When is Passover?
Passover (Pessach) will begin this Wednesday night March 27, 2013 at sunset… or wait… is that March 25? Or March 26? Maybe it’s in late April? If you are new to the Biblical feasts then your head must be spinning trying to keep track of it all. There are several issues that are confusing many people and I’m going to do my best to try and help sort it all out.
The first confusion has to do with how to begin the Hebrew month. In 359 CE (AD), the Romans abolished the Sanhedrin and a rabbi named Hillel II replaced the Biblical calendar with a calculated one. Up until 359, the Sanhedrin (actually a court of 3 appointed by them) would interview new moon witnesses who sighted the new moon every month. With the Sanhedrin abolished, Hillel II swapped out the visible new moon for conjunction also called the “dark moon”. In the 4th century, it was relatively easy to calculate conjunction but impossible to calculate visibility, so Hillel settled for what he could do with the state of technology at the time. However, rabbis ever since have proclaimed that when the Messiah comes and reestablishes the Sanhedrin, they will go back to sighting the new moon.
Today most Jews observe the calendar of Hillel II based on conjunction, while many Karaite Jews continue the pre-Hillel system of sighting the New Moon. Based on Hillel II’s calculation, Passover would be Monday night March 25, but based on the actual visible New Moon it should really be Wednesday night March 27. If Hillel II could travel in time to the 21st Century he would be doing his Passover seder on Monday night. If King David hopped in his “TARDIS” he would be observing it on Wednesday night. I prefer to celebrate according to what King David would do and not Hillel II, even if it means I’m two days off from 99.99% of my Jewish brothers and sisters.
If that wasn’t complicated enough, there is the issue of how to begin the new Hebrew year. Biblically, we are commanded in Deuteronomy 16:1 “Observe the month of the Aviv”. Hillel II replaced this with an approximate calculation, which just happened to get the month right this year (even if it’s two days off). However, some Christian and Messianic groups will be observing Passover in late April based on the vernal equinox. I wrote a piece about this last year, which you can read here.
I want to honor those who are observing Passover next month for at least striving for Biblical truth. They deserve credit for making an effort and not blindly following what others say, even if in my humble opinion they are in error. Anyway, if you read the newsletter on the equinox, please check out the follow-up which contextualizes it here.
If you aren’t confused yet, I need to throw in one more complication and that has to do with the definition of the word “Passover”. In every language, the meanings of words change over times. A great example in English is the word “computer”. In the 1910s the English word “computer” referred to a person (usually a woman) whose job it was to sit with a pen, paper, and a slide rule computing complex calculations for banks, astronomers, and the military. A hundred years later “computer” refers to an inanimate machine that does everything from taking photographs to running the word processor on which I am writing this message. In the Torah, Pessach or “Passover” refers to a sacrifice and the holiday is called Chag HaMatzot (Feast of Unleavened Bread). However, in late Second Temple times the name “Passover” took on a new meaning and was used to refer not only to the sacrifice, but to the holiday that followed the sacrifice. If you said to King David you are “doing Pessach” he would know you are offering a sacrifice. If you said the same thing to a 1st century CE Jew, he might think you were observing the Feast of Unleavened Bread or maybe offering a sacrifice. He wouldn’t know and might have to ask you. If you said to most Jews today you are “doing Pessach” they would immediately know you meant the Feast of Unleavened Bread and not a sacrifice.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a 7-day holiday that begins on the 15th day of the First Hebrew Month and continues until sunset on the 21st day of the First Hebrew month. This year that coincides on the Biblical calendar with sunset March 27 through sunset April 3. On the Hillel II calendar observed by most Jews it starts and ends two days earlier: sunset March 25 through sunset April 1. The Torah says the Passover sacrifice itself was brought at the end of the 14th day of the First Hebrew month, which this year would be late afternoon on March 27 according to the Biblical calendar but March 25 according to the Hillel II calendar observed by most Jews. Of course, we don’t have a Temple today so according to Deuteronomy 16:5 we can’t bring the Passover sacrifice, we can only commemorate it. However, we still can observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The confusion comes from some 19th Century German Bible scholars headed by Julius Wellhausen who wanted to separate the Passover sacrifice from the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They claimed that the Passover was originally sacrificed at the beginning of the 14th day of the First Hebrew month rather than at the end. They didn’t have a shred of historical proof. No Jewish group ever observed the Passover sacrifice this way. However, it fit in with their beliefs about the Torah being a made up of four different “documents”. This was part of a larger Anti-Semitic doctrine aimed at separating “The Jews” from “Israel”. To do this, they picked out the parts of the Torah they liked and attributed them to “Israel” whereas the parts they didn’t like were assigned to “The Jews”. “Passover” was Israelite whereas “Feast of Unleavened Bread” was a later Jewish invention. The overall theory is sometimes referred to as the “Documentary Hypothesis”.
