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Teaching Ministry
Yahweh's Celestial Calendar
Rav. /Sh’liach H.. Shemu’el & Rebbetzin Almah Dombek
There are extremes on both sides of the Calendar issue. Some people opt for a Total Solar Calendar, while others opt for a Total Lunar
Calendar. "If", we choose to love Yahweh’s Kodesh/Holy WORD
more than our pre-conceived biases and prejudices; we then are forced to believe
that the Scriptures
speak of a Special Celestial Calendar consisting of the Sun, the Moon, and the
Stars , as per Gen. 1: 13 - 19 to first begin with, then we would say etc., etc....
Here are 7 points to back up this claim, and we believe that when HE said, "There
would be a Restoration of ALL THINGS; that HE included HIS SACRED-CELESTIAL CALENDAR
ALSO !
1.) In Beresheet/Gen. 1:14-16 ; we
are told that Yahweh
made Two Great Lights.
We are not told specifically what these two great lights are in the Genesis
passage, but most Scholars & Students & we, believe them to be our
present day Sun and Moon, plus we do know that the stars are mentioned in (vs.
16).
This understanding of the Two Great Lights is seen in other passages in Scripture
also:
a. Jeremiah 31:35-36 “35 Thus
saith Yahweh, which givest the Sun for a Light by Day, and the Ordinances
of the
Moon and of the Stars for a Light by Night, which divided the Sea when the
waves thereof roar; Yahweh of hosts is His Name: 36 If those Ordinances depart
from before me, saith Yahweh, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from
being a nation before me for ever .”
b. Psalms 136:7-9 “7 To Him that made Great Lights: for his Mercy endureth
for Ever: 8 The Sun to Rule by Day : for His MERCY Endureth for Ever: 9 The
Moon and Stars to Rule by Night : for HIS MERCY Endureth for Ever.”
We can see very clearly through the Clear and Faithful Witness of Scripture;
that the Lights mentioned in Beresheet/ Gen.
1:14-16 are indeed the Sun and
the Moon, and the Stars. Not just the Sun alone, and Not just the Moon
alone; but these Plus ALL the Stars also. Therefore it is the Sun, the Moon and the
Stars that, ALL OF THEM TOGETHER , are to “… be FOR: Signs, Seasons,
Days, and Years…. (FOR US, Forever)” ALL these Celestial Luminaries/Lights
are used in determining our Sacred-Scriptural or Celestial-Calendar. Any Calendar
of men, that does not use any one or the other of these Separate-Entities is
purely a man-made Calendar; and falls Short of our Abba-Yahweh's Requirements.
Therefore, for anyone to go by such a man-made calendar is vain worship (Matt.
15:9) at the very least.
2. The word translated Month most of the time in the Hebrew-Tanach (Erroneously
called the Old Testament) is a word pronounced in English as Chodesh. This
word is defined by Hebrew Lexicons as follows:
a. Strongs Exhaustive Concordance: “H #2320 / C hodesh / kho'-desh From
H #2318; the new moon ; by implication a Month: — month (-ly), new moon.”
b. Brown, Drivers, Briggs: “ Chodesh 1) the New Moon , Month, Monthly
1a) the first day of the Month 1b) the Lunar Month ”
c. Chodesh also implies something Re-Newed; rather than being new, as something
that is different.
What this shows, or actually implies is that when the Scriptures speak
of a certain day of the Month; they are speaking of a Specific Day of the
Moon. This is further seen by reviewing a couple of other passages in Scripture as
examples.
a. I Kings 8:2 “ 2 And all the men of Yisrael assembled themselves unto
king Solomon at the Feast in the MonthH3391 Ethanim, which is the Seventh MonthH2320
or MOON. ”
b. I Kings 6:38 “ 38 And in the eleventh year, in the
Month H3391 Bul, which is the Eighth MonthH2320 , was the House finished throughout
all the parts thereof…”
Please take Special-Notice that in both of these Scriptures the word Chodesh
(#2320) is used interchangeably with #3391.
What is #3391? Brown, Drivers, Briggs Hebrew lexicon defines it as,“…
1) Month
(lunar cycle), Moon 1a) Month 1b) Calendar Month…” This word in
the Hebrew is yerach, and is the exact same word translated Moon in both Devarim/Deut.33:14
and Isa. 60:20 .
This further confirms the use of the Moon in Yahweh’s Calendar.
3.
For further proof that the Moon was used in counting Days on Yahweh’s
Calendar is found in Psalms 81:3 .
This passage reads as follows in the 1901 American Standard Version of the
Bible.
