I want to preface this article with the thought that Shearit Yisrael Nazarene Congregation desires to follow Elohim with all our heart. To this end, we make it a point to diligently search His Word, The Scriptures, for His truth. And His truth is hidden behind years of traditions and misconceptions and presumptions.

All of what is taught in Churchianity is not wrong and neither is all of rabbinic Judaism teaches wrong. There is truth to be found in both. But there is much error as well. It is our duty, as Torah observant, Torah obedient Believers in Yahushua HaMoshiach to sift all traditions and judge them in light of Scripture. That is what we have attempted to do here with the calendar and start of the new year.

On the 12th month 25th day of 5765, a group of Nazarene Yisraelite leaders met in San Antonio TX as a Beit din to discuss the calendar issue that we are faced with this year. Who are these leaders?  Specially trained and learned rabbis, or legal or historical experts? No! They are simply talmidim of Yahushua HaMoshiach from San Antonio and Uvalde, Texas with a love for Elohim, His Son, His Torah, and His truth. Their heart is to find, through Torah, the will of the Father in all matters. They examined many sources of historical and ecclesiastical importance, but always in light of the Scriptures. These are their findings, from which they then have determined halacha for their congregations.

According to the Scriptures, Elohim uses the barley and the new moon to calculate the beginning of the new year. The Scriptural new year begins with the first new moon after the barley in Yisrael reaches the stage in its ripeness called Abib. The period between one year and the next is either 12 or 13 lunar months. Because of this, it is important to check the state of the barley crops at the end of the 12th month. If the barley is Abib at this time, the next new moon is Chodesh HaAviv (the New Moon of the Abib). If the barley is still immature, then we wait until the end of the 13th month to check again.

Abib is found in numerous verses throughout the Torah.

“Today you are going out, in the month Abib. (Exodus 13:4)

“Guard the Festival of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib – for in it you came out of Mitsrayim – and do not appear before Me empty-handed; (Exodus 23:15)

“Guard the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib, because in the month of Abib you came out from Mitsrayim. (Exodus 34:18)

“Guard the month of Abib, and perform the Passover to YHVH your Elohim, for in the month of Abib YHVH your Elohim brought you out of Mitsrayim by night. (Deuteronomy 16:1)

Abib indicates a stage of development of the barley crops as shown by the devastation caused by hail in Exodus 9:31-32:

And the flax and the barley were smitten, for the barley was in the head (Abib) and the flax was in bud (giv'ol). But the wheat and the spelt were not smitten, for they were late crops (afilot).

The barley is Abib when it is ripe enough to be parched in fire to be eaten, but not ripe enough to be harvested as grain. The month of the Abib is the month which begins after the barley has reached the stage of Abib. 2 – 3 weeks after the beginning of the month, the barley has moved beyond the stage of Abib, and is ready to be brought in as the wave-sheaf offering (Hanafat HaOmer). This offering is a sacrifice brought from the 1st stalks cut in the harvest. This is found in Leviticus 23:10-11:

“Speak to the children of Yisra’el, and you shall say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest to the priest. ‘And he shall wave the sheaf before YHVH, for your acceptance. On the morrow after the Sabbath the priest waves it.

From this, it is clear that the barley, which was Abib at the beginning of the month, is now ready for harvest 2 – 3 weeks later (early first-fruits after Passover). That the barley is ready for harvest is  clear from Deuteronomy 16:9:

“Count seven weeks for yourself. Begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain.

From Leviticus 23:15, we know that we begin counting the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot when the sheaf wave offering is brought.

‘And from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you shall count for yourselves: seven completed Sabbaths.

Based on these Scriptures, the new year is to be determined by examining the barley crop in the land of Yisrael, to see if the barley is Abib. If it is, then the next new moon will be the start of the new year. If the barley is not Abib, then we wait until just before the next new moon to check the barley again.

Who is setting the new year? Are we, as humans determining when the year begins. An emphatic no is the answer. We are only to observe the barley. It is Elohim who causes the barley to ripen at the correct time of year, thereby determining the start of the year, and the timing of His feast days. We are only the tool He uses to announce the beginning of the year as He determined it by causing the barley to be Abib.

