200326 - Intro Semi-Septennial Cycle - RW001

Hello, Rob Wilson here. Welcome. A Torah study, dedicated to all those who've gone before. Hall of Fame, we've learned from. And even those we haven't learned from that went before them. Lord, we ask your blessing on our time together. May your words be like the rain that falls. like,

Microsoft drops for tender plants like a hard rain. For those who need it. Hard shower. May your words instruct.

for many years, I've been asked to Lita online, Torah study blog type thing. And for many years. I've wondered when I'm ever going to start, and after many years here. I am starting it off. I'm using the semi septennial cycle. This is an introduction to that cycle. It's not an introduction to study. But since we're going to be using the semi septennial cycle, I need some clarification. People hear about this cycle. They understand this cycle appreciate this cycle, but they don't know what it is and they get lost. It's also called The Triangle Cycle. It's also called the Palestinian cycle. Most accurately. It's described as the semi septennial or twice and 7 years cycle. Their other names. But for convenience will generally call it the semi septennial or the triennial cycle. They're the same thing. They're not different in my use. Please understand that.

How did I get here? A lot of people say Rob. How did you get involved in this Torah study? It doesn't make any sense to me. And I generally reply. Would you like to know what Jesus studied? Would you like to read Jesus Bible? If you would, this is how you get there. So a long time ago, not in a galaxy far, far away where I here in Dayton. Long time ago, a good friend asked me 26 years ago. If it was important to study, Jesus Bible. I was invited to attend a weekly Torah study taught by Dwight Pryor. This is the cycle. I believe. Now, after many years of thinking about it and study that Jesus in the early church studied. They studied tour of the prophets in the Psalms every week. And so I began attending whitefriars weekly Torah study group. And I soon realized that such a store that studies. This was like water to my soul. It seems like every week, the thing I needed the thing I most needed in my life is what I was learning week after week after week if became like life. and so, I continued Even after Dwight got too busy to continue with the weekly study. When that happened, two of us decided we better step up. So we increased our study resources, our knowledge, our availability. And we began to lead the Torah study. And so today, I'm still involved in such a study and I praise the Lord for that. Amen. And amen.

I'm using the semi septennial cycle. Why would I want to use this cycle? I want to be as close to Jesus as I can get. I want to hear him teach. I want to walk with him. I want to be familiar with the scriptures. Jesus's disciples New Testament. Authors everyone in the early church used an ancestor of this triennial cycle. Some evidence and traditions of the cycle still remain, we have about nine hundred and twelve fragments that tie the prophets to the Torah from this type of cycle. We have access to the clothes descendants of such Traditions from the land. We discovered many of them just before the turn of the twentieth century. The beginning of the 20th century in a small synagogue in Cairo. The fragments were found in the Cairo. Geniza. Many other fragments have been found since then, the Dead Sea Scrolls and set have been found. And we have many, many fragments that connect us to as close as we can get to the, to the words, the teachings of Jesus. When I was studying with Dwight. We studied the annual cycle what most Jews today's study. And it was a very blessed time, but the triennial cycle the semi septennial cycle is far more Messianic and expectation and celebration. Then the annual cycle is we want to be as close as we can. So if this cycle is closer to what Jesus used, we'd like to use it. And if we can get closer than that, we'd like to get even more clothes, but we'll try as well as we can to get as close to Jesus. Amen. Amen.

Why study Torah anyway, who said we should study Torah? Well, God, did God did. It did around me 17 he tells them when you said a king over you he will study. This love is Torah all the days of his life. And in Deuteronomy 31 is as Moses has given his final address to Israel. He instructs them using. Apparently, the words of God that every year seven years, every seven years at the year of shmita, the Year release, the year of freeing, the captives, the year of renewing, the land of giving the the land back to the original owners to give to give the land back to God. That's a coat. So let's meet at Sukkot read the Torah to all of Israel. So they'll learn to fear the lord, your God. God wanted them to read his instruction at least once every seven years at least, once every seven years. So he commanded it. He commanded they read. And so they did Nehemiah 8 when they returned from the Babylonian captivity. they realized they've been not reading it in the same way. They should be reading it. So as rested up and read the whole of Torah at the year sweet-talk, possibly new coat around Sukkot anyway, and many people stood by azra and help the people to learn to here to understand what Ezra was teaching Nehemiah 8. If you want to look that up.

