Molad Tohu

The following information was gleaned from Technical Appendix A, "Details of the New Moon," in the book Cracking the Bible Code by Dr. Jeffrey Satinover (New York: William Morrow, 1997). I find this an excellent summary of these matters despite my disagreements with Dr. Satinover in other areas.

The first commandment given to Israel as a people was the commandment concerning the new moon (Exodus 12). When HaShem told Moses to have every household in Israel to take a lamb or kid on "the tenth day of the first month" and then sacrifice it on the fourteenth, He was not referring to the Egyptian calendar which Moses and the Hebrews were familiar. He was giving them an entire new calendar, quite different from the Egyptian or any ohter (this contrasts with chr*stianity, which merely inherited the Roman calendar from the predominate civilization). In the Jewish calendar the month begins with the new moon and it is very important to know the precise instant at which the "birth" (Hebrew molad) occurs. The precise moment of the molad is announced in synagogues on the morning of the final Shabbat of each month (except for the month of 'Elul). The other nations among which the Jews lived engaged in scientific study of the heavens. Israel did not. Yet Israel's knowledge of the cosmos was far more accurate than that attained by other nations through actual study, because it was given to them as Divine revelation.

The other ancient nations speculated on the average length of the lunar month based on their actual observation of the heavens. Yet Israel was given this number as part of Divine revelation, and contemporary science tells us that Israel was indeed far more accurate than the nations who actually engaged in scientific observation. According to Jewish Tradition the average length of the lunar month is 29.53059 days. However, there is also a way to check this number based on Jewish Oral Tradition and the Holy Torah.

According to Jewish Tradition the very first molad in history took place on the Sixth Day of Creation at the second hour of daylight (and since the Jewish day begins at nightfall rather than dawn, this made it the fourteenth hour of the actual calendar day, since there are twelve hours in each night and twelve hours in each day). However, this knowledge by itself does not give us a means to check the accuracy of the number given above. For that another date is needed which, with the one given above, provides an archtypal year. This year never actually took place, but existed in the Mind of G-d as a pattern or prototype of all years to follow. And once again the Tradition provides the date of this "imaginary" molad: the Second Day of the week, at the fifth hour of the day (meaning the fifth hour after sunset on the First Day, making it to our way of thinking "sunday night") and 204 chalaqim (a there are 1080 chalaqim in an hour, thus a cheileq is 1/3 of a second). This is expressed by the Hebrew letters beit-he'-reish-dalet. When this ahistorical but prototypal year is divided into twelve months and the time of the actual first molad is taken as the beginning of the next year, then it provides a perfect archtypal year whose lunar months average 29.53059 days each.

This molad, the molad that occurred only in the Mind of G-d, is called Molad Tohu (as in the words of Genesis that at first the earth was tohu vavohu, formless and void).

So far we are dealing only with Oral Tradition, but now we come to how the Torah shebikhtav (the Written Torah) confirms the information contained in this Tradition. The Qabbalists teach that the first forty-two letters of Genesis are an anagram of one of the Names of G-d, specifically the Name that refers to G-d in His pre-creation activity during which the archtypal year took place. Beginning at the very first letter of Genesis (beit) one finds the date of Molad Tohu recorded at equidistant letter spaces of forty-two! The first letter is beit, the 43rd is he', the 65th is reish, and the 87th is dalet (the second day, the fifth hour, and 204 chalaqim). Thus the very opening of the Torah contains in coded form a confirmation of the date of Molad Tohu which, with the first actual molad, acts as the archtypal year which confirms the average length of the lunar month given by HaShem to Moses.

Truly the Holy Torah, Written and Oral, is a single Torah which was given to Israel and not to anyone else. Those who truly love the Word of G-d should learn to read the actual Divine words themselves rather than a mere translation and open themselves up to the Truths conveyed by each and ever letter.

I guess you didn't answer my question. I didn't ask you about Hebrew. I asked you whether the Torah was given in the 70 known languages of the World. If you want to play, you have to answer reasonable questions.

