WHEN SHOULD YOU PASACH? (sic)
Rav. David Pollina
 
Shalom All:
 
There have been many questions raised about an article by Rabbi Moshe Koniuchowsky of YATI.  Rabbi Moshe subscribes to the theory that the first day of the year MUST fall after the vernal (spring) Equinox on 21 March.  I find this position to be in substantial error, without solid foundation in Torah, and completely contrary to Torah.
 
The purpose of this article is to provide a rebuttal to the arguments raised by Rabbi Moshe.  I have respect for him as a brother and fellow leader, and what I say herein should NOT be construed as an attack on him personally, but on the position espoused.
 
For those who might not have read my initial article, "Pasach For The Perplexed", it can be found at http://www.tushiyah.org/pasachfortheperplexed.html and would be a good place to start in understanding the Torah foundations of Pasach and many practices attached to it.
 
In this article, my comments are in blue and enclosed between markers --->  <--- for the benefit of any who might read it in plain text form.  The article in html is posted at http://www.tushiyah.org/pasach2.html
 
Let's look at Rabbi Moshe's article... 

WHEN DO I PESACH?

3-8-05

 Rabbi Moshe Yoseph Koniuchowsky 

Shalom,

 There has been much concern and sad to say manmade confusion regarding the timing of Pesach/Passover and Chag Matzoth/Unleavened Bread this year. Now the stirring has increased just today, as Aviv barely has been found in Yisrael. BUT does that mean that this New Moon/Rosh Chodesh (probably March 11, or 12th) is going to be Aviv 1, or New Year, the month of Passover, with Passover falling March 25th? The answer is a definite NO!  

We can see that plainly by the word of YHWH a bit later on.  

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DP:  THAT is what we need to focus on...
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First, a lunation, or the time the moon revolves around the earth is 29.5 days, not 28. If those 1.5 days are not somehow intercalated (to insert a day, or month in a calendar), the timing for the feasts invariably will be off, even after just 1 year! The calendar will be 18 days off after just 1 year, or after 7 years it will be 126 days off, or 4.2 months off; meaning Passover and the month of Aviv would fall in about November in the year 2012. Do you plan on celebrating YHWH’s Spring feasts in the winter? Well, you will if you don't somehow account for those extra days. Invariably even the Karaites must add a 13 month, or some other added days to various months, or years to maintain the spring feasts in the spring! Got it! So when one follows “the Karaites,” one by definition is still "following man."  

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DP:   OK, right off it's time to interject some ACTUAL definitions:

1.  "following man / traditions of man"  -
            is NOT - "doing something the same way as someone else I disagree with"
            it IS - "following any system set up by man outside of - or - IN CONTRAVENTION of Torah".

So, whether one observes the same way as the Karaites, the Orthodox, or even 'ol farmer Bob, one can NOT be automatically decried for "following" man.  Scripture is the authority, and before we can call something a tradition of man we must determine that it is not grounded in Torah.  Once we make that determination, THEN, we must ALSO determine if it is AGAINST Torah, for some traditions of man can be good, and others can be bad.

2.  "Month"  -
            is NOT - "any system I happen to like divisible by 28"
            it IS - "the time from one CHODESH to the next".

This is absolutely UNDISPUTED by any serious scholar, and Rabbi Moshe does not really dispute such (I hope).  The way he presents it here makes it appear that he does though.  It is also a scientific fact that the lunar cycle is 29.5 days, but  such is the time period set by Yahweh between each successive CHODESH whether we like it or not.
 
However, a bit of a science and math lesson  is needed here.  There are apx. 365.24 days in a solar year - one orbit of the earth about the sun.  There are 29.53 days in a lunar CHODESH cycle, leaving a difference of apx. 11 days (NOT 18).  11 times 7 equals 77 (NOT 126).  Well, you can go in and see where the rest of the numbers he cites are incorrect.   He also appears unsure which night the Chodesh will be seen, but this month it is a scientific certainty for the 11th.
 
