Change of Hours at Shomrei Brit

It has been determined by the attendees at Shomrei Brit that a change of time for services would be beneficial. From this coming Sabbath and forward Shomrei Brit will meet on Sabbath mornings from 10:30 am until about 12:30 pm. Additionally, we continue to have our Thursday evening Torah group from 7 pm until 9 pm.

First Fruits Program

We have been asked by our friends in Waco, Mishkan Etz Chaim, to help them with their programming for the weekend of 4/7,8 by providing use of our sound system. We are going to do that. Thus, we will not be having services at Shomrei Brit on Sabbath, 4/7. We encourage you all to join us with Mishkan Etz Chaim.

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Mishkan Etz Chaim in Waco, Texas invites you to hear Eddie Chumney teach about the Feasts of the Messiah and hear his call to the Watchmen who await the second coming of Messiah.

We will gather to observe the weekly Shabbat and to celebrate the high Sabbath of the Feast of First Fruits (Bikkurim).

“The harvest represents all who would put their faith, trust, and confidence (emunah) in the Messiah Yeshua…a sheaf (of the harvest) spiritually represents people who accept the Messiah into their hearts.”

“The first fruits (of Israel’s harvests) were always the choicest, the foremost, the first, the best, the preeminent of all that was to follow.” Chumney, THE SEVEN FESTIVALS OF MESSIAH

First Fruits Conference:

April 7, 2007 Conference begins at 1:00 pm

Special Shabbat Dinner at 7:00 pm

April 8, 2007 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm Lecture

Carleen Bright Arboretum

9001 Bosque Blvd

Waco TX 76712

We need to receive by email from anyone and everyone interested in coming to the yeshiva on April 7^th and the First Fruits Sabbath on April 8^th. We must receive your firm reservation by email or by telephone no later than Friday, March 31^st. Your payment of $20 for yeshiva must be received no later than Thursday, April 5^th. Please help us honor the Sabbath and the High Sabbath by making certain that your tuition check is received no later than Thursday, April 5^th.

If you confirm that you will be attending the special Sabbath meal on the evening of April 7^th, we will contact you no later than Monday, April 2^nd with information of what foods are needed for the dinner.

For details and registration please contact:

Mishkan Etz-Chaim

254-772-4425 or by email: shankins1@hot.rr.com

Checks may be mailed to

P.O. Box 23343

Waco TX 76702

Driving Directions to Carleen Bright Arboretum:

From IH 35 take

Exit 330 Loop 340/TX Hwy 6 North toward Meridian TX

Exit Hwy 84/Woodway Drive West toward McGregor TX

Exit Estates Dr/Hewitt Road, Turn right (north) onto Estates Dr

Continue down Estates Dr until the final intersection at Bosque Blvd

Carleen Bright Arboretum entrance is directly in front

1st Day of Chag HaMatzot (Unleavened Bread)

You're going to need to recover from all that celebrating the night before. Come on over to our house for a holy convocation. April 4 from Noon til ?. If the weather cooperates, we'll heat the pool for the kids.

7th Day of Chag HaMatzot (Feast of Unleavened Bread)

Melissa Rawlins has graciously invited us to her home in the country for a holy convocation on the 7th day of the festival. For those wondering how that fits with their calendar on the wall, that will be April 10.

Drop by after your primary celebration... or, if you haven't found a worship site yet, then come on over and join with Shomrei Brit in the pleasure of keeping our God's Holy Days! Bring food, dress casually; if you're musically gifted then bring your instrument(s). We'll dance and sing and pray and eat with no leaven to be found among us! The time will be from 3pm until early evening.

Here is an interactive map to Melissa's home... http://tinyurl.com/2eah2n

Also, please note the attached PDF file invitation for sharing with friends.
Unleavened%20Bread%20Celebration%203%2010.pdf

Be In Health Conference

Several folks in our group have spoken positively about the above mentioned conference that is to occur from April 10 - 14. We are not endorsing this conference as we have no knowledge of the sponsors. We are passing the information along for your consideration. You can find the website at http://www.beinhealth.com/seminar.html . Here is their blurb on the conference...

A Be In Health™ conference involves progressive teaching to unravel the mysteries of disease as well as revealing pathways to health and wholeness. Can a disease be spiritually rooted? Have the efforts spent on traditional understanding of health and disease left you with little change and more questions on where God is in everything? Learn how to defeat and prevent disease using the discernment God has given mankind to produce wholeness of spirit, soul and body. Our conferences are supported by your free will offerings and the sales of our teaching materials.

Messy(anic) Calendars

You’d think that in a year like this year where most folk are pretty much aligned regarding the calendar a good messianic would have cause for satisfaction. Not for this one, however. I have been smacked right between the eyes as to how fragmented the movement is in this regard. And it discourages me.