Frogive me. Being a Noachide, I am not an expert on the Talmud. If CHaZa"L say the Torah was given in the Seventy Languages, then they certainly meant what they said (we know that HaShem spoke the two words zakhor and shamor with regard to the commandment of Shabbat at the same time). However, Hebrew remains the original language and it was in Hebrew that it was written down and only the original Hebrew contains the original Holy Letters dictated to Moses, who wrote them down. Translations give only the surface sense, but the original holy letters contain all the meanings.

That being said, I find it puzzling why with regard to the entire post you choose to focus only on my remark about the originality of Hebrew. I also find your hostility to me puzzling. What in my post could possibly have offended you so?

What in my post could possibly have offended you so?

You speak of the "Holy Torah, Written and Oral," and then you say you don't really know the Talmud (Oral Law, for those in the Peanut Gallery). I just think that non-Jews might take umbrage with your attempt here to play rabbi, and when that happens it hurts me.

You wrote: Truly the Holy Torah, Written and Oral, is a single Torah which was given to Israel and not to anyone else.

I think it says that the Torah was given simultaneously in the 70 known languages of the World. The tradition is that the Torah belongs to everyone, not just us (B'nai Yisrael). Do you object to all those Torah translations found in many hotel and motel rooms? (The Gideons are not Jewish.)

ML/NJ

So you have absolutely nothing to say about the actual contents of the actual vanity I posted? You are simply suffering from guilt at being of the Chosen People?

The Torah applies to everyone in that it is THE Ultimate Revelation. However, in its fullness it belongs to Israel and (as you know) "teaching Torah to non-Jews" (meaning certain points of the Oral Tradition which are of no application to non-Jews) theoretically (though not actually) requires the death penalty.

I am sorry you are embarrassed by Israel's exalted position as mankind's priestly people who are indeed destined to "rule the world" (a verse the Catholic Church in the past saw no trouble with applying to itself) through the Messianic Dynasty and the priestly Temple Service.

Are you embarrassed that Israel is not numbered among the nations of the earth and that Hebrew is not numbered among the tongues of the nations of the earth? That the very borders of all nations are somehow mystically connected to the numbers of the tribes of Israel? That Israel is the one people that has no ruling constellation ('ein ['ayin] leYisra'el mazzal)? That the Jewish soul is essentially different from the non-Jewish soul, originating from a different part of the spiritual realms (which is one reason why Jewish influence is all out of proportion with Jewish numbers)? You must be terribly embarrassed by such works as The Eternal Nation by the late Rabbi Shlomo Rotenberg (zt"l).

I can assure you that if you know anything about my years here on FR you will probably be even more greatly embarrassed. When the world thinks that Jews are essentially free-thinking intellectuals obsessed with mere physical survival over all else (and rabidly anti-Biblical on the assumption that anything the Bible has to say is somehow "chr*stian"), I strive to the best of my poor ability to reveal the actaul contents of the Jewish religion (a Divinely-dictated Torah, in utter rejection of all secular and chr*stian critical theories). You will also be embarrassed to learn that I am a creationist. (I know, "only chr*stians are creationists." I've heard it all before. I've also heard that only "western" chr*stians (as opposed to the Orthodox) only Protestants are creationists. What can I reply but what I have stated innumerable times on this forum: that while some Orthodox Jews indeed accept the theory of evolution, they must inconsistently stop listening to science and switch to literalist dogma the moment Adam is created.)

I had hoped to simply expose FReepers to some of the things mentioned in the book in which I found this information. Instead you have chosen to be offended by your bechirah and plead democracy and equality.

I am sorry I embarrass you. But I do so merely by making public certain things which have heretofore been known only in Torah Jewish circles.

I hope others have also read the post and are not distracted by a comment I made at the very end (which I still stand by).

PS: "Gideon Bibles" aren't Bibles; they are merely translations.

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