Psalms 81:3 (ASV) “3 Blow the Trumpet/Shofar at the Re-Newed Moon, At
the Full Moon, on our Feast-Day . 4 For it is a Statute for Yisrael, An Ordinance
of the Elohim of Yahacov/Jacob. 5 He appointed it in Yahoseph/Joseph for a
Testimony, when he went out over the land of Egypt, Where I heard a language
that I knew not. “ I removed his shoulder from the burden: His hands
were freed from the basket .”
This passage shows that the Full Moon was a Feast Day in Ancient Israel. The
word Full Moon in the Hebrew is defined by Strongs as:
H3677 kese keseh / keh'-seh, keh'-seh / Apparently from H3680; properly
fullness or the Full Moon , that is, it’s
Festival : —(time) “appointed.”
We know this Festival is speaking specifically of Chag HaMatzot/the Feast
of Unleavened Bread, and Chag HaSukkot/the Feast of Tabernacles; which both
just happen to begin on the 15 th day of the Moon, i.e. on The Full Moon Day.
This is seen by taking notice to this verse in Psalms
81:6 , mentioning the
removing of the burdens and baskets.
When was Israel delivered from Egypt? Numbers
33:3 states that it was on the
15 th day of the Month/Moon . Therefore Israel was delivered on the 15 th day
of the Moon, or as Psalms 81:3 states, the Full Moon Festival .
This clearly shows that the Moon was used in numbering Days on Yahweh’s
Sacred Celestial Calendar.
4.
It is very easy to show that Ancient Yisrael had a Festival on the
First Day of the Scriptural Month, and this Special Festival was known as the
Yom Thruah/Feast
of Trumpets or New Moon Festival on the First-Day of the Seventh Moon/Month. The Passages, which show this New Moon as a Festival, are as follows:
Ezekiel 46:1 “Thus saith Yahweh; the gate of the inner court that looketh
toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath it shall
be opened, and in the Day of the Rosh Chodesh/New Moon it shall be opened.”
Isaiah 66:23 “And it shall come to pass, that from one Rosh Chodesh/New
Moon to another , and from one Shabbat to another, shall all flesh come to
Worship before Me, saith Yahweh.”
Amos 8:4-5 “Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make
the poor of the land to fail, Saying , When will the New Moon be gone, that
we may sell corn? And the Sabbath, that we may set forth Wheat, making the
ephah small, and the Shekel Great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?”
II Kings 4:23 And he said, “Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? It
is neither New Moon/Rosh Chodesh , nor Shabbat. And she said, it shall be well.”
These passages are meaningless , "if one attempts to say that New Moon
simply means a Month". These passages are to be understood as meaning that there was a Very Special
Festival in ancient Yisrael on the first Day of the Lunation or Moon. Many
of the Assemblies that some of you Worship with, still actively Observe this
Ancient Festival. Is your Assembly or Congregation aware of it?
5. Along with this reasoning, let’s take notice to a verse in the Brit
Chadasha/New Testament which concerns itself with this Festival of Rosh Chodesh/the
New Moon; Colossians 2:16.
“16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect
of an Holy-Day/Yom-Kodesh, or of the New Moon , or of the Shabbat/Sabbath Days
:”
The underlying Greek text for the word New Moon in this passage, is the word
noumenia defined by Strongs as, “…noumeônia / noo-may-nee'-ah
/ Feminine of a compound of G3501 and G3376 (as noun by implication of G-2250);
the Festival of New Moon : —New Moon.” This passage in Colossians
deals with Annual Festivals ( Kodesh/Holy Days ), Monthly Festivals (Rosh Chodesh/N
ew Moon ), and Weekly Festivals (S habbat
). The word noumenia is used in the Ancient Septuagint Translation of the Scriptures
in such passages as Bamidbar/Numbers 10:10 and I
Samuel 20:5 in reference
to the New Moon Festival. It is because of this Overwhelming Evidence that
scholarly sources as Unger’s Bible Dictionary state the following:
It is evident from the writing of the Prophets and from post Exilian
documents that the New Moon was an important National Festival. It was often called
a Feast along with the Sabbath ( Psa. 81:3; Isa. 1:13; Ezek. 46:1; Hos. 2:11
)
on which ALL Business ceased ( Amos 8:5 ), the pious Israelites waited on the
Prophets for Edification , see ( II Kings
4:23 ), many families and clans presented
their Annual Thank Offerings.( I Sam. 20:6,
29 ), Social Gatherings and Feasting
were indulged in ( I Sam. 20:5, 24 ).
(UBD, under heading Festivals, pg. 352)
6. We must also take Special Notice of The Heavenly Phenomena of the
Cycle of the Moon. The Moon Cycles in approximate Seven-Day intervals after the New Moon Festival.
