NO MAN KNOWS THE DAY OR THE HOUR ??

Our Rabbis and Sages taught that God set up His complete redemption plan for mankind, and it begins and ends on the Feast of Trumpets, Yom HaTeru'ah. This line of thought is based upon the seven-day creation week.

Further understanding the built-in themes of Rosh HaShana, and thus establishing the resurrection and return on Mashiach for His Bride on this feast invites us to re-examine the perplexing words of Yeshua when he admonished us to keep watch, saying "you do not know the day or the hour," of His return.

However, the words turn out NOT too perplexing at all, once it is understood that this phrase is a Jewish idiomatic expression specifically referring to Rosh Shanah, and it even shows up in other Jewish literature. The phrase is so keyed to this holiday, because of its connection to the lunar cycle and the appearance of Rosh Chodesh (the new moon), that when properly understood, it is as if Yeshua was really saying, "I'll see you again on Rosh HaShanah at some point in the future."

The Torah prescribes that Rosh HaShana be observed for one day, on the first day of the seventh month of Tishrei. The penalty for non-observance or for missing the date was excommunication from the Holy Community. This holiday is unique amongst all the feasts, in that it is the ONLY holiday that is celebrated on the FIRST DAY of the month (or New Moon). So how in world were we to know WHEN the new moon would fall given that the lunar cycle is 29 1/2 days?

Well, up till the time of Hillel II, the testimony of witnesses was used to determine the official date of arrival of the New Moon which in turn set the date of the festivals, Pesach, Shavu'ot, Rosh HaShana, Yom Kippor and Succot. The only ruling body who could hear the testimony and actually declare that the New Moon had arrived, was the Sanhedrene. No one knew when that day would actually arrive since it could have been on the 29th day, the 30th day or the 31st day (in the event of cloud cover), but they knew the season of its arrival. Hence the Jewish idiom "no man knows the day or hour" came into use.

Once the declaration of a New Moon was made in Jerusalem, the Sanhedrene commissioned messengers to go out to notify outlying Jewish communities. If the witnesses were to arrive too late in reporting to the Sanhedrene, this would delay the messengers in departing on time to get the word out to those living far from Jerusalem. This would then result in those communities missing the correct day of observance of the Feast. Since the Lord insisted in the Torah that Bnei Israel (Children of Israel) keep the Feasts at their appointed times or else risk being cut-off from their people, the Rabbis, in protecting against this, made Rosh HaShana a two-day Holiday, since it depended upon a New Moon in which no one really knew the "day or hour" of its arrival. "Nevertheless," the Rabbis declared, "the two days are to be considered as one long day."

When the era of the Sanhedrene has passed, and from their time onward, the date of the New Moon was established by calculations alone. These computations provided for the fixing of the beginning of each month throughout the possible span of world history. Thus all the lengths of all future months in exile were now fixed. But this was not the case during the days of Yeshua, and additionally, this formula has introduced error into our Jewish calendar today, which can lead to fixing the wrong date for God's appointed seasons.

The result is that all the more we don't know "the day or hour," but we sure know the time of year, the month, and even the week