Church of God, In Truth
Why Count 177 Days Backwards?
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Why Count 177 Days Backwards?
Why Count 177 Days Backward to Abib 1, ???
Why Count 163 Days
Backward to Passover, ???
Why does the Jewish Hebrew calendar count back 177 days from Rosh Hashanah [Trumpets]to find the first day of Nisan. Why does the Jewish Hebrew calendar use Rosh Hashanah as the New Year?
Michael Strassfeld in his book, "Jewish Holidays, a Guide and Commentary," page 96, gives us a better understanding of Rosh ah shanah [Jewish New Year]. "Rosh-ah-shanah is referred to in the Torah as the day of sounding the shofar. It was not called Rosh-ah-shanah the New Year until Talmudic times, [around 200 A.D.]. The nature of the festival is unclear. The notion of Rosh-ah-shanah as the year may have come later in the tradition. Rosh-ah-shanah as the new year is tied to the creation of the world. Thus in the Talmud there is a debate as to whether the world was created in Nisan [the month the Passover falls] or in Tishri. In fact the Bible's silence about the fall new year and its celebration is hardly accidental. Celebration of this festival were so fraught with pagan association that the rather Puritanical Biblical authors probably opposed the festival altogether, much as later rabbis fraught against too much paganism and magic for their comfort. Only in the Talmud does Rosh-ah-shanah emerge as a major Jewish Festival, showing that the fold, then as later, did not always listen to their more Purist religious leaders. It is likely that especially the first Diaspora Jews, those of Babylonia did much to support the acceptance of this festival, and gave it a legacy that is in many ways reminiscent of the ancient Babylonian new year." If you keep the Jewish Rosh-ah-shanah for the Feast of Trumpets, you are not truly keeping God's Holy Day!
Rabbi Nathan Bushwick in his book,"Understanding the Jewish Calendar" tells us on pages 79-80,84 "In the time of the Sanhedrin, a new month began only after it was possible to actually see the new moon, which we know many hours after the molad. That is because there is a period about two days between the last possible sighting of the old moon and the first possible sighting of the new moon.1* The molad is roughly in the middle of this period during which the moon is not visible. But the fixed calendar that we use when there is no Sanhedrin does not depend upon sighting the moon. Instead the new month begins on the day of the molad itself. If the molad occured on Shabbos, for instance, the first day of the new month would be Shabbos even though the new moon would certainly not become visible until Saturday night and perhaps not until Sunday night. For this reason, Rosh Chodesh is usually a day earlier than it would have been were there a Sanhedrin.2*
The fixed calendar differs also in that it takes into account only the molad of Tishrei.[Astronomical new moon of the 7th month]. The day of Rosh Hashanah is determined by the molad of Tishrei. For the rest of the months, even though the molad is announced on the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh, the day of Rosh Chodesh,is determined not by the molad, but by the fixed order of 29 and 30 day months. This system of alternating 29 and 30 day months provides that each successive month will also begin approximately on the day of the molad.
There are, however, certain situations in which Rosh Hashanah does not fall on the day of the molad. Instead, it is postponed until the next day or the day after. The first such situation is when the molad occurs after 12:00 noon. A molad that occurs after noon it is called a molad zoken, an old molad, and Rosh Hashanah is postponed until the next day. The reason for this postponement is that when the molad occurs after noon it is not possible for the new moon to become visible anywhere in the world on that day. But when the molad occurs before noon, even though the new moon may not be visible in Eretz Yisrael that day, at some point west of Eretz Yisrael [Israel], where the sun will not set until several hours later than it did in Eretz Yisrael, it may be possible to see the new moon that day. It is therefore justifiable for the fixed calendar to set Rosh Hashanah on the day of the molad itself as long as the molad occurs before noon. If it is a molad zoken however, and the new moon will in no way become visible on that day,Rosh Hashanah,cannot begin until the next day.3*
This is the first of four situations in which Rosh Hashanah is postponed from the day of the molad. In these situations we say that Rosh Hashanah is nidcheh - pushed off. The rules that govern these situations are called the four dechios.
The second dechiah prevents Yom Kippur from falling the day before or the day after Shabbos [Sabbath]. This is avoided so that there not be two days in a row on which it is forbidden to prepare food or do other sorts of work that are permitted on Yom Tov. 4* Since Yom Kippur is one week and two days after Rosh Hashanah, Rosh Hashanah cannot fall on Wednesday or Friday in order that Yom Kippur not fall on Friday or Sunday.