So they began to reconsider what God was saying. Reapply the lessons of Torah God's instruction. And then in the New Testament and X-15 the Jerusalem Council rules. They would only require four things of Gentiles that returning to God. Why did they only require four? I thought there was 613 Commandments. Well, yeah, but you know, these Gentiles don't need to know all 613. They're turning to God. The spirit of God is being given to them freely. All kinds of things are happening because God has done something new. We'll figure out what's important. You know, why? Because according to, according to the writer of Acts, Moses is read every Sabbath in every synagogue in every city. Moses the prophets, the songs, the songs every week. This is what the early church did. This is what we're trying to learn to do today. Why study the prophets will terrifying? God commanded that again? It's no big deal. God said it. I'll do it while I study the prophets. We don't know. We don't know the reason. But we can get close to it. We really can we know, for example, that Antiochus, the fourth, when he became king and ruler of his Empire, and, and he wanted Israel to be more Greek. He sacked Jerusalem, killing many, many Jews, and he made many things, illegal upon penalty of death. Any type of Torah reading Torah observance, owning a Torah. Practicing circumcision, Etc. That was punishable by death. So he destroyed all the copies he could find and whenever he found more, he destroyed those upon penalty of death, people decided not to read Torah, not to study Torah on a weekly basis. This happened around, 170 years before the Christian era. You can read about this in 1st Maccabees 1.

We don't know how it happened. But sometime back then apparently the sages of Israel decided to honor God by studying the prophets. Antiochus had and forbade them from studying the prophets. He only forbade them from studying Torah, the prophets are a whole other thing. We can study the prophets, they thought. And so on the week that they might have been studying. The creation bereshit Genesis one, they decided they would study from Isaiah and we'll talk about that verse later on and so on the tide of reading from the prophets, to the reading from Torah and it lined up and it made sense and then look forward to the promise that God was going to have victory over Antiochus and this evil Kingdom would, which it occupied and killed many Jews. Victory. God's Victory is coming in the land under. This terrible situation Messianic hope and expectation over a coming savior grew rapidly. They look forward to the day when God would redeem. God will redeem us. They believed and so they studied the prophets, which promised God will redeem. so, Many years later when Torah study resumed full Full Tilt. So speak this studying of the prophets appeared to be as well as we can figure out an integral part of Torah study. So they would read the Torah. The history kind of God's instruction, and they would read the prophets, which was in effect the final. End of God's instruction. It wasn't just what happened in the past dealing with sin and dealing with problems. It was what God was going to do it. Do about it in the future. So they continued reading, both the Torah, and the prophets and the reading from the prophets, begin to be known as the half to rot or the completion. The closing, the conclusion. If you will Torah study in at some point in time began to be read, seven people would stand up and read from the Torah and then the gifted speaker, the guest speaker, the the sermon Giver for the week if you will, would get up and read from the prophets, and then he would sit down. In the seat of Moses. White Jesus. In Nazareth, and he sat down. To teach. And he began to teach. And that was the pattern. 7 would read from the prophets. One would stand up. Read the completion. The prophetic promise related to the Torah and then he would teach instruct and what to do and how to live. So this Messianic expectation that began, say 170, a hundred and sixty years before Jesus set the stage for Jesus coming. A Jesus ministry. I've come to believe that Jesus taught into a world. A culture that desired craved for expected planned on. A, Messianic. Redemption. Of the land and the people and freedom from the evil that was controlling them. Hallelujah, hallelujah. so, At this time or sometime around this time, there were two cycles, which developed, we're not sure which one Jesus use, but we know he read to versus minimum, if we're reading, Isaiah 61 from the scroll. He was given to read from. And this 22 verse minimum is recorded as the tradition. that the people who are reading from the half draw, wood reed from So two cycles were in place over time. Eventually, they became to be known as the annual cycle or the Babylonian cycle in the East and Babylon. And the triennial or semi septennial for Palestinian cycle, in the West, in the land in Jerusalem and the land, the land of Israel and these two cycles were mutually exclusive, they kind of danced with each other. We'll talk about that a little bit more. There were about three, Triangle Cycles, sections called stators say dream to everyone annual cycle section called the Parsha. All of them are called parachute.

