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The Greatest Commandments, Part 11, New Year Edition

This is part of a series of posts that studies each of the commandments in the Torah (the first 5 books of the Jewish and Christian bibles), then maps them in a massive visual hierarchy that details their interconnected nature.

Have a look at:

The New Year

With Passover falling on the “14th day of the 1st month”, and Passover being just about 2 weeks away, whether you follow the traditional Jewish Hillel II calendar or the Karaite agricultural calendar, that means in the last day or two, we have entered the Biblical “beginning of months”, the Biblical new year. Just yesterday (March 17th, 2010), witnesses from Jerusalem spotted the new crescent moon, signaling the new month:

The new crescent moon as seen from Jerusalem, March 17th, 2010

I wanted to look at the Torah and see where exactly is this bit about “beginning of months” that I’ve long heard about, and have witnessed so many silly calendar arguments over.

Let’s dig in.

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the 14th day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.

-Exodus 12:1-11

Exodus 12 details the first Passover in Egypt, a story most Jews and Christians are familiar with.

Maimonides interprets this commandment in a way that requires much extrapolation beyond the text:

Courts must calculate to determine when a new month begins.

-Maimonides’ interpretation of Exodus 12:2

A court must determine when the new month begins, says Maimonides. Well, the text doesn’t say that. One might extrapolate that from questioning and other texts, but this particular commandment says nothing about religious courts determining the beginning of months.

How was the new month traditionally determined?

Originally, the New Moon was not fixed by astronomical calculation, but was solemnly proclaimed after witnesses had testified to the reappearance of the crescent of the moon,”

-Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 12, p. 1039.   

Of course, neither mainstream Judaism nor Christianity keep the Scriptural commandment here:

The Christian new year is January, per Pope Gregory XIII’s calendar.

The Jewish new year, civilly, is Rosh HaShana. That’s when everyone says “happy new year”. Almost no one considers the month where Passover falls as the new year, despite the commandment here to the contrary. Although some religious Jews might pay lip service and acknowledge it is the religious new year, you won’t find many Jews saying “happy new year” this time of year.

Also, as far as I know, mainstream Judaism does not have a centralized court set up to calculate the new month as Maimonides would recommend.

In other words, and generally speaking, Judaism is neither following this Scriptural commandment, nor following Maimonides’ instruction regarding this commandment. Fascinating!

**Update: In the comments to this post, fine blog reader Joseph tells me this is not true, there is a modern religious court, a sanhedrin, that is accepting witnesses for the new moon, then ruling for the new year. See Sanhedrin – Fixing the Calendar. That implies that Judaism, to some degree, is following Maimonides’ instruction regarding this commandment and following the spirit of the Scriptural commandment. I still hold, however, that greater Judaism rarely considers this the “new year”, and thus, personal observance of this commandment is almost non-existent in the world today.

Instead, mainstream Judaism, as well as much of Messianic Judaism, follows the Hillel II pre-calculated calendar to determine the new month. Most of the time it’s fairly accurate, including this year, when it actually aligns within a few days of the appearance of the new moon.

How do we interpret this for the greatest commandments project? It has been my preference to provide a more generalized, open-to-interpretation summary that remains faithful to the text, then let the reader specialize it as they see fit. I prefer that over providing a word-for-word copy of Maimonides’ summaries.

So, folks, here is the commandment as I see it:

Observe your new year in the first month, the month in which Passover falls.

-My summary of Exodus 12:2

That remains faithful to the text, and leaves open more specialized interpretations, such as Maimonides’.

Because this commandment lays the ground work for other times, seasons, and feasts, I’m deriving it directly from “Keep all God’s commandments”, and moving Feast-specific commandments to derive from this:

ObserveNewYear

In the next day or two, we’ll look at the commandments for Unleavened Bread and Passover.

Happy Biblical New Year!

36 comments:

  1. Judaism has acknowledged Nisan as the beginning of months for the Jewish calendar. That's why Nisan is "the first month." Exodus 12 says nothing about counting years

    The numbering of the years, however, is a different matter, and is rightly based on the fall cycle, according to the Torah's instructions for the Sabbatical and Jubilee years (see Lev. 23:8 - the Jubilee starts in the fall).