Finally, the warning against having Pasach in the fall is quite humorous.  We live on a spherical world and when it is spring in the northern hemisphere, our friends in the southern part are in FALL.  So some folks do celebrate the spring feasts in the fall every year :-)  The issue of the year relates to the timing of the Exodus at THAT place on the planet, which does not require a holding for every place.
 
But the main POINT he is trying to make is that 12 lunar months does not equal a solar year without the addition of a 13th month every so often.  NO DISPUTE there.  BUT, he makes it appear as if the rabbinical system does not do this when IT ALSO DOES!  The difference between the Orthodox and Karaite views (just to label them) is NOT "DO we add a month", - but - "WHEN do we add a month".  The orthodox system is purely mathematical and has pre-calculated which years to add a month to.  The Karaite system makes that determination EVERY year through the observation of the barley.
 
The question is WHICH system is Scriptural?
 
Back to Rabbi Moshe...
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 But is that the correct path for Nazarene Yisraelites to walk? I think not. More importantly I know it is not. More importantly Yahweh knows better!

The Hebrew Calendar of Exile, known more commonly as the Jewish calendar, was written by the last Sanhedrin to sit in legal and open session. As such, they made the modern calendar in current use for 1,600 or so years. No other body of self appointed people whether Jewish, or Ephraimite, has the right to alter the calendar. Even looking to the heavens on your own, does not tell you when and how you are to intercalate which you must do, lest you celebrate Pesach in winter. Thats why if you have 10 “individuals” looking up to heaven by themselves and those 10 all intercalate differently, some adding days to months, others months to years like the Jewish calendar, none can purely go by the “signs of the heavens!" Because no 2 individuals would intercalate alike, left to their own understanding! 

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DP:   THIS is exactly the kind of thinking where Roman Catholicism comes from.  Now I KNOW Rabbi Moshe is not promoting pagan religion, but the mindset here is quite the same, that we need a governing body to tell us how to 'interpret' Scripture!
 
There is no disputing that through the time of the second Temple, there had been a governing council called a Sanhedrin, who had the collective responsibility for JUDGING - and this is a key point - but NOT for CREATING Torah.  The Sanhedrin were the successors to the Judges who would question witnesses and make legal decisions.  In the case of the Chodesh, they would determine and rule on the fact that it had or had not been seen.   In the case of the year, they would question witnesses on the condition of the barley as well. 
 
But, you see, they didn't stop there.  They started creating fences, extra rules, and what today is known as the Oral Torah - through which they would often CHANGE the Torah of Yahweh.  Y'shua rebuked them for this repeatedly "you reject the Mitswot of Yahweh to set up YOUR tradition" (Mark 7:8),  "you strain out a gnat and swallow a cammel" (Matthew 23:24).
 
The Sanhedrin had authority to JUDGE UNDER, but not to CHANGE Torah.  Then as now, the temptation for the judicial branch to use 'interpretation' to create new law was very great.  When Hillel II switched the Jewish calendar from observation to calculation, he VIOLATED Torah and exceeded his authority, thus it is FULLY proper, and I would argue even REQUIRED to reject his decision and follow the correct path.   The Sanhedrin at the time of Y'shua was still following the 'Karaite' method for setting the year by observing the barley as the primary factor although even they had exceeded Torah by factoring other things in as well. 
 
Jews today freely acknowledge that the Hillel system is WRONG.  They do not however believe that they have the authority to change it without a Sanhedrin, and this is the thinking Rabbi Moshe is ascribing.  Y'shua disagreed with that thinking.   This SAME Sanhedrin also rejected HIM, remember! 
 
