Section 5: Yehuveh’s Time System, Article 4
New Moon Days
Page 4

Sabbaths, New Moons, and Annual Feasts
        Repeatedly
throughout the Scriptures the New Moons are mentioned in association with the Sabbaths and annual gatherings: “To offer all burnt sacrifices unto Yehuveh in the Sabbaths, in the new moons, and on the set feasts . . . .” When Yehuveh’s full time system is understood, there is no other way it can be. Not only are the months each initiated by their respective New Moon day, but the corresponding four counted sevens (weeks) and their corresponding Sabbaths are likewise always counted from this day. It must follow also, then, that the annual festivals are also all placed according to the days of their respective months in direct relationship to the siting of the crescent moon. Yehuveh’s whole time-keeping plan, beautifully simple and appealing, entirely rests on the sighting of the cresencent moon each month! 1 Chronicles 23:31 [also in 2 Chronicles 2:4; 8:13; 31:3; Nehemiah 10:33; Isaiah 1:13; Ezekiel 45:17; 46:3; Hosea 2:11].


What About the Half Day?
        Although an
(sidereal) astronomical month technically averages twenty-nine and a half days, we live in a practical and observable world. No one lives a half-day, so these additional half-days are absorbed into the adjustment days each months as demanded by the observation of the first crescent (sliver) moon. Sometimes the moon is observable early in its cycle and the month finishes with but twenty-nine observable “evening-morning” days; at other times the month completes with thirty observable “evening-morning” days. If the moon moved at a stead rate about the earth, these variations would simply alternate every month, but the moon is in an eliptical orbit and during about half the year it is accelerating while in the alternate six months its orbital speed is decreasing. These variations result in occasions when two or three months in a row may have thirty observable “evening-morning” days before there is another month with twenty-nine observable “evening-morning” days, or just the opposite. Because of these natural variations, all time-marking must always be observational, not reckoned!
        Note
Solomon Gandz’s delightful Scriptural assessment of this matter, taken from his book Studies in Hebrew Astronomy and Mathematics


How to Keep the New Moons
         In a manner very similar to the
weekly Sabbaths, the New Moons serve the purpose of monthly Sabbaths and are kept in the same way. They provide us all the blessings of the weekly Sabbath on a broader scope. At the beginning of each month Yehuveh provides us extra days for instruction from Him, with additional time to rest and recharge. Study the discussion of the purposes of the weekly Sabbath and apply these insights in broader measure to the activities of the New Moon day.
        Additionally, we have opportunity to view our lives in a larger scope. Each
New Moon day we are to review our accomplishments over the past four weeks and lay plans for the coming month. In this wider scope, we have the potential of taking a broader evaluation on our lives and developing a larger insight into our own desires and Yehuveh’s purpose for giving us life. Like weekly Sabbaths, these monthly New Moon days enable us to become all that we can be.
        Gaining this monthly perspective prepares us for the even larger personal understanding provided us on the annual
Day of Restarting (Atonement) wherein we will review these monthly plans and accomplishments and assess our successes and mistakes for the entire year.


Gael Bataman
Originally Written:            28 August 2005
Latest Update:                  12 November 2009


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