Rosh Chodesh / New Moon / First Day of the Month
“14 And Elohim said, “Let lights come to be in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and appointed times, and for days and years,
15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.” And it came to be so.
16 And Elohim made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars.
17 And Elohim set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,
18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And Elohim saw that it was good.”
Genesis 1:14-18 TS2009
“19 He made the moon for appointing the times; The sun knows its going down.” Psalm 104:19
“4 Hear this, you who are swallowing up the needy, to do away with the poor of the land,
5 saying, “When does the New Moon pass so that we sell grain, and the Sabbath so that we trade our wheat, to make the ĕphah small and the sheqel large, and to falsify the scales by deceit,
6 to buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals, and sell the chaff of the wheat?”
7 יהוה has sworn by the Excellency of Ya‛aqoḇ, “I shall never forget any of their works.
8 “Shall the land not tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it? And all of it shall swell like the River, heave and subside like the River of Mitsrayim.” Amos 8:4-8
“10 And in the day of your gladness, and in your appointed times, and at the beginning of your new moons, you shall blow the trumpets over your ascending offerings and over your slaughterings of peace offerings. And they shall be a remembrance for you before your Elohim. I am יהוה your Elohim.” Numbers 10:10
“11 And on the beginnings of your new moons you bring near an ascending offering to יהוה: two young bulls and one ram, and seven lambs a year old, perfect ones;
12 three-tenths of an ĕphah of fine flour as a grain offering, mixed with oil, for each bull; two-tenths of an ĕphah of fine flour as a grain offering, mixed with oil, for the one ram;
13 and one-tenth of an ĕphah of fine flour, mixed with oil, as a grain offering for each lamb, as an ascending offering of sweet fragrance, an offering made by fire to יהוה.
14 And their drink offering is half a hin of wine for a bull, and one-third of a hin for a ram, and one-fourth of a hin for a lamb. This is the ascending offering for each new moon throughout the new moons of the year,” Numbers 28:11-14
“23 “And it shall be that from New Moon to New Moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” declares יהוה.” Isaiah 66:23
“2 Lift up a song and beat the tambourine, The pleasant lyre and with the harp.
3 Blow a shophar in the New Moon, in the covering for the day of our festival.
4 For this is a law for Yisra’ĕl, And a right-ruling of the Elohim of Ya‛aqoḇ.
5 He appointed it in Yehosĕph for a witness, When He went throughout the land of Mitsrayim; I heard a language that I did not know.”
Psalm 81:2-5
“17 And on the prince are the ascending offerings, and the grain offerings, and drink offerings, at the festival, the new moons, the sabbaths – in all the appointed times of the house of Yisra’ĕl. He is to prepare the sin offering, and the grain offering, and the ascending offering, and the peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Yisra’ĕl.” Ezekiel 45:17
“1 ‘Thus said the Master יהוה, “The gate of the inner courtyard facing east is shut the six days of work, but on the sabbath it is opened, and on the day of the new moon it is opened.
2 “And the prince shall enter by way of the porch of that gate from the outside, and he shall stand by the post. And the priests shall prepare his ascending offering and his peace offerings. And he shall bow himself at the threshold of the gate, and shall go out, but the gate is not shut until evening.
3 “And the people of the land shall also bow themselves at the entrance to this gate before יהוה, on the sabbaths and on the new moons.”
Ezekiel 46:1-3
“6 And on the day of the new moon: a young bull, a perfect one, six lambs, and a ram, they should be perfect.” Ezekiel 46:6
“He made the moon also, to serve in its season to mark the times and to be an everlasting sign. From the moon comes the sign for feast days, a light that wanes when it has reached the full. The month is named for the moon, increasing marvelously in its phases, an instrument of the hosts on high shining forth in the firmament of heaven.”
Sirach 43:6-8. RSV-C: Revised Standard Version Old Tradition 1952
Interesting Interpretation: Rosh Chodesh / Head of the Month.”
Rosh Chodesh is celebrated at the beginning of each month, literally meaning “head of the month.”