Unfortunately, this Anti-Semitic doctrine is the basis of so-called “Higher Criticism” of the Torah taught in most secular universities and liberal seminaries. I was even taught this at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where they admitted its Anti-Semitic origins but still taught it as truth! Decades ago Herbert Armstrong accepted this “scholarly” theory without understanding its origins and broader ramifications. As a result, he taught that Passover (or a commemoration of it) was to be observed as a separate event from the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This is why some groups are “doing Passover” on March 24 or March 26, but then beginning the Feast of Unleavened Bread a day later. I prefer to stick with what King David did. He was both an Israelite and a Jew and if it was good enough for him, it’s good enough for me.
I know this is a lot to follow and may be confusing to some people who are new to all this and even to some who are old to it. Here’s the bottom line: If you want to follow the Biblical calendar, then the Feast of Unleavened Bread is sunset March 27 through sunset April 3. The Passover would have been brought if there were a Temple late in the afternoon on March 27, but today Jews don’t bring this sacrifice outside the Temple. They do commemorate it by telling over the story of the Exodus. I’ll be doing my telling-over on March 27 at sunset.
Whether you are keeping the Biblical calendar, the Hillel II calendar, or some made-up 21st Century Christian-Messianic calendar, I want to wish you a happy and healthy Chag HaMatzot!
Enjoy this music video from the Maccabeats who sing a Passover version of Les Miserables!
http://youtu.be/qmthKpnTHYQ
Nehemia Gordon
The Wandering Jew in Eilat
New Moon of the Aviv 2013
New Moon Report
Chodesh Ha-Aviv
New Moon of the Aviv
On Wednesday March 13, 2013 the new moon was sighted from Israel. The moon was first sighted:
*from Jerusalem by Devorah Burnett at 5:41pm and shortly thereafter by Devorah Daniel, Jono Vandor, Jeremy Childs, and Nehemia Gordon;
*from another location in Jerusalem by Willie Ondricek at 5:50pm;
*from Kefar Eldad by Yoel Halevi at 5:52pm;
*from Tel Aviv by David Cachicas, Daniela Cachicas, and Gabriel Cachicas at 6:30pm.
Wednesday’s sighting marked the beginning of the First Month of the Hebrew year. Chag HaMatzot, the Feast of Unleavened Bread will begin at sunset on March 27 and will continue until sunset on April 3, 2013.
I posted photos of the new moon from Jerusalem on Wednesday March 13, 2013 at:
https://www.facebook.com/
A photograph has been widely circulating around the internet, which some have claimed is the new moon from Jerusalem on Tuesday March 12, 2013. The new moon is clearly visible in the photo. I contacted the man who took the photo, William Sanford, and he clarified that he snapped this shot from Gulfport, Mississippi, not from Jerusalem! Of course, the moon was easily visible from many parts of the Western Hemisphere on March 12 where it was seen 7-10 hours after sunset in Israel.
I have received definitive confirmation that the new moon was not visible on Tuesday night March 12, 2013 from Israel. Dr. Roy Hoffman attempted to sight the moon from Givat Ram in Jerusalem with the naked eye and with binoculars but was unable to see it. However, he managed to capture an image of the moon in a photograph. The moon is visible in two of Dr. Hoffman’s photographs, but only using “strong contrast enhancement.” This proves that the moon was not visible to the naked eye on Tuesday March 12. Please note that Dr. Hoffman is an Orthodox Jew and a long-time activist in the Israeli New Moon Society. You can learn more about his organization and why they study the new moon here:
https://sites.google.com/site/
Shanah Tovah!
Happy New Year!
