Greetings Saints! May this post find you, your families, and your fellowships well and blessed during these challenging times.
I wanted to update you as to what’s going on with The Messianic Torah Observer of late, as well as I wanted to encourage you as we enter the Spring Feast season.
Email Update
One of the things we are doing in our revamp of this platform and ministry is to update our subscription/email list. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, this ministry has been active for about 8-years. During those 8-years, many listeners and readers have subscribed to our email list. Unfortunately, we needed to be more faithful in making the most effective use of those email addresses. Well, we intend to correct that in this revamp. So, over the next 30 days, any email address we’ve held on our database for over six months will be securely purged. We’re doing this because many listeners and readers of our content signed up/opted to be placed on our list but, for unexplained reasons, are no longer interested in following this ministry. We understand that this is the natural ebb and flow of all ministries. But one of the things we’re looking forward to doing in this ministry revamp, Abba Yah willing, is to publish a monthly newsletter that will provide active subscribers additional content that they otherwise would not receive from our weekly postings, which is to say that we do not wish to bother those who are no longer with us. We are all subject to receiving tons more emails than we have time to consume, or for that matter, that we care to receive. So, we’re starting over and encouraging any who desire to tag along on this journey with us to sign-up as they are so led.
Video Podcast Update
As mentioned in a previous posting, TMTO will introduce and host a new video podcast. We are presently seeking Abba Yah as to the format He desires this content to take. I am currently in the middle of writing a book. This endeavor is quite time-consuming, leaving little time to devote to creating video podcast content. But fear not: Once I’ve reached a place in my writing project to allow me to commit to the new video podcast, we will undoubtedly return to producing content in this format. As I just mentioned, the timing for this is subject to the progress I make with the writing project. So, please hold us up with your prayers, beloved, as we press forward with the great work of the Kingdom that our Heavenly Father has tasked us with.
Rosh Hashanah 2023
Lastly, I want to update you on some critical matters related to our Faith.
As some of you may know, we are rapidly approaching the Spring Feasts of the LORD. Feast-keeping is a foundational element of Yeshua-Focused Torah Living. And so, it is essential to know where we are as it relates to Abba Yah’s reckoning of time.
Those of you who have followed this ministry for any length of time know that we keep the Observational (Hebrew) Calendar. I’ve published a significant amount of content on this subject, and if you are so led, I humbly encourage you to review that content:
- Why do I Keep the Torah (Observational) Calendar and not the Other Popular Messianic Calendars
- 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
But as I publish this post, we are potentially just a day away from the Biblical Rosh Hashanah.
For those of you who may be familiar with Jewish tradition, the Rabbis have determined that the head of their New Year is in the 7th Month, which they call the Month of Tishri. Unfortunately, many faithful brethren have chosen to come under the Rabbinic covering and adhere to their error-ridden calendar.
Yehovah clearly instructed that the Month of the Aviv would be His set-apart people’s Rosh Hashanah (head of the Biblical Year). There is no biblical basis for the Biblical Hashanah being changed to the 7th Month of the Biblical Calendar, just as there is no biblical basis for the weekly 7th-day Sabbath being changed to the venerable day of the sun god. This is what man always does: He attempts to usurp authority unto himself to change, manipulate, alter, or outright eliminate the things of Yehovah. Unfortunately, the masses trust man more than they trust Yehovah Most High, and they follow the lead of these blind guides.
But those genuinely called by His Name adhere to a higher standard of living. We trust and follow and keep Yehovah’s truths, not man’s. And that’s why, as it relates to Father’s reckoning of time, Yah’s elect ones obediently “guard” (aka, shamar) the Month of the Aviv (Deuteronomy/Devarim 16:1). Let the world do what they’ve chosen to do. Still, we who have been called by His Name will “live by our Faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).
Why has Yah instructed us to “shamar” (aka “guard” and or “observe”) the Month of the Aviv? I go into great detail in the previous posts, which I humbly encourage you to read and listen to if you are so led.
Biblical Rosh Hashanah is not in and of itself a Feast Day or mo’edim. But it is a set-apart day and time on Yah’s Biblical Calendar. For not only do the Spring Feasts of the LORD take place during this month, but the Month of the Aviv is the critical time-marker for the rest of Yah’s Biblical Calendar Year. And because the Appointed Times of Yehovah is precisely set by Him, we must know when those appointed, set-apart days will occur. So, we are compelled to get the precise timing of Yah’s biblical calendar year correct every year. Otherwise, we run the very real and likely risk of missing Yah’s set-apart dates throughout His calendar year.
So then, as it applies to us at this present time, my sources in the Land of Yisra’el have verified that the barley crop is in an acceptable aviv (aka abib) state of maturity and would be acceptable to present to the Levitical Priest at the Temple as our Firstfruits Wavesheaf Offering during the Week of Unleavened Bread. And as I’ve stated in those previously posted teachings, Yah instructed us to take from our aviv barley harvest each year the best of the best from it, which we refer to as the firstfruits of our harvest, prophetically representative of Yeshua, our Messiah is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep and who has been resurrected gloriously to serve Abba Yah in the heavenly Mishkan (aka Temple); to be our example; to represent us before our Heavenly Father, and then present that sheaf of firstfruits barley to the Levitical to be waved before Yehovah at the Tabernacle (Leviticus/Vayiqra 23:10, 20; 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23). Beloved, can you see that this is all about Yeshua-focused Torah-living. However, this critical, commanded rehearsal is not factored into the Rabbinic Calculated Calendar. But praise be to Yehovah, His reckoning of time is gradually being restored to His Elect.
So then, all that is left to affirm the start of the Biblical Calendar Year for 2023 is the sighting of the renewed moon over the Land of Yisra’el. And we anticipate that it will be on W-dnesday, 3/22/2023. If searchers do not sight the renewed moon on 3/22/2023, then by default, at sundown on Th-rsday, 3/23/2023, we will celebrate Rosh Hashanah and the start of the 2023 Biblical Calendar Year.
Therefore beloved, if you are led to keep Father’s reckoning of time–His Biblical Calendar–as I do, please check back on this platform tomorrow for the latest breaking news on the advent of Rosh Hashanah 2023.
Until then, may you be most blessed, fellow saints, in training.
Shalom–Shalom