    And I really don't follow you when you say that Judaism hasn't followed Rambam's instructions. The Sanhedrin cross examined the witnesses of the rosh chodesh. Rambam didn't invent this idea. He was simply codifying it.

    He was right to do so. The commandment to observe the rosh chodesh wasn't given to each individual Israelite. It was given to the court. Else, how on earth could the Sanhedrin punish a man for say, doing forbidden labor on Pesach, or not fasting on Yom Kippur? And if the courts couldn't establish the calendar, what's really the point then in having a religious court of law?

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  2. Check this out:
    http://www.thesanhedrin.org/en/index.php/Committee_concerning_the_fixing_of_the_Calendar

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  3. According to HaModia, the Israeli New Moon Society was founded by Eliezer Rabinovitch, rosh yeshiva at Birkes Moshe in Maalei Adumim:
    http://hamodia.com/inthepaper.cfm?ArticleID=534

    The society works in conjunction with Rav Shai Walter of the Institute for Kiddush haChodesh, which seeks to develop halachah for Jews in space:
    http://www.kby.org/english/kiddush-hachodesh/?id=324

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  4. Like I said, some will acknowledge Aviv as the beginning of months. Still, my point remains: you don't hear anyone saying "happy new year". This, despite Exodus 12:2's "this shall be the first month of your year".

    The part about Judaism not following Maimonides' instruction is modernly -- where is the modern court that determines the new year? Is there one?

    >> It was given to the court

    Maybe. That's an extrapolation from the text. It isn't in the text.

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  5. Joseph, that link is really interesting.

    For those that didn't see it because blogger clipped the URL, here's what Joseph posted: Sanhedrin - Committing Concerning the Fixing of the Calendar.

    Interesting! Well, I take back what I said about Judaism not modernly following Maimonides' instruction regarding a religious court to determine when the new year begins. It would appear the wheels are turning in that regard.

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  6. judeoxian wrote:
    >>>> It was given to the court

    Judah replied:
    >>Maybe. That's an extrapolation
    >>from the text. It isn't in the text.

    Parashat Shoftim gives final authority to arbitrate difficult matters to the priests and judges in Israel. So whether or not it's "in the text" depends on whether or not the calendar meets the qualifications of Deut 17:8. (This is a great example of how Scripture isn't a "self-contained, closed, objective system," as John MacArthur once wrote). So whether or not the judges of Israel had authority "in the text" to rule on the calendar depends on whether it was too hard for people to judge for themselves.

    But going on: verse 11 says
    that once they have ruled, "do not turn aside from what they tell you." This means that if, at any point, the matter does becomes difficult enough that the leaders of Israel need to make a judgment, then from then on, that judgment is binding and to be followed.

    So: not only does the answer to whether or not it's "in the text" depend on whether or not the calendar meets the qualifications of Deut 17:8--it depends on whether or not a judgment has ever been rendered by the leaders of Israel on the matter.

    I think the historical evidence presented by judeoxian is strong enough to conclude that, at some point, the matter was difficult that a judgment did have to be rendered. Thus, at least according to my understanding of Deut. 17:11, that judgment is not to be departed from. (I would also add that we don't have any Biblical apostolic precedent for departing from those dates.)

    Of course, Judah, you're right too: in order to know how to keep this law, I had to go "outside the text"--knowing not only the Scriptures themselves, but the history of judgments in Israel. My point is simply that it's not just "an extrapolation from the text"--the text (Deut 17:11) actually instructs me to go outside itself.

    What do you think?

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  7. The way I look at it:

    The text says "Do X".

    Maimonides summarizes it as, "Do X, by utilizing specifics ABC."

    Regardless of the "rightness" Maimonides' summary, I figure it's safe to simply paraphrase the text, thus leaving it opened to interpretation.

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  8. Anyways, thanks all for the great commentary here. Really enjoy this stuff.