Let me lay out for you the various permutations of which I am aware. This doesn’t even include the lunatics (lunar sabbatarians).

• Rabbinic “Hillel II” calendar
• When do you celebrate Shavuot
• Shavuot always on a Sunday
• Shavuot on the 50^th day, whenever it falls within the week
• New Moon Calendar
• When do you recognize the new moon
• Conjunction
• Molad
• First sighting
• Actual visual sighting
• Theoretically visible sighting (a position just introduced by the Karaites)
• From where is the sighting valid
• Anywhere
• Israel
• When do you recognize the month of Abib/Nisan
• When green “abib” ears of barley are found is Israel prior to the new moon (there could be a whole treatise written on the determination of when the ears are “abib”)
• The first new moon after the spring equinox
• The first new moon closest to the spring equinox
• When do you actually eat the Passover
• Evening of 13^th/14^th
• Evening of 14^th/15^th
• When do you celebrate Shavuot
• Shavuot always on a Sunday
• Shavuot on the 50^th day, whenever it falls within the week

This is a mess. It is the source of endless contention within the movement. We are always tempted to get puffed up (like leavened bread?) about the correctness of our particular understanding. When will Bible students of good will find a way to bring unity to this situation?

Abib Barley Found In Israel

On Sunday 18 March 2007 the Aviv barley was found in Israel.

• Small fields of Aviv were found near Ein Mabua in Wadi Qelt, about 16km from Jerusalem. In two random samplings from Ein Mabua 70% and 90% of the barley were Aviv.
• A small plot of Aviv barley was found near Na'omi Junction; some of the stalks were riper than Aviv.
• Many fields of Aviv barley were found in the central Jordan valley several kilometers north of Marj a-Naga; the fields of Aviv stretched for several kilometers. In two random samplings from north of Marj a-Naja 80% and 100% of the barley was Aviv or riper than Aviv.
  

Based on Leviticus 23:10 the barley must be "ancient-harvest ripe" two weeks into the lunar month in order to declare that month as the Month of the Aviv. There is no doubt that the barley will be ready for harvest two weeks into the upcoming month (expected to be seen from Jerusalem on Tuesday 20 March 2007 at sunset). In fact, much of the barley in the Jordan valley was already "ancient-harvest ripe". For more details about the Aviv barley and its relation to the beginning of the biblical new year, please see: http://www.karaite-korner.org/abib.shtml

The Aviv Searchers will carry out a further examination of the barley in the northern Negev on Monday 19 March 2007. However, based on the large quantities of Aviv found near Ein Mabua and in the Jordan Valley we can already declare the upcoming new moon the New Moon of the Aviv. Therefore, the Feast of Unleavened Bread will be in early April.

Pictures of the Aviv found at Ein Mabua and in the Jordan Valley are posted at: http://www.karaite-korner.org/abib/2007/

The following people participated in the Aviv search:

• Nehemia Gordon (www.karaite-korner.org), Devorah Gordon, Ferenc Illesy and Miri Burgin from Jerusalem, Israel;
• Avi Ben Mordechai and Dina Marcus (www.m7000.com) from Jerusalem,Israel;
• Ruthanne Koch, a Certified Crop Advisor from Colorado, USA;
• Ivan Labombarbe (www.karaitejudaism.org) of the "World KaraiteMovement" from West Virginia, USA;
• Bob Wirl and Karl Bloodworth from "Yahweh's Philadelphia TruthCongregation" based in Georgia, USA (www.yahstruth.org);
• Benito Arreaga and Rene Esposito from Guatamala and Moises Ortiz from El Salvador from "Shebet Efraim" (www.shebetefraim.com);
• Jim Lamunyon from Oregon, USA and Johan Schutte from South Africa.
  

Reporting from Jerusalem, Israel

Nehemia Gordon, Ruthanne Koch, Devorah Gordon, Ivan Labombarbe, Ferenc Illesy, Bob Wirl, and Karl Bloodworth

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Folks,

What this means for Shomrei Brit is that presuming that the new moon is sighted on the 20th as currently predicted, we will be eating the Passover on the evening of April 3, 2007. Additionally, we plan to have some kind of convocation on April 4 as the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and on April 10 as the seventh day of the Feast. Finalization of these times will be made when the new moon is sighted.

We've recently had some internal discussion about the role of abib barley vs the spring equinox. Look for both sides of that issue to be presented here over the next week or so. Let every man be fully convinced in his own mind.

This is also probably a good time to tell folks that we have done some revamping of the Shomrei Brit website. Hopefully, you will find the changes useful and informative. We'd appreciate your feedback.

How About a Religious Joke?

The Exegesis of Stop Signs

Suppose you're travelling to work and you see a stop sign. What do you do? That depends on how you exegete the stop sign.

