The calendar of festivals that the Jewish people follow the world over emphasize the very real connection of Jews everywhere to Eretz Yisrael, our home the Land of Israel. Wherever a Jew may have wandered due to our dispersion as a wandering people, a Jew relates to the seasons and calendar of Eretz Yisrael. Hashem says that Pesach will be celebrated in the month of Aviv—literally meaning the Spring month. Pesach being at the time of the barley harvest in Eretz Yisrael must stay connected to this calendar. The Jewish people were to appoint those who would lead the people in the interpretation and practice of the Torah as we read in Deuteronomy 16 and 17. They would establish the calendar. It was in accordance to this that Yeshua the Messiah came to Jerusalem to celebrate the festivals in their season. Ultimately it was at Pesach that he came and brought the richest fulfillment of this festival—the transformation from slaves of foreigners to servants of Hashem.
Jews from all over the world will arrive this month like during the fall festivals and ill the streets of Jerusalem to celebrate this first of the three pilgrimage feasts. One only need to look out the window as one travels from the airport to Jerusalem, indeed the barley fields are ripe. This is the season that Hashem directed the Jewish people to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt and the freeing from oppressive slavery in a foreign land, leading to the redemption of the people and transforming us into faithful servants of Hashem who would follow his commands in this our land—Artzienu. This is also the season in which he made the way for all mankind to ind peace in the service of Hashem through the Messiah.
The weeks between Purim and Pesach are ones of preparation for the Festival of Redemption that we experience during Pesach. The sages presented for us four weeks of special readings on Shabbat in which we take out an additional Torah Scroll for the final reading from the Torah—the Maftir section. The last of these is Shabbat Hachodesh—the Shabbat before the beginning of Nissan— emembering this commandment given to he whole people of Israel, to remember the new month, this being the foundation for keeping the sacrificial calendar.
Shabbat Hachodesh reminds us of the unique role Hashem gives to mankind in the creation. He brings the change of seasons, through the gravitational orbit of the Earth around the Sun. He directs us in the Torah that the festivals need to be kept in their proper season, and he directs man to recognize and confirm the beginning of the new month. Man must make sure that the months stay in sync with the seasons, which requires a balancing of the lunar and solar calendars. One without the other will create a calendar that will soon lose it’s purpose, as the various harvest festivals will be kept at times when there is either not a harvest at all or the wrong harvest. Imagine celebrating the barley harvest in the fall at the time of the fruit festivals. He leaves to us to work the festivals into this reality. In Exodus 12:2, he gives his first command to the people of Israel: “This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.” Until now he had given commands to the Avot—the Patriarchs—as individuals, and here he begins to direct the people of Israel as a collective. The whole order of the Torah was dependent on the agreement of the leaders of the people as to when this month would begin.
Haim Ben-Haim
Haim Ben-Haim is Israel Operations Director at Messianic Jewish Theological Institute’s Jerusalem Campus.