A commitment of Jewish Karaites throughout the generations was to observe the Biblical precept to "Keep the Month of the Aviv". To this very day, every Karaite takes an oath at the time of their marriage "to keep the Holy Days of YHVH according to the observation of the Aviv in the Holy Land of Israel".  Throughout the Middle Ages, a great effort was made to send messengers to Israel to check on the state of the barley crop.  It was not uncommon that Karaitic Jews celebrated the Holy Days one month after the Rabbinic Jews.  As late as 1641, we learn from a Crimean Karaite pilgrim that the Karaites of the Middle East still followed the Biblical calendar and in 1641 they celebrated all the Holy Days one month after the "Rabbinites".

The "19 year cycle" has been adopted by the majority of the Jewish people instead of fixing the first month according to the barley crop.  This cycle was invented at a time when reliable reports of the barley crop in the land of Israel were difficult to obtain.  It added the occasionally necessary 13^th month (7 times every 19 years), which keeps Aviv in the spring of the year in a logical, yet Biblically unauthorized pattern.  The Rabbinites recognize that the state of the barley crop determines the date of Passover (Sanhedrin 11a).  Yet, since our return to the land, observation of the barley crop has proven that the rabbinic cycle is often in error, and obviously obsolete.  Several times over the past decade, several Israelites have investigated the state of the barley crop at the time that the modern Jewish calendar declared the month of Aviv (Nisan), but discovered that the barley was not Aviv.

It is a common occurrence for Rabbinic, Messianic, and even Karaitic Jews to celebrate the Biblical Holy Days one month too early!

"...Whoever will not go up of all the families of the earth to Jerusalem to prostrate to the King, YHWH Tzevaot, there shall be no rain upon them... this will be the plague with which YHWH smites the nations that will not go up to celebrate Hag Ha-Sukkot (Tabernacles)." 

(Zechariah 14:18-19)

Tuesday, November 9, 1999 at sunset, Bruce Brill, Michael Rood, Jamie Louis, my wife Devorah Gordon, and I sighted the eighth New Moon of the year from Mount Scopus in Jerusalem.  The moon was first sighted by Devorah Gordon at 16:51 and by the other observers a few minutes later.  A second group of observers on the nearby Mount of Olives, including Dr. Roy Hoffman of the Israel New Moon Society, Baruch Ben-Yosef, and David Pisanti, also concurred with the first sighting at 16:51.  Sunset was observed at 16:42.  About 40 witnesses enjoyed the festive tradition of a campfire barbecue to honor the "two witnesses". 

Because of the rarity of occasions when the modern Jewish calendar corresponds with the Biblical new month, the new moon sighting festivities were rehearsed on the correct day for the first time in nearly 2,000 years.  Michael Rood distributed native Israeli barley seed to the participants and, in accordance with the ancient practice of the Levites; we sowed barley on the side of the Mount of Olives at the appearance of the 8^th moon.  In the deepening twilight, seeds of hope were scattered on the Mount of Olives across the Kidron valley from the Temple Mount - the future location of the 3^rd Temple.  Within the next few days, eight barley fields were planted in the land of Israel for the express purpose of determining the month of the Aviv barley the following spring.  That year was the first opportunity for all of us to be on the correct calendar by the beginning of the Biblical New Year - Aviv 1.

Nehemia Gordon

Jerusalem, Israel

www.KaraiteKorner.org