1. A postmodernist deconstructs the sign with his bumper, ending forever the tyranny of the north-south traffic over the east-west traffic.

2. Similarly, a Marxist sees a stop sign as an instrument of class conflict. He concludes that the bourgeoisie use the north-south road and obstruct the progress of the workers on the east-west road.

3. A serious and educated Anglican believes that he cannot understand the stop sign apart from its interpretive community and their tradition. Observing that the interpretive community doesn't take it too seriously, he doesn't feel obligated to take it too seriously either.

4. An average Anglican doesn't bother to read the sign, but he'll stop if the car in front of him does.

5. A fundamentalist, allowing the text to interpret itself, stops at the stop sign and waits for it to tell him to go.

6. A suburban preacher looks up "STOP" in his lexicons of English and discovers that it can mean: 1) something which prevents motion, such as a plug for a drain, or a block of wood that prevents a door from closing; 2) a location where a train or bus lets off passengers. The main point of his sermon the following Sunday on this text is: when you see a stop sign, it is a place where traffic is naturally clogged, so it is a good place to let off passengers from your car.

7. An orthodox Jew does one of two things:
a) Take another route to work that doesn't have a stop sign so that he doesn't run the risk of disobeying the Law.
b) Stop at the stop sign, say "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, king of the universe, who hast given us thy commandment to stop," wait 3 seconds according to his watch, and then proceed. Incidentally, the Talmud has the following comments on this passage: R[abbi] Meir says: He who does not stop shall not live long. R. Hillel says: Cursed is he who does not count to three before proceeding. R. Simon ben Yudah says: Why three? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, gave us the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. R. ben Isaac says: Because of the three patriarchs. R. Yehuda says: Why bless the Lord at a stop sign? Because it says: "Be still, and know that I am God." R. Hezekiel says: When Jephthah returned from defeating the Ammonites, the Holy One, blessed be He, knew that a donkey would run out of the house and overtake his daughter; but Jephthah did not stop at the stop sign, and the donkey did not have time to come out. For this reason he saw his daughter first and lost her. Thus he was judged for his transgression at the stop sign. R. Gamaliel says: R. Hillel, when he was a baby, never spoke a word, though his parents tried to teach him by speaking and showing him the words on a scroll. One day his father was driving through town and did not stop at the sign. Young Hillel called out: "Stop, father!" In this way, he began reading and speaking at the same time. Thus it is written: "Out of the mouth of babes." R. ben Jacob says: Where did the stop sign come from? Out of the sky, for it is written: "Forever, O Lord, your word is fixed in the heavens." R. ben Nathan says: When were stop signs created? On the fourth day, for it is written: "let them serve as signs." R. Yeshuah says: ... [continues for three more pages]

8. A Karaite does the same thing as an orthodox Jew, except that he waits ten seconds instead of three He also replaces his brake lights with 1000 watt searchlights and connects his horn so that it is activated whenever he touches the brake pedal.

9. A Unitarian concludes that the passage "STOP" undoubtedly was never uttered by Jesus himself, but belongs entirely to stage III of the gospel tradition, when the church was first confronted by traffic in its parking lot.

10. A divinity professor notices that there is no stop sign on Mark street but there is one on Matthew and Luke streets, and concludes that the ones on Luke and Matthew streets are both copied from a sign on a completely hypothetical street called "Q". There is an excellent 300 page discussion of speculations on the origin of these stop signs and the differences between the stop signs on Matthew and Luke street in the scholar's commentary on the passage. There is an unfortunately omission in the commentary, however; the author apparently forgot to explain what the text means.

11. A tenured divinity professor points out that there are a number of stylistic differences between the first and second half of the passage "STOP". For example, "ST" contains no enclosed areas and 5 line endings, whereas "OP" contains two enclosed areas and only one line termination. He concludes that the author for the second part is different from the author for the first part and probably lived hundreds of years later. Later scholars determine that the second half is itself actually written by two separate authors because of similar stylistic differences between the "O" and the "P".

12. A rival scholar notes in his commentary that the stop sign would fit better into the context three streets back. (Unfortunately, he neglects to explain why in his commentary.) Clearly it was moved to its present location by a later redactor. He thus exegetes the intersection as though the stop sign were not there.

13. Because of the difficulties in interpretation, a later scholar emends the text, changing "T" to "H". "SHOP" is much easier to understand in context than "STOP" because of the multiplicity of stores in the area. The textual corruption probably occurred because "SHOP" is so similar to "STOP" on the sign several streets back that it is a natural mistake for a scribe to make. Thus the sign should be interpreted to announce the existence of a shopping area.

Spirit Filled Sun Worship

DSCF0467
Originally uploaded by wdjacobson.

Well, at least it's spirit filled.