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#Post#: 585--------------------------------------------------
Netley shore
By: Billy Evmur Date: August 22, 2018, 1:08 pm
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[img]
HTML https://eoceanic.com/images/harbours/359/netley_southampton_water_hampshire_england__DSC1972.JPG[/img]
[font=arial]Let's see if I can remember this.
Moonlight shadow, moonlight shadow
I don't want to be mantled in you
cold and unfriendly as you are
chilled with the midnight dew
I would rather have a sunbeam
warm upon my shoulder
little sis will hide her face
unless loving arms enfold her.[/font]
[font=arial]
Sitting on a towel down on Netley shore
eating bread and damson jam
harking the old men snore
sifting through the shingle in the afternoon sun
"a stone that's got a hole in it
...little sis says ... is a lucky one"[/font]
[font=arial]
No-one said the sea is boring
not the sailor, how could he?
who has spent his whole life
traversing old Briney
crashing waves with freshing spume
gentle lapping curl
waves, wave upon wave
beneath sky azure or pearl[/font]
#Post#: 978--------------------------------------------------
Re: Netley shore
By: patrick jane Date: September 17, 2018, 8:23 am
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How Poetry Quiets the ‘Pandemonium of Blab’
Poet Christian Wiman helps us tune our ears to silence, so God's
voice won't be lost in the noise.
If I could, I would give this review a flashing, neon title. I
would aim on it a bright and roving spotlight. I would print it
up like a recruitment poster, pointing finger and all, because I
WANT YOU, yes you, to read this book.
You’re not that interested in art? Poetry isn’t really your
thing? Your stack of books to read is already too high? Make
those apologies, and I will only press my point harder. It is
precisely because there are too many voices calling for our
attention—too many books on our bedside tables, too many apps
fired up on our screens—that we, as people of faith, should tune
our ears to silence. Poets, in particular, help us do exactly
that. Only when the “pandemonium of blab—ceases,” Christian
Wiman writes, can we “hear—and what some of us hear … is a
still, small voice.”
Poetry depends on silence. It depends on the word not written,
the pause of line break or comma, the white space on the page.
If you are intrigued by the silence that poems can open up in
and around words when those words are placed with artful
precision and concision, you could dive right in to the quiet
rhythms of T. S. Eliot’s quartets, Seamus Heaney’s metaphors, or
Mary Oliver’s epiphanies. I suggest beginning with He Held
Radical Light, the latest offering from Wiman, a poet, editor,
and, most recently, divinity school professor.
Pressing into the Silence
He Held Radical Light is a book-length essay woven of spiritual
memoir, literary criticism, and lyric poetry. It demonstrates
with intelligence, honesty, and humor how vital poetry can be
for any exploration of faith, an argument the subtitle (“The Art
of Faith, the Faith of Art”) makes succinctly, as if it, too,
were a kind of poem. This is not a book about art and faith, as
if one or the other could be peeled away and considered singly.
Instead, this book suggests that the field of imagination is one
of the most significant places where the divine and the mortal
can meet. If that is true, who among us would refuse to travel
there merely because we have always found poetry “difficult” or
life has become “too busy” for the poetry we once loved?
Wiman is worth listening to because he is himself an
accomplished poet and, thanks in part to a decade at the helm of
Poetry magazine, he is intimately acquainted with the lives and
the works of so many of the best poets of the last century. With
Wiman as our guide, we witness his highly personal, sometimes
surprising encounters with poets—among them Heaney and
Oliver—and what those encounters reveal about the relationship
between the life (and faith) of the artist and the art itself.
We are also shown how Wiman reads poems, thus becoming more
perceptive readers ourselves without any heavy-handed lessons in
“how to read a poem.”
But Wiman is also worth listening to because he is a dying poet
and a dying man. He is dying in the sense that we are, each of
us, dying, but his dying has more urgency and more pain: In
2005, on his 39th birthday, Wiman was diagnosed with an
incurable form of blood cancer. Since then, as he has recounted
in his earlier memoir, My Bright Abyss, he has undergone
hospitalizations, chemotherapies, and even a bone marrow
transplant. While neither of his unconventional memoirs offers
much medical detail, they offer enough to understand that a poet
who can feel his own cells wreaking havoc is a poet for whom the
reality of death is more real than it is for most of us.