*1 Rambam, KHC 1:3
* Rambam, KHC 5:2 *3 This is the opinion of the Baal Hamaor, Rosh Hashanah 20b
*4 Tur and SO, OC 428; Beur Halachah there; Rosh Hashanah 20a
Since the months between Pesach [Passover] and Rosh Hashanah [Trumpets] each have a fixed number of days, we can figure out which day Pesach is in the same way. Pesach is the fifteenth day of Nisan, which has thirty days, so there are fifteen days left.
15 remaining days in Nisan
29 days of lyar
30 days of Sivan
29 days of Tammuz
30 days of Av
29 days of Elul
1 the first day of Rosh Hashanah itself 163 days
[+ the 14 days not yet added to the month Nisan to make it a 30 day month. Totaling 177 days from Rosh Hashanah to Nisan 1]
Dividing 163 by 7 we get 23 remainder 2, so 163 days equals twenty-three weeks and two days. That means that Rosh Hashanah is two days after Pesach, so Pesach falls two days before Rosh Hashanah, just as Tisha B'Av does. We could make the same chart for Pesach as we did for Tisha B'Av. Like Tisha B'Av, Pesach cannot fall on Monday, Wednesday or Friday. Sometimes this is expressed as a rule, Lo BD"U Pesach. [Nathan Bushwick "Understanding the Jewish Calendar]..
They count back from the Rosh Hashanah [Feast of Trumpets], not counting Trumpets to get their 15th Passover--then they add 14 day to get the first day of the year. If you marked April 3rd on your Gregorian calendar for Passover in 1996, do you know how you, or the Church group you meet with, derived at that date? The Hebrew Jewish calendar that Hillel II in 358-359 AD, is responsible for, interculated the postponement rules. "Every month must begin on a day close to the molad, [a mean conjunction]. For the beginning of the year, the first day of Tishri [Trumpets--to some], the calendar follows this rule: Rosh Hashanah should be on the day of the molad except for the so-called dehioth [postponement rule], which takes place in four specific cases. "When the molad [a mean or middle conjunction] Tishri occurs on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday, Rosh Hashanah is postponed to the following day." This rule is quoted from "The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar," by Arthur Spier, page 14 & 15.
In 1996, the Hebrew calendar calculation placed the molad [a mean or middle conjunction] on Friday September 13th, by the postponement rule. Tishri 1 cannot be on a Friday, they moved Trumpets to September 14th a Saturday. By this rule, Trumpets will be postponed by one day later than when God in His Word says, it is to be kept. The Hebrew calendar does not start the first month of the year as God told Moses in the Torah [Book of the Law]!
The Hebrew calendar finds the date for the first day of the year by subtracting 177 days from [not including] Tishri 1 [Trumpets], to find Nisan 1 and 163 days to find the day for Passover.
"Understanding the Jewish Calendar" by Rabbi Nathan Bushwick states on page 84: "Since the months between Pesach [Passover] and Rosh Hashanah each have a fixed number of days, we can figure out which day Pesach [Passover] is in the same way."
Take a Gregorian calendar and count out 177 days back from Trumpets. [Year 1996]
September 13 days
August 31 days
July 31 days
June 30 days
May 31 days
April 30 days
March 11 days
________
177 days
By subtracting 177 days from Trumpets, you can see March 21st, according to the Hebrew calendar is the first day of the year for 1996. Now count 14 days forward and you will come to April 3rd. April 3rd is 16 days past the new moon of the first month Abib.
Moses was instructed to count 14 days! "In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD'S Passover" (Lev. 23:5). Not sixteen days passed the new moon! Nor are we instructed to count backward 177 days from Trumpets!
The Israelites that fled Egypt knew the importance of keeping Passover on the very day God said. "For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial" (Exo. 12:12-14)
This memorial has just become rote and ho hum, just another Passover for many of God's churches today! History from God's Word shows us the importance of keeping God's appointed times and belief in what Moses wrote. "For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?" (John 5:46-47). If the Israelites had felt that Passover could be kept at any time it was convenient for them, [as Hillel II and the Pharisees did by putting postponements into the calendar], then they would have left Egypt without their firstborn. God instructed Moses and showed him the covenant sign that would protect the Israelites from death! "Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the Passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as He hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped. And the children of Israel went away, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead" (Exo. 12:21-30).
We cannot afford to postpone Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread! The partaking of the blood and flesh of Christ at its appointed time is a sign, and a sealing of God's very elect.
These symbols are the seal of the New Covenant! "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for Him hath God the Father sealed. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:27,53-54).
ASK, CAN WE AFFORD TO POSTPONE PASSOVER
AND THE DAYS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD?
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