29/30 September, the 6035th anniversary of the creation of Adam

The Jewish Tradition

2008Tishri1 (Ethanim) starts on September 29, after sunset. This is the New Years Day of the secular Jewish Calendar, “Rosh Hashanah”, literally "head of the year”. Rosh Hashanah is the first of the High Holidays or Yamim Noraim ("Days of Awe"), or Asseret Yemei Teshuva (The Ten Days of Repentance) which are days specifically set aside to focus on repentance that conclude with the holiday of Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of man whereas five days earlier, on 25 of Elul, marks the first day of creation. Rosh Hashanah is observed as a day of rest (Leviticus 23:24) and the activities prohibited on Shabbat are also prohibited on Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is characterized by the blowing of the shofar, a trumpet made from a ram's horn, intended to awaken the listener from his or her "slumber" and alert them to the coming judgment.

On Rosh Hashanah itself, religious poems, called piyyuttim, are added to the regular services. Special prayer books for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, called the mahzor (plural mahzorim), have developed over the years. Many poems refer to Psalms 81:4: "Blow the shofar on the [first day of the] month, when the [moon] is covered for our holiday".

Chronological Significance

According to our understanding of biblical prophecy, this Tishri1 marks the start of the year in which the "Great Tribulation" begins. This tribulation was predicted by Jesus Christ just before his death. As far as we understand it, there are many reasons to take this conclusion serious.

1975 years passed since the introduction of the New Covenant (the covenant for all Christian saints) by Jesus in 33 CE and 2 times 1975 years have passed since the inauguration of the Abrahamic Covenant (the Covenant for all those with faith in God) by YHWH in 1943 BCE. So the start of this year can really be considered important and will most likely mean the beginning of a new era.

If this tribulation will indeed begin exactly on Sept. 30, and if the "disgusting thing causing desolation" appears on the world stage, accompanied by the removal of the "constant feature", then we would have a definite timeline. It would mark the beginning of the 1335 days of Daniel 12 that will end on May26/27, 2012 when all the faithful will have many reasons to feel happy and blessed according to the promise. It will mean the end of the tribulation/judgment for them and might be the day of their transference, the “rapture”.

However, if Sept. 30 does not provide physical evidence of changes in earthly matters, this does not necessarily mean that the date was incorrect. One possible option is that the 144,000 saints have been completely sealed by today and the “winds on the 4 corners of the earth” can be let loose now.

It would be unreasonable to expect a radical change of affairs simultaneously all over the earth, but it is possible that the tribulation begins where the Twin Towers fell seven years ago (Isaiah30).

It is appropriate to begin the countdown of the 1335 days for the "faithful" on 2008Tishri1, as the chronological evidence is tremendously conclusive. Unless the entire timeline reconstruction that we have done so far is wrong, the period of 1335 days until the happiness of the faithful begins Sept. 30th.

Once we've crossed the threshold of this "appointed time” there are a couple of dates that would qualify as the actual beginning of the three and a half times/years of oppression of true Christians by the small "horn". Here are the most significant dates this month:

October 8/9 = Tishri10, the Day of Atonement. Would end Nisan10, 2012, the day the Passah lamb is taken into the house.

October 15/16 = Tishri15, the start of the Feast of Tabernacles (Booths). Would end Nisan15, 2012, the first day of the Feast of Unfermented Cakes

October 21/22 = Tishri21, the end of the Feast of Tabernacles. Would end Nisan21, 2012, the end of the Feast of Unfermented Cakes

October 22/23 = Tishri22, the day of the Solemn Assembly. Would end Nisan22, 2012

There is also a possibility that the day the entire Christian congregation fully identifies the "disgusting thing causing desolation", placed in a "holy place", is 2008Heshvan5 (Bul), which is Nov. 2/3. From that day, the count of 1290 lunar day takes us to the 5th of Sivan, a day before Pentecost 2012.

Although our best projection for the start of the Great Tribulation is Sept. 29/30, we have a latitude of 35 days, until November 3rd by which things must be obvious. Otherwise we have an error of at least 6 months in our chronological model of the sanctuary.


The month of Ethanim or Tishri according to the Scriptures

Ethanim is the seventh lunar month of the sacred calendar of the Israelites and the first of the secular calendar. (1 Kings 8:2). After the Babylonian exile this month was called Tishri, although that name does not appear in the biblical record.

With regard to the festival that started on the 15th of the month (about early October), the historian Josephus wrote: "The fifteenth day of the month, when the winter season begins, the law directs us to build tabernacles in every house." (Jewish Antiquities, Book III, Chapter X, Section 4.)

While Abib (Nisan) became the first month of the year on the sacred Jewish calendar after the Exodus from Egypt, Ethanim continued to be considered the first month of the secular or agricultural calendar because in this month nearly all the crops were gathered in completely. Jehovah referred to Ethanim as “the outgoing of the year," and also "at the end of the year."

16 Also, the festival of harvest of the first ripe fruits of your labors, of what you sow in the field; and the festival of ingathering at the outgoing of the year, when you gather in your labors from the field (Exodus23).

22 “And you will carry on your festival of weeks with the first ripe fruits of the wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering at the turn of the year (Exodus34).

It is also noteworthy that the Jubilee year did not start in the month of Nisan/Abib, but in Ethanim, specifically on the 10th of the month.

8 "‘And you must count for yourself seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years, and the days of the seven sabbaths of years must amount to forty-nine years for you. 9 And you must cause the horn of loud tone to sound in the seventh month on the tenth of the month; on the day of atonement YOU people should cause the horn to sound in all YOUR land. 10 And YOU must sanctify the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land to all its inhabitants. It will become a Jubilee for YOU, and YOU must return each one to his possession and YOU should return each one to his family. 11 A Jubilee is what that fiftieth year will become for YOU. YOU must not sow seed nor reap the land’s growth from spilled kernels nor gather the grapes of its unpruned vines. 12 For it is a Jubilee. It should become something holy to YOU. From the field YOU may eat what the land produces. (Leviticus25).

Note: The Sabbath and the Jubilee release occurred on Tishri10, Atonement Day, with the sounding of the trumpet. However, some argue that although the Jubilee year began with the Day of Atonement, the Sabbath year began on Tishri1.

Ethanim/Tishro also was a month of celebrations. The first day was the "day of the trumpet blast"

23 And Jehovah went on speaking to Moses, saying: 24 “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month, on the first of the month, there should occur for YOU a complete rest, a memorial by the trumpet blast, a holy convention. 25 No sort of laborious work may YOU do, and YOU must present an offering made by fire to Jehovah.’” (Leviticus 23).

“‘And in the seventh month, on the first of the month, YOU should hold a holy convention. No sort of laborious work must YOU do. It should prove to be a day of the trumpet blast for YOU. (Numbers 29:1)

Since all the new moons (months) were to be proclaimed with a trumpet blast, it seems that on this day the trumpets sounded more than usual.

10 “And in the day of YOUR rejoicing and in YOUR festal seasons and at the commencements of YOUR months, YOU must blow on the trumpets over YOUR burnt offerings and YOUR communion sacrifices; and their use must serve as a memorial for YOU before YOUR God. I am Jehovah YOUR God.” (Numbers 10).

Michael & Emmanuel

lwoe@gmx.at