THE SUN AND THE MOON
And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land...And for the precious fruit brought forth by the Sun, and for the precious things put forth by the Moon...(Deuteronomy 33:13).
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And Isaac said, run, and lay hold on them, each according to his strength; And to him that seizeth them will the Sun and Moon belong.
And Levi laid hold of the Sun, and Judah seized the Moon...(Testament of Naphtali 2:1-4).
One tribe (Benjamin), that (Judah and) DaViD my servant may have a light always before Me in Jerusalem...(1 Kings 11:31-36; 1 Kings 12:21).
And now my children obey Levi and Judah, and be not lifted up against these two tribes; For from them shall arise unto you the salvation of God. The Lord shall rise up from Levi as it were a high priest, and from Judah as it were a king. He shall save all the Gentiles and the race of Israel...(Testament of Simeon 3:10,11).
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And there shall arise unto you from the tribe of Judah and of Levi the salvation of the Lord, and he shall make war against Belial...
And the saints shall rest in Eden, and in New Jerusalem shall the righteous rejoice unto the glory of God forever...(Testament of Dan 2:10-12).
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And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of water in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
Moreover the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun, and the light of the Sun shall be Sevenfold, as the light of Seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound...(Isaiah 30:25,26).
CHRISTIANITY, THE SUN...Malachi, chapter 4 (KJV).
He appointed the Moon for seasons, and the Sun knoweth his (own) going down...(Psalm 104:19).
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So let thine enemies perish, O Lord, but let them that love God be as the Sun when he goeth forth in his might...(Judges 5:31).
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The Mighty God hath spoken and called the earth from the Rising of the Sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the Perfection of Beauty, God hath shined...(Psalm 50:1,2).
The Children of Light
Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men...for they sleep not, except they have done mischief...For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
But the path of the just is as a Shining Light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day...(Proverbs 4:14-18).
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The son of man shall sends forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and them that do iniquity...
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear let him hear...(Matthew 13:41-43).
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Through the tender mercy of God whereby the Dayspring on High hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, TO GUIDE OUR FEET in the way of peace...(Luke 1:78,79).
We also have a more sure word of prophecy (coming) whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a Light that shineth in a dark place, until the Day dawn and the Day Star arise in your hearts...(2 Peter 2:19).
For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they (the Jews) call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they (Christianity, as well as all others) believe in him (in DaViD) of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach, except they be Sent? (understand Ezekiel 2:1-3), as it is written, How beautiful are THE FEET of them that preach the gospel of Peace, and bring glad tidings of good things...(Romans 10:13-15).
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That ye may be blameless and harmless, the children of God without rebuke,in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation whom ye shine as lights in the world.
Holding forth the Word of Life that I (Paul) may rejoice in the day of Messiah, that I have not run in vain neither labored in vain...(Philippians 2:15,16).
Judaism (not Zionism), and the Moon.
Behold, this child is set for the fall and RISING AGAIN of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against...(Luke 2:34).
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Blow the Trumpet in Zion...(Joel, chapters 2 and 3).
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Blow the trumpet in the New Moon, in the time appointed on our solemn feast day...(Psalm 81:3).
The month Nissan is the month Abib, the time of Passover.
THE SYMBOLIC COMPARISON OF THE JEWS AND THE MOON
By Rabbi Avrohom Berger
With the approach of the month of Nisan, we read the special Parshah of This month is for you the first of the months of the year, because the month in which the Jewish people were redeemed from Egyptian slavery is the first and foremost in the Jewish year. It is the time when the world was created, when the patriarchs were born, and when we shall again be freed from our present exile. (Others have attributed these things to the time of the New Moon of the Seventh Month).
The Talmud tells us (Sukah 29) that the Jewish calendar is based upon the Lunar Month, while the nations of the world count their years according to the Sun. Where in the Torah is there any indication that the Moon is the principal element upon which our time-reckoning is founded? The Hebrew word for the a month is Codesh, which means new or renewal. Because the Moon gives off no light of its own, it is reflecting the light of the Sun. Each month the Moon is born again. As the Moon and earth move along in their orbits, more of the Moon's sunlit part is seen, until it shines as a Full Moon. Then less and less of the sunlit part is seen, until the dark New Moon appears (in the West).
