This year there has been some confusion as to whether the barley in the land of Israel was really aviv (or abib) or not. Some aviv barley search groups say yes, and some say no. Why the confusion, and who is right? Eventually each person has to make up their own mind, but below we will present the reasons why we agree with those who say that the barley isn’t aviv yet.
At this point, some of you may be saying, “Huh?” when it comes to the term aviv barley. What is aviv barley and what does that have to do with anything that pertains to me? So let’s quickly review some basic truths regarding the biblical calendar. It all has to do with when to keep the biblical feasts.
The Bible stipulates that months on the biblical calendar begin when the new moon is sighted. (I’ve already written several article on this subject, so I won’t give all the Scripture references here. For that info, go to http://www.hoshanarabbah.org/teaching.html#feast.) To know the dates of the biblical feasts, one must know when the months begin. To know this, one must know when the biblical new year begins—that is, when the first day of the first month of the biblical new year is.
On our modern Roman calendar, determining new year’s day each year easy to do. But this is not the case with the biblical calendar. This is why. The Roman calendar is based on the solar cycle, which is 365 1/4 days long. By contrast, the biblical calendar is a luni-solar calendar. This means it’s based on the solar cycle AND the lunar cycle. The latter is only 354 days long, or roughly 11 days shorter than the solar cycle. The biblical feast go off the lunar cycle, not the solar cycle. This means that if you base your year only on the lunar cycle, each lunar year will fall behind the solar cycle 11 days. In three years, that will be 33 days or a little more than a month. That being the case, eventually, this will move the biblical feasts backwards with respect to the solar calendar and the seasons. That means that in three years, we would be keeping Passover a month earlier, or in the winter and not in the spring. In a number of years, Passover would occur in December, then in the fall, and then in the summer, and in a few decades, we’d be back in the spring again. This cannot be, since the Torah declares that the feasts must fall “in their seasons” (KJV) or “at their appointed times” (NKJV) (Lev 23:4). They can’t fall outside their appointed seasons. There are deep spiritual or theologically reasons for this, but we’ll save that for another discussion.
Because the lunar calendar is 11 days shorter than the solar calendar, roughly every three years the lunar calendar needs to make an adjustment to stay in sync with the solar calendar. It needs to add a thirteenth month in order to keep up with the solar year.
Now how do we know when to add a thirteenth month? Well, the Bible doesn’t just spell it out in Greek-thinking logic like a mathematical equation. As with most biblical subjects that reflect Hebrew logic, we have to search the Scriptures for the answers and then put the pieces of the puzzle together. The same is true when figuring out issues pertaining to the biblical calendar including when the new year begins and when to add a thirteenth month.
We won’t go into much detail here, since this is a brief summary or overview of the subject. (Again, for the details, see the link above to my articles on the biblical calendar at http://www.hoshanarabbah.org/teaching.html#feast.) Suffice it to say, the ancient (now wild-growing) barley in the land of Israel is the factor that determines whether to add a thirteenth month or not. In fact, the first month of the biblical calendar is called the month of the aviv (or abib, see Exod 13:4; 23:15), which is a technical agricultural term relating to the state of maturation the barley grain is in at the time of the new year.
Barley is the first grain crop to come ripe in the land of Israel in the early spring, and typically it comes ripe before the wheat harvest occurs in the late spring during the time of the biblical Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.
For the first month of the biblical calendar to be called the month of the aviv, the barley must be in the aviv state of maturation. This means that the barley grain is at the least parchable or it can roasted over a fire to make it grindable.
So in the biblical calendar, if we come to the end of the twelfth month, it is necessary to go searching through the land of Israel for aviv barley. If you find it in sufficient quantities, then this marks the beginning of the first month of the new year. If you don’t find it in sufficient quantities, then you add a thirteenth month onto the end of the current year. Again, roughly every three years, a thirteenth month must be added to the biblical calendar to keep the lunar calendar (which the biblical feasts are based on) in sync with the solar calendar (which the year is based on).