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  9. Thanks Judah, I'll embed the Hamodia link as well:

    Like Looking For A Needle In A Haystack

    I'm not allowed to cut and paste from there, but they basically say when Moshiach comes, the calendar will once again be set to Rosh Chodesh.

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  10. Judah, you wrote:

    The way I look at it:

    The text says "Do X".

    Maimonides summarizes it as, "Do X, by utilizing specifics ABC."

    Regardless of the "rightness" Maimonides' summary, I figure it's safe to simply paraphrase the text, thus leaving it opened to interpretation.


    That's fair enough--after all, you're trying to create a summary of all the commandments, not necessarily an interpretation of them. I'll only add my observation that you are making one significant interpretation--the hierarchy of which laws derive from which other laws.

    That's not meant as any sort of criticism, btw--obviously you're making the hierarchy loosely and purely for purposes of study.

    This has been helpful in getting me thinking--thanks! If I'm right above, then the potential that Deut 17:11 has to interact with every other commandment is pretty significant. I look forward to your treatment of it when you get there.

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  11. I've always found the calendar controversy an interesting one. Obviously, there is a history of interpretation that one needs to be aware of regarding passages about the sighting of the New Moon, and a value judgment to be made about whether it was appropriate for past Jewish leadership to calculate the New Moon or not. Many of today's Messianics think that we need to not make this an area of disagreement with the Jewish community (let *the* area of disagreement be Yeshua), and others see it differently.

    The big elephant in the room per the ongoing calendar debate, that no one really wants to acknowledge, is the year issue. Is it really 5770 since Creation? Most Jews rightly recognize that it is not. Problem is, I don't think most of today's broad Messianic world is really mature enough to approach this one--especially with all of the end-time datesetting out there. I haven't gone into that much detail myself on the calendar debate, because when I finally do, the year issue, problems with the James Ussher chronology, etc., will be considered.

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  12. I hope when this project is done you'll run off a series of posters for us to buy and put up in our office. It would make for a great gift for reader contests too!

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  13. >> This is a great example of how Scripture isn't a "self-contained, closed, objective system"

    Interesting quote! It begs the question, if Scripture isn't an objective system, does that mean Scripture, or at least some of it, is subjective?

    In fact, it may be.

    For example, is it valid if some men look for the new moon themselves to signal the new year? Almost certainly.

    Is it also valid if Torah-based judges rule, after looking at evidence, as to when the new year begins? Probably.

    Perhaps, then, some commandments really are subjective. Hmmm. That probably wouldn't sit well with a lot of people. But maybe God didn't intend for absolute conformity when it comes to commandment keeping.

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  14. >> I hope when this project is done you'll run off a series of posters for us to buy and put up in our office.

    Hey, yeah, absolutely! That's a great idea.

    Of course, we'll have flying cars by the time this project's finished, so Commandment Posters won't seem as cool in comparison. ;-)

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  15. >> Is it really 5770 since Creation?

    Heh. Well, young-earth creationists, AnswersInGenesis et al, would say so.

    You're totally right, John, very few in the Messianic movement are willing to consider otherwise. It would be considered heresy.

    Not that I agree with your old earth creationist view, necessarily. Just commenting that it's a rigid approach right now in Messianic circles.

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  16. The interesting thing from the HaModia article is that Dr. Roy Hoffman says he was given the inspiration to search out the new moon after writing an appendix to a sefer of Nachum Rabinovitch.

    Rabinovitch is rosh yeshiva in Maale Adumim, and he is also the founder of the Israeli New Moon Society.

    Interestingly, Rabinovitch is one of the leading scholarly experts on Maimonides.

    Hoffman wrote an article for the Israeli New Moon Society:

    The Sanhedrin: Its history and reinstatement attempts

    Hoffman concludes:

    If this or some other Sanhedrin achieves widespread recognition in the future then a likely scenario for the calendar would be as follows. They would form a committee to discuss the calendar. They would use the information gathered by, amongst others, the Israeli New Moon Society. Members of the society would be invited to advise them. If they came to a decision to renew the determination of the calendar by observation then members of the society would be amongst those who would testify upon seeing the Moon. The observers' testimony would be checked using techniques developed by the society and others.

