Welcome to Shabbat HaChodesh—The Sabbath Before the Biblical New Year of 2023
Jewish custom holds that the Shabbat that falls on or before the 1st of Aviv is Shabbat HaChodesh–or the Sabbath of the New Moon. Like its two preceding Sabbaths of Shabbat Zachor and Shabbat Parah, this Sabbath is intended to serve as a reminder of and preparation for the upcoming Spring Feasts of the LORD for faithful Jews. It should be acknowledged, however, that Shabbat HaChodesh is not a mandated Feast of the LORD, and it isn’t even a Jewish holiday like Purim and Hanukkah. It is just a tradition focused on preparing faithful Jews, emotionally and psychologically, for the upcoming New Year and the Spring Feasts of the Lord.
Thus, on this Sabbath, in synagogues, worldwide, our present Torah and Haftorah passages are read in addition to the Torah and Haftorah reading scheduled for this Sabbath.
My Previous Teachings on Guarding the Month of the Aviv and Keeping the Spring Feasts
I won’t endeavor to reinvent that proverbial wheel, so to speak, as it relates to what this reading is about historically and halachally (i.e., how to apply it to our respective walks in Messiah) because we’ve done extensive posts on this passage over the last few years. Again, if you are so led to know more about the nuts and bolts of our reading for this Shabbat, I humbly encourage you to read and listen to those posts.
Guarding the Month of Aviv-Aviv’s Critical Importance to God’s Covenant Elect
Rosh Hashanah, Happy Biblical New Year, and Guarding the Month Aviv
Observing and Guarding the Month of Aviv–How to Observe and Guard the Month of Aviv
Some Passover Basics Keeping Passover and Unleavened Bread in 2022
Parshah Shabbat HaChodesh
The Reading for this special Sabbath is found in Exodus/Shemot 12:1-20, with the Haftorah Reading in Ezekiel 45:16-46:18.
The month that the Exodus took place would become the start–the first month–of the Hebrew calendar year. As laid out before us in our reading this Shabbat, Yah began redeeming us from the gods of Babylon and restoring us to a people of His own making. Yah intended for us to become a unique nation-people that would possess and live a standard and quality of life different from that of the rest of the world. Yah would begin with us, there in Egypt/Mistrayim/Babylon, a transformation that would be both national in scope and, ultimately, individual in its fullest reality (i.e., redeeming and restoring man, beginning with Yisra’el, to the honored place that He first intended for him to exist in) . And He starts our redemption and transformation by stripping from us the Egyptian/Mitsri/Babylonian reckoning of time. After the 9th plague had successfully terrified the Egyptian nation (10:21-29) and Moshe and Aharon had warned Pharaoh of the coming, final plague to devastate his country, Yah informed Moshe and Aharon of the abrupt change to take place in our calendar time. Yah tells Moshe and Aharon that the month they were in would be the start of our calendar year (i.e., Rosh Chodesh) (12:2).
Our Orthodox Rabbinic brethren will vociferously reject this passage as an indication that our New Year (i.e., our Rosh Hashanah) would begin at the time of the Exodus (i.e., the Month of the Aviv). They, instead, hold fast to an intentional manipulation of Yah’s Torah that they insist places Rosh Hashanah in the 7th month or at the time of the Fall Feasts of the LORD (B. Jacob-Exodus, 294-295). Unfortunately, many Renewed Covenant believers have bought into this lie and forsaken Yehovah’s commandment.
But the one with a truly circumcised heart and love for the Truths of Elohim will not be fooled by such Rabbinic gibberish. Yah was quite clear when speaking to Moshe and Aharon: “This month (i.e., chodesh) shall be to you the beginning of months (i.e., rosh chodesh); it is the first to you among the months of the year (i.e., rosh hashanah) (12:2; LXX). “This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you” (12:2; QBE).
Keeping Yah’s Calendar is not an option for His covenant people. So zealous were the so-called patristic church fathers to separate themselves and their followers from our Faith’s Jewish brethren and her Jewish and Hebrew roots that they bought into the lie of the enemy that it was noble to force Yah’s stated reckoning of time (i.e., push that round peg into the square hole if you will) to conform with their pagan-based reckoning of time, all under the guise that it was being done in the Name of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (e.g., Peter of Alexandria; “Fragments from the Writings of Peter;” paragraph 3).