If one finds aviv barley, how much aviv barley is enough? There must be enough to make a sheaf or an omer’s worth of grain, which is a biblical measuring unit equal to about two liters. Why this amount? This is because the Torah commanded the priests to offer up an omer of barley grain on the Day of First Fruits (called the omer or first fruits offering) during the Feast of Unleavened Bread that falls during the second half of the first month of biblical calendar (Lev 23:9–14). So finding a few stalks of aviv barley in a field is not sufficient. There must be enough to make two liters worth of flour.
Now at this point in the discussion some well-meaning, Torah-pursuant people will disagree about the need to find a full omer-amount of barley on the first day of the new month. Say, for example, you find only a few stalks of aviv barley, but not enough to make an omer, won’t there be enough barley that will have ripened within two to three weeks to make an omer for the first fruits offering? Maybe, but we don’t know for certain. It’s speculation to say yes. Those who say yes are speculating that weather conditions will be such that there will be enough aviv barley to make an omer offering in time for First Fruits Day. But what if the weather suddenly turns cold, or cloudy and the barley doesn’t ripen in time after you have declared the new year? What then? What if you have declared the new year based on finding only a few stalks of aviv barley, but not enough to make an omer and all Israel is now preparing to keep the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread? Each family is separating out their Passover lamb on the tenth day of the first month in preparation for slaughtering it on the fourteenth day on Passover as the Torah commands. Moreover, people are making plans to travel to Jerusalem or wherever YHVH has chosen to place his name in Israel in order to keep the Passover and Unleavened Bread as the Torah mandates. What happens if, after all of this, there isn’t sufficient barley for an omer offering because the weather conditions in the land of Israel weren’t conducive for the barley to ripen? You have just thrown the whole nation of Israel into chaos. Thousands of lambs that were separated for the Passover sacrifice now have to be put back into the flock and travel plans have to be postponed for a month. All the temple preparations have to be put on hold, and all the plans that the priests and Levites have made as they were preparing to officiate at the spring feasts now have to be put on hold. The thousands of lambs that were brought to Jerusalem and sold by merchants to the Jewish pilgrims who were coming there to celebrate the feast now have to be returned to their pastures or stalled and fed for an extra month. Moreover, in ancient times people traveled by foot, and it took days to get somewhere and provisions had to be stored and transported, so postponing a trip wasn’t easy to do. Though these issues aren’t factors for modern man, they were issues when the Tanakh (Old Testament) was written, and this is the cultural context in which we are to understand the Torah’s commands. If we try to understand and apply scriptural truths outside of this context, we run the risk of coming up with a false hermeneutic and twisting the Scriptures anyway we want. It is this wrong approach to interpreting Scripture that has led the church (and rabbinic Judaism) to the place it is today with all of its unbiblical and manmade doctrines and traditions. This is something we are trying to get away from. We don’t want to leave behind the lies of the church (and rabbinic Judaism) in pursuit of biblical truth only to create our own unbiblical lies and traditions!
For these reasons, we have chosen the more cautious, less speculative approach that involves finding sufficient aviv barley to make an omer by the first of the month, rather than speculating what might be in two or three weeks.
As more and more people are returning to the ancient paths of YHVH’s Torah, people are wanting to follow the biblical calendar instead of unbiblical manmade calendars such as the current calendar of rabbinic Judaism. This means that many people are now going out and searching for barley in the land of Israel. This is good. However, as with everything, there are differing opinions on a lot of issues. This is the case in 2016.
Now let’s get specific. One group led by Nehemiah Gordon and his band of Karaite Jews and Messianics are saying that the barley wasn’t aviv this year and are proclaiming a leap year (or adding a thirteenth). Here is a link to his Facebook page (http://www.nehemiaswall.com).
On the other hand, another group is stating that they found a small quantity of aviv barley in Israel and are speculating that sufficient quantities of barley will be aviv in two or three weeks for an omer offering. (You can read his search report at http://www.eliyah.com/Convery-aviv.pdf).