Why does this matter? It matters because, as Wiman writes,
“Resurrection is a fiction and a distraction to anyone who
refuses to face the reality of death.” I claimed this book could
tune our ears to silence, but I might have said it could tune
our ears to what Wiman calls the “final silence” of death. I’m
sure you understand why I buried this analogy beneath five full
paragraphs. Who among us is eager to confront the prospect of
our own demise? The answer to this question goes far in
explaining our collective addiction to the “pandemonium of
blab.”
But for the faithful seeker willing to press into the silence,
or for the one who has had silence pressed upon his or her self
by diagnosis or despair, Wiman is a relatable artist-guide. The
memoir elements of this book, peppered with honest
self-deprecation and confession, insure that Wiman is no poet on
a pedestal. He is too human for that, too mortal as well, and he
has accepted the painful truth that even his poems are mortal.
He recounts the “galactic chill” he felt in his soul when, at
the age of 38, he heard his friend and our 14th poet laureate,
Donald Hall, casually mention, “I was thirty-eight when I
realized not a word I wrote was going to last.” This book asks
us to consider that not only will our bodies die but so will
much (perhaps all?) of the work of our hands. If poets go on
writing, if we go on working and creating, then it must be for
some other reason than securing some portion of immortality.
An epigraph from Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez introduces the
notion of the poet as spiritual guide on page one: “The world
does not need to come from a god. For better or worse, the world
is here. But it does need to go to one (where is he?), and that
is why the poet exists.” In our day, religion and science both
seem fixated on origins. Wiman’s book implies that this fixation
is a distraction from a much more pertinent and personal
question: Where am I headed? Wiman claims, “One either lives
toward God or not.” He gives that simple statement the power of
poetic refrain by repeating it twice in one prose paragraph.
Poetry Is Not Enough
Some readers might find Wiman’s definition of faith too
simplistic. Those for whom faith has more content might bristle
when Wiman, referring to speculation about the poet Wallace
Stevens and a deathbed conversion to Catholicism, writes, “I
yawn just pondering it.” For Wiman, the “creative faith” of a
poem like “The Planet on the Table” is “enough,” though he is
careful to add that the poem is enough “because it enacts and
acknowledges its own insufficiency.” For Wiman, the weakness or
failure of poetry can become a “lens” with the potential to
reveal an ultimate spiritual truth and a final spiritual reality
that the poem can only ever suggest in glimmering moments that
collude with eternity but never encompass, explain, or define
it.
Though Wiman does not often invoke the names Jesus or Christ,
and then only to push against the highly familiar ways most
American Christians use those names, he is absolutely concerned
with the content of faith. Too many of the poets he reads,
admires, and shares with us in this book have a faith in the art
itself that Wiman finds completely inadequate. “Art is not
enough,” he writes, and again, “poetry is not enough” because
“at some point you need a universally redemptive activity. You
need grace that has nothing to do with your own efforts.” Poetry
matters, not because it saves, but because it can help us
perceive the ultimate reality of a saving grace that lies not
above, beneath, or even beyond the experience of death, but
somehow within it.
If we as Christian believers already feel ourselves well
acquainted with this amazing grace, does the art of poetry have
less to offer us? On this question, Wiman speaks persuasively
not only as a dying man but as a living one. Since his
diagnosis, he has married, become a father, found faith, written
more poems, and grieved the deaths of poets, young and old, whom
he admired and whom he called friend. He has known the “tangle
of pain and praise.” He has experienced the dying that leads to
life.
A poem by A. R. Ammons suggests that life is found in God but
God is found in death, and Wiman hears in it echoes of Dietrich
Bonhoeffer (“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and
die.”), and in Bonhoeffer he hears echoes of Jesus himself
(“Whoever would save his life will lose it …”). You and I have
read Christ’s words in our Bibles countless times, we have heard
them spoken in our churches Sunday after Sunday, yet in their
familiarity they risk becoming only one more sound in the
general noise of our distracted lives. Heaney, as Wiman reminds
us, once claimed that poetry “set[s] the darkness echoing.” The
paradox of poetry becomes the paradox of Christianity: In death,
we receive the Word of life. Having read He Held Radical Light,
my ears are freshly tuned to hear and to respond to Christ’s
liberating, devastating invitation.