All our holidays are based upon the Moon, the heavenly body that revolves around the earth once in about 29 and a quarter days...The Midrash (Exodus) sees inthe rythm and orbit of the Moon a similarity and reflection of Jewish history. Just as the Moon increases its light until it reaches a complete fulness by the 15th of the month, and then it gradually diminishes until it becomes dark, so it is with the Jewish nation. With the appearance of the first Jew--Avraham Avinu--on the world scene, the world began to be illuminated by the spark of G-dliness. The decendants of Avraham advanced the Jewish idea.
In the time of Moshe Rabeinu, a Torah nation was created. And in the 16th generation from Avraham, Judaism reached its highest point in the reign of King Solomon, whose fame and wisdom spread throughout the world, and who built the first Temple. The Jewish Moon was full.
Then the decline began. With the ascending to the throne of Solomon's son, king Rehoboam, the Jewish kingdom was split in two (and Ephraim went backwards), and the deterioration lasted another 15 generations, until the time of king Zedekiah, the 30th generation from Avraham, when the independent Jewish State disappeared with the destruction of the Beth Ha-mikdash, and the exile of the Jewish people.
In the prayer of the Sanctification of the Moon, we find another resemblance of the Jewish people to the Moon. "Just as the Moon is renewed, so the Jewish people will be renewed," meaning that even in the darkest hour we shouldn't despair. We always have the spiritual strength and vigor to liberate ourselves from the dreary and gloomy situations in which we sometimes find ourselves, (Daniel 12, for instance), and resume the struggle to revitalize ourselves and to flourish and thrive again.
Since all of our beloved holidays are dependent upon the date of the Jewish month, the Rabbinical Court had to determine each month in accordance with halachic procedures, the day when the new month will begin. The Talmud relates (Rosh Hashana 25a) that once, when the Roman (read American) authorities prohibited the Jewish sages to proclaim officially when the new month will start, in order that the Jews shouldn't be able to celebrate the holidays, R. Yahuda Hanasie sent R. Chiya to a certain small town to establish the precise time when the New Moon was seen, and when Rosh Chodesh will be. Since this had to be kept secret, they made up that in case the mission will be successful, R. Chiya should send the news in the code words of "DAVID, THE KING OF ISRAEL IS ALIVE AND EXISTING." Rashi explains that David is compared to the Moon, because the renewal of the Moon brings with it the hope and expectation that the kingdom of David will be reborn.
This as also the reason, that at the Blessing of the Chodesh we appeal to G-d, that He "should redeem us in the near future, and gather us from the Four corners of the world." Since the emergence of the New Moon represents and embodies the idea of our national rejuvination and our hopes and dreams for redemption, so we pour out our hearts to Hashem and urge Him to transform the concept of the Jewish comparison to the Moon, into the concrete reality of actual redemption, and to make it an accomplished fact. The Jewish Press.
Now why dost thou cry aloud? IS THERE NO KING IN THEE? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a Woman in travail.
Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a Woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, AND THOU SHALT GO EVEN TO BABYLON: THERE SHALT THOU BE DELIVERED; THERE THE LORD SHALL REDEEM THEE FROM THE HAND OF THINE ENEMIES...(Micah 4:9,10).
THE FIRST GEULA AND THE ULTIMATE GEULA
By R. Shmuel M. Butman
"In Nissan our ancestors were redeemed, and in Nissan they will in the future be redeemed," say our sages (Talmud, Rosh Hashana 11a, Midrash Shmos Rabba 15:11). More specifically, the Geula (Redemption) that started with the exodus from Egypt was incomplete for it was followed by further exile and suffering. But the process of Geula that started then continues till now and will be completed in the true ultimate Geula with the coming of Moshiach.