Another group admits that they didn’t find aviv barley, but is speculating that there will be sufficient quantities of aviv barley in time for the omer offering in several weeks. (You can read his search report at http://www.eliyah.com/Convery-aviv.pdf).
Who is right?
That’s up to you to decide.
For the reasons stated above, we have chosen the more cautious and less speculative approach of Nehemiah Gordon and the Karaite Jews, and are looking for sufficient quantities of aviv barley at the start of the new near and well before the omer offering. Other groups will take the more speculative and risky approach and declare that there will be an omer’s worth of barley somewhere in the land of Israel in time for the omer offering. And they may be right. But who knows for sure until it happens? What if it doesn’t happen after they have already declared the new year? Then what?
If there is sufficient quantities of aviv barley by the first day of the year, there is absolutely no doubt that there will be sufficient quantities by First Fruits Day. By taking this approach, we believe that we are on more solid ground logically and biblically.
Both sides of the issues have their valid arguments, but we have chosen the more cautious approach over the more speculative one.
One more point needs to be made. The Torah mandates that one can’t eat any barley from their crop until the First Fruits Day offering is made (Lev 23:14). What if a farmer’s field of barley came ripe before First Fruits Day? Could he harvest his crop as long as he didn’t eat of it until the omer offering was made? There is no prohibition in the Torah from doing this. Some may point to Deuteronomy 16:9 as such a prohibition to cutting one’s barley before First Fruits Day.
You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain.
Now let’s compare this passage to a more detailed instruction found earlier in the Torah and one which is more specific to First Fruits Day.
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. ‘He shall wave the sheaf before YHVH, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to YHVH.’ (Lev 23:10–12)
In this passage, we find two action occurring: reaping the barley harvest and subsequently bringing that harvest to the local priest who lived in the farmer’s village or region. Nowhere does this verse say that the reaping of the grain and the day the priest must make the wave offering (on First Fruits Day) are on the same day. That is to say, if a farmer’s field of barley comes ripe earlier than First Fruits Day, he is not prohibited from reaping; he simply is prohibited from eating the barley before First Fruits Day (Lev 23:14). Therefore, the barley farmer has the Torah’s permission to reap his crop before First Fruits Day (as long as he doesn’t eat from it). This insures that he won’t lose his crop (i.e., the barley seed won’t fall to the ground) while waiting for the omer offering to be made on First Fruits Day.
Since the Leviticus 23:10–12 passage is the primary command pertaining to First Fruits Day and gives us more specific information and occurs prior to the Deuteronomy 16:9 passage, basic rules of biblical interpretation (or hermeneutics) require use to interpret the latter passage in light of the former passage and not vice versa.
Thanks for sharing your view on this topic. It is much appreciated!
Been getting a lot of questions about this, so it was necessary that a write something on it.
Very thorough. I agree absolutely. But Nehemia does not do this anymore. Who cancwe trust now in 2018?
Nehemiah’s ex-wife and good friend, Devorah Gordon, has an email and FaceBook notification page that reports the new moon sightings each month as well as the aviv barley search results. The final day of the search is happening right now in Israel. Her FaceBook page is at https://www.facebook.com/datetree/ . The email sign up is at that page (“sign up” blue button under the header photo) and be sure to check under “events” for each month’s new moon information. I hope this helps.
Also, Exodus 9:31 says…
“And the flax and the barley were smitten, for the barley was in the head (aviv in Hebrew) and the flax was in bud.”
So if only a few stalks were aviv (ripe), the hail would have only ruined the stalks that were aviv. This is important because after the hail came the locusts, then in Exodus 12:2 it is written…”This month is the beginning of months for you, it is the first month of the year for you.”
-Shalom!
Awesome point!!! Well spotted. Tx
Then you have Norman B. Willis, Apostle, Nazarene Israel,who has reversed his position. Sheesh!
