HaChodesh (The Month)

(Today is a special Shabbat called HaChodesh. This is the post I wrote and posted in my old blog for Shabbat HaChodesh last year on 03/18/2007.)

Readings: Shemot (Exodus) 12:1-20; Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 45:16-46:18

Today was another special Shabbat before Pesach (Passover) which has additional readings, and this one is named HaChodesh, which means The Month.

Exo 12:2 "This month is the beginning of months for you, it is the first month of the year for you.

We are approaching the time of Rosh Chodesh, which means 'head of the month'. If the barley in Israel is found to be in the aviv state (within about two weeks of being ready for harvesting) before this next new moon is sighted, then it will also be the first month of the year.

This is the time of year when we work on getting leaven out of our homes in preparation for Pesach and the Festival of Unleavened Bread, which begins on the 14th day of the first month.

Exo 12:14 'And this day shall become to you a remembrance. And you shall observe it as a festival to YHWH throughout your generations – observe it as a festival, an everlasting law.
Exo 12:15 'Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. Indeed on the first day you cause leaven to cease from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that being shall be cut off from Yisra'el.

When we go through our homes looking for leaven and getting rid of it, it helps us to understand how diligent we need to be to examine our lives so we can get rid of what shouldn't be there.
Because of Yeshua Messiah, we are able to keep this time not only as a memorial of our forefathers' exodus from slavery in Mitsrayim, but we are also able to celebrate His fulfillment of the Festival. He is the Lamb that was slain, and it is His blood that redeems us from death.

As with all of YHWH's festivals, it is not only a memorial, but also a rehearsal because there will be another greater exodus:

Jer 23:7 "Therefore, see, the days are coming," declares YHWH, "when they shall say no more, 'As YHWH lives who brought up the children of Yisra'el out of the land of Mitsrayim,'
Jer 23:8 but, 'As YHWH lives who brought up and led the seed of the house of Yisra'el out of the land of the north and from all the lands where I had driven them.' And they shall dwell on their own soil."

When YHWH scattered the two kingdoms--the northern kingdom of Yisrael and the southern kingdom of Yehudah--He promised to eventually bring them back to The Land. Some have already returned, but many more will eventually join them when the whole house of Yisrael is restored.

The reading in Yehezqel describes the offerings that will take place in the new temple. We also learn in this passage about another feature of Rosh Chodesh (Head of the Month):

Eze 46:1 'Thus said the Master YHWH, "The gate of the inner courtyard facing east is shut the six days of work, but on the Sabbath it is opened, and on the day of the New Moon it is opened.

Like the weekly Sabbath and the 7 yearly Sabbaths, the first day of the month is also a special no-work day.

(Added 04/05/2008: It is important to note that the events described in Yehezqel [Ezekiel] 45:26-46:18 have not yet taken place, yet all the moedim [appointed times] instructed in the Torah are still being observed in this future time prophesied in Yehezqel. This is because, as YHWH explains, His instructions are forever--

Exo 12:14 ‘And this day shall become to you a remembrance. And you shall observe it as a festival to יהוה throughout your generations – observe it as a festival, an everlasting law.

'Everlasting' means that the people of YHWH should never stop observing His moedim.)