Shabbat Shalom v'Rosh Chodesh Sameach


After Shabbat ends tomorrow evening, the New Moon day will begin, due to the New Moon being visible from Israel at some point during Shabbat. Keep in mind that the Biblical New Moon (Rosh Chodesh) mentioned in the Torah is actually the first sliver that appears after it has previously went dark, not the dark moon itself, which is a more modern reckoning.  It also marks the first month of the year on the Torah calendar, the month of Aviv, also called Nisan on the Babylonian calendar (Jews have been using Babylonian month names since the Babylonian exile).  It's traditionally known as the Spiritual New Year, the month which YHWH commanded to be regarded as the first month, breaking with the rest of the Middle East at the time, which began their year in the seventh month.  To this day, Jews regard both as a New Year: this Spiritual New Year, and a Civil New Year in the seventh month they call Rosh Hashanah, a day the Torah calls Yom Teruah ("The Day of Shofar Blasts", as a "teruah" indicates seven short blasts of a shofar, which is a trumpet-like instrument made from an animal horn, usually a ram's horn).

Since the fourth century, most Jews don't regard the actual New Moon as the Torah indirectly instructs, but follow traditional fixed calendar instead which approximates them called the Hillel II Calendar, named as such due to the traditional association of that fixed calendar with Hillel the Nasi (also called Hillel II or simply Hillel), a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin who held the principal "Nasi" position sometime between 320 and 385 C.E..  Karaite Jews and many Messianics such as myself still do it by observing the New Moon, so for me at least, tomorrow night will begin this notable day.

As the Scripture states (and the Scripture cannot be broken), the day will come when everyone alive will celebrate the Shabbatoth and New Moons designated by YHWH, and this pesky Roman calendar with its Roman counterfeit sabbath for the "sol invictus", and it's pagan "new year" in honor of the Roman god "janus" will be a gladly forgotten memory!

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