I had a long talk with Norm yesterday about this. We had to agree to disagree. Just this AM I emailed him my thoughts on Deut 16:9 vs. Lev 23:10–12, which shows that the reaping doesn’t have to occur on first fruits day according to the Torah. I added this to the end of my article on the blog on the aviv to help clarify the issue.
Todah Yah for you Elder Natan! This is one of the years that can make serious divisions among believers. Quite a few ministries that I have checked with in the past have “sighted” Aviv and are going forward. This year I am understanding the importance of having an Omer. That is not a little bunch I see. I would like to add that with living in Illinois, our seasons are seriously difficult to track…..So, plants are budding but, we may have a blizzard at any time as you mentioned…Shalom to all! Walk in love with each other…:)
Shalom Natan,
Thank you very much for your detailed explanation regarding the decision to be cautious and less speculative as this avoids getting ahead of YHVH.
In light of your comment in the last paragraph where there is no prohibition for the farmer to harvest the crop before the omer offering as long as he did not eat the grain. I am curious how you will interpret the verse in Deuteronomy: (Deu 16:9 “Count seven weeks for yourself. Begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain.) against the past paragraph.
I have been watching all of the elders/leaders trying come up and resolve these issues the last few days. This shows that we must get together and work together–in other words, unify and organize.
Shalom and May YHVH bless you,
Dirk
I’m one step ahead of you…barely pertaining to the barley. I just added this section onto the end of my article on the aviv barley. Hopefully this clarifies how we should view the Deut 16:9 passage:
One more point needs to be made. The Torah mandates that one can’t eat any barley from their crop until the First Fruits Day offering is made (Lev 23:14). What if a farmer’s field of barley came ripe before First Fruits Day? Could he harvest his crop as long as he didn’t eat of it until the omer offering was made? There is no prohibition in the Torah from doing this. Some may point to Deuteronomy 16:9 as such a prohibition to cutting one’s barley before First Fruits Day.
You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain.
Now let’s compare this passage to a more detailed instruction found earlier in the Torah and one which is more specific to First Fruits Day.
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. ‘He shall wave the sheaf before YHVH, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to YHVH.’ (Lev 23:10–12)
In this passage, we find two action occurring: reaping the barley harvest and subsequently bringing that harvest to the local priest who lived in the farmer’s village or region. Nowhere does this verse say that the reaping of the grain and the day the priest must make the wave offering (on First Fruits Day) are on the same day. That is to say, if a farmer’s field of barley comes ripe earlier than First Fruits Day, he is not prohibited from reaping; he simply is prohibited from eating the barley before First Fruits Day (Lev 23:14). Therefore, the barley farmer has the Torah’s permission to reap his crop before First Fruits Day (as long as he doesn’t eat from it). This insures that he won’t lose his crop (i.e., the barley seed won’t fall to the ground) while waiting for the omer offering to be made on First Fruits Day.
Since the Leviticus 23:10–12 passage is the primary command pertaining to First Fruits Day and gives us more specific information and occurs prior to the Deuteronomy 16:9 passage, basic rules of biblical interpretation (or hermeneutics) require use to interpret the latter passage in light of the former passage and not vice versa.
Natan, I agree with your thoughts on this topic and appreciate this blog post.. I am adding on the the thirteenth month.. I believe this to be ONE way of checking for the beginning of the year..
I still question what did the Hebrews do before given the command to check the barley? What about all those years before the Exodus?? How was the calendar kept?
What would be the consequences of getting it wrong? Could we miss an important sign. I’ve heard that there is to be another lunar eclipse on 3/23 and again on Sukkot ’16 if you start the new year this month. If it’s in April, they won’t coincide. That might be a significant fact. What do you think?
I already addressed the Meyer aviv report (though not by name) in a previous post on the aviv barley report. His report is presumptive. It presumed the barley would be aviv in 2 to 3 weeks, though he never found any that was aviv. He presumed that the weather in Israel would stay warm and dry facilitating the ripening of the barley. This is a risky presumption to make, since weather is unpredictable and barley won’t continue to ripen unless there are enough warm days to do so. These warm days are called Growing Degree Units (GDD). Just because the barley has started to ripen doesn’t mean it will continue to do so. Cool weather will slow the process, even as cool weather slows down the grass in your lawn from growing. These are basic horticulture/biology principles. Evidently, those who were predicting the barley to be aviv before it actually was aviv didn’t appear to take these facts into consideration. What’s more, they presumed to be better weather forecasters than any meteorologists out there.