This brings one to a Half Moon, a Full Moon, another Opposite Half Moon, then
a Last Sliver or Waning Crescent, just before the New Moon Festival arrives
again. We know that Psalms 19:1 states; the Heavens Declare the Kavode/Glory
of Yahweh, and in Psalms 19:2 it states that, Night unto Night utters Knowledge.
This knowledge is uttered by Yahweh's Creation of the Moon and Stars in relation
to HIS Celestial-Calendar Computations. As Psalms 8 states ; the Moon and the
Stars were Ordained for Yahweh's Visiting with the Son of Man.
In Ezekiel, we find that the Rosh Chodesh/New Moon and the Shabbat were not
considered to be part of the six working days . This means that after the New
Moon , the six working days commence bringing you to the Sabbath on the eighth
day of any given month. The Sabbaths follow to be the 8 th, 15 th, 22 nd, and
29 th, Days of the Celestial/Lunar Months.
These Days were revealed to Moshe in Ex. 16 when Yahweh spoke on the 15 th
Day of the 2 nd Month/Moon. Israel began to receive Manna on the morning after
the 15 th (16 th) for six consecutive days. Ex.
16:4-5, 13 This brings them
to the Seventh Day Sabbath which was on the 22 nd Day of the Moon.
The same sequence is mapped out in the week of Yahshua HaMoshiach's impalement.
Yahshua was impaled/crucified on the 14 th Day of the Moon, with the 15 th
being the Weekly/Annual Shabbat, and the 16 th being the first day of the
week as well as the Day of the Annual First-Fruit Offering. There is much
more to say concerning this, but this proves that the Moon was involved in
reckoning Ancient Scriptural Weeks.
Let me briefly mention Lunar Sabbaths in regard to beginning the Counting
of the Omar, to the Feast of Pentecost. The priesthood was to lift up or wave
the Sheaf of the First Fruits to begin the Count of the Omar to Pentecost,
on the Day after the Sabbath (Lev. 23:11).
However the Ancient Septuagint Translation shows that the Sheaf was to be waved
on the Day After, the First Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread/Chag HaMatzot
( Lev. 23:6,7,11 – LXX ) this clearly shows that the First Day of the
Feast was the Shabbat, each and every year on Yahweh’s Sacred Celestial
Calendar.
Thus we have the First Month with a fixed Shabbat on the 15 th day of the Moon,
and Yahweh Revealed the Weekly Shabbat to Moshe on the 15 th day of the Second
Moon. The only way to have a Weekly Sabbath on the 15 th day of the 1 st and
2 nd month is to keep or observe the Lunar Shabbats of HIS Celestial Calendar!
Any other Shabbat/Sabbath Reckoning is a mathematical impossibility .
7. A Calendar based on the Moon, the Sun and the Stars requires a
13 th month approximately every 3 years. This was the conclusion of Hillel II, also when
he introduced the current Jewish Calendar; however he made other fatal changes
we'll discuss later. A 13 th month is proven from Scripture in the inspired
Book of the prophet Ezekiel.
In Ezekiel 1:1-2 , we are told that Ezekiel received a vision from Yahweh on
the 5 th day of the fourth Month, in the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s
captivity.
In Ezekiel 2:7 Yahweh again speaks unto Ezekiel telling him to warn Israel
concerning their treachery against Yahweh. Then, in Ezekiel 3:15 we find that
Ezekiel dwelt by the river Chebar for Seven Days bringing us to the 11 th day
of the fourth Month, in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity.
Now, in Ezekiel 4:1-11 he is given instructions by Yahweh to lay on his left
side 390 days and when he accomplishes this he is to then lay on his right
side 40 days; equaling a total of 430 days. The next time reference in Ezekiel
is found in chapter 8:1 where we see that Ezekiel was sitting in his house
in the sixth year (of king Jehoiachin’s captivity) on the 5 th day of
the sixth Month. This shows that Ezekiel had finished his instructions given
in chapter 4 because he was sitting in his house not lying on either his left
or right side. If Ezekiel was using a strictly Solar Calendar, he could not
have possibly obeyed Yahweh’s instructions by the time reference was
given in Ezekiel 8:1.
From the 11 th day of the fourth Month, in the fifth year of Jehoiachin (Ezek.
1:1-2; 2:7; 3:15) to the 5 th day of the sixth Month in the sixth year of Jehoiachin
(Ezek.8:1) is only 413 days on a strictly Solar Calendar, ( 17 days short ).
If Ezekiel used a strictly Solar Calendar, he disobeyed Yahweh. However, had
this particular year been on consisting of 13 Months (a Lunar-Solar Year) Ezekiel
obeyed his instructions from Yahweh, plain and simple.
Keep in mind, that Ezekiel 4:9-10 shows that Ezekiel was told to make enough
bread to last him the entire 430 days. Taking for granted that Ezekiel made
all this bread in one day, i.e. the 11 th day of the fourth Month. If we factor
in the making of twenty shekels of bread (Ezek.
