Col B’seder – (Everything is Ok)
Passover time is coming up quickly, and it is not too soon to start thinking about the calendar schedules involved, and the sequence of the historical events on which our traditions are based. The exodus of Israel from Egypt, the great and notable passover memorial celebrations recorded in the historical books of the Kings and Chronicles of Israel, and the record in the Good News of Yahshua of his last passover on earth will all effect how we keep the season now. Not all of us will be on the exact same schedule. Not all will have the same traditional understandings. Not all will equally emphasize the various points on which we do agree. It should suffice us to hope that at Yahshua’s soon coming return, he will find us worthy to be corrected, as no doubt all will in some way be found to have fallen short.
We need to speak specifically about some of the various methods of ordering the events of the passover, and the dates and times when they occurred. Several questions will be asked, which hopefully the observation of the holy season itself will help us to answer, or at least understand which direction we should go with further questions. We cannot anticipate that the community of the servants of Yahweh and Yahshua will soon come to a total consensus on the issues, but hopefully we can all better understand our own practices, and those of our neighbors, and help one another thereby to walk in increasing faith. Many of us, perhaps, have gone from virtual total ignorance of the spring holy days, from not knowing if indeed they were anything more than a shadow of ancient history, to an understanding that several living traditions have survived the ravages of time to be manifest today. Also, in the spirit of restoration, many new traditions have sprung up as from the stones to help pave the way for the coming Kingdom of Yahweh.
Perhaps the best know tradition is that of the Rabbinic Jewish calendar. In use for nearly 1700 years now, it grew out of the need for standardization among the exiled Jews, who were no longer able to maintain an organized presence in the holy land and city. It was originally alleged to be in approximate synchrony with the way the calendar was set from the temple in Yahshua’s time, but after so many centuries, it is usually a day or two early, compared to the restored determining factors, of an observed new moon, and the ripening natural barley in the land of Yahweh’s presence. A peculiarity of this system is the delay of the beginning of the passover celebrations until quite late on the 14th of the month Aviv, then drifting into the 15th. Yahweh’s instruction tells us, however, that the passover sacrifice was killed “between the two evenings” of the 14th of Aviv. The rabbinic tradition depends on the definition of “between the two evenings” as between the time the sun begins to decline, right after the high noon, and the time that either the sun sets, or total darkness occurs.
It seems an excessive stretch of imagination to try to define “evening” and “afternoon” as being completely equal. It should be suggested that the normal definition of evening, as the time of twilight, after the sun sets, but before complete darkness, will meet Yahweh’s ultimate approval. There are two points of scriptural evidence for this. Both are found in Genesis one. In Genesis 1:16, we read, “And Elohim made the two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.” According to this verse, day is the time when the sun rules, and night is when the moon, and by implication the stars also, rule. If we define “rulership” in this case to mean visibility, the sun rules from sunrise to sunset, and the stars rule from shortly after sunset to shortly before sunrise. It seems that the period of time between sunset, when the sun disappears, and the time that the stars appear, fits the definition of “between the two evenings” precisely. The first evening occurs right after sunset, when the sun ceases to rule the day, and the second evening occurs when the stars first appear, and they begin to rule the night. This is also consistent with the second point from Genesis one, that the order in the first six days is always the same. First came evening, then came morning, and the two together constituted a day. This seems in itself to disqualify the definition of “evening” or “between the two evenings” as occurring between early afternoon and sunset, as that time, according to the Genesis one definition, is near the end of the day, rather than the beginning of it. Response from the proponents of the rabbinic timing on this point has been limited. It appears to give them difficulty.
It has been pointed out that the Rabbinic timing of the passover sacrifice, in the afternoon of the 14th Aviv, is in synchrony with the time of Yahshua’s death on the tree of Calvary. This may or may not justify the late 14th time of killing the passover, for at least two reasons. One, Yahshua told the betrayer, “what you do, do quickly”. The result was torture and death over a period of perhaps 15 or more hours. That does not easily meet the definition of quickly, and can be seen as a process that fell outside of Yahshua’s approval, even though it may have been needed to fulfill the prophecies. As Yahshua said, “forgive them father; they know not what they do”. Therein is implication that they erred in perhaps more ways than one.
Of importance in this matter is the question, why, if the passover should have been kept early on the 14th, just after sunset, was all of Israel in Yahshua’s time, it appeared, doing it late in the 14th, in the afternoon? The answer is, not all were in agreement on that either. The politics in the Temple appear to have been an exercise in chaos in slow motion. The Sadducees, the traditional priesthood, should have been in control in the temple, due to their roots in the priesthood of Aaron, and the ministry of Moses. The reason they lost control, and the Pharisees gained it, lies in the Sadducean collaboration with the hated Roman occupation, and their sullied reputation since their apostasy in the times preceding the Maccabean revolt two centuries earlier. The Sadducees were in the vanguard of Greek assimilation, and had lost credibility with the Jewish common people. The Pharisees, even though in error on the timing of the passover sacrifice, and several other core concepts, including the tendency to subordinate Yahweh’s written word to their own interpretations of it, were widely perceived as paragons of virtue by the common Jews.
Also, since the Pharisees essentially “invented” the local house of prayer, the “synagogue”, they were very influential in molding the peoples religious preferences. So even though the Sadducees were right in the early 14th passover, and the Pharisees were wrong in the late 14th, into 15th, the Sadducees went along with the Pharisee preference, for political expediency. They had not the strength to do otherwise, as they would have preferred to do. That would explain how the disciples could have had a lamb prepared early in the 14th, when most Jews were doing it 20 or more hours later. Very interesting, yes?
And this is besides, of course, the question of whether we should use a new moon sighting from Jerusalem to determine the holydays, or whether an observation from anywhere Yahshua’s disciples live and serve him is appropriate to set the holy days? I see merits in both; and we can look for a conclusive answer at Yahshua’s return. An interesting paradox, is that those who wish to keep the passover by the late 14th killing of the sacrifice, as done by the Pharisees, if they are using a new moon observation from anywhere in the world, will very often be eating it at the same time as those who observe it differently in two ways. For their brethren who keep time by the Jerusalem new moon, but who abide by the early 14th passover killing followed immediately by eating, also early 14th evening, the time is the same (at least this year). Sometimes two wrongs do make a right. Sometimes being in disagreement on two points will bring people into agreement on a third point. Remember to love one another. Love never fails, and it covereth a multitude of sins! Praise Yahweh!
This is getting to be a hot topic; hopefully we’ll uncover more info on it, and be able to understand better why we do what we do, and perhaps improve our walk with Yahweh and Yahshua.
Yahweh bless!
Walter, 14 march 2008