I’m not putting any credence in the lunar eclipse as an indicator of the new year. The Bible doesn’t, so why should I? This is tangential and grasping at straws.
Thank you for your response. We have always just done whatever the ministry we were following did and this is the first year we’ve really made the effort to keep up with the discussion and try to figure it out for ourselves. There is so much to wade through! The good thing is, most of the people involved in the discussion are honestly seeking to obey YHVH and just want to get it right – not cause division. That is certainly the case for us, so factual responses really do help.
I completely agree that the lunar eclipse is tangential but not grasping at straws, at least for us. We are ONLY going by the new moon and the barley. It was just interesting.
I am fine with people wanting to believe what they believe about Passover in April 2016 even if I disagree with that. I am “early” (March) Passover 2016 🙂 But in addition to my yearning and learning to keep the Month of the Abib (Biblical agriculture) I have learned to trust on the YHVH’s Sign in the Heavens, Biblical Astronomy and it’s lot more than the Sun and the Moon!
Let me suggest to you that the penumbral lunar eclipses in 2016 mattered a lot in relation to the “Abib Confusion”! The penumbral lunar eclipse on Passover 23rd March 2016 in the constellation sign Virgo / Bethulah (which is a celestial picture of the Virgin Nation of Israel / Body of Messiah, NOT astrology!), and the penumbral lunar eclipse on Tabernacles 16th September 2016 were not actual indicators of the Biblical New year but additional astronomical confirmations from Creator YHVH for the “early” Passover in March and Sukkot in September.
And in the end I believe these two Lunar Eclipses indeed served as the indicators of the Biblical New Year in 2016. It has to be so because astronomy is part of YHVH’s communication device, His Signs in addition to the Abib barley observance here down on Earth.
In fact, I have written an article about the astronomical confirmations for the “early” Passover in 2016 at our website.
Brother, I understand very well where you (and most of the Hebrew Roots Movement) stand on astronomy. If we don’t understand about Elohim’s Ancient Astronomy anything but the sunsets and sunrises each day or sighting the New Moon each month, we have lots of homework to do and we miss a whole “another dimension”.
See for example Luke 21:23-28 and what Yeshua actually COMMANDED us (endtime believers) to do!
And Firstly, according to the Torah in Genesis 1:14-16, the stars (constellations and planets in ancient Biblical thinking) are Signs too in addition to the Sun and the Moon. Most of the people who yearn to keep the Biblical Calendar don’t understand the stars are the Third Factor in Gen 1 Calendar. In Genesis 1 the verse 16 is the description of what the Calendar Signs are in the verse 14:
the Sun, the Moon AND the Stars! Most have probelm with the Third Calendar Factor even if the stars are in the first chapter of the Torah (Bible)!
And I am not talking about Spring Equinox error or some sort but “Gospel in the Stars”, the 12 Star Signs as Messiah’s Testimony / Story. Which YHVH has synced with the Sun and the Moon perfectly.
I have served YHVH many years in His Royal Mazzaroth Astronomy which is a Testimony of Yeshua Messiah. Messiah’s 12 constellations which reveal HiStory from Virgo to Leo are synced 100% with the Biblical Feasts and the Temple service.
If someone wants to learn more about Yeshua’s Mazzaroth Signs I can post the link here as an additional resource? They are Powerful Testimony!
Blessings!
Honestly, I’m not a big fan of a lot of extra-biblical stuff, unless I can substantiate it in Scripture. It seems that extra-biblical concepts holds sway over a lot of people’s thinking and doctrines. Not mine—or at least as little as possible. Been in this game for too many decades and have seen too much stuff of men come and go. I have learned that it’s best to stick to basics. That’s where Yeshua and the apostles landed too.The ground is more solid there. Don’t like thin ice. Too many people have fallen through. Blessings!
