The Festival of Sanctification

and the Declaration of the New Moon is not the same.

 Moses Maimonides (The famous Historian) explains the Difference.
Tim Moore’s notes along with Gene Lamb’s files.

 People today often get the concept mixed up.   Many researchers today assume that the day the Jews sanctified the new moon is the same day they declared when the new moon was.

 The sanctification of the new moon is not the Declaration of the new moon.  The declaration. is the statement when the Sanhedrin would state when the new moon was to be observed..  It is the time that is sanctified, and that specific time was the recorded new moon.

 They would discuss the crescent and the % of illumination.

It’s a festival that confirms the celebration that confirms the previous calculation of the new moon.

 They calculate the conjunction and then they look at it and say well ….

The conjunction has got to be at this time….so which day represents best for the new moon?

They represent that 9:00 in the morning where the cut off date is.  (The 3^rd hour)

They would ask; What day would best represent the new moon.  It’s not clear.   When the conjunction takes place.

They approach it from a common place standpoint, such as;

What day would best represent the new moon?  Would it be today or would it be tomorrow?

 Then they had the sanctification of the new moon.  

Generally it was up to 2 – 3  days after the conjunction.   That’s when the visibility happened, especially in the fall,  because visibility doesn’t show up for quite awhile.  In the northern hemisphere we’ll see it the same night.   But if you get in the fall hemisphere, down toward the end,  that dark phase can stretch out quite a ways. 

But they definitely figured the invisible conjunction. 

 And when they reconvene the Sanhedrin, in the future, if they ever do,  that’s one of the first things they will start doing.

 They can’t have sacrifices until they do that.

The  sanctification, when they had the Sanhedrin was an entirely separate ceremony.

 The sanctification is when the people viewing the new moon, send word to let them know when the first viewing was so they can calculate the correct conjunction.

 The conjunction is the absolute dark (no visible light) of the moon.

 This is the only thing we have record of, that took place, in recorded Jewish History.

Close to the time of Christ.

 Basically, They would have the viewers say,  they say,  I saw the visible crescent.

Then they would have their little clay tablets, and they would have to tell them  which moon it was, and the exact time of the visibility. .   They understood people lied back then….like they do now. 

In astronomy,  back then,  they were knowledgeable enough.   They had these tablets.  Because they knew, in the given month, in the fall,  or in the spring, what the moon should look like.

 How it should be tipped. Etc. They even had tablets, of the moon,  that showed when it was about to turn into the dark phase.   ( The waning moon. )

 The sanctification ceremony would verify the previous calculation

The viewers would then be there for the declaration.  They would then declare; I saw the invisible crescent.

Momonides plainly says it is easy to call the invisible  conjunction by looking at the illumination.  You just back up.   Also you had the ability to count 29 ½ days to  the invisible conjunction.

 They then could confirm:

1.         Which day represents the actual new moon. 

2.         What day would actually represent the conjunction.  (the same day)

 In the northern hemisphere the dark phase will be the first night.

 They were knowledgeable to have the clay tablets.   They knew it was 29.5 days. 

 The Festival of Sanctification was when they then declared what day was the exact new moon.   The Festival of Sanctification was after the new moon.

It is interesting to note on the subject of whether the new moon or crescent was used.  Here is what the different references say;

 1. Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 3, page 600

a. The crescent not used.

b. In the 8th century AD, the Karaites, followed the Muslim practice

of actual observation of the crescent new moon and of the

the stand of barley in Judea.

2. Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, For School and Home, page 165

Astronomical calculations made the new crescent and testimony of

witnesses no longer necessary; but they continued for many years.

3. The Jewish Encyclopedia, Volume 3, page 500

No crescent, just calculation. Jews opposed to calculation kept  two days in 300-330 AD.

4. The Jewish Encyclopedia. Volume 6, page 400

Hillel II (330-365 AD) equalized lunar and solar year to render

possible universal celebration of festivals. The Diaspora depended

on the Judean Sanhedrin for the calendar so they could keep the

correct feast days.