The new moon festival, when is the first day of the month, we celebrate spirituals sacrifices praise and gratitude and work is forbidden all day.
Ezekiel 45:17 we read:
“17 And on the prince are the ascending offerings, and the grain offerings, and drink offerings, at the festival, the new moons, the sabbaths – in all the appointed times of the house of Yisra’ĕl.” [also see 2 Chr 31:3]
And from 1 Samuel 20:5 we learn about of the festival of the new moon:
“David answered Jonathan: Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I usually sit down with the king to feast…”
There was probably a custom of visiting the prophets on Rosh Chodesh:
“22 And she called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys, so that I hurry to the man of Elohim and return.”
23 And he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the new moon nor the sabbath.” And she said, “It is well!”
2 Kings 4:22-23
Since Rosh Chodesh is crucial for determining the timing of the feasts, during the various captivities it is one of the most frequently banned festivals by the occupiers, with the aim of destroying the entire feast calendar and Hebrew culture.
Nowadays, on the occasion of Rosh Chodesh, additional prayers are recited in Judaic circles, the so-called half Hilel, or Psalms 113-118, and additionally the Amidah [a prayer recited standing up] called Musaf, which commemorates the sacrifices once made on the new moon.
The custom of blowing the shofar [horn] and Kiddush levan [ sanctification of the new moon] has survived from ancient times. It takes place between the 3rd and 15th of the month, when the moon is visible in the sky. In the prayers recited, the people of Israel are likened to a renewing moon. Just as the moon fades so may times of persecution and captivity, but just as the moon is renewed so are the people of Israel renewed until the coming of the Messiah, whose glory will never be extinguished.
First, Psalm 148:1-6 is recited.
The Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh, when the date of the new moon is announced, is called Shabbat Mevarechim [Shabbat of blessing].
It is believed that Elohim, by obligating the nation of Yisrael to observe the moon, gave the privilege of controlling the time. The calendar and all moadim [appointed times] are completely in the hands of Elohim YAHUAH.
Of significance is Rosh Chodesh of the first month [Aviv/ Abib] when Elohim chose this day for the erection and inauguration of the Mishkan [Tent of Meeting]:
“1 And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying,
2 On the first day of the first new moon, you are to raise up the Dwelling Place of the Tent of Appointment,
16 And Mosheh did according to all that יהוה had commanded him, so he did.
17 And it came to be in the first new moon of the second year, on the first day of the new moon, that the Dwelling Place was raised up.”
Exodus 40:1-2,16,17
On this day, incense was placed and the Shechinah [Glory/Yahuah’s Presence] descended on the Mishkan [Tent of Meeting]. The Sriptures New Year of Rosh Hashanah [Head of the Year] also begins on this day.
Additional Information:
The Hebrew calendar times from Scriptures is based primarily on the moon (lunar calendar), with each successive month beginning on the New Moon, when the sickle of the moon appeared after a moonless night.
In ancient times, the phases of the moon were always determined on the basis of astronomical calculations [the same was also true of other astronomical bodies – for example, civilizations such as the Egyptian, Chinese, Mayan surprised scientists with the precision of calculations of the movement of celestial bodies without computers.
On the other hand, the designation of the New Year – Rosh Hashanah included one condition, it was designated on the thirtieth day of the month of Adar when the members of the High Council would gather in the Jerusalem court called Beit Ya’azek, where they would await the testimony of two independent and trusted witnesses who would testify whether the barley in the fields had ripened, and on this basis the Rosh Hashanah [Head of the Year] would be proclaimed [the shofar was blown]. Messengers were then sent out to announce to the people the beginning of the year and the first day of the first month [Abib / Nisan].
The crescent of the moon establishes the first day of the month in Yahuah’s calendar, and this detail can be found without difficulty in the Book of Enoch. It certifies and calls the first day of the month the New Moon, because on this day light begins to appear on the moon.
Book of Enoch, chapter 78:12
- “The first day is called the new moon because on that day light is formed on it.”