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  17. >> you are making one significant interpretation...the hierarchy

    Yeah, true! :-) If you look at the actual data stored with each commandment, you'll see I'm making more interpretations there too!

    :-)

    I actually had an Orthodox Jewish software developer look at this project, and he told me that while he liked the hierarchy, the data I stored with it was Messianic-biased. What can I say? :-)

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  18. To add another intricacy into the mix, Rabinovitch considers the Sanhedrin Initiative to be a joke, and not at all the real Sanhedrin - he thinks Judaism is a long way off from there. I don't know if this is due to political or personal differences with the Sanhedrin establishment, or theological/eschatological conviction.

    This week Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger has clashed with the Sanhedrin leadership over the re-establishment of the Korban Pesach - it seems haredi Judaism is divided over the authenticity of any Sanhedrin before they see Moshiach.

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  19. Seems to be a common theme - distrust of an group that wishes to be an authority. You see the same hesitancy on the Messianic side with JerusalemCouncil.org.

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  20. "You see the same hesitancy on the Messianic side with JerusalemCouncil.org."

    At least whatever ad-hock Sanhedrin they try to come up with within Judaism, it's run by Jews, instead of those who think they automatically converted into "Orthodox Jews" by becoming "observant" believers in Yeshua and by taking on Hebrew names. Also, JerusalemCouncil.org is a website run by some "volunteers", not leaders of any kind (except in their own minds). I wish they put up their full bios for everyone to see so that we can see their qualification, especially the head honcho (MRav. P. McDonald/R' Nadav Benyamin) - it's only fare if we are to take them seriously as the leaders of the new "Jerusalem Council".

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  21. As a side note, it's an interesting question: would the apostles have allowed gentiles on the ancient Jerusalem Council of Acts 15? Or would James have put his foot down and said, "Jews only!" ?

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  22. 'As a side note, it's an interesting question: would the apostles have allowed gentiles on the ancient Jerusalem Council of Acts 15? Or would James have put his foot down and said, "Jews only!?"

    Interesting question - perhaps they would have allowed converts to Judaism. I say that because their primary ministry was to the Jewish believers and their area of involvement was the Jewish community. There was no apparent Gentile leadership at that time. That said, perhaps it's possible that they would invite a Gentile leader who would help decide on matters pertaining to Gentile believers?

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  23. Heh. Interesting indeed.

    The real question is, what was the purpose of the Jerusalem Council? The ruling body for Messiah's followers? Representatives of Messiah's followers to the greater Jewish community? Or something else?

    Considering Acts 15, I'm convinced they were a ruling body of sorts, and even ruled on gentile matters. (In particular, gentile conversions -- ruling whether circumcision/conversion was required for salvation.)

    This suggests they were a ruling body, similar to a sanhedrin.

    Another thing to note is that the Council agreed with Peter's assessment that, in regards to salvation at least, God shows no distinction between Jews and gentiles.

    All this leads me to believe the Council would have allowed righteous, Messiah-loving gentiles on the council.

    That said, there is no evidence suggesting the council had any gentile members.

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  24. "As a side note, it's an interesting question: would the apostles have allowed gentiles on the ancient Jerusalem Council of Acts 15?"

    As I read it, the "Jerusalem Council" was more of an event than an official body like the Sanhedrin. The leaders who were present at the council were the apostles and elders among the believers in Jerusalem.

    "...perhaps it's possible that they would invite a Gentile leader who would help decide on matters pertaining to Gentile believers?"

    It certainly was Paul's practice to appoint leaders among the Gentiles (Titus, elders in the communities). However, as above, I don't see any indication that a Council of believers was put in place to create separate halakha for believers during the Temple period. If anything, Acts depicts the Jewish believers continuing to act under the Sanhedrin (though obviously obeying the gospel rather than men when they were commanded not to speak, put on trial, etc).