This is addition to my first reply. I meant to say: “And in the end I believe these two Lunar Eclipses indeed served as the ADDITIONAL indicators of the Biblical New Year in 2016 TOGETHER with the Abib observation and the New Moon.”
https://youtu.be/_VSkbJurM98 – update 3/20/16
Another sighting of aviv barley 3/20/16: https://youtu.be/LMQW-cWy-j0 I understand your comments about not being able to predict weeks ago what stage the barley would be in three weeks later but we are now one week out. Does it bear revisiting?
Again, same thing. This video proves nothing. We have been to Israel and participated in the aviv search. Just because barley looks aviv doesn’t mean it is. The grain in this video isn’t even golden colored. They didn’t open up the heads, and they didn’t parch it to if any dough was left that would be grindable into flour. Oy vey! This is really getting frustrating for me, but it’s hopefully helping us to understand the issues better.
Ah… I’m sorry. I don’t mean to frustrate you. Thanks for the input. From what I’m seeing there are a lot of people out there wading through the same stuff we are so as long as we can be loving about it, I think it is helpful. We appreciate your time.
Shalom.
Blessings and Shalom! Thank you for sharing! On the links you provided, two of them seem to be identical. Can you explain the flowering stage that was indicated in the report from the husband and wife? Does that mean he didn’t find Abib barley before the new moon? Also the other gentleman Solomon, he claimed to find fields of barley….we have decided as a family not celebrate the “early” month but would like clarification on the reports. It’s caused confusion. Just want to have a willing heart to learn and understand. Thank you! Yah Bless!
Brother Nathan, you have indeed made some good points. But let me ask you a honest question:
Let’s imagine that we are living in the ancient Biblical Israel and we have declared the Biblical New Year based on the Abib barley findings and the next New Moon at the end of the 12th month. Sanhedrin has declared the new Hebrew year and the whole nation is preparing for the coming Passover season. But then in some point before the Passover all barley harvest in the whole land is destroyed due to weather conditions.
Should we declare the on-going 12th month to the 13th month and try to sort out the chaos in Israel? I really don’t understand what’s the difference between ANY Abib barley observance method IF the harvest will be destroyed before the Passover.
Blessings & Shabbat Shalom!
How can the barley harvest be destroyed universally throughout all the land of Israel? How is this possible? Give me a real life example of this. That’s like saying that once all of the apples in Oregon or Washington (and we grow a lot of apples in our region) have come ripe, and then suddenly in a couple of weeks something happens over the region and all the apples are suddenly no longer ripe, or they’re all universally destroyed, so that no ripe apples are left. What is the possibility of this happening in every field over an entire region? I’ve never seen or heard of such a thing. Barley literally grows like a weed all over Israel. I’ve seen it from the north to the south and east to west. It grows on the hills, in the valleys,in the rocks and canyons, in vacant lots and along the roadways. If all of it were destroyed, then we would have a much bigger problem on our hands then worrying about whether the barley is abib or not. Its probably be something like a nuclear holocaust or something. We probably would need to flee for our lives from that region!!!
Again, not to put anyone down, but city folks who have never lived in the country, never been involved with agricultural or horticulture have a hard time understanding the agricultural necessities and realities which form such a huge backdrop and the cultural context of the Bible. For those of us who have been involved in farming and plant care all of our lives, all this makes sense. Hopefully, I am succeeding at explaining these things in a way that people who don’t have such a background will be able to understand.
I LOVE the Day of the Barley Firstfruits! It is so deep picture of the Resurrection of Messiah as the Firstfruit, His Firstfruits and the Coming Resurrection! I fell a lot more in LOVE with the Firstfruits after understanding the deep picture in the barley grain meal Wave Omer Offering (not a “wave sheaf” b/c a dry sheaf would have been destroyed if waved!).