The rabbis, who have set the calendar for centuries, say that the new year begins on April 10th, 2005 of the Gregorian calendar. This alone should be sufficient since the rabbinic calendar has been set for thousands of years, and has been used by Judaism throughout this time. But how was this determined. Some historical background will be necessary to understand this calendar.

Until the 2nd century CE, the rabbis followed the Abib calendar. They also supplemented their observance of the barley with their astronomical calculations, but the barley retained a special significance in their calculations.

“Our rabbis taught, based on three things is the year intercalated: on the Abib, on the fruits of the trees, and on the equinox. Based on two of them, the year is intercalated, but based on one of them alone the year is not intercalated. And when the Abib is one of them everyone is pleased” (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 11b)

“Our rabbis taught, The year is intercalated based on the barley in three region: Judea, Transjordan, and Galilee. Based on two of them, the year is intercalated, but based on one of them alone the year is not intercalated. And when Judea is one of them everyone is pleased because the omer offering can only come from Judea.” (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 11b)

Josephus, who considered himself a Pharisee, states in his book, “Antiquities of the Jews, 3:10:5” that other calculations were also beginning to be used.

“In the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries, (for in this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians), the law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover.”

The rabbis began to include extra criteria for determining the new year, astronomical observations. They looked to the vernal equinox & the constellations to “assist” them with their calculation of the new year as well as the barley. Soon, the barley in Abib became less important as knowledge of the stars and lunar month grew.

The rabbis then decided that Yom Kippur and the seventh day of Sukkot should never fall on a Friday or Sunday. So they determine, from calculations, and these rules of postponement, when the first day of the seventh month will begin. Once they have established when the seventh month of the year begins, they then count 177 days back to determine the first day of the first month.

As the persecution increased after the destruction of th temple in 70 CE, the calendar began to be calculated based on the 19 year lunar cycle. And to keep the lunar calendar in sync with the solar calendar, leap months were added to the calendar at regular intervals. The barley became insignificant, and later disappeared altogether as the fixed calculations of the Yisraelite year became established practice.

The 19 year cycle calendar is based on the Babylonian calendar, to include the names of the months. Elohim never named the months of the year, only calling them by their number. The current rabbinic calendar was formulated Hillel II (330 – 365). A standard calendar needed to be established because of the extreme persecution faced under Constantine's rule. The current calendar used by the rabbis was based on the calculations of Hillel II, and finalized in the 9th or 10th century, when the calculations were finalized. This calendar information was then disseminated throughout the land of Yisrael, and to the Diaspora to be the standard for all in setting the years and feast days.

But the problem with the 19 year cycle calendar is that the lunar cycle is slightly longer than 19 years. This difference is not adjusted by the leap months that are added, nor has it been adjusted by the rabbis throughout the centuries. So we have seen that the new year as determined by the rabbinic calendar has slowly gotten later and later into the year, thus moving the Passover and other feast days later and later. Passover fell mainly in March as late as the 1700's, but in this century, it will fall more often in April. This puts passover, and the time for the sheaf wave offering farther and farther away from when the barley is Abib. Since, according to Elohim's Word, Abib is one of the criteria for setting the new year, we are getting farther and farther away from the time to truly wave the sheaf wave offering.

Elohim has called us as Believers to strive to follow His commandments, not out of duty, but out of love for Him. Messiah Himself told us in John 14:15:

“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

And it is clear from His word that we are not to calculate His new year, and thereby His feast days by any other means than what He established. Even the rabbis in the 2nd century understood this and followed this practice.

“Our rabbis taught: We may not in the current year, intercalate the following year” (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 12a)

It was not until later that they began to calculate the years way in advance, using calculations and mathematical and astronomical data, instead of using the formula of looking to see if the barley was Abib, and beginning the new year at the next new moon. So if the rabbis themselves, in the time period of Messiah, knew that we cannot calculate the new year ahead of time, but wait for the sign of the Abib, should we not also do the same.