Christie Purifoy lives with her husband and four children in a
farmhouse in Southeastern Pennsylvania. She is the author of
Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons (Revell) and the
forthcoming Placemaker: Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty,
and Peace (Zondervan).
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Hearing, believing and trusting the finished work of Jesus
Christ on the cross; His death, burial and resurrection, the
gospel of our salvation, seals us with that Holy Spirit of
Promise. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise. 2 Peter
3:9 KJV - 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 KJV - Ephesians 1:10-14 KJV -
Romans 10:9-10 KJV - Romans 10:13 - Romans 10:17 - Ephesians 1:7
KJV - Colossians 1:14 KJV -
#Post#: 2459--------------------------------------------------
Re: Netley shore
By: patrick jane Date: November 22, 2018, 8:26 pm
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NO ONE KNOWS THE DAY OR THE HOUR?
At the Time of the End, the wise shall understand. Dan 12:10
Understanding the expression "No man knows the day or hour" is
not possible
by simply taking the English translation literally, because in
the book of
Daniel and the Book of Revelation, we are given EXACT
descriptions of
timing, relative to KEY events - such as the shutting down of
the altar
sacrifices in Jerusalem at the MID-POINT of the 70th week. Dan
9:27
Jesus was asked, "When shall these things be?" Matt 24:3
His answer ties us in to a very specific event (The Abomination
of
Desolation) which can be measured on our calendars: "When you
therefore
shall see the Abomination Of Desolation, spoken of by Daniel the
prophet,
stand in the holy place, (whoever reads, let him
understand:)..." Matt 24:15.
It is now clear that "no man knows the day or hour" does NOT
mean "no man
knows the day or hour" as we read it from a modern-day English
perspective.
>From his book "Signs In the Heavens" by Avi Ben Mordechai, he
devotes a
chapter to explaining what "no man knows the day or hour" truly
means from
a rabbinical Hebraic perspective. It is a figure of speech.
The following chapter contains edited excerpts from Avi Ben
Mordechai's
commentaries and builds on them aiming to explain that the Holy
Bible does
in fact reveal the "day and hour" or "exact timing" of our
Lord's Return.
No One Knows the Day or the Hour?
Christians over the centuries have separated themselves from
their Hebraic
roots causing the misunderstanding of key Jewish biblical
idioms. An idiom
is also a figure of speech. When Y'shua (Jesus) uttered His
famous words
concerning the Messianic Era in Mattityahu (Matthew) 24:26,
"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in
Heaven, nor the Son, but
only the Father", He used a common Jewish figure of speech
referring to a
specific Jewish Festival. In essence He was saying, "I am coming
for My
Bride on such and such a day! Be watching!" What day could the
Jewish idiom
be referring to? Keep reading!
HEBRAIC ROOTS
Y'shua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah) was Jewish and lived a
Torah-observant Jewish life. Evidence suggests that He
communicated to His
audience in the Hebrew language, in Hebraic ways. What does it
mean to
communicate in Hebraic ways?
It means to think and talk like a Jew. In Y'shua's day it meant
to speak in the language and idioms of the day.
Those who heard the Lord speak knew what He was saying and
usually what He was
alluding to unless He was speaking in parables, which had their
own
analogies. Of course, today's generation of believers struggles
to
understand His words and concepts.
Speaking, thinking and acting like the
Jewish Rabbi He was helped His mission in bringing the gospel
message to
"the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt 15:24).
Y'shua was quoted in Mattityahu (Matthew) 8:11 as saying: "I say
to you
that many will come from the east and the west, and will take
their places
at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of
Heaven".
Since we are talking about Jewish idioms, have you ever
considered the meaning of
these words? Specifically, our Lord used and confirmed common
Jewish ideas
about the Day of the Lord - the millennium - and its relation to
the Feast
of Sukkot (Tabernacles) in Z'kharyah 14.
