Pinchas - The Messianic Moon
In the Torah portion of Pinchas, we learn about Moshe asking God for a replacement for him when he’s gone, and the subsequent introduction of Yehoshua, which points towards the two leaders that will appear in the end of days, Messiah son of Yosef and Messiah son of David. We also learn about Rosh Chodesh and the Lunar cycle, which is congruent with the Davidic dynasty, the children of Avraham, and the Messiah.
In Numbers 27:17 Moshe asks God to give Israel a leader "Who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in." Rashi argues that this seeming repetition of two things emphasizes that there are two important aspects of the leader who will come. First off, it emphasizes that the leader will personally go out with his army and return with his army, experiencing each battle right beside his soldiers. In addition, this leader leads the children of Israel into battle and brings them home safely "through his merits." This is parallel to King Messiah and his relationship with the people of Israel. The people of Israel are not rescued by their own merit but because of Messiah’s merit.
Rashi further explains that the phrase "bring them in" refers to the children of Israel being brought into the land of Cana’an. Moshe prayed for God to give Israel a leader worthy of bringing them into the promised land, and this prayer was answered with Yehoshua. However, this was not the final fulfillment of this prayer. It says in Hebrews 4:8, "if Yehoshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that." The first Yehoshua points towards a final Yehoshua: King Messiah.
The second Spinka Rebbe, Isaac Weiss, a martyr of the Nazi Holocaust, spoke about Yehoshua being a foreshadow of Messiah son of Yoseph:
“There is a teaching that ‘who will lead them out’ means leading them out from exile and ‘who will bring them in’ means bringing them in to the holy land and to the holy Sanctuary ... And behold, at the time of the redemption from Egypt, Moses our teacher was the redeemer and Joshua the son of Nun was the one who brought them into the land. It will be similar at the time of the final redemption ... First comes the Messiah son of Joseph to redeem Israel, and after that, Messiah son of David ... Messiah son of Joseph is from the tribe of Ephraim and the seed of Joshua the son of Nun. And this is what Moses was praying—that Messiah son of Joseph, the one who will redeem Israel and lead them out from exile and into the holy land, not die. Then the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, ‘Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit,’ that is, the Spirit of Messiah ... ‘And Joshua is [in the Spirit of] Messiah son of Joseph. He will be the one who brings Israel out from exile ...’ May it be His will that we speedily merit to see these things.” Chakal Yitzchak in Yalkut Moshiach: Pinchas, 284-285 | 174.
Yehoshua son of Nun has a remarkable connection to Yehoshua of Nazareth, the true Messiah son of Yoseph who redeems Israel. Yeshua will lead his people from the Exile and into the Holy Land. Just like Joshua, the successor of Moses, Yeshua is the one who will complete the redemption.
It says in Numbers 28:11:
“Then at the beginning of each of your months you shall present a burnt offering to the LORD: two bulls and one ram, seven male lambs one year old without defect.”
The Bible uses the lunar cycle for its calendar, unlike the Gregorian calendar, which is based off of the solar cycle. In the biblical calendar, the phases of the moon determine the changing of the month. On the new moon, when the moon is just a sliver in the sky, the first day of the biblical month is declared. This first day is called Rosh Chodesh (v-rn vx-i) and it means "head of the new month."
Each time the moon is renewed, and becomes a new moon, there is a spiritual reminder to renew oneself. Just as the moon is reborn each month, we should be renewed in our faith. It says in the Kiddush Levanah:
“To the fair, white moon He commanded that she renew herself as a crown of splendor for those born from the womb, for those who are preparing to renew themselves like her, and to adorn their Maker for the sake of His glorious kingdom. Blessed are You, LORD, who renews the month.”
While the new moon is not considered a shabbat, it is important enough that we include special prayers for it, along with the regular ones. 1 Samuel 20 relates that King Sha’ul hosted two-day banquets for each new moon. 2 Kings 4:23 states that the prophets used new moon festivals as days of teaching. Psalms 81:3 tells us that shofars were sounded to announce the new moon, and Numbers 10 relates the silver trumpets that were used for this. After the destruction of the Temple, the people of Israel continued to celebrate the new moon. There was a special meal, women took a day off from housework, and children brought gifts to their teachers.
The lunar cycle points towards Messiah and the Davidic dynasty. It says in the Midrash Rabbah that when Israel is worthy, she is like a waxing moon, but when she is unworthy, she is like a waning moon. In the same section that it talks about this, the entire history of the Davidic line is plotted out according to the lunar cycle:
“The moon begins to shine on the first day of the month and goes on shining until the fifteenth day, when she is full. After the fifteenth day her light wanes until on the thirtieth day it is not seen at all. With Israel, too, there were fifteen generations from Abraham to Solomon. Abraham began to shine ... Isaac shone also ... Jacob added to the light ... and after them came Judah, Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David. When Solomon appeared, the orb of the moon was full, as it says [in 1 Chronicles 29:23], ‘And Solomon sat upon the throne of the LORD as king’ ... Therefore the moon shone at its fullest. [After Solomon] the kings began to wane [as we read in 1 Chronicles 3:10-16] until Zedekiah when the light of the moon vanished completely [as it says in Psalms 72:7], ‘till the moon is no more.’ That is to say, until the end of the thirty generations during which Israel enjoyed the kingdom.” (Exodus Rabbah 15:26)
Avraham is the new moon, a new beginning. As the moon grows continually over the next fourteen days, the greatness of Israel also grows. Fourteen generations later is King David, and after him, Shlomo (Solomon) the son of David, the full moon of Israel. Under King Shlomo, Israel fulfilled her spiritual destiny of being a light to the nations. The time of Shlomo is a mirror of the Messianic Age because during this time, Israel was a world power, and brought peace and prosperity to the entire world. It says in 1 Kings 4:25, “So Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.”
The days of Shlomo were the full moon of Israel's splendor, but after a full moon, the moon begins to wane. Fourteen or fifteen days after the full moon, the moon disappears completely in a night of total darkness. This can be related to the splendor of Israel decreasing until it vanishes completely in the darkness of the exile. It says in the midrash that fifteen generations passed after Shlomo before the Babylonian exile. A generation later, a generational “new moon” if you will, a small portion of the exiled nation returned to the land of Israel. Using the genealogy found in Matthew and by counting forward fourteen generations, we come to Yeshua, and we arrive at the same place on the lunar cycle that King David is. The kingdom of heaven was at hand, and the moon of Israel was yet again on the verge of its fullest expanse. It says in Psalms 89:37-38[36-37]: “[David's] descendants shall endure forever and his throne as the sun before Me. It shall be established forever like the moon.” (Psalm 89:37-38[36-37])
The cycle of the moon teaches us about our messianic hope. The faintest light will always come out of the darkness. It might only be a single sliver of light, but that light will grow and grow, until it can grow no more.
It says in Isaiah 66:23 that in the Messianic Era, the new moon will be an important event:
“‘It shall be from new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all mankind will come to bow down before Me,’ says the LORD”
In the Torah Portion of Pinchas, we learn about Yehoshua, the leader who takes Moshe’s place, and how this points towards the two aspects of Messiah, Messiah son of Yosef, and Messiah son of David. We learn about the new moon being the beginning of the month in the Biblical calendar, and how this points towards the line of David, and the coming of the Messianic Era.
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