arrived at his figures, however, when he says the next Jubilee is 2017. I’ll have to read up on that and get back to you on the full explanation of his theory.
He apparently agrees with me that this coming year starts the next schmitta cycle, but of course assigns the Jubilee new year to Nisan instead of Tishri (meaning on his calendar, the Schmitta 7th year just ended). This is a common mistake among Karaites and Believers influence by Karaites, who are confused that the new year of Redemption(Nisan) and the new year of Salvation (Tishri) have different timing and different prophetic functions. Karaites and those who follow them often act as if no Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Rabbi, Pastor, Minister, or Priest ever had a thought inspired by the Ruach HaKodesh. Such thinking is wrong-headed, to say the least. The fact is, EVERY current sect has points on which they are correct and points on which they are dead wrong – including the Karaites. But that’s a post for another day.
Anyway, here are Michael’s thoughts:
Further Information on Critical New Moon Sightings
“AVIV 6009 A” is the calendar flavor of the month.
The new 2009 – 2010 calendar being printed as you read this press release!
Passover will be Celebrated at Sundown, the Sixth Day, April 10, 2009
This is the Start of the Sixth Shmittah Cycle Since the Release of Zion
Nehemia Gordon, relating the belated witness of several new moon observers in the land of Israel, reports that the new moon of the aviv was sighted in Israel after sunset Friday March 27th despite overcast skies in much of Israel that evening. Michael Rood, author of the AACBHCalendar, was teaching in Johannesburg South Africa and was waiting impatiently for the official new moon report before finalizing this year’s publication of the Creator’s Calendar. The late reporting caused a good bit of consternation that would not have occurred during the Temple period. Several witnesses did not use their phones to call in on the Sabbath because of rabbinic takanot – whereas before the rabbis changed the calendar in 359 C.E. it was expected that the witnesses would make an arduous journey to Jerusalem even on the Sabbath in order to report the new moon. The common man took on the role of a priest and labored in the Temple service. It was considered to be a holy duty to observe the Creator’s calendar – not a Sabbath violation.
This year we calculated that under ideal conditions the moon could have been seen on the evening of March 27th – but the conditions are not always ideal on planet earth. The Creator’s calendar is not based on “could have,” “would have,” or “should have” it is based on observed reality rather than calculation or speculation. Twelve years ago, Biblical Astronomer Robert Scott Wadsworth set the minimum standard for observability at 1% illumination, 8 degrees above the horizon at 5 minutes after sunset, Jerusalem time. Michael Rood published the Astronomically Corrected Biblical Hebrew Calendar that year and presented the calculations and minimum standards of observability to the Israeli New Moon Society in Jerusalem for comparison with their calculations and observations. Wadsworth’s standard for observability was confirmed by the actual observations of rabbinic scholars in Israel. However, potential observability is a man-made guideline that allows us to publish a calendar that must be confirmed by actual observation. Even if the new moon is calculated to be below the 1% – 8 degree threshold, we are still standing on hilltops in Israel attempting to see it. If there is 0% illumination we don’t bother to look and we do not print a page for the AACBHCalendar unless there is a possibility of the moon being seen by the naked eye – that is why we set the potential observability standards – not to predetermine what we are going to see or when we are going to celebrate the feasts.
The sighting or non-sighting of the new moon is the reality by which the Creator has commanded us to observe His Feasts. A one day difference this year could have meant that the Feast of Shavuot would have occurred an entire week later if the moon was not seen on the evening of Friday, March 27th.
In 1949 the entire world was ignorant of the Creator’s Calendar, and at that time the rabbinic calendar mathematically added a 13th month. According to the parameters of observed aviv barley during the past decade, it was not necessary to add an Adar II. The “Nation in One Day” prophecy of Isaiah occurred on an insignificant date on the rabbinic calendar, but on the Creator’s Calendar Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled on a day that we had been commanded to “count” prophetically forever – the seventh Sabbath of the Counting of the Omer. May 15, 1948 at 18:00 hours Washington D.C. time was the day that we had been counting toward since the day we left Egypt with Moses – the next day we were to celebrate the Seven-Sevens (Shavuot) but the world was sound asleep. We did not observe the Creator’s reckoning of time nor were we celebrating His Feasts at His appointed times. Both the Christian and Jewish worlds were reveling in religions and calendars of their own making.
I, for one, will not make the same mistake again – not for the sake of convenience nor for the sake of unity. The blind that follow the blind into the same ditch are in unity. My eyes were opened to observe the Creator’s Calendar in the land of Israel and because of that I was able to call the annulment of Israel’s Covenant with Death (the Oslo Accords) on the very day of its occurrence (before sundown, September 28th 2000) six months in advance. Two years later, my wife and I repeated the ancient Jewish Karaite vow during our wedding ceremony in Jaffa Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem: “We will celebrate the Feast of Yahweh according to the sighting of the new moon and the aviv barley in the land of Israel.” I won’t back down.
This particular new moon of the aviv barley marks the beginning of the Shmittah (land Sabbath cycle) as reestablished by the Almighty through two major events in the past century. Though the Shmittah is directly applicable to the land of Israel alone, it is an integral part of the Creator’s worldwide prophetic time clock that marks the passage of shavuot with precision. When Israel entered the Promised Land, when the land was released into the hands of its true owners, we were instructed to have a year of Sabbath rest. The next year we began counting to the first of seven Sabbath years in the which we would allow the land to rest and we would go up to Jerusalem to hear the entire Torah read aloud at the Feast of Sukkot. After seven such Sabbath years were complete, we were to celebrate the next year as the year of release – a Jubilee year.
The repeated counting of sevens of years (shavuot) is how we were to mark out the passage of half-centuries and centuries. This is also the method of counting that we rehearsed each year – from the day that we brought in the barley offering during the Feast of Unleavened Bread – until the day after the seventh Sabbath in which we celebrated the Feast of Sevens (Shavuot). This everlasting counting of sevens is all based on the Creator having blessed most of mankind with the ability to count to seven – for those who cannot, or choose not to count to seven, there is the inventive and ever-enigmatic lunar-sabbath with which the contentious can wrest to their own confusion. For the rest of us there remains the end time prophecy that was sealed up until NASA could finally ascertain the celestial time-clock accurately enough to be able to wind it forward and backward in time to an accuracy of 1/10,000,000th of a day for the entire duration of man’s sojourn upon the earth. Men are now running “to and fro” as the angel Gavriel put it, at speeds measured in nanoseconds and gigahertz. For the first time in history, the entire knowledge base of humankind will double in just one year – Aviv 2009 to Aviv 2010 – this year. The nations are lining up with Nimrod’s interrupted New World Order and the economic meltdown that must precede Zechariah’s Thermonuclear War, scheduled for the fall of 2010, is now well underway. This is not the time to fall asleep at the altar. This is our finest hour. This is the day that those who know their Elohim will be strong and do exploits.
In 1917 General Allenby delivered the city of Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks – we began counting to seven. We did that seven times. The following year, the 50th year, the year of release, the Jubilee year from when the land of Israel was delivered from the Turks, Israel took the ancient city of Jerusalem from the Jordanians in 1967 and liberty was restored inside the city walls. We again began counting to seven; we have now done that a total of six times. What will transpire between the sixth and seventh shmittah cycle that will culminate in the next year of release – the Jubilee of 2017?
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