Green Ears, 2011

Every year as we approach the month of Abib, a determination must be made of when is the new moon of green ears. From 1984, Elder Jacob O. Meyer had been making a journey to Israel to bring home the evidence of the green ears of barley. This year the Jewish calendar inserts an intercalary month, a 13th month, known as Second Adar. Though we printed the Assemblies of Yahweh calendar with the inclusion of this 13th month, it was imperative for us to travel to Israel before the new moon of March 6 to verify whether there were green ears of barley.  According to the Word of Yahweh, finding green ears of barley would mean an early Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. In the last week of February, Deacon Solomon Meyer and his wife Michelle traveled to Israel looking for any evidence of green ears of barley. He reported that various people he questioned in Israel stated that in recent weeks they had received sufficient rainfall and quite mild temperatures. Consequently, he found evidence of green years of barley with sufficient maturity to allow the offering of a wave sheaf during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

With Yahweh’s guidance, he was led to find fields where the green heads of barley were growing, some on land that was dry-land farmed. With evidence in hand of these green heads of barley, and the confirmation of the new moon of March 6, we must declare this to be the new moon of green ears. This will mean a change in the Assemblies of Yahweh calendar, thereby moving the feasts of 2011 forward by one month.

Therefore, the dates of the 2011 Spring holy days will be as follows:

The Passover Memorial of Yahshua’s death, Abib 14—Friday evening after sundown, March 18, making Sabbath, March 19, Passover Day.

The First High Day of Unleavened Bread, Abib 15—March 20 (beginning on the previous evening of March 19 with the Night to Be Much Observed).

The Second High Day of Unleavened Bread, Abib 21—Sabbath March 26.

Since this will mean a change in plans for some of the brethren, we will offer the Passover and holy days services from Bethel on the Internet streaming system.

Services will be held in the usual locations where Assemblies of Yahweh annual convocations are customarily observed: Watsonville, California; Erath, Louisiana; White House, Tennessee; St. Louis, Missouri; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; London, Ontario, Canada; the Caribbean islands of Trinidad, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, and Grenada. Services are also held in England; Nigeria, West Africa; Kenya, East Africa; the Philippines; India; Burma; and in many other locations around the world.

Please telephone immediately (717) 933-4518—the Bethel headquarters offices—if you need any additional information.

“Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover to Yahweh your Elohim; for in the month of Abib Yahweh your Elohim brought you forth out of Egypt by night. And you shall sacrifice the passover to Yahweh your Elohim, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Yahweh shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, even the bread of affliction; for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. And there shall no leaven be seen with you in all your borders seven days; neither shall any of the flesh, which you sacrifice the first day at evening, remain all night until the morning. You may not sacrifice the passover within any of your gates, which Yahweh your Elohim gives you; but at the place which Yahweh your Elohim shall choose, to cause his name to dwell in, there you shall sacrifice the passover at evening, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came forth out of Egypt. And you shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your Elohim shall choose: and you shall turn in the morning, and go to your tents. Six days you shall eat unleavened bread; and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your Elohim; you shall do no work in it.

“ . . . Three times in a year shall all your males appear before Yahweh your Elohim in the place which he shall choose: in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles; and they shall not appear before Yahweh empty: every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of Yahweh your Elohim which he has given you.” (Deuteronomy 16:1-8, 16-17).