Nehemia Gordon
The Wandering Jew in Jerusalem
The Prodigal Jew Returns Home
I arrived in Israel yesterday and hit the ground running for the Aviv Search. Today (March 5) I examined fields in the Jordan Valley and to my surprise found some stalks that were already Aviv. There needs to be enough Aviv to be harvest-ripe during Chag HaMatzot in accordance with Deuteronomy 16:9, so a handful of stalks isn’t enough to declare the beginning of the new year. This means there’s a good chance the next new moon will be the beginning of the Hebrew year, but not a certainty. We will know for sure next week during the main Aviv Search on the last two days of the Hebrew month. Now the excitement begins!
Check out my video report, uploaded live from the barley fields in the Jordan Valley, here.
It’s not too late to support the Aviv Search by making a tax-deductible donation by clicking on the right of this page or by sending a check or money order to:
Makor Hebrew Foundation, POB 535579, Grand Prairie TX 76063
Learn more about the biblical calendar.
To receive real-time updates on the Aviv and New Moon, subscribe to my Twitter feed.
Nehemia Gordon
Jerusalem, Israel
Correct Holiday Dates and Radio Discussion
I guess sending out a newsletter while fighting jetlag is a bad idea. Anyway, the dates I posted in the previous email are wrong. Here are the correct possible dates for the upcoming Feast of Unleavened Bread:
If the barley is Aviv by March 12 and the new moon is sighted on March 12, then the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover) will be from sunset March 26 through sunset April 2.
If the barley is Aviv by March 12 and the new moon is NOT sighted on March 12, then the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover) will be from sunset March 27 through sunset April 3.
If the barley is NOT Aviv by March 12, then the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover) will be from sunset April 25 through sunset May 2.
Actually I’m still jetlagged and can barely see straight, so if those dates are wrong too, please let me know ASAP. I am very encouraged that some readers caught the previous mistake within a few minutes of the initial letter being sent out. This means people are not blindly following what I say, but testing it against Scripture. Hallelu-Yah!
I spoke about the upcoming Aviv Search with Jono Vandor on Truth2U radio and that episode is now posted on his website at Truth2U.org.
I got the dates wrong and Jono mis-spelled my name. I guess no one is perfect, well, no one besides the Creator of the universe.
Nehemia Gordon
The Wandering Jew in Texas (or is that the Wondering Jew?)
Aviv Search in Kassam Alley
After a month in China, I continue to put my Sabbatical on hold to fly over to Israel and carry out the Aviv Search. The search will take place at the end of the 12th Hebrew month, on March 11-12, 2013. The Aviv Team will be examining barley all over the Land of Israel to determine whether it has reached the stage in its ripening known in Scripture as Aviv. This is in accordance with the
commandment in Scripture: “Observe the Month of the Aviv” (Dt 16:1).
If the barley is Aviv by March 12, this will put the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover) in late March and early April. If the barley is not Aviv by March 12, the Feast of Unleavened Bread will fall out at the end of April and the beginning of May.
A slight complication this year is the timing of the new moon at the end of the 12th Hebrew month. This is one of those “borderline” sightings that cannot be predicted with any reliability. Specifically, the moon on March 12, 2013 will have 0.90% illumination and 47 minutes lagtime. Visibility might be possible although in my experience unlikely. This means there are three possible sets of dates for the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover):
If the barley is Aviv by March 12 and the new moon is sighted on March 12, then the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover) will be from sunset March 26 through sunset April 2.
If the barley is Aviv by March 12 and the new moon is NOT sighted on March 12, then the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover) will be from sunset March 27 through sunset April 3.
If the barley is NOT Aviv by March 12, then the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover) will be from sunset April 25 through sunset May 2.
Carrying out the Aviv Search and sighting the New Moon is vital for determining the true timing of the Biblical Festivals. To learn more about Aviv, please visit The Karaite Korner.
Please join us in this vital endeavor if you can by contributing to the effort. Each year we have seen costs rise especially in the area of flights, car rental, and fuel; fuel specifically, which is now about $9.39 a gallon in Israel. Israel has the 6th highest gasoline prices in the world.
Please make a tax-deductible donation using the button on the side of this page. You can also send a check or money order to: Makor Hebrew Foundation, POB 535579, Grand Prairie, TX 75053 or call Dev at 682-422-6007.
One of the key areas of the Aviv Search is the infamous “Kassam Alley” on the border of Gaza. The area is considered so dangerous, that the Israeli army recently started a program to plant trees along the side of the road to hide Israeli cars from being targeted by Arab rocket fire. This is an active war zone, so please pray for our safety.
Nehemia Gordon
The Wandering Jew in Texas
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