- The modern term is misleading, as the New Moon is called the time when the moon is not visible at all. (So called astronomical new moon)
- The Book of Enoch, which should be in the Bible, was removed from the King James Bible and most other translations. To this day, however, it is still in the canon of the Ethiopian Bible, and clearly states that the New Moon means the emerging sickle of the moon, not the total absence of the moon as it is referred to today.
- Satan has again twisted the truth to mislead people. He has already done the same with the true Shabbat, changing it to Sunday. He also changed the calendar of Yahuah Elohim from one based on the moon’s sickle to one based on the dark moon. In doing so, he incited people not to observe the true Biblical Sacred Days commanded by Yahuah, as well as Shabbat.
- The Mishnah was written between 70 and 200 AD, while the Gemara (the second part of the Talmud), was written between 350 and 500 AD.
- Both make up the Talmud. One of the authors of the Gemara book, the so-called Rabbi Hilel II (330-365 A.D.), set a continuous, so-called ‘Fixed Calendar’, based on a method of calculation taking into account the conjunction of the Sun, Moon and Earth, known in the Gemara as the “Hidden Moon/Dark Moon.”
- Hilel did this so that Jews [wherever they may be] could follow the same pre-calculated calendar.
- Unfortunately, the Jewish community and other religious groups still use Hilel’s calendar to this day, considering the phase of the full covering of the moon as the first day of the month, and thus maintain holidays, days and traditions established by man rather than by Yahuah Elohim.
- When the Gemara, the second part of the Talmud, was completed around the year 500, it introduced many new laws that were the result of rabbinic discussions. It changed the way days were determined.
The Book of Henoch chapter 78:14 confirms that the phase of the total occultation of the moon is the end of the month, not the beginning. –
“On the side on which the light of the moon appears, it [the moon] again diminishes until its light completely disappears and the days of the month come to an end, its circle remains empty, without light.”
It is a misconception to determine the New Moon only by observation. Often, for weather reasons, the Moon’s sickle is seen 2-3 days later. In this way, the Passover and Feast of Booths are lost in days, since they should fall in the middle of the month, i.e. on the full moon, and not 2-3 days later [the promoters of the observational method in determining the New Moon are silent about this].
Also, the Hilel II calendar contains two grave errors:
1 – Changed the concept of the New Moon from the appearance of a sickle to a total occultation.
2 – Established a standard month length during the 19-year cycle to make the lunar calendar align with the solar days. The month of Adar II is added in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, and 19th years of each cycle. The whole method did not take into account the [supposed] precession of the globe [this was not known at the time] and the designation of successive lunar years on such a long term basis blurred with reality over time. The Julian calendar contained a similar error.
Therefore, today the Hiler Calendar, which is retained by the followers of Rabbinic Judaism, does not work and is inconsistent with the Bible.
In conclusion, the moon’s appearing sickle can be determined by anyone with a smartphone, while whether barley was ripe in Eretz Yisrael to determine the month of Abib can be found out from Israel’s websites.
“14 And Elohim said, “Let lights come to be in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and appointed times [moedim – feasts], and for days and years,
15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.” And it came to be so.
16 And Elohim made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars.
17 And Elohim set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,
18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And Elohim saw that it was good.”
Genesis 1:14-18 TS2009
“and let them be for signs and appointed times [moedim – feasts]” “them” is used here in the plural [every translation uses the plural form there]-i.e., in addition to the moon, the sun is also an indicator of moadim?!
By the way, anyone who takes only the moon as a determinant has different coincidental days, and then the moadim never all match [whether through observing the appearance of the first sickle of the moon, or according to Rabbi Hilel II’s calendar (330-365 A.D. which is used by modern Judaism and some Messianic churches].
Each feast listed in Leviticus chapter 23 according to Genesis 1:14-18 should fall on a specific phase of the moon.
The simplest form of the solar clock is the daily cycle or sunset and sunrise.
If the astronomical new moon [dark moon] of local time falls during a given day, the next day is the 1st day of the new month.
Readings for Rosh Chodesh/New Moon:
Psalm 8
Psalm 19
Psalm 81
Psalm 95
Psalm 104
Psalm 113
Psalm 148
and all Scriptures with singing the songs and prayers for YAHUAH.
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