Additionally please let me suggest when the reaping of the FF occured. According to the ancient historical Temple resources the reaping of the barley firstfruits occured in a special ceremony in the Kidron Valley in the evening just when the Sun was about to set prior to the Firstfruits DAY (Sunday). So, if we believe in the ancient Israelite sources the reaping ceremony was held at the very first hour of the first day of the week (Saturday evening) after the weekly Sabbath day. That was Saturday evening at or a little bit after the sunset when the last rays of the sun colored the beatiful barley fields!
So practically the reaping of the barley firstfruits occured on the very “Firstfruit Hour” of the 24-hour Firstfruits day b/c the Biblical day begins at sunset. We Western believers may have developed our own ideas, opinions and concepts on the Biblical Feasts and how they were done but the ancient Israelite Agro-Astronomical Temple service teaches a lot how to read the Scriptures and it clears up lot of theology.
SS!
You are correct. I spell this all out in my long and well researched article on the subject as it relates to first fruits day and resurrection of Yeshua available at https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/firstfruits.pdf.
Agreeing with the wisdom of “the more cautious and less speculative approach”, I wonder if, should the earlier observance choice prove to be correct, would it be appropriate to keep a 2nd Passover observance, considering the case mentioned in Numbers 9:9 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If anyone of you or your posterity is unclean because of a corpse, or is far away on a journey, he may still keep the Lord’s Passover. 11 On the fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight, they may keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break one of its bones. According to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it.” We would then be able to adjust our observance of Shavuot and the fall feasts. What do you think, Natan?
But the barley of making them put Maduro when they want it, for me what counts is the natural barley.
That is correct. We always use the ancient, natural barley for determining the month of the aviv, and not the modern, hybridized barley.
I am just getting into a deeper study of this First Fruits. I am trying to correlate this with Passover and Unleavened Bread. In Leviticus 23 it did not follow as the Israelites and not come into the land. How n the succeeding years did it line up with these first two feasts that are celebrated starting the 14th day of Abib or Nisan?
Perhaps my article on First Fruits Day will answer your questions.
Shalom Y’all,
My question is: Who was the Aviv Barley reported to, and who made the judgement that there was enough Barley to beging the Count-Down to Pesach?
IMHO, since there is no 3rd Temple as of yet and no ruling Sanhedrin in the Temple, there is no authority to declare the Barley Aviv. Therefore, aren’t we just following our own hearts and minds when we hold up the Aviv Sheaf as establishing a new calendar date for the Jews worldwide?
Shouldn’t we follow the Hillel II until the 3rd Temple and the Sanhedrin?
Blessings and Shalom,
Jeff Ellis
You can certainly take that viewpoint if you want, but I don’t.
First, Yeshua gave the power of the Sanhedrin over to his disciples. (I have written on and proven this elsewhere previously on this blog.) We are now his disciples.
Second, I have been to Israel and helped to search for the barley with the folks we know and trust. We have had a working relationship with them for more than 20 years. Make of this what you will.
Third, the third temple has nothing to do with this. It’s a non-issue at this time when it comes to calendric calculations. When Yah gave the command to calculate the months based on the barley (i.e. the month of the Abib), there was neither a tabernacle nor a temple. This command precedes that.
Fourth, as anyone how is involved in agriculture or horticulture (as I am professionally) knows, observing the barley is not a capricious enterprise. It is based on solid empirical evidence and based on scientific understanding. I feel bad for those who have never grown up on a farm, a nursery and seen crops grow (as I have), or not been involved in horticulture (as I am). They, quite frankly, don’t know what they don’t know. Not their fault. Just the facts. Thus it’s easy for them to criticize out of their naive ignorance things they have little or no knowledge of, and thus try to use their lack of understanding as an excuse not to do the will of Elohim. That may not be your case, I don’t know, but I’ve see it happen many times.
Hopefully, this give you some things to ponder.
Blessings!
This post is as relevant today as it was written in 2016. Thank you all for commenting!