In speaking, Y'shua referred to
the Festival and its traditional guests of honour, Avraham,
Yitzchak and
Ya'acov, called the ushpizin (uoosh-piz-zin) or seven shepherds
(exalted
guests), invited into every succah (tabernacle) at the Feast of
Sukkot in
the fall of the year.
The seven shepherds in descending order are
1. Avraham (Abraham), 2. Yitzchak (Isaac), 3. Ya'acov (Jacob),
4. Mosheh
(Moses), 5. Aaron, 6. Yosef (Joseph) and 7. HaMelech David (King
David).
By mentioning the feast and three of the seven shepherds,
His audience
immediately understood the allusion to the Messianic age -
"Millennium" or
"Day" of the Lord.
"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost"
(Luke 19:10).
Again, in this simplistic phrase Y'shua, the Son of Miriyam and
Yosef,
spoke of two things: His Deity (by calling Himself the subject
of the
prophet Dani'el's vision) and His mission (by calling Himself
the One God
Who spoke to Mosheh on Mount Sinai) as it is written in Dani'el
and
Yechezk'el (Ezekiel):
In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was One like
a Son of
Man, coming with the clouds of Heaven. He approached the Ancient
of Days
and was led into His presence (Dani'el 7:13-14).
For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I Myself will search
for My sheep
and look after them (Yechezk'el-Ezekiel 34:11ff).
In the Gospel narrative of Luke 23:31, Y'shua said: "For if men
do these
things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
In this
verse Y'shua points His audience, who had portions of the
writings of the
Prophets memorized, to the verses in Yechezk'el (Ezekiel) 20:45
to 21:7.
Without question, Y'shua's hearers knew He referred to Chevlei
HaMashiach
or Ya'acov's Trouble in the Great Tribulation and warned His
audience that
what they do to Him in hardness of heart now, God will do to the
nation in
judgement later.
Y'shua's encounter with Natan'el (Nathanael) is recorded in
Yochanan (John)
1:47-48: When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him,
"Here is a
true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false". "How do You
know me?"
Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still
under the
fig tree before Philip called you".
Again, our Lord used a strong figure of speech pointing to a
widely taught
Jewish expectation concerning the resurrection and the
millennium. In
brief, He told Natan'el that he will be alive on the Last Day to
inherit
the land promised to Avraham (Bereshith-Genesis 17:8). From
Y'shua's words,
Natan'el understood he would participate in the resurrection
since "that
Day" was yet future.
This is understood in the first century Jewish figure
of speech, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree",
which
refers to life and study of Torah in the millennium (Midrash
Rabbah
Genesis, Rabbah Song of Songs).
Y'shua also told Natan'el that he is like
righteous Avraham who received his reward for trusting God. This
is
understood because of the phrase, "Here is a true Israelite, in
whom there
is nothing false". The millennial concept of the fig tree is
found
throughout the Tanach including Z'kharyah 3:10:
"In that day each of you will invite his neighbor to sit under
his vine and fig tree", declares the
LORD Almighty. For this reason Natan'el responded emphatically
to Y'shua
and His words, saying: "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; You are
the King of
Israel!"
God through HaMashiach Y'shua spoke to the Jews in many portions
and in
many ways (Hebrews 1:1-2) relying upon known figures of speech,
common
expectations and direct thoughts from Talmudic and Pharisaic
teachings. The
concepts I addressed only scratch the surface, so-to-speak.
Every phrase
and word from the mouth of the Lord meant something to His
audience. He
spoke with precision. With that as a basis, let us go on to one
of the most
interesting Jewish figures of speech misunderstood by the Church
over the
years. It concerns Y'shua's phrase,
"No one knows about that day or hour,
not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the
Father". In
context, He refers to the home-taking of His bride, the
beginning of the
Messianic era and His millennial reign as King of kings over all
the earth.
To understand this concept, we begin by examining its
foundation.
