Jewish Feasts - Shabbats Before Passover (Part 2)

Adults With and Without Children

Shabbat Hachodesh – Sabbath of the Month

Reading: Exodus 12:1-20

This Shabbat/Sabbath is celebrated on the Sabbath before the month of Passover begins. I was supposed to send this out last Saturday but was out of town and forgot to get it together. So this week you will receive a double portion of Sabbath info. : )

The passage above is what is read during this time, and it is the sanctification of the New Moon. The New Moon of Nisan is the most significant “new moons” on the Jewish Calendar since it is the first month of the Biblical calendar. So, it represents the Biblical “New Year’s Day”. This season symbolizes a renewal, spring and rebirth, not only for nature but for the Jewish people themselves. This renewal is also a time of re-commitment where they are recommitting themselves for the whole year.

As a side note, the Jewish calendar is set by the cycle of the moon, most other calendars are set by the cycle of the sun. I was reading an article the other day about the stages of the moon and the Jewish people. I am going to paraphrase it here. Unlike the sun, the moon has different stages to its cycle. The way the Jewish calendar is set, the moon shines the brightest on the 14th and 15th day of the month. This article then shared that if you start with Abraham, when the light of the first Jew began, and go 14 generations after Abraham, you come to the time of King David, when the Jewish nation peaked at their brightness. Then you have the 15th generation with Solomon, who built God’s Temple in Jerusalem where the light then really spread.

As a side side note, do you know how many generations it was from David to the deportation to Babylon? 14 generations. Do you know how many generations is was from the deportation to Babylon to Jesus’ coming? 14

It almost seems like God had a purpose in everything He created and did. : )