Granpa Ralph

Potential Visibility - Torah or Takanot?

In our modern day, this is a difficult issue, but it was not an issue at all for the ancients. Today we have astronomy that is more precise than the ancients had. The ancients simply looked for the moon with their eyes and no other factors entered in to the determination. They either saw it or they didn't. Today there is a propensity to bring in modern astronomy (aka man's wisdom) as a 'witness'. I understand the persuasion of this argument and on the face of it may seem logical but it poses several problems:

1) Since the ancients would have made a different declaration, they must have been wrong. Therefore Yahweh gave us a calendar that we would not be able to follow with full veracity until millennia later, at the very close of the age in fact, when our own technology/wisdom advanced enough to enable it. Has Yahweh ever given commandments that are too technical to be able to follow without 'scientific' advancement? Or, is He a Creator who delivered the faith once, without revision, and said that at the last all things will be restored, not 'advanced'?

2) It essentially says that the weather is not in Yahweh's control and can, in fact, thwart His will. The mere vapour of clouds can block Yahweh's intended sighting of His new moon, and further, that He needs us to correct this 'error' with our technology. Presumptive declarations say that either Yahweh is not interested, too lazy, or unable to part the clouds in order to make His month known. "We didn't see it, but we know He meant us to. The clouds are just prevented Him from getting His message out so we'll overrule them ourselves." Is Yahweh like the god Elijah mocked in 1Kg 18:27? Has He perhaps wound up the universe like a toy and now just lets it run unattended on its own, que sera sera. Or, is He the God who revealed Himself to Job, ch 40-41, and takes an active role in His creation?

3) The god of technology trumps the God of Creation, except when otherwise noted. It's so strange to me that, while the latest astronomical calculations are fair game in this contest, other astronomical aides like binoculars and telescopes are not. The ancients didn't have those so we must not use them either. Late 20th century calculations that presuppose new moon sightings are OK though! What? Here's a quote from Nehemia Gordon in the Karaite's new moon group:

"On Sunday February 6, 2000 the New Moon was NOT sighted by observers from Jerusalem, Ashdod and elsewhere. There was total cloud coverage in Jerusalem and heavy cloud coverage in other locations. Magdi Shamuel located the moon for about 2 minutes from Ashdod in a gap in the cloud through 20x60 BINOCULARS, but the moon disappeared BEFORE he was able to locate it with the NAKED EYE. Binocular sightings can not be used to determine Rosh Hodesh (New Moon Day). Using modern optical aides, the moon can almost always be located (even close to conjunction!). The New Moon (Hodesh) referred to in the Hebrew Bible is the moon which reappears to the naked eye after several days of concealment, not that which remains constantly visible to sophisticated telescopes."

Has Yahweh made a ruling on which of our technologies may be used to modify His commandments and which may not? Has He not said 'You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you."? (Due 4:2) And again "Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it." (Due12:32) And again, "Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar." (Pro 30:6)

4) Who's moedim are they anyway? The sacred calendar was established by Yahweh in the beginning of creation, even before plants, animals or man. The feasts that are appointed by it are not ours but His. They were celebrated in heaven before they were revealed to the patriarchs. Key events in the lives of these men revolved around and happened exactly on His feasts, feasts they didn't even know about, at least not as Israel was later instructed. Our calling to assembly at the moedim is not just an earthly happening. We assemble, along with all the heavenly host, in the banquet hall of the Most High at His gracious invitation. The argument has been floated that Yahweh has given authority to men, certain ones at least, to determine His calendar - but by what standards? I would argue the standards of Torah, the same ones the ancients used. Those standards demand that nothing be added or removed from the Word of Yahweh, the bedrock for all judgments. If we use astronomical calculations to determine the new moon in the absence of a sighting, we depart from that standard. Those ancient judgments were used in Yahushua's day and He never challenged them but rather observed Himself assembling with all Judah at the Temple for all His Feasts. Had he not been there due to a conflict He had with their reckoning of His calendar, it would have been a scandal the Pharisees would have hastened to seize upon to discredit Him in the eyes of the people, but they couldn’t get anything on Him! If the ancients were wrong in their simple observation-only method then Yahweh has remained silent. When we overrule the signs in the heavens, we change the timing of the feasts, His feasts. Do we imagine that heaven, which has been hosting these moedim for millennia, hangs on the judgment of men's mathematics and rearranges the Divine calendar accordingly? This smacks of the blasphemous rabbinic philosophy that says Yahweh must obey the rulings of the rabbis. When Messiah’s own practice, such as this one, can be verified today, how can we dare to ‘improve’ upon His own ways? Isa 55:9.

5) Torah standards for judgment also mandate that two or three faithful witnesses are required to establish a matter. The mathematical calculations used to trump the sighting of human witnesses cannot be considered a witness by Torah. Those calculations cannot establish anything. They cannot testify before a Sanhedrin. They are deaf, dumb and blind, without hands or feet, much like the dumb idols Yahweh hates so much. These have no lawful place in the determination of the calendar. In fact, the determination of Yahweh's calendar is His alone, we just have to observe it. Who has set the lights in the sky? Will we now create our own lights by calculation? He orders the heavenly bodies, He sets the clouds in motion and He is the author and arbiter of time.

