If All These Rabbis Say…

 

By Stew P.

If all these rabbis say that the DAY begins at NIGHT, would you believe them?

After all, Rambam’s introduction to the Mishna says: “If there are 1000 prophets and all of them of the stature of Elijah and Elisha, giving a certain interpretation, and 1001 rabbis giving the opposite interpretation, you shall ‘incline after the majority and the law is according to 1001 rabbis, not according to 1000 venerable prophets. God did not permit us to learn from the prophets, but only from the Rabbis who are men of logic and reason.”

Well, I guess that settles it, huh? I wonder what our Messiah, whom they rejected, meant by the following statement in John 11:9: “Yahusha the Messiah answered, ‘Are there not TWELVE HOURS IN THE DAY? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the LIGHT of this world.’”

Hmmm…a DAY is 12 hours? How did the Messiah arrive at that conclusion? Let’s test it…

“And Yahuah called the light ‘day’ and the darkness He called ‘night…'” Genesis 1:5

So the LIGHT is called DAY, and DARKNESS is called NIGHT?

“And Elohim said, ‘Let LIGHTS come to be in the expanse of the heavens TO SEPARATE THE DAY FROM THE NIGHT, and let them be for signs and appointed times, and for days and years, and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.’ And it came to be so. And Elohim made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day [light], and the lesser light to rule the night and with the stars.” Genesis 1:14-16

It seems He is all about LIGHT, not the mixing and mingling of the evening (H6153 –  ערב erev) or the darkness (H2822 – ולחשׁך – choshek) of the night (H3915 – לילה – layelah) being counted as part of the DAY. Let’s continue…

“And it came to be, on the SIXTH DAY, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Mosheh (Moses). And he said to them, this is what Yahuah has said, ‘TOMORROW is a rest, a SABBATH set-apart to Yahuah. That which you bake, bake; and that which you cook, cook. And lay up for yourselves all that is left over, to keep it until MORNING.’ And they laid it up till MORNING (the moment the Sabbath commenced), as Mosheh commanded. And it did not stink, and no worm was in it. And Mosheh said, ‘Eat it TODAY, for TODAY is a Sabbath to Yahuah, TODAY you do not find it in the field. Gather it six days, but on the seventh DAY, WHICH IS THE SABBATH, there is none.’ And it came to be that some of the people went out on the seventh DAY to gather, but they found none.”  Exodus 16:22-27

Let’s recap that for clarity: 1) It was the sixth day that Israel gathered twice the manna, and Yahuah said, “TOMORROW is the Sabbath.” 2) “And lay up for yourselves all that is left over, to keep it until MORNING (morning is when every day commenced, but on this morning it did not go bad when the new day began). And they laid it up till MORNING, as Mosheh commanded. And it did not stink, and no worm was in it. 3) And Mosheh said, “Eat it TODAY, for TODAY is a Sabbath to Yahuah.”  In other words, in the morning, when the manna normally would go bad, on this new day, the seventh-day Sabbath, the manna did not stink or go rancid.   

Those are some powerful witnesses. It puts the old traditions in check, huh?

This is also interesting from Matthew 28:1, “But AFTER the Sabbath, as it was DAWNING (G2020) into day one of the week…”

Strong’s Greek Dictionary – (G#2020 ἐπιφώσκω epiphōskō ep-ee-foce’-ko = to begin to GROW LIGHT: – BEGIN to dawn, to draw on).

 

“In the Old Testament the earlier practice seems to have been to consider that the day began in the morning.  In Genesis 19:34, for example, the “morrow” (ASV) or “next day” (RSV) clearly begins with the morning after the preceding night. . .” ~ Jack Finegan, The Handbook of Biblical Chronology, p. 7-8.

 

“The day was either the period of sunlight, contrasted with the night or the whole period of twenty-four hours, although NOT defined as such in the Bible…  In earlier traditions a day apparently began at sunrise (e.g., Lev. 7:15-17; Judges 19:4-19)… later it’s beginning was at sunset and its end at the following sunset… this system became normative… and is still observed in Jewish tradition, where for example, the Shabbat begins on Friday evening at sunset and ends Saturday at sunset…”  ~ Oxford Companion to the Bible, p. 744.

So, where do you suppose the Jews got the idea for keeping Shabbat from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset? Might it have been during their captivity in Babylon?

“So far as we know, the Babylonian calendar was at all periods truly lunar. . . the month began with the evening when the new crescent was for the first time again visible shortly after sunset.  Consequently, the Babylonian day also begins in the evening. . .” ~ The Exact Sciences in Antiquity p. 106

When confronted with this info, it usually leads to these SPECIAL instructions for the parameters of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) :

“It is a Sabbath of rest to you, and you shall afflict your souls. On the ninth day of the month AT EVENING, from EVENING to EVENING, you observe your Sabbath.” Leviticus 23:32

Think about that. NO special instructions would be necessary if ALL Shabbats began during erev (evening). The seventh DAY, Sabbath, begins at the DAY-LIGHT, according to the Torah. Only rabbinical tradition says differently, such as ‘counting three stars to begin Sabbath… or lighting candles to usher in darkness? Has anyone found Sabbath night mentioned anywhere in Scripture? Or lighting candles to usher in a dark or black Sabbath? How is it that we just seemingly accept the traditional version?

There is so much more, but I want to keep this short. Do your own research and see if you agree with the rabbis. This is our understanding of the matter. You may disagree, and that’s fine.