ROSH HASHANAH
Chapter Five described the annual Jewish Festival of Trumpets or
Rosh
HaShanah - the first day of the seventh month. A few themes
linked to this
Jewish festival are resurrection, repentance, kingship,
corronation and a
marriage feast.
This chapter shows another theme and convincing proof that
Rosh HaShanah is not only the start of "The Day of the Lord"
(Millennium),
but is also the day of the resurrection! It has to do with the
moon and its
29-day cycle of renewal.
In this period of slightly less than 30 days, the moon goes from
darkness
to light and back to darkness again. This is not a haphazard
occurrence
attributed to evolution or science.
God planned it for many reasons, one
being as a picture of resurrection and renewal. With each cycle
of nearly
30 days the ancient rabbis understood that the moon was being
reborn or
"born again" (Sefard siddur, Mussaf for Shabbat and Shabbat Rosh
Chodesh,
p. 509 and 646-648).
NEW MOON
In Y'shua's day, the moon was so important that a Jewish
festival was
proclaimed at the beginning of every month (Talmud Tractate
Chaggigah 17b;
Shavuot 10a; Arachin 10b). This was called the New Moon Festival
and in the
B'rit Chadashah, Rabbi Sha'ul (Paul) makes note of it
(Colossians 2:16).
Even in the Tanach, King David provoked King Sha'ul (Saul) over
it (1
Shmu'el-Samuel 20:5).
In the coming millennium the gate of the inner court
of the Temple facing east shall be opened on the new moon
(Yechezk'el-Ezekiel 46:1).
And finally in the millennium all nations will
celebrate the New Moon festival every month (Yeshayahu-Isaiah
66:23). It is
obvious from the Hebrew Scriptures that in the millennium God
has no plans
to do away with His system.
Since it is so important, exactly what is a new moon? It is the
opposite of
a full moon. Every month the moon goes through a complete cycle
of renewal
called Rosh Chodesh, the head or beginning of the renewed month.
Twelve
times a year on Rosh Chodesh, the moon always starts off with
its disk
being very dark to the naked eye.
Over the course of 15 days it gets
brighter and brighter until it finally reaches a full
white-faced disk or
full moon. Over the next 15 days it becomes darker and darker
and finally
becomes invisible to the naked eye again.
The ancient rabbis saw a great lesson in this. Just as the moon
has no
light of its own but receives its light from the sun, so we too
have no
light of our own and must receive it from God.
As the moon goes through a
near 30-day cycle of dark to light to dark, so we need constant
spiritual
renewal and repentance. Like the moon, we too must be reborn or
"born
again" into HaMashiach and constantly renewed through
repentance. This is
why God called it a faithful witness in the sky (Mizmor-Psalm
89:37).
If the moon is so important to God, why do we pay so little
attention to
it? We have lost touch with God's faithful witness in the sky.
But Y'shua
and the people of His day never lost touch with it. And as I
previously
noted, not only was the new moon necessary for the Jewish
calendar, it was
also a monthly festival celebrated with a feast fit for a king!
So, when
Y'shua said His famous words in Mattityahu-Matthew 24:36, it had
far-reaching implications. Here are the words of Y'shua in a few
different
translations:
But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of
heaven, but
my Father only. (KJV)
No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in
heaven, nor the
Son, but only the Father. (NIV) But of that day and hour knoweth
no one,
not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father
only. (ASV)
About the exact time, however, and the hour, none knows - not
even the
messengers of Heaven; but My Father alone. (Fenton Modern
English
Translation)
Failing to think like Y'shua and taking phrases out of Jewish
context can
lead one to misunderstand His words. For example, in many places
of the
B'rit Chadashah Y'shua knew the future and talked about it
openly. In one
instance He warned His talmidim (disciples) about their future
saying,
"See, I have told you ahead of time" (Mattityahu-Matthew 24:25).
His
context concerned the tribulation, the destruction of the
Temple, the rise
and fall of false messiahs (antichrists), etc.
If He knew the future in
Mattityahu 24:25, and the context concerns the Day of Trouble,
why would He
suddenly speak as though He did not know the future in the same
context
just 11 verses later in Mattityahu 24:36? Was He confused? Or
was He making
perfect sense in light of the customs of the Jews?
