Why are our feast days, which are commanded in the Tanakh as Mo’edim or “Appointed Times,” oftentimes different from mainstream Judaism and many other Messianic congregations?

Answer: The short answer is, “We are not Rabbinic”. We do not follow the teachings of the Rabbis simply because they are Jewish, as the Rabbis were shown by Messiah to have erred from the Commandments. Our “Judaism” is 1st century, Messianic, “Mishnaic” Judaism, meaning the customs we follow were practiced by Messiah Yeshua and the Shlikhim [Apostles], and recorded in the 2nd century in what is known as “Mishnah,” confirming and explaining the ‘how’ of what is written in Torah. The Mishnah tells us they “observed”/”saw” the “khodesh”, the crescent new moon. This aligns with Torah. The current, Jewish schedule of holy days follows a calculated solar/lunar calendar which was not completely codified until nearly 1000AD, and uses Babylonian methods of setting feast days, having been first calculated by Hillel the 2nd in the sixth century AD. The Torah has no real concept of a fixed “month”, but counts each “khodesh”, or “renewed crescent moon”.

The start of the Mo’edim, or feasts, is set in the spring at Pesakh, each new crescent moon determining the benchmark for setting the following feasts. Pesakh is 14 days after the first crescent, and Yom Teru’ah/Rosh HaShanah falls on the 7th renewed crescent moon. For details on determining Pesakh and the subsequent feasts, please read this document: Reckoning Pesakh

In His mercy, Elohim has given Yisra’el ten Feasts, described in his word. Most of these are Mo’edim, or Appointed Times described in VaYikra (Lev) chapter 23 and elsewhere. Congregation Bat-Tzion celebrates all feasts with gusto! What better way to stay set apart than with our community and in joy, repenting, reflecting, celebration, and remembering!

Below are the estimated dates of the upcoming Feasts. All dates signify the first evening at sundown unless specified otherwise. Actual dates will not be known for certain until the khodesh (renewed moon) is sighted prior to the Feast listed below. Read Reckoning Pesakh to learn more.

• Matzot (Unleavened Bread) – Saturday Evening, Mar 27th until Saturday Evening, Apr 3rd
• Omer Reishit (The first omer [sheaf] or firstfruits) – Sun, Apr 4th (Day not evening)
• Shavu’ot (Feast of Weeks also known as Pentecost) – Sun, May 23rd (Day not evening)
• Yom Teru’ah (Day of the Awakening Blast also known as Rosh Hashanah) – Wed, Sep 8th
• Yom Kippur Assembly (Day of Atonement) – Shabbat, Sep 18th (Day not evening)
• Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) – Wed, 9/22 to Tue, 9/28
• Simkhat Torah / Sh’mini Atzeret (Rejoicing with the Torah / Eighth [Day] Assembly) – Thu, 9/30 (Day not evening)
• Khanukah – Tue, Nov 30th to Dec 7th
• Purim
• Pesakh (Passover)