Back to Rabbi Moshe...
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Back to the Hebrew Calendar of Exile! In their understanding of the 2 main principles that have assured that 1.) All Aviv 1 dates are correct and 2) all Passover dates are correct, they have intercalated 7 leap years, or years with 13 months, in every 19 year cycle, assuring that Passover and Aviv 1 will ALWAYS FALL IN THE SPRING. In other words, every 19 years, 7 years will have 13 months. Secondly, and just as importantly, they have done this calculation so that all the Spring feasts fall after the spring, or vernal equinox on March 21. Passover and Aviv 1 cannot, repeat cannot, occur before the vernal equinox, as that would also throw off the seasons at their times. The Jewish calendar ALONE makes sure that both Aviv 1 and Pesach take place after the spring equinox every year. Equinox literally means the 1 day twice a year when the sun crosses the celestial equator and when the length of day and night is approximately equal. If this next New Moon/Rosh Chodesh were Aviv 1 (March 11th or, 12th), then that means that Rosh Chodesh would fall before the equinox, which it cannot if proper seasonal timing is to be maintained. The moon was made for feasts/moadim, but the sun for times of the year itself!

 

14 And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the shamayim to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for moadim, and for days, and years.


The sun is for days and years, to make sure the moadim days and years of the moon are in proper season!

 

Thus the new moon after the Equinox around April 9, or 10 is actually Aviv 1, or New Year, with Pesach following 14 days later on the night of April 23/Aviv 14. While some may scream that the “Jewish calendar” has no right to add months, the truth is any manmade system of time has to add either a 13 month, or somehow fit 18 days a year into some intercalated system of making some months longer than the 29.5 day lunation, or add to some years by making them leap years!  

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DP:  As pointed out in the article "Pasach For The Perplexed" such a view is a remez of the text.
 
For the benefit of those who might not know, there are four levels of Scriptural interpretation:
1.  PASHAT - the plain and simple meaning, directly what it says.
2.  REMEZ - a hint, something that is implied, but not directly stated.
3.  DRASH - an analogy or typology.
4.  SOD - a hidden meaning in the word structure itself.
 
DOCTRINE needs to  come from PASHAT text!  The most famous RULE is this - "NO passage EVER looses it's pashat through a remez, drash, or sod of that OR ANY OTHER passage".  Please understand this principle, as it will save you from false doctrine at every turn!  Pashat rules all.  If one verse says something plainly, but another appears to hint at the opposite, you can safely assume that you have the hint wrong.
 
In the case of this verse, the only thing said is that 'lightS' are appointed for all these things.  The text does NOT specify which job belongs to which light, that is only remez.   NOWHERE in Tanakh is the 'equinox' EVER mentioned!  IF it was so important, one would think Yahweh would say so, yet EVERY single passage speaking about the first month speaks PASHAT about the ABIB.
 
Let's ASSUME for a moment that the sun is referred to here as being for years.  What about the stars?  They are mentioned also here - could not the yearly 'trigger' be the sun in a particular area with certain stars?  Such is equally as plausible as assuming the equinox MUST be read here.  The point is that we know how one breaks up the word 'assume'  :-) :-)
 
We don't base doctrine on a remez for JUST this reason.
 
Back to Rabbi Moshe...
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But what about AVIV BARLEY YOU SAY! We must go by Aviv barley. MUST we? Lets see what Torah says..................................Wayiqra/Leviticus 23: 9 says, AND YAHWEH SAID to [through] Moshe..........

 

10 Speak to the children of Yisrael [all 12 tribes], and say to them, When you have come into the land [all 12 tribes] which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest of it, then you shall bring a sheaf of the bikkurim of your harvest to the kohen:
11 And he shall wave the sheaf before YHWH- vuvh, to be accepted for you: on the next day after the first day [after Aviv 15 on Aviv 16] the kohen shall wave it.

 

So we see that the Aviv barley is a non-factor, as long as you are not in the land! The command is to bring the sheaf to the priest in the land! If you are not in the land, you don't have to worry about whether the barley is green, purple, yellow, or poke dotted! Now what about those living in the land?

 

Moreover, those who do bring the barley incorrectly even while living in the land, bring it on the first "SUNday" of Passover week, when as seen in the RSTNE, DSS, and LXX the correct day is Aviv 16 for the barley to be presented. So the Karaites who seem to emphasize the Aviv barley, don't even have the correct day for their firstfruit barley presentation, even if barley was needed!!