Since the subject of our discussion is the new moon and figures
of speech,
realize the phrase, "Of that day and hour no man knows" refers
to the
sanctification or setting apart of the new moon. Without this
sanctification, the Jews had no way of determining God's
"appointed times"
or moedim.
Twelve times a year a new Jewish month (Rosh Chodesh) was
announced to the
people. We have no system like it today. We look at a calendar
to determine
the first of the month; the Jews, however, looked at the moon.
This system
of chronology was given to the Jews to know precisely when the
Holy
festivals (moedim) would fall (there are still eight of them;
seven
appointed times and Shabbat). The moon was the faithful Jewish
calendar or
witness in the sky and 12 times a year was sanctified as the
basis of the
Jewish stellar calendar.
GOD'S APPOINTED TIMES
Because the moon was so important for Jewish date - setting, the
authorities
in charge of announcing the new moon in Y'rushalayim took great
care to
ensure the first day of the month was announced on time. To
correctly
announce the first day of the month, established by the new
moon, was one
of the Sanhedrin's greatest responsibilities. They had to ensure
the people
knew when the first of the month began 12 times a year!
Therefore God said
to the leaders of Israel:
These are the appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations
which you
shall proclaim at the times appointed for them
(Vayikrah-Leviticus 23:4).
In other words, God gave the Sanhedrin authority to announce and
sanctify
the new moon to the people. Its proclamation on earth was
supported by God
in Heaven (c.f. Mattityahu 18:18-20 where the Jewish context
supports a
believers' Sanhedrin as seen in Acts 15).
As soon as the new moon was
announced, the first day of the month began. Once the beginning
of the new
month was established, the festivals and weekly Shabbats for the
upcoming
month were sanctified for observance. In Hebrew, those
observances have
always been called "appointed times" or moedim, literally "a
sacred and
set time".
From God's perspective, the appointed times belong to Him
(Midrash Rabbah Numbers, Vol 2.21.25, p. 852) and no one has the
authority
to change the celebration of an appointed time.
To do so was a serious
matter and great sin. Appointed times had to be kept because of
their
Messianic implications.
Further in Vayikrah (Leviticus) 23:4, notice the phrase, "holy
convocation". The phrase in Hebrew is mikraw kodesh, better
translated,
"holy convocation and rehearsal". In other words, God's
appointed times are
actually "holy rehearsals" set apart to reflect events in the
Messianic
era. God said to the people,
"Pay attention! On this day I am going to do
something! Wake-up! The Jews were to know and practice all of
God's mikraot
or holy convocations. This is the essence of Rav Sha'ul's words
that the
Shabbat, new moons and festivals, "are a shadow of things to
come; the body
of Mashiach" (Colossians 2:17).
Twice a year, in the spring and fall, there were several
appointed times
and specific days of holy convocation dedicated to the Lord. The
new moon
was the key in being able to fulfill those set times, holy
convocations and
rehearsals.
For example, when the new moon was announced on the first day
of Nisan, also called Aviv, the people knew when to observe the
holy
convocations and set times of the 10th (Shemot-Exodus 12:3),
14th and 15th
(Shemot-Exodus 12:6; Bamidbar-Numbers 33:3), 16th
(Vayikrah-Leviticus
23:15), and finally the 21st.
In the same way, when the new moon was
announced on the first day of Tishri also called Ethanim, the
people knew
when to observe the Holy convocations of the 1st
(Vayikrah-Leviticus
23:23), 10th (Vayikrah-Leviticus 23:26), 15th
(Vayikrah-Leviticus 23:39),
and 22nd (Vayikrah-Leviticus 23:36).
Thus from the announcement of the new
moon to the festival dates which followed, it was only a matter
of counting
the right number of days. In a moment you will understand how
this applies
to the phrase that Y'shua spoke concerning His coming again.
THE SANHEDRIN AND THE TWO WITNESSES
The Mishnah, also referred to as the Oral Law, dealt with the
legal
elements of daily Jewish religious life, in Hebrew called
halachah. In the
treasure of the first and second century halachah we find many
explanations
to help us understand the Torah particularly in Y'shua's day
since it was
still oral then.