But praise be unto the Author and Finisher of our Faith, the Spirit of the Living God is gradually restoring His reckoning of time (i.e., His true Calendar) to His chosen ones. And if by chance you are not familiar with this calendar/Yah’s reckoning of time and you’re led to learning more, I humbly encourage you to read my post entitled “Why I Keep the Torah (Observational) Calendar and not the Other Popular Messianic Calendars.“
As we rapidly approach Biblical Rosh Hashanah this year–projected to fall at sundown on W-dnesday, 3/22/2023 or Th-rsday, 3/23/2023, depending on the sighting of the renewed moon over the land of Israel, there are a few essential spiritual themes that stick out to me that I believe Yah’s people should keep in the foremost parts of their hearts and minds in these perilous times we’re living.
- Knowing and Walking Steadfastly in Yah’s Reckoning of Time (12:2). The world is focused on knowing and walking in the enemy’s reckoning of time. Yah gave us His calendar by way of His Torah. That yearly calendar contains Yah’s set-apart days that we, His bride, are obliged to keep at their appointed times. No man–no organization or church body has the authority or wherewithal to change this. Yet, when Yah’s people, who are called by His Name, are determined to turn their backs to the ways of this world and commit to the Ways of Yehovah Most High, they serve the enemy notice as to who they now belong. We know when Yah has determined to meet with His set-apart people. And we joyfully and steadfastly guard and keep His calendar, observing exclusively His reckoning of time. Doing so sets us apart from the unredeemed of the world. It strengthens our intimate covenant relationship with Father Yah. It reminds us of what is vital to our relationship with Yah and where we are heading. It glorifies Yehovah on the earth and serves as a light to this sick and dying world. Furthermore, knowing and walking steadfastly in Yah’s reckoning of time strengthens us for the difficult days ahead by reminding us of who we are, whom we belong to, and that the war has already been won. We have the victory through Yeshua Messiah (1 Corinthians 15:57; 1 John 5:4).
- Know that we know Yeshua as our Pesach and the door to our covenant relationship with Yehovah, our Elohim (12:3, 6). Let us remember, not so much what happened to our Hebrew fore-bearers on that fateful night in Egypt, just before our redemption from the enemy, but more so, let us remember what Yeshua did for us and what it means for each of us that we under the renewed covenant (Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20). Too many of us, for whatever reason, tend to lose sight of the significance of this coming Aviv season. Some of us become focused on fulfilling Rabbinic halachah and rituals and focusing on the story of the Exodus. But our Master gave us an example and instructions regarding what our focus must be during this critical time of Yah’s calendar year. Yeshua told His disciples, and by default, He also told us that we must remember what He has done for us. Yes, we must understand and remember the Exodus story, which forms so much of the foundation of our beloved Hebrew-based Faith. But the Exodus story ultimately serves as a pointer to the more excellent story that would manifest before us a millennium and a half after the Exodus story. And that story is, of course, the story of the Passion of our Master and Redeemer Yeshua HaMashiyach. His sacrifice and His example and teachings opened the door to our having a covenant relationship with the Creator of the Universe, which is the most important thing that we humans could ever hope to experience in our lifetimes. So, instead of worrying about attending a Jewish-based Seder this year, let us partake of the bread and wine; the washing of feet; and the reciting of the events that led to our redemption, salvation, and restoration through Yeshua, our Messiah.
- Walk steadfastly in our purpose and our calling (12:4). When we remember the spirit and truth of this coming Aviv season/Spring Feast season through our honoring, celebrating, and rehearsing that which Yah has and continues to do for us who are His, we in significant part, are walking in our purpose and calling as the elect of Yehovah. To walk steadfastly in our calling and purpose is to obey Yehovah Most High without compromise. Moses/Moshe wrote that we are to “observe to do therefore as Yehovah our Elohim has commanded us…not turning aside to the right hand or the left…walking in all the ways which Yehovah our Elohim has commanded us that we may live…” (Deuteronomy/Devarim 5:32-33; modified). The Ecclesiastes writer penned that man’s whole duty is to fear Yehovah and keep His commandments (12:13). And when we are steadfast in walking uncompromising in His ways, we glorify Yehovah in the earth. How so? When we walk in Yah’s righteous and holy ways, we show forth Yah’s Ways to a blind and dying world. We become that light to the dark world in which we presently reside (Matthew 5:14). And one of the things that our Master has tasked us to do is to go forth into all the earth and make for Him disciples (Matthew 28:19). And part of that disciple-making is to teach others, through our words and through our example, to walk in Father’s ways, according to His instructions in righteousness and the example set for us by Master Yahoshua. Keeping the spirit and truth of Yah’s appointed times is one of many facets of fulfilling our purpose and calling in Yeshua Messiah.