We are instructed to neither add to, nor take away from His Torah. But in using a different way to calculate the new year, have we not taken away His perfect instructions. And if we use the Abib, the new moon, and other calculations from mathematics and astrology, have we not added to His divine Word.

To make halacha according to Yisraelite law and tradition, a Beit din must make the ruling. But what or who make up a Beit din. The following definition is from the Complete Jewish encyclopedia:

Beit din (Rabbinic court). During the TEMPLE period the SANHEDRIN, made up of 70 or 71 scholars, decided questions of religious law and appointed judges. Once the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, the Sanhedrin became the focus of religious authority for the Jewish community. With the decline of Palestinian Jewry, the Sanhedrin was abolished and each Jewish community had a local court which exercised authority over communal matters. After Jewish emancipation in the 19th century the authority of the beit din was limited to voluntary arbitration and ritual matters. The beit din consists of  three individuals - at least one of whom must be an ordained rabbi.

The Beit din for this calendar ruling at Shearit Yisrael Nazarene Congregation consisted of five individuals, including Rabbi Mark Halloran of Shearit Yisrael Nazarene Congregation, San Antonio, TX, and Congregational Leader Frank McKinley of Emet Yahshua Congregation in Uvalde, Texas, as well as Congregational Elder Billy Washburn of Shearit Yisrael Nazarene Congregation, Elders Richard Morris and Teresee Morris of Emet Yahshua Congregation.

After weeks of careful research of the Scriptures, Talmud, and other printed and on-line Jewish, Kairite, and Christian resources, and prayer to Elohim for guidance, the following decision was agreed upon, and halacha was determined:

The calendar for all Yisrael was designed and ordained by Elohim.

All time and dates for months and seasons and feast days are determined from the land of Yisrael, and specifically from Yerushalayim.

That the time of the new moons is determined by the mouths of two or three witness in the land of Yisrael as determined by the first possible sighting of the sliver crescent.

That the new year is calculated by first observing that the barley is Abib, then looking to the next new moon as the start of the year. The ripening of the barley is our sign from Elohim that the new year is to begin.

The ruling of this Beit din is that new year calculations will always follow the Scriptural instructions in calculating the new year.

Shearit Yisrael Nazarene Congregation Beit din, San Antonio, TX: 12th Month, 25th Day, 5765

Based on this ruling, the coming year's calendar for Shearit Yisrael Nazarene Congregation will be decided by the sighting of the barley in Yisrael. If the barley is Abib on March 10-11, 2005, then the new year will begin on March 12, 2005 instead of April 10, 2005 as set by the rabbinic calendar. If the barley is not Abib, then the new year will begin on April 10, 2005. The following dates for the feasts will be observed by Shearit Yisrael Nazarene Congragation depending on the Abib and new moon:

                                                       Abib in March            Abib in April

New year begins:                                March 12                    April 10

Passover                                             March 25                    April 23

1st Day of Unleavened Bread              March 26                    April 24

7th Day of Unleavened Bread              April 1                        April 30

Shav'uot                                              May 15                       June 13

Yom T'ruah                                         September 5               October 4

Yom Kippur                                        September 14             October 13

!st Day of Sukkot                                September 19             October 18

7th Day of Sukkot                               September 26             October 24

Simchat Torah                                     September 27             October 25

1st day of Chanukah                            November 27             December 26

8th Day of Chanukah                           December 4                January 2, 2006

It is our belief and understanding at Shearit Yisrael Nazarene Congregation, based on the Word of Elohim, that these dates are accurate and Scriptural, thereby allowing the feasts of Elohim to be celebrated at their proper times as determined by the Abib and new moon.

Some of the sources of information used in this determination are listed below. This list is not a complete list of all sources, but is representative of the information used.

The Tanakh  (The Scriptures)

The Babylonian Talmud

The Works of Josephus

The Mishnah

www.karaite-korner.org/

www.jewishencyclopedia.com

www.orahsaddiqim.org

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

American Heritage Dictionary

“The Code of Maimonides” Book 3, Treatise 8

“Understanding the Jewish Calendar” by Rabbi Nathan Bushwick

“A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ” by Emil Schurer

“Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible” by James Strong

The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon

Vine's Expository Dictonary