In volume two called "moed" or festival, tractate Rosh
HaShanah teaches us about the Sanhedrin and its selection
process of two
witnesses who would tell us when the new moon arrived. Once a
month the
Sanhedrin discussed when to proclaim the new moon. They did this
through
the agency of two witnesses, the element of all legal
transactions in
Judaism.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or
for any
sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses,
or at the
mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.
Deut 19:15
The men were important because by their witness, Israel
celebrated God's
appointed times. They had to be of good character and were
always treated
with great honour.
They had special privileges such as authorization to
ride into Y'rushalayim on horseback on the Shabbat to bring the
good news
of the new moon festivities! The men had special status because
they were
the confirmation that Y'hudah (Judaea) depended on for the
correct timing
of the new month and the festivals.
Rosh HaShanah Chapter 2, Mishnah 5 reads: There was a large
court in
Jerusalem called Beth Ya'azek. There all the witnesses used to
assemble and
the Beth Din used to examine them. They used to entertain them
lavishly
there so that they should have an inducement to come. (The
witnesses were
allowed to break the Shabbat travel restrictions for this one
purpose lest
they might be reluctant to come and give the essential evidence
of the
sighting of the new moon).
Continuing in Chapter 2, Mishnah 6: How do they test the
witnesses? The
pair who arrive first are tested first. The senior of them is
brought in
and they say to him, tell us how you saw the moon - in front of
the sun or
behind the sun? To the north of it or the south? How big was it,
and in
which direction was it inclined?
And how broad was it? If he says (he saw
it) in front of the sun, his evidence is rejected. After that
they would
bring in the second and test him.
If their accounts tallied, their evidence
was accepted, and the other pairs were only questioned briefly,
not because
they were required at all, but so that they should not be
disappointed,
(and) so that they should not be dissuaded from coming.
In qualifying the witnesses, the Sanhedrin used the following
criteria:
They never arrived at the same time.
They were never questioned at the same time.
There were always two new witnesses each month.
In short, the two qualified witnesses usually stood before the
Nassi or
President of the Sanhedrin (Jewish High Court) to give account
of the
moon's appearance prior to its becoming total dark (Moed Rosh
HaShanah,
Chapter 3, Mishnah 1).
Just before the moon's disk enters total darkness,
there are tiny slivers of white on the edges of the waning disk.
These were
called the "horns" of the moon.
Correctly sighting the "horns" (on the
waning crescent) determined the beginning of the new month. Once
the two
witnesses were qualified and questioned, if the President (who
had
knowledge of astronomy) was convinced their observation was
accurate, he
publicly sanctified the start of the new month.
After careful scrutiny to determine the official arrival of the
new moon,
the Nassi or President of the Sanhedrin proclaimed Rosh Chodesh
with the
words: "Sanctified", and all the people repeat after him,
"Sanctified,
sanctified". After the proclamation, the Sanhedrin ordered
watchmen on the
nearby hillsides to light fires and thus inform the Jews in all
of Y'hudah
(Judaea), Shomron (Samaria), Egypt, Babylon and the galut
(diaspora) that
the new month had begun. That started the festival of the New
Moon and
counting of the next 29- days to the next new month
proclamation.
Again, once the Sanhedrin set Rosh Chodesh, or the beginning of
the new
month by sighting the new moon, the rest of the festivals were
calculated.
However, the seventh month, Tishri, was particularly important
because it
was the only month that had a holy convocation or appointed time
on the
first day of the month.
This posed a unique problem. The first day of
Tishri was the appointed time called Rosh HaShanah, the Feast of
Trumpets
(Vayikrah-Leviticus 23:24). Yet no one could begin observing the
festival
until they heard those famous words from the President of the
Sanhedrin,
"Sanctified!"
No one in Israel could plan for the first day of the seventh
month Tishri,
called Yom Teruah or the Feast of Trumpets (also called Rosh
HaShanah).
When they knew how many days to count to a festival, that would
be easy.