- Keep Yah’s Spring Feasts in Spirit and Truth (12:6-10). This is of the utmost importance for Yah’s elect ones. Throughout His Torah and Word, we find Yah commanded us to “keep His feasts” (Exodus/Shemot 23:15-18; Deuteronomy/Devarim 16:10; Zechariah 14:16-19; 1 Corinthians 5:8). For these serve as reminders and rehearsals of Yah’s grand plan of salvation, redemption, and restoration. Our dead and dying, and so-called woke society, would have us abandon Yah’s ways and His instructions in righteousness because they do not support the enemy’s–that is, their master’s–agenda. These seek to separate God’s people from their God and glorify their gods. Unfortunately, many would-be believers have succumbed to the enemy’s woke agenda by embracing and walking in his ways. The love of many of those who were once faith has waxed cold (Matthew 24:12). These have come to accept as an evil that which our Elohim instructed is good while vociferously advocating that society’s evil, woke agenda and way of life is god (Isaiah/Yeshiyahu 5:20). This same prophet wrote that “all we like sheep have gone astray and that we have turned every one to his own way” (53:6). And the scriptures pretty much tell us that things in this world are only going to get worse.
But our Master was quite clear that the one who endures to the end will be saved (Matthew 10:22; Mark 13:13). He further informed that “he that overcometh and keepeth His works unto the end, to him will He give power over the nations” (Revelation 2:26). And one of the ways that we overcome the works of the enemy and endure to the end is to “live by our faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). That living–that walking–that existing in our faith includes our keeping Yah’s Feasts at their appointed times because they not only help us to focus and remember that which Yehovah, through Yeshua has and continues to do for us, but they are special days that the Creator of the Universe has set aside to be with His beloved ones. To miss those sanctioned, set-apart days are tantamount to standing our heavenly Father up, snubbing our noses at Yehovah. The world is brazenly doing this to Father, and they are working overtime to force Yah’s precious remnant also to do.
When we steadfastly choose to keep Yah’s Feasts and Guard His Aviv each year, we send the enemy the loud and clear message that we do not belong to him but to Yehovah, the sovereign and supreme ruler of heaven and earth. And if there’s anything that we who are the redeemed of the Most High should relish doing, it should be frustrating and “ticking off” whenever the opportunity presents itself. And remembering and guarding the Month of Aviv in 2023 is an excellent opportunity to do just that.
Beloved, let us not give an inch to the enemy this year. Let us stand fast and in the perfect liberty that our Messiah has brought each of us and not be entangled in the yoke of society’s woke bondage (Galatians 5:1). But instead, let us stand fast in the salvation of our God (Isaiah 52:10; Luke 2:30; 3:6).
The Realities of Shabbat HaChodesh 2023
According to my sources in Israel, all indications are that despite an over-abundance of rain this winter, the barley will be in near an Aviv state of maturity by the end of this 12th Biblical Calendar Month; this means that we will begin our guarding of the Month of the Aviv (i.e., the Biblical Rosh Hashanah) on either Th-rsday, 3/23/2023 or Fr-day, 3/24/2023, depending on a renewed moon sighting.
In the few days interim, it behooves us to prepare our hearts and minds to receive the Month of the Aviv and her associated Feasts. We do that by remembering. We remember by re-reading and re-studying those biblical passages associated with the Exodus story in light of the Passion of our Master and Savior Yeshua Messiah. We start to think about using up all of the leavened products in our homes in anticipation of the upcoming Feast of Unleavened Bread. We set aside in our grocery budgets funds to purchase unleavened bread (i.e., matzah) so that we may fulfill the mandate of consuming no-leavened products during the Feast of Unleavened Bread and consuming unleavened bread instead. We want to start thinking about and planning how we will keep the Spring Feasts: will we convocate with other like-minded brethren, or will we, because of family or personal circumstances, keep the Spring Feasts either alone or with just our families? Numerous Messianic congregations and programs now livestream or stream on-demand services and teachings on Yah’s set-apart days. It may be a good idea to petition Father as to His will for us in this regard. For those of us who work at a job, now would be the time to put in for the time off, as the first and last days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread are holy, convocational days when no servile work is to be done. And lastly, I would recommend that we prepare to observe the Passover that our Master instructed us to observe with unleavened bread and wine/grape juice, setting aside Passover Day for that commemoration.
All in all, may you have a meaningful Shabbat HaChodesh as we look forward to the coming holy/set-apart days.
Faithfully,
Rod Thomas–The Messianic Torah Observer.