At the Seder, the start of Pesach, the emphasis is on the mitzva of the Evening, which is to tell how our ancestors were liberated from Egypt. We conclude this mitzva with the first two chapters of Hallal (psalms of praise)--(Tehilim/Psalms 113 and 114)--which refer to G-d's descent to the low spiritual depths of Egypt in order to raise us up from there to the very heights when we received the Torah at Mount Sinai.
But the end of the Seder refers to the future Geula. We pour out a special Koso shel Eliyahu, a cup for Eliyahu (Elijah) the prophet who will announce that the Geula is here. We go to the outside door to greet him, asking G-d to make this the time to give our people's persecutors their just deserts, (be careful). Continuing immediately with the last four psalms of Hallal (Psalms 115 to 118) which start with these words, we specify that we ask this of G-d, Not for our sake, G-d, not for our sake but for the sake of Your Name. And we conclude the Seder with the words: THE COMING YEAR IN JERUSALEM.
IN FACT, THE FIRST YOM TOV DAY (the first of the Seven days of Passover) EMPHASIZES THE ORIGINAL GEULA FROM EGYPT, WHILE THE LAST YOM TOV DAY EMPHASIZES THE FUTURE GEULA. This becomes clearer as the yom tov draws to a close.
On the Seventh Day of Pesach, the anniversary of the splitting of the sea, the public Torah reading includes the famous Song of Praise (Shmos/Exodus 15:1-19) (Understand Revelation 15:1-4, KJV) after that great miracle, starting with the words Oz yoshir--"then Moshe sang." Literally, however, the words mean "he will sing--one of our sages' proofs that the Torah forecasts the future RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD that will culminate the ultimate Geula.
The Song concludes with the words: You will bring them and plant them on the Mountain of Your Inheritance, the Prepared place that You, G-d, have made for Your abode, the Sanctuary that Your Hands, G-d, have established. G-d shall be King forever and ever. Rashi, the most basic commentator, explains that this refers to the future Beis Hamikdash in Jerusalem which will be built by G-d's Hands at the time that His sovereignty will be seen by the entire world to be everlasting--in the future (most imminent) Geula.
When this Song is read in the weekly Torah readings of each Shabbos (Sabbath), the Haftora (reading of the Prophets) that follows is the Song of Devorah (Deborah) (Shoftim/Judges, chapter 5). But on the Seventh day of Pesach, the Haftora is specifically the Song of King David (Shmuel II, chapter 22) the founder of the royal house from whom Moshiac descends, to emphasize his connection to the future Geula.
Finally, on the last day of Pesach, the Haftora (Yashayahu/Isaiah 10:32 to 12:6) speaks at length about Moshiac and the wonders of the Messianic era: ...A shoot shall come forth from the stem of Yishai/Jesse....The spirit of G-d shall rest upon him...He shall be permeated with the spirit of the fear of G-d...all referring openly to Moshiach. ...The wolf shall dwell with the lamb...The earth shall be full of knowledge of G-d as waters cover the sea...referring to the Messianic era....It shall be on that day (that He will take possession of the Remnant of His people...from the far-flung islands of the sea...He will gather the exiled of Israel...the ingathering of the exiles.
That is why the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chassidus, initiated the custom to eat a Third festive meal on the last afternoon of Pesach, called Seudas Moshiach--the "festive meal of Moshiach." The fifth leader of Chabad, Rabbi Sholem Dov Ber of Lubavitch, started the custom of drinking Four cups of wine at this meal (parallel) to the Four cups drunk at the Seder at the start of Pesach). On this day, our Rebbes tell us, "SHINES THE RADIANCE OF THE LIGHT OF MOSHIACH." And this gives us the strength to to continue on during the very last moments of our exile as we prepare to go out to greet Moshiach. May it be NOW."
(Many in the Luvavitcher sect believed, and many still believe, that Rebbe Menachem Schneerson was the Moshiac. This, of course, was not true. The Anointed Ones will not appear from any of the Zionist factions of Judaism. But of those who have been faithfully keeping the Fig Tree, it is written):
Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?...
For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?...(Romans 11:12-15).
Please see:
Harmonic Convergence/Concordance