6) Saints who have passed through the error of the modern Hillel II Jewish calendar to return to Yahweh's New Moon time keeping have already dealt with this issue of pre-calculated months and years. We have already stepped away from those counterfeit replacements for Truth and rightly judged those ‘refinements’ as error. But have we stepped far enough? Is there another,
comparatively small, step still to take? Why would we hold on to a calculated calendar just because purported improvements have been made in the last decade that make it “OK”? Make no mistake, the potential visibility method is an 85% pre-determined calendar! It obviates the need for most observations, except in a few isolated cases where the calculations are judged too uncertain. Over the last 10 years of observations, only 14% of them (17 out of 121) were deemed necessary due to uncertain calculations. The rest of the time the calendar was a forgone conclusion and the new moon sighting a superfluous ritual. It's disingenuous to say that the calculations are backed up by actual observations when calculations are used as the determining factor 85% of the time. Moreover, approximately 10% of the time, 12 times in the last 121 sightings, the calculations not only determined the calendar, but overrode the actual sighting. We've come out of the folly of a pre-calculated calendar but have we fallen into the same trap by another, more subtle method? It is subtle, quite persuasive sounding and smooth as oil to our human nature that takes pride in its own wisdom.

7) Does all this sound a little confusing? Isn't it a rather long and arduous path that we have had to take to unravel all the corruptions that have been done to Yahweh's calendar? It's much harder to unlearn than to just learn the right way from the start. Let's consider the source of this confusion for a moment. Yahweh says He is not the author of confusion, but of peace (1Co 14:33). Yahushua also said that His yoke (commandments) is easy and His burden light. That leaves us as the culprits. Time and time again we have seen how the simple, pure words of Yahweh have been twisted and turned into complex burdens He never intended. It's always the vain wisdom of man and the ways that seem right to us that get in the way. That's where the confusion always starts and, once started, it tends to grow more and more complex. Just take a look at the ever-evolving Talmudic laws as a stark example of that. Eliminate all the calculations men have added, be they Hillel II or post-modern astronomers, and things get a whole lot simpler. When confusion is eliminated, peace, Yahweh's peace, can enter in. More importantly, a blessed unity can begin to take root in which we can truly enrich each other's walk with Messiah without the constant distractions of arguments over which man-made revisions are holy and which are profane. That disunity, and the ever finer denominational divisions that result, is the adversary's game, and we're playing into his hands every time we bow to man's additions and subtractions to Yahweh's eternal truth. Confusion and division is the hallmark of man's meddlesome tampering with the simplicity that is in Messiah. Yahweh hates it with an everlasting hatred.

8) Some feel, because there is so little instruction given in Torah about how to observe the sacred calendar, that we need some extra rules to adjudicate it. For example, there are those that make a hard and fast a rule tying the new year to the vernal equinox. But this rule is not found in scripture either. All we need to do is observe the barley. Is it abib or isn't it? The equinox will take care of itself. Simple! I submit that the reason for the lack of detailed rules and precedents and exceptions for observing Yahweh's calendar is because they simply aren't needed. He created the signs, set them in perfect order, untouchable by any human tampering, and said "Observe"! It's a no-brainer by design, as easy as seeing when one day ends and the next begins. It was never Yahweh's desire for us that we become slaves to the endless angles of human reasoning and the contentions they generate. His purposes for creating us are so much bigger than that. He made the obedience part pretty straightforward, especially where His calendar is concerned, leaving us free to get on with the weightier matters of practicing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with Him.

9) Finally, consider the mystery of Yom Teruah, the Feast of Blowing of Trumpets. This moedim is unlike any other in that it is the only one for which there is no means of determining it with precision in advance. All other feasts are known precisely as soon as we see the 1st new moon and the 7th new moon. But Yom Teruah falls on the 7th new moon itself and the sages tell us that makes it a feast of concealment, its exact timing unknown until the crescent new moon is sighted, and then it is immediately upon you. You have to be ready, anticipating it. Some feel that this element of mystery and anticipation makes this day a good candidate for Messiah's return - a day and hour you can not know with certainty in advance! The point here is not to theorize on the date of Messiah's return but to note that when the 7th month is predetermined by a 'potential' new moon calculation, which is most of the time, it removes the whole aspect of watchful, excited, preparedness that is a feature of that day. Waiting on Yahweh's timing, with joyful hope and eager anticipation, is blessed in His sight and a sure strategy for victory!
(authored by Darren Clarke)

Psa 27:14
Wait on YHVH;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on YHVH!

Psa 37:9
For evildoers shall be cut off;
But those who wait on YHVH,
They shall inherit the earth.

Psa 37:34
Wait on YHVH,
And keep His way,
And He shall exalt you to inherit the land;
When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.

Isa 8:17
And I will wait on YHVH,
Who hides His face from the house of Jacob;
And I will hope in Him.

Isa 30:18
Therefore YHVH will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For YHVH is a God of justice;
Blessed are all those who wait for Him.

Isa 40:31
But those who wait on YHVH
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.