“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.” Exodus 12:2 (The Israel Bible™)
Men gather to celebrate the new month. (Photo: Sanhedrin)
Last Thursday, a Biblical commandment that hasn’t been seen in 2,000 years was fulfilled. In the Cardo neighborhood of the Old City of Jerusalem, two witnesses stood before the Sanhedrin and gave testimony that established the beginning of the new month.
Setting the new month by witnesses is considered by Rashi, a prominent commentator on the Bible, to be the first mitzvah (Biblical commandment) the Nation of Israel received after leaving Egypt. With great spiritual meaning, establishing the calendar is far more than a convenience. It is so important that it takes precedence over the Sabbath. In Biblical times, witnesses were permitted to break the Sabbath in order to arrive in Jerusalem and stand before the Sanhedrin.
Professor Hillel Weiss, spokesman and secretary of the Sanhedrin, explained the significance toBreaking Israel News.
“On a simple level, without this mitzvah, we are saying that God does not exist in nature or the passage of time, that nature runs like mechanical clockwork,” Professor Weiss said.
On a technical level, the event was a step in the process of correcting the Hebrew calendar. By Biblical law, the new month for the Hebrew calendar was established by reliable witnesses appearing before the Sanhedrin. Hillel II, president of the Sanhedrin in the fourth century, established a written calendar based on astronomical calculations. This calendar, still in use, standardized the length of months and the addition of months in leap years over the course of a 19-year cycle, so that the lunar calendar realigns with the solar years.
In the times of the Temple, the new month would be established by both calculation and by witnesses appearing before the Sanhedrin. When the Temple was destroyed and the Sanhedrin disbanded, the Hebrew calendar was figured solely according to the astrological calculations and the template established by Hillel II.
http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/6...-2000-years-jewish-world/#dTpQLMI0fsTVxahD.97
JLB
Men gather to celebrate the new month. (Photo: Sanhedrin)
Last Thursday, a Biblical commandment that hasn’t been seen in 2,000 years was fulfilled. In the Cardo neighborhood of the Old City of Jerusalem, two witnesses stood before the Sanhedrin and gave testimony that established the beginning of the new month.
Setting the new month by witnesses is considered by Rashi, a prominent commentator on the Bible, to be the first mitzvah (Biblical commandment) the Nation of Israel received after leaving Egypt. With great spiritual meaning, establishing the calendar is far more than a convenience. It is so important that it takes precedence over the Sabbath. In Biblical times, witnesses were permitted to break the Sabbath in order to arrive in Jerusalem and stand before the Sanhedrin.
Professor Hillel Weiss, spokesman and secretary of the Sanhedrin, explained the significance toBreaking Israel News.
“On a simple level, without this mitzvah, we are saying that God does not exist in nature or the passage of time, that nature runs like mechanical clockwork,” Professor Weiss said.
On a technical level, the event was a step in the process of correcting the Hebrew calendar. By Biblical law, the new month for the Hebrew calendar was established by reliable witnesses appearing before the Sanhedrin. Hillel II, president of the Sanhedrin in the fourth century, established a written calendar based on astronomical calculations. This calendar, still in use, standardized the length of months and the addition of months in leap years over the course of a 19-year cycle, so that the lunar calendar realigns with the solar years.
In the times of the Temple, the new month would be established by both calculation and by witnesses appearing before the Sanhedrin. When the Temple was destroyed and the Sanhedrin disbanded, the Hebrew calendar was figured solely according to the astrological calculations and the template established by Hillel II.
http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/6...-2000-years-jewish-world/#dTpQLMI0fsTVxahD.97
JLB