The Biblical New Year

Exodus 12:1-3. ADONAI spoke to Moshe and Aharon in the land of Egypt; he said, 2 "You are to begin your calendar with this month; it will be the first month of the year for you. 3 Speak to all the assembly of Isra'el and say, 'On the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb or kid for his family, one per household

The New Year and Calendar scripture includes the references for when to begin Pesach/Passover marking the restart of the annual Feast Day cycle.  The spring renewal is the season of new beginnings and awakenings.  This is a time for a celebration and a time of preparation, New beginnings.  It's time to start thinking about Pesach and to start removing the Chametz (Yeast) from our homes, the old leaven, the sins of last year. Adonai is great in His detail, in the New Year He has us cleaning house! Adonai Commands us to observe His New Year:
 
Deuteronomy 16:1. "Observe (Shamar: to keep, guard, observe, protect, celebrate, preserve, put a hedge around and defend) the month of Aviv, and keep Pesach to ADONAI your God; for in the month of Aviv, ADONAI your God brought you out of Egypt at night.

The Hebrew is very interesting:  Shamor et-chodesh ha'Aviv "Observe the month of Aviv. We are to Guard, observe, protect, preserve and celebrate the new year in the month of Aviv. It’s the Key to God's prophetic Kingdom timeline and schedule of global events! In Exodus 34, the only chapter that actually says these are the “Ten Words”, the “Ten Commandments” commands us to celebrate:
 
Exodus 34:18. Keep the festival of matzah by eating matzah, as I ordered you, for seven days during the month of Aviv; for it was in the month of Aviv that you came out from Egypt”.
 
When we follow Adonai’s commands, we establish Kingdom alignment, we align or synchronize ourselves with Adonai's calendar and timeline in both our current world and in the world to come.  This synchronization is the key component to prophecy and eschatology, it defines where Adonai is at in His word, according to His timeline! He commands us to safeguard, protect, observe His calendar, to remember the head of the New Year!  
 
The Biblical New Year begins at the appearance of the first "new moon" after the Vernal or Spring Equinox which is on Thursday, March 20, 2025, at 5:01 a.m. EDT. Equinox is from the Latin word equi which means equal.  Twice a year the earth is on the same plane as the sun, neither leaning towards or away from the sun.  Equinox happens twice a year, Vernal or spring and Autumnal or fall Equinox.  Biblically the new moon immediately following the Vernal Equinox is called Keseh or the veiled moon! Keseh is the root word of Rosh Hashanah, head of the New Year in Hebrew! It’s the Veiled moon that separates the years and is mentioned in the Psalms, citing both the calculation of the new year and the celebration of it:  
 
Psalms 81:1-5. For the Leader. On the gittit. By Asaf: Sing for joy to God our strength! Shout to the God of Ya'akov! 2 Start the music! Beat the drum! Play the sweet lyre and the lute! 3 Sound the shofar at Rosh-Hodesh and at full moon (Keseh) for the pilgrim feast, 4 because this is a law for Isra'el, a ruling of the God of Ya'akov. 5 He placed it as a testimony in Y'hosef when he went out against the land of Egypt. I heard an unfamiliar voice say,  
Psalm 81 describes a celebration, music, drum, lyre, lute, and the sounding of the Shofar!  This Psalm directly connects the celebration of the New Year to the first month of the year as biblically prescribed in Exodus 12 and is the basis for our very own New Year Celebration!
 
Exodus 12:2. You are to begin your calendar with this month; it will be the first month (Rosh Chodashim) of the year (R’ishon Chodashim) for you.

There are various names given to "this month," including the following: Chodesh Ha-Aviv (חדֶשׁ הָאָבִיב), "the month of spring," so named because it marked the time of the Exodus from Egypt:
 
Exodus 13:3-4.  Moshe said to the people, "Remember this day, on which you left Egypt, the abode of slavery; because ADONAI, by the strength of his hand, has brought you out of this place. Do not eat hametz. 4 You are leaving today, in the month of Aviv.

Within this same thought process, the month of Nisan is also referred to as Chodesh ha-Yeshua, the "month of salvation".  This can be viewed and understood in both the Physical: Israel was physically delivered from Slavery in Egypt in the month of Nisan and Spiritually; The Salvation for both Israel and the world from the slavery of Sin occurred in the same month through the Messiah who was born on the 1st of Nisan! Yeshua was also crucified on the stake on the 14th of Nisan during Pesach!  What’s revealed in all of this is a heavenly ordained Cycle of Time.  A never-ending repetitive circle that can be repetitive but not exactly identical! This can be seen in the Hebrew language itself. The Hebrew word for "year" - shanah - shares the same root as both the word "repeat" Shenen and the word "change" Sheenoo.

Therefore, it’s very clear to us that God see's this month, Aviv or Nisan as the Month of redemption or Chodesh HaGeulah in Hebrew.  The Babylonian Talmud written in the Babylonian Diaspora or captivity gives a profound Messianic Statement over 400 years before the birth of Yeshua:  "In Nisan our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt and in Nisan we will be redeemed."  
 
The “New Year" and Feast Day Cycle is one of "repetition" – Mishnah:  Hebrew for study or review, has the same root word shanah. To Mishnah, study, to review the history of Israel as recorded in scripture".  The years Moedim and feast day cycles are an all-inclusive "study and review" of the key historical and prophetic events of the redemptive history and future of Israel.  We repeat and relive these events to bring heavens pattern into our present world and our lives to prepare and rehearse for the future! The New Year marks periods of transition.
 
Our lives in the Kingdom of Adonai are one of perpetual transition, the Kingdom is always moving. We are transitioning from last year to the new year! A journey from this earthly realm to that of the Kingdom until the Kingdom itself transitions back to the earth! It’s never easy, transitions are often violent! Contemplate death itself, often a hard violent transition either ageing with long term decline or sickness, accidents, murder, or some other tragic misfortune that brings about our demise.
 
Adonai uses periods of transition to birth restoration, revival, awaken, to shift history, to establish His will and dominion on earth, to guide, direct, and launch us into our prophetic future and destiny. This season is marked by many transitions: In the great flood on the first day of the first month of the 601st year the water had dried up from off the earth in Gen 8:13. In Exodus 40 Adonai commanded the Tabernacle be set up on the first day of the New Year! All Israel witnessed the transition of God’s Glory, His Divine Presence, previously experienced from afar, hovering over Mt Sinai transition to the Mishkahn, directly among or even within the people. New Years Day for the fledgling nation of Israel is when God became personal, real, and intimate.
 
Moshe died while Israel is camped along the Jordon River on the 1st of Nisan! On the Seventh of Nisan Joshua tells everyone to prepare for three days!  On the 10th of Nisan (the same Day Yeshua entered into Jerusalem with the Passover Lambs) they crossed the Jordon and transitioned into the Promise land after 40 years of wandering! Israel then performed the covenant of circumcision as it hadn’t been performed in the 40 years of desert wandering! The Manna stopped that day and they ate of the fruit of the land!  Then on the 14th they celebrated Pesach for the first time in the Promised Land! Now we’re waiting for the final transition into the Messianic Reign with Yeshua’s return!!
 
The need to Shamar, to guard the biblical new year and associated feasts and cycles becomes crystal clear as we stream towards the return of Messiah and the establishment of Adonai's Kingdom upon the earth!  The seed of redemption and salvation has already been sown, we need only Mishnah, study and review the calendar to see what it will look like and when it will happen! May your new year be one of prosperity and blessing!
 
Blessing and Shalom,
 
Rabbi Eric S Carlson