 

Until the temple is rebuilt, the barley is also irrelevant to the Karaites and those who factor the Aviv barley while in their exile. Why? Because where is the Aaronic kohen/priest to receive it? Rather who is the kohen? Rather who is the Kohen Ha Gadol? Rather where can the Karaites find the Kohen? Especially those who reject Yahshua, and who have no kohen in heaven, or on earth! Get the point? The barley is and remains an irrelevant factor UNTIL THE TEMPLE AND THE AARONIC PRIESTHOOD IS RESTORED, in Yah's time, not ours!  Please see:  http://yourarmstoisrael.org/Articles_new/restoration/?page=16&type=12  

 

For these reasons, that All Yisrael is not in the land and the Aaronic order has not been restored, one cannot, should not, and must not make barley an issue in Pesach determination, when according to Torah it is not! During the 40 years in the wilderness Pesach was still celebrated without barley (as it was for the 70 years in Babylon) as they, like us, remain in the wilderness................ 

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DP:  I didn't break into this lovely piece of logic mid-stream so as to not inturupt :-)
 
Firstly, the quotation of verse 11 is incorrect.  This is one of the areas where the RSTNE follows the Greek LXX rather than the Masoretic text which says MIMACHARAT HaSHABAT - "on the morrow of the Shabbat".  In the identification of the day here as the 16th, I agree on this point which was the Temple practice at the time of Y'shua, and later changed by the Pharisees, but I still think the MT is not corrupted here.  The debate between the later Pharisees and Sadducees about which 'Shabbat' was referred to supports the MT reading.
 
But WHAT does that have to do with the starting of the year??  Abib is not mentioned in other narratives either, and the year does not start with the wave sheaf.
 
The inspired Hebrew text answers the question.  Sages of old have long held that not only the words of Torah were inspired, but the spacing of the letters and paragraphs were also.  This is why such amazing attention was and still is taken by the Soferim in copying Holy texts.  The Hebrew text does not have "verse numbers" like in most Bibles, but two kinds of inspired divisions - Petuhah and Stumah.  The first is where text ends and there is a blank space to the end of the line and text resumes on the next line.  The second is where there is a large gap between text blocks, but the text continues on the same line.
 
The petuhah is a major subject change, the stumah a minor one, kind of like chapters and paragraphs.  Here there is a petuhah after verses 3 and 8, indicating changes in thought.  "Thematic" analysis asserts that sections of text between these divisions are intended to be interpreted together and share a common 'theme'.  Verses 1-3 have the theme of the Shabbat, verses 4-8 that of the Pasach and Chag haMatzot, and then in verse 9 starts the discussion of the wave sheaf.
 
The point here is that a change in the YEAR is ONLY mentioned in the section pertaining to Pasach and Chag haMatzot, thus we can NOT insert such into a different section where it is not present.  What is said in the prior section is "IN THE FIRST CHODESH..." which Yahweh has described for us in Shemot/Exodus as "THIS is to be the first Chodesh of the year for you" and "the Chodesh OF ABIB" (see Shemot/Exodus 12:1-2, 9:31-32, 13:4, 23:15, 34:18 and Dabarim/Deuteronomy 16:1).
 
Remember what we just discussed, how PASHAT rules?  Here are 6 pashat passages all saying the first Chodesh of the year is the Chodesh where the barley in the land is ABIB, and all of these are connected directly to Pasach and Chag haMatzot.  When we come to Wayikra/Leviticus 23, and see "first month" in the section pertaining to the same feasts, everything stays consistent, BUT, if we try to add in some other requirements from ANOTHER section of text, we violate the pashat. 
 
OF COURSE the abib barley is not a consideration in the text for the wave offering, it NEVER WAS, that is a different portion of text divided out by a petuhah and it has nothing to do with the setting of the year!   Further, Wayikra/Leviticus 2:14 allows abib barley to be offerred in the wave sheaf, thus the ripeness of the harvest at the time of the wave is irrelevant.
 