4:9-10) for each day on his
side, this even further destroys the notion of the strictly solar calendar,
because the time span would decrease for the solar calendar people.
Furthermore, when you recognize the obvious fact that the Scriptural Months
are Lunar, but that the New Year is determined by the Spring Equinox; it is
a necessity that a 13 th Month be added approximately every third year.
If this is not done, the Festivals will be 11 days shorter every “strict-solar
year” that goes by, placing the Festivals out of their Appointed Seasons/Moadim.
This is exactly what happens with the Muslim Calendar, which ignores the 13
th Month. Their festivals travel throughout all seasons of the year.
CONCLUSION: Why not just accept the Two Great Lights; plus these lesser
lights, the Stars that Yahweh ordained in Beresheet/Genesis? Many people say that the
heathens used the Moon in their calendar, so it is not to be used. This is
absurd argumentation seeing that many heathen nations use or used the Sun in
their calendar as well. Yahweh's People Scripturally used the Dance in Recorded
Scripture to Praise & Worship HIM. Then, the heathen corrupted it until
this very date and time in history; from this conclusion are we to conclude
that we should abandon the Sacred Dance now?
The plain fact is that the Sun, the Moon and the Stars were first used by Yahweh
in Beresheet/Gen. 1:14-16, for His
Original Sacred Celestial Calendar. If heathens have taken the originally pure
timepieces of Yahweh and corrupted
them, then that is their problem, not ours. We must use the road map which
Yahweh has given us in His Sacred Scriptures and learn to love Yahweh’s
Ordained Time-Pieces; which includes the Sun, the Moon and the Stars; of which
I believe we have yet much to learn about...
Barouches & Shalom,
Rabbi/Sh’leach H. Shemu’el Dombek
A Timely RESPONSE : by Bro. Aharon ;
Well said Brother Dombek, I might add, that the Scripture teaches that what
YHWH has JOINED together, let not man put asunder. YHWH’s Word clearly
refers to the Moon as a she or feminine and the Sun as masculine; and is referred
to as he, and YHWH said let “them” be for Days and Years, Signs
and Seasons, and “they” shall give Light on the earth. Man should
not try to separate “them”.
We know that the “ He made ” is in italics; the Stars also, and
should say “the Greater Light to Rule the Day/Daytime and the Leisure
Light to Rule the Night/Dark time “with” the stars” because
we see other Scripture such as Psalms where the Moon “and” Stars
Rule the Night, not just the Moon or Stars only.
Psalms 136:7-9 “ 7To him that made Great Lights: for his mercy endureth
for ever: 8 The Sun to Rule by Day : for his mercy endureth for ever: 9 The “Moon
and Stars” to rule by Night : for his mercy endureth for ever.”
Nature it's self, teaches that “both” the Moon and Stars Rule/Govern
the Night-time; not just one, or the other, and these are the Lesser light(s)
spoken of in Genesis 1:14 ; and Not just the Stars only.
It would have been a “miracle” for Ancient Israel or any other
nation for that matter, not to have used the Moon in setting their Appointments.
A Simple Example would be; if two traders were to meet, to trade goods and
set a date for future meetings; the Moon would obviously be the best and easiest
way for them to meet again at a specific time.
They could say, I will see you next year on the 15th day of the fourth Month/Moon,
which would be 105 days according to the Solar; only count and they would have
to count 105 days by making 105 marks on a tree or something; or if they both
understood and used the Solar Lunar Calendar, then they would not have to go
to such complicated measures as trying to make that many marks on a wall or
something, without forgetting in the middle of the count to mark a day; especially
if they had said I will meet you in the “night” month. The old
boy would have to count 270 days etc. without missing a mark, but with the
Solar Lunar Calendar, they both would understand that the 15th day of the fourth
Month/Moon would be the “fourth” full moon. Then they would only
have to count to 4. How could it be any simpler than that? And yet, some will
say that the Solar-Lunar Calendar is complicated. YHWH sometimes hides Truth
in Simplicity. He said He would Hide it from the wise and prudent, and Reveal
it unto babes.
May YHWH help us all to become as little children and see the simplicity, which
is in the Savior.
Let me say this in closing, why even divide the year into Months, if nothing
is found in nature to show you when a Month begins? You’re going to have
to count days in sets of 12.
We believe that it can be found in “nature”. When does a year
begin? And when does a day begin? (Dark to dark) or let me say, when does tommorrow
begin? When I see Two or Three Heavenly Witnesses - (The Moon and Two Stars
or just Three Stars); and when does a month begin, (from one Lunation to another);
and when does the week begin? (By the four phases of the Moon). All these are
found in nature without a man-made count.
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