 5. History of the Jews, Volume 2, page 572-573

by Heinrich Graet

Proof that Hillel II did not change the calendar,

6. Jewish People - Jewish Thought, page 254

by Robert M. Seltzer

a. Calendar calculations made public

b. Hillel II diminished his and the Sanhedrin's authority.

7. Hillel II not originator of fixed calendar.

8. Hebrew Calendar by Arthur Spier

a. Dates arrived at by observation and calculation

7. Hillel II not originator of fixed calendar.

8. Hebrew Calendar by Arthur Spier

1. Dates arrived at by observation and calculation
2. b. Calendar Christ followed was not by observation only.

...

9. Hebrew Calendar by Arthur Spier

Hillel II did not invent a new calendar. He only calculated

ahead using the same system that had been used by all of his

ancestors even during the time of Christ.

10. The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius

Hebrew-English Lexicon, page 294

The "astronomical new moon" means concealed, darkness. Not

One of the definitions has the meaning of "first light", "crescent" or "light".

11. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, page 171

New moon not yet fixed.

12. No crescent needed to determine the first day of the month.

13. Encyclopedia Judaica, 1972 edition, page 1040

No need of crescent.

Did Hillel II change the Jewish calendar used up to his time, including

during the time of Christ? The answer is no! Hillel II just published the rules that

had been used to set the Holy Days for thousands of years. Astronomical

calculations were used. The "new moon" means darkness; not one definition of

new moon means "first light", "crescent" or "light".

"While there are plenty of indirect calendar references in the law,

instructions about the calendar itself are almost nonexistent. In fact, the only

explicit instruction about the calendar is Exodus 12:2 which says (This month

shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year

to you.)"

Often Maimonides is quoted as the official who was educated enough to write about customs and is respected among the Jewish community as the guru of recorded law.  The more we looked at writings and assumptions, the more it is easy to understand how the Jews intended to change the times to fit their conveniences instead of God’s direction.

 You know Moses Maimonides was one of their famous Jewish Historians.  He was a Jew in the Spanish realm.  They translated it into Spanish.  He is one of their most notable scholars.   And the Jewish Enclypedia Judiaca  quotes him too.   He is regarded as one of the top Historians.

 Moses Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, usually referred to in Hebrew by the acronym "RaMBa"M) was one of the towering figures in medieval intellectual and religious life. In addition to his law code, he excelled in the fields of philosophy, science, medicine, exegesis and communal leadership.

Though born in Spain, in his youth his family fled religious persecution, settling in Egypt.

Maimonides was born in the Spanish city of Cordoba at a time when about one-fifth of the people in southern Spain were Jews. However, Maimonides and his family fled to Cairo because of rising anti-Semitism in Spain. There Maimonides worked as a physician but spent much of his time studying the Old Testament and books of Jewish law.

Maimonides wrote a book of philosophy called The Guide for the Perplexed . The book influenced the ideas of many Christian thinkers including St. Thomas Aquinas.

(Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was one of the most important thinkers of the Middle Ages.

Educated as a monk, Thomas became a popular speaker in his early twenties. He traveled from town to town, explaining Christianity and defending its beliefs. Europeans were then rediscovering the teachings of Aristotle and other philosophers of ancient Greece, who believed life should be lived by reason, rather than by faith. Thomas argued that there was no conflict between Aristotle's ideas and the teachings of Jesus. In fact. he claimed a person's faith and power to reason should work together.

After years of preaching, Thomas wrote down his ideas in a book called The Heights of Theology. His book became one of the cornerstones of modern Catholicism. )

  In his later years Maimonides became famous throughout Europe. England's King Richard asked him to be his royal physician. but Maimonides preferred to stay in Cairo and pursue his work as a philosopher.

The Festival of Sanctification

and the Declaration of the New Moon is not the same.