Finally, and here is where the logic goes way south, putting this all together - the wave sheaf only applies in the land, at the Temple, and with the Ahronic priesthood... and it requires barley to be waved... so therefore the barley has nothing to do with starting the year!  HUH???  That is joining two SEPARATE functions of abib - one the wave sheaf, and the other starting the year when present at a Chodesh.  Just because we don't use it for the former now, does not mean it looses its role in the latter.
 
Back to Rabbi Moshe...
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So in light of these biblical facts, I will be celebrating Pesach

realizing that I have no kohen on earth to receive my barley and realizing that those offering the barley do not do so according to Torah, but according to SUN-day influence.

You are free to pass this on to others who also may be confused and bewildered! 

Selah!

Rabbi Moshe Yoseph Koniuchowsky

PS Some have asked what to do in 2013 and other years when allegedly [I haven't studied that yet]Pesach month Aviv 1 occurs before the Spring equinox, even on the Hebrew Calendar of exile. My answer? Who knows? By then the calendar may be amended by the new seated Sanhedrin; and like Yahshua said, figuring out 1 Pesach at a time is enough of a migraine! LET THE DAYS TROUBLES SUFFICE UNTO THE DAY! meaning each year is a separate challenge! 

rm

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DP:  So,  by this opinion, we should celebrate:
 
1.  after the equinox that is not mentioned ANYWHERE in Scripture,
2.  (presumably) the 14th day after the Chodesh after the equinox,
3.  like those who deny Messiah and follow after Pharisaic practice,
4.  with those "entrusted with the oracles of Elohim" (Romans 3:2) EVEN if they don't follow them.
 
hmmm...   I recall something about Peter and John telling  a certain Sanhedrin "whether it is right before Elohim to obey YOU more than Elohim, you decide" Acts 4:19.
 
So, let's examine the evidence.  Yahweh says that the Chodesh of Abib is to be the first Chodesh for us.  The last Sanhedrin said, "naaaahh, in 2005 we don't care about the abib, your first month should start on 10 April"
 
This is not to mention that Rabbi Moshe SHOULD have checked the Hillel calendar prior to assuming an equinox, for in 2013, the 1st of Nisan 5773 does indeed fall on 12 MARCH 2013 !!  Before the equinox.  In fact, here is a list of other such problem dates to come:
 
5767 = 20 March 2007
5770 = 16 March 2010
5773 = 12 March 2013
5778 = 17 March 2018
5781 = 14 March 2021
 
I could continue going forward and give hundreds or thousands of examples, but I think you see the point, this happens almost every third year.  Without a Sanhedrin to help then, what should be done?  Which 'command' will be disobeyed - the one of the last Sanhedrin, or the supposed remez of Bereshit/Genesis 1:14 which 'requires' the year to start after the equinox?????  And we can't wait for one to form, there are only TWO years to the next problem!
 
 But it should also be wondered what WAS done in these years:
 
5762 = 14 March 2002
5759 = 18 March 1999
5754 = 13 March 1994
 
Well, the point is made without going further back, nu?  You see, the Hillel calendar is NOT focused on having the first of the year fall after the equinox, but on having PASACH fall after the equinox.  It is a totally mathematical system with no foundation in Torah.
 
We can well extablish that the Hillel system is also a tradition CONTRARY to Torah.  Right now there is Abib in Yisrael, and the Chodesh in two days will by definition be THE Chodesh of Abib.  Next Chodesh there will be ABSOLUTELY NO abib anywhere in Yisrael.  Yahweh tells us that the Chodesh of abib is to be the first Chodesh for us, so following the Hillel system requires ignoring the pashat Word of Yahweh.
 
Now, THAT is a tradition of man.
 
 
Shalom w'Baraka,
(Peace & Bless You)
Rav. David Pollina
Rav. David Pollina
 
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