    However, I'm admittedly not very well read on this period. (Anyone have a copy of the papal encyclicals of 40-100CE? ;-)) Seriously--any pointers on sources to take into consideration?

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  25. To bolster my point: there's no "council" actually mentioned in the text of Acts 15 (is this right?). The only council (Greek: synedrion) in the NT is the Sanhedrin.

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  26. "I don't see any indication that a Council of believers was put in place to create separate halakha for believers during the Temple period. If anything, Acts depicts the Jewish believers continuing to act under the Sanhedrin (though obviously obeying the gospel rather than men when they were commanded not to speak, put on trial, etc)."

    Yahnatan, I would have to agree with you re: early Jewish followers of Yeshua continuing to abide by existing Sanhedrin rulings, except in matters previously addressed directly by G-d in light of New Covenant(specifically eating with Gentiles or visiting their dwellings, etc).

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  27. "To bolster my point: there's no "council" actually mentioned in the text of Acts 15 (is this right?). The only council (Greek: synedrion) in the NT is the Sanhedrin."

    Perhaps this was only a "temporary council", an emergency meeting of the Jerusalem leadership, if you will. I would agree with you that it does not seem to be permanent installation like Sanhedrin that constantly decided disputed matters. This means that any modern efforts at re-establishing it may be misguided at best and are doom to failure.

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  28. >> I don't see any indication that a Council of believers was put in place to create separate halakha for believers during the Temple period.

    Good point, there's nothing in the text suggesting it was a regularly-meeting body.

    But does it matter?

    When an issue of halakha arose among Messiah's believers, the "apostles and elders" gathered and made a ruling, with the expectation that it would be kept by Messiah's followers.

    Does it matter whether the council was a formal group or just ad-hoc gathering? I don't think so.

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  29. Not that all this isn't important, but one of the difficulties our movement sometimes has, is that we bog ourselves down in details at the expense of experiencing God. What is the Passover for Jews and Gentiles? In many ways, Passover is the bridge between the two worlds, and the bridge which connects us all to the Messiah and to God, thus: http://shema-yisrael.org/blogspot/2010/03/eating-at-the-masters-table-part-iii/

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  30. I wonder if there were any James the Shameless' on the Jerusalem Council. ;-) heheh

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  31. - The Case of the Hidden Moon - Elementary my dear Watson, it seems His calendar is more simplistic than complex. On March 15, no new moon was seen. On March 17, a new moon was seen. "Which day is the new moon Watson?" "The day where we see no new moon, because intelligent men have told me so so", Watson replies. Ah...I am sorry, but you are wrong my dear Watson, it is always better to follow what the written Torah says than to acknowledge men's words before His.

    C.F.

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  32. The only problem is, the Great Assembly established in the written Torah is the entity that performs several tasks, including the sighting of the new moon. Unfortunately, this authoritative body, which has the authority of Dt. 17, is not fully established in our day as of yet, therefore a calculated calendar is still primary.

    In fact, the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 25b) tells us that the between each appearance of a new moon can be no less than 29.53059 days. This information, reported Rabbi Gamliel in the Talmud, is part of the Oral Torah.

    Only this century did anyone else in the world have a calculation of that nature. Carl Sagan has stated that the period of time from new moon to new moon is 29.53058 days, only 100 thousandth of a day less! That's within 0.864 of a second of what the Talmud says! Scientists in Berlin later revised it to 29.530588 days, which is 0.6912 thousandths of a second closer to what the Talmud says (and the scientists are still not absolutely positive). That is how close they are to the number given by our Oral Torah. We needed this information, in order to properly observe a Mitzvah in the Torah, so Hashem taught that to Moses, and it was passed down throughout the ages through to the authoritative leaders of the Jewish people who eventually wrote it down and codified it in the Talmud.

    If that doesn't prove Oral Torah, I don't know what ever would convince someone.

    -Aaron

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  33. What about [I]Seder Olam[/i] miscalculations of the year... as some have argued there is approximately 200+ years missing or miscalculated, would this have an impact on this?

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  34. As to what number is assigned to a particular year has nothing to do with measure distance between months.

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