But:
HOW COULD THEY PLAN FOR A FESTIVAL THAT THEY DID NOT KNOW AT
WHAT DAY OR
HOUR IT WOULD PUBLICALLY BE ANNOUNCED AND THUS BEGIN?
This was unique to Rosh HaShanah and dependent upon the
testimony of the
two witnesses. Prophetically, we are informed of two important
witnesses
during the Great Tribulation:
And I will give power unto My Two Witnesses, and they will
prophesy 1260
days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:3
Of course, anyone could look up into the twilight or early
morning sky and,
if they looked hard enough, see the new moon or at least its
"horns". And
certainly an astute observer knew when about 29- days were
completed since
the previous Rosh Chodesh.
But recall, ONLY THE SANHEDRIN NASSI had the
authority to proclaim the first of Tishri, which was already
established as
a technical procedure.
Once proclaimed, the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh
HaShanah) commenced. Until that public announcement by the
Nassi, everyone
had to wait before they could begin the observance of the
festival. No one
could begin the festival beforehand!
Thus, we can more clearly see the
analogy Jesus made with His words: "But of that day and hour
knoweth no
man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only" was in
regards to
this important festival of Rosh HaShanah.
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#Post#: 7455--------------------------------------------------
Re: Netley shore
By: Billy Evmur Date: August 8, 2019, 8:20 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Billy Evmur link=topic=77.msg585#msg585
date=1534961306]
[img]
HTML https://eoceanic.com/images/harbours/359/netley_southampton_water_hampshire_england__DSC1972.JPG[/img]
[font=arial]Let's see if I can remember this.
Old Netley Shore
Moonlight shadow, moonlight shadow
I don't want to be mantled in you
cold and unfriendly as you are
chilled as the midnight dew
I would rather have a sunbeam
warm upon my shoulder
little sis will hide her face
unless loving arms enfold her.[/font]
[font=arial]
Sitting on a towel down on Netley shore
eating bread and damson jam
harking the old men snore
sifting through the shingle in the afternoon sun
"a stone that's got a hole in it"
little sis says
"is a lucky one"[/font]
[font=arial]
No-one said the sea is boring
not the sailor, how could he?
who has spent his whole life
traversing old Briny
crashing waves with freshing spume [/font]
[font=arial]lazy lapping curl
waves, wave upon wave
'neath sky azure or pearl[/font][/quote]
#Post#: 7456--------------------------------------------------
Re: Netley shore
By: Billy Evmur Date: August 8, 2019, 8:21 am
---------------------------------------------------------
just updated it, yeh, that's what I did
#Post#: 7467--------------------------------------------------
Re: Netley shore
By: guest8 Date: August 8, 2019, 8:27 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Billy Evmur link=topic=77.msg7456#msg7456
date=1565270508]
just updated it, yeh, that's what I did
[/quote]
Looks good
#Post#: 16079--------------------------------------------------
Re: Netley shore
By: patrick jane Date: August 12, 2020, 7:15 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Billy Evmur Rocks !!!
#Post#: 17571--------------------------------------------------
Re: Netley shore
By: patrick jane Date: September 14, 2020, 6:05 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=patrick jane link=topic=77.msg16079#msg16079
date=1597234544]
Billy Evmur Rocks !!!
[/quote]He really does
#Post#: 17673--------------------------------------------------
Re: Netley shore
By: patrick jane Date: September 17, 2020, 6:10 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=patrick jane link=topic=77.msg17571#msg17571
date=1600124739]
[quote author=patrick jane link=topic=77.msg16079#msg16079
date=1597234544]
Billy Evmur Rocks !!!
[/quote]He really does
[/quote]Totally
#Post#: 18896--------------------------------------------------
Re: Netley shore
By: patrick jane Date: October 15, 2020, 10:18 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=patrick jane link=topic=77.msg17673#msg17673
date=1600384226]
[quote author=patrick jane link=topic=77.msg17571#msg17571
date=1600124739]
[quote author=patrick jane link=topic=77.msg16079#msg16079
date=1597234544]
Billy Evmur Rocks !!!
[/quote]He really does
[/quote]Totally
[/quote]yes
*****************************************************
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