Happy New Year???

It’s what everyone all over the world isn’t saying today… and why should they? After all, it’s the middle of March, and nothing around us offers even a hint that a new year has begun. Indeed, most of us haven’t even a clue that a new month has arrived (“Rosh Chodesh,” or New Moon), much less the renewal of an entire year!

Nevertheless, it’s true—the New Year is here… the New Year for Israel, that is (Exodus 12:2, “This month is to you the chief of months—it is the first to you of the months of the year.”). And yet, even world-wide Jewry doesn’t have New Year’s on its collective radar right now. No, for us, New Year’s doesn’t come around for another six long months (“Rosh HaShanah”)—or so we’ve been led to believe.

“Who cares? What’s the big deal?” you retort. “Scripture doesn’t even say that the first New Moon is to be honored any differently than the others (except the seventh)!” Indeed, why does it matter that most of “civilized” planet earth calls a random moment in time—January 1st—“New Year’s Day”? And why get all worked up just because Judaism celebrates its New Year in the Fall, instead of observing it in the Spring, according to the Scriptures?

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Determining the Calendar

I would like to share a recent exchange I had with one of our enews subscribers who questioned the manner in which we determined the date of Passover this year. A little background for those of you unfamiliar with the nature of the debate: it centers on the reliability of the established Jewish Calendar versus the observation of the phases of the moon, the sun and the agricultural state of the Land of Israel as opposing systems for accurately determining the dates of Israel’s calendar. This is an important issue because the dates of the calendar practically affect when to celebrate the year’s annual appointed times, such as Passover.

Our enews letter read in bold letters: “Only 2 weeks to Passover!”

Our subscriber replied, Read more

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Behold the Lamb Messianic Haggadah

We are very excited to announce the release of the newly revised (and hopefully final!) edition of Behold the Lamb, a Scripture-based Haggadah for a modern, Messianic Passover memorial ‘avodah (Hebrew for “service”, “rite”, or “ceremony”).

The Passover experience facilitated by Behold the Lamb is an uncommon, untraditional departure from the usual Passover seder, set apart by its unique and unapologetic use of Scripture—approximately ninety percent of the Behold the Lamb Haggadah is nothing more than a compilation of relevant passages from the Word… and nothing tells a story better than Scripture!

In addition to the groundbreaking Haggadah, Behold the Lamb also includes a 20+ page supplementary section containing recipes for delicious homemade matzah, an introduction to our unconventional children’s crafts, and pages of brand new teaching material on Passover topics that we have never seen treated in any other publication, Messianic or otherwise.

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