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Actually, there's nothing strange about it. The description you give is the one put forward by the popular press. This year (2009), as with all others, the sun is making its daily and ordinary appearance, appearing to progress each day slightly further north, as it "makes its way" toward the summer solstice. Nothing special happened. The only thing special about "Birchat Hachamah" is the rabbinical theory that once every twenty-eight years, the sun is at exactly the same place in the sky, at the same hour and on the same day of the week, that it was at the time of its creation. This is marked in the month of Nisan by rising at dawn the given day, to make the Birchat Hachamah.
According to tradition, the year 5768 which is divisible by 28, one must add 1 (this year - 5769) because the sages say the counting of the years was suspended the year of the flood (go figure!). Therefore, this year was a "Birkat Hachamah" - never mind the fact that the actual Vernal Equinox happened on March 20 this year. So chalk it up to another "event" where rabbinic Judaism detracts from the word of Yahweh, and the popular press will sensationalize it to keep people from knowing the truth.
Birkat Hachamah is therefore just another "man-made" holiday. Yahweh never told us to celebrate it - plus, how one can know that "the sun is back to its original position" on any given day, is beyond me! The exact age of the world is NOT known. None of us were there then, nobody was able to video, record, or in any way document the exact moment of creation. Only Yahweh Himself knows....
Which leads us to another point, which is that this year at Passover 2009, endless emails were sent around by "wanna-be" scholars attempting to "wow!" people into believing that we need to follow the moon as do the Karaites before we can properly observe Passover.
Passover falls on Nisan 14, period. The moon doesn't matter as it goes around the Earth, regardless as to whether or not we can see it! Here's a brief explanation:
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Passover/Pesach (Nisan 14) celebrates the deliverance of the slaves from Egypt (see Exodus 12). It is the story of redemption by the killing of the Passover Lamb, which man was to bring into his house on Nisan 10 (Ex. 12:3) and take care of it for 4 days, and then slaughter and eat it at twilight (Ex. 12:6). The Israelites obeyed God by applying the blood of the Passover lamb to the doorposts of their houses so that their firstborn would be spared the Tenth Curse against Pharoah who refused to let God's enslaved Chosen People leave Egypt. When the Angel of Death passed through the land and saw the blood, he "passed over" those houses and spared the first born (Exodus 12:1-13). This was a picture of Yeshua, God's "Passover Lamb" Who willingly allowed His own blood to be shed on our behalf and thus became our redemption. The Messiah fulfilled this holiday when he was crucified! He took our bitterness so that we might live the abundant life. We remember and identify with the bitterness of slavery by eating the bitter herbs and the matza (unleavened bread) on Passover. The innocent died for the guilty. Sacrifice not only means death - it also means LIFE (Isaiah 53.)
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In 2009 Nisan 14 happened to fall on Wednesday, April 8. Believers were to eat the Passover seder/meal at twilight, just as the 14th turned into Nisan 15, which kicked off the High Holy Day of Unleavened Bread.
Here's the kicker: Some insisted that the actual High Holy Day of Unleavened Bread couldn't start until Friday the full moon wasn't until Friday.....
The thing is, Nisan 1 began at sunset 26 March, which did coincide with the new moon, as is the definition of the new month in the Hebrew calendar. That made Nisan 14 daytime happen on Wednesday, and Nisan 15 began Wednesday night at sunset. That made the daytime Thursday, our time, the commanded Sabbath. (The full moon happened at about 11 p.m. in the United States on Thursday night, so both late Thursday night and Friday night the moon would have very much looked "full".) Yahweh said the Passover lamb was slain on Nisan 14 at dusk, and that Passover happened at midnight on Nisan 15 - not "when the moon was full". Therefore, the commanded Shabbat/Sabbath/Unleavened Bread was Wednesday at sundown through Thursday sundown, and not when the full moon happened to occur. In fact, Yahweh was very specific that Passover is Nisan 15, not when the moon is full!
One could argue that from our position on the Earth, WE would not have actually observed the new moon till the next night - March 27, and that the "15th" day then would have begun on Thursday night at sunset, April 9th, rather than based on the calendar; and then, Friday during the daytime would have been the "15th" as established by OUR unique sighting of the new moon - but that sounds rather "rabbinical" - waiting until WE actually sighted the moon to begin the month, rather than accepting our place on the earth and observing the appointed times as closely as possible to the appointed times as observed in Israel.
The published calendars are correct and the correct day to have observed Passover was Wednesday night, 8 April, and therefore April 9 and April 15 were Shabbats.
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