Some Trinity and some Triangle Cycle info. I need to explain a little bit about the triennial cycle. And by that, I always mean semi septennial cycle. The Triangle Cycle uses verbal tallies which connect the versus the 2:30 wrote are far more Messianic than the annual Cycles, the annual cycle, reading start at the same place. For example, the first Parsha in Genesis is bereshit Genesis. 1:1, the first say they're Triangle Cycle in in Genesis. Is there a sheet begins with the same exact verse and about, every 3 to 1, the annual cycle begins with the same. Starting verse says the Triangle Cycle the Cycles overlap? The annual cycle. According to many scholars, seems to be rooted in the older. Presumably cycle, Triangle Cycle and the Messianic emphasis in the theme of redemption. National Redemption World. Redemption is often downplayed in the annual cycle. It's built up in the semi septennial cycle, the Triangle Cycle. The triennial cycle has a greater Regional variety. we see this because the different codexes that we have evidence of this in have slightly different selections for the have two wrote and the beginning verse of the of the stay there. They are, there's some variety in whether you're reading the Codex Leningrad us or the code of the Olympic gold X or, or or some other codex. There's they're about six different. And so there appears to be more Regional Variety in the Triangle Cycle. And when the reader stood up, apparently, at as well as we can figure the the reading from the prophets that he knew the section, he was to read from but he wasn't assigned the exact vs. So it's my belief in the belief of many that when Jesus read up from the scroll of Isaiah. They handed him the scroll to the place where he was to read and he looked at the words and shows which words to emphasize. I would assume that anyone giving such a homily in in the early times would have considered what the text was that he was to speak on before, standing up to read and choosing the exact words. He would have read. The annual cycle over. Time didn't like this flexibility. That seems to be exist in the in the Triangle Cycle. So they made it far more rigid. There's some references. Hear the JPS have to rotate commentary a book. Entitled to me cry, there's a section in it. If you read Lois's book, it's a by pero reading in the reading, the Bible in the ancient synagogue and the texts that I've used a lot is the Bible is red and preached in the old, synagogue by Jacob. Mann, the king of this sub-study, one of his students walk holder, who wrote an excellent prolegomenon and Jacobs, Sona, Isaiah, Sona Another student.

Torah. Torah is the teaching or instruction that have to rise The Parting or the sermon. It's the completion or The Parting. Toro is illegal but not the profits. We talked about that before and there were two directions for prophetic readings. This is my analysis. Not someone else's. I studied tour offer. 26 years. Now, the last 3 years, Semi septennial cycle before that roughly 23 years, the annual cycle. So, the Torah from the Eastern cycle tradition, in my view is to look back. The prophetic reading was to look back at the Torah to try to kind of replicate what tourists said, look back at our re restate God's instruction in a prophetic way the West. Looked at it a little bit different. The West has always looks forward. God gave his instruction in to a Fallen World, the deed of his teaching. The Fulfillment of what God was going to do. Would come much later. But the law, the instruction came much before the rather than looking back to man's sin. And and what we need to do with, with following God's word. We look forward to how God is going to redeem, and restore and renew a new Heaven and new earth. What God will do the prophets tell what God will do, he will redeem and he'll restore and it's not just history that the prophets are the future. And when you consider it in these terms, which tradition do you think Jesus used? The one that replicated Torah or the one look forward to the promise that God was going to redeem and restore & renew. Amen. And amen. So here's a map. If you, if you have, if you're watching this presentation with a video, it shows the least as Babylon if you can picture Babylon in the map and your own mind, it's in the East is East of Israel and the West. Ended in the Babylonian talmud. If they're talking about the people in the west, they're talking about the people in Jerusalem, the people in the land, the people, in the former land of Israel, the people in the land of Palestine after Hadrian renamed it, I'll show you that map later also, so, in the west, this September a cycle semi septennial Triangle, Cycle came into being around 160. BCE is, well rested until around a thousand CC, the common error.

I'm not sure. But it was largely lost until the late 19th century. When they began to find fragments in the Cairo. Jeniza Etc, the annual cycle established in the east. Is still in place. They started according to a lot of people's best understanding around the same time. I think, the annual cycle on and fishbane from JPS agrees. I think the annual cycle, descends from the Triangular semi septennial cycle. Two main places, where Torah was written prepared, recorded in the West, Parr, tiberias and Cecil. The earliest. Writings. We have, are from Judah, Hennessy Judah, the prince, he codified the mishnah, the oldest writings, we have of of Jewish tradition. Pierre kvote, possibly being the earliest of those. So that was recorded in tiberias. And caesarea. Tiberius was where the mission was recorded. But assessoria was another school of, of Jewish sages, the East the annual cycle to Maine schools developed with Pumbaa data, data data, and sura. Both of these are in Babylon way. Wait in the east. So, that's the East and the West.

An example of the to reading sermon and we're going to compare the East and the West. I'm going to give you the short version of the verse so that you can kind of get the sense of what I'm talking about. Satora. Genesis 1:1 says God created. and so, the

The Babylonian cycle, the annual cycle records that the reading is for my zaiya 42. Thus says the god, the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out and so on. So The God Who created, the remembering the creation there, looking back at the creation, with some new stuff going on. Now will read the tradition from the West. The West in the land in Jerusalem. God, created same verse the West. This is the verse they record. Isaiah 65 for behold. I create new heavens and a new Earth that the former things shall not be remembered. Be glad and rejoice Alleluia. Way more messy attic. Then the annual cycle. Way more.

It's much more exciting to read, the prophetic fulfillment of God's purposes. Then to remember what God did yesterday both important.

I'm looking forward. Test fulfillment.

Hallelujah, I'm grateful for what he's done. I'm even more grateful for what he's going to do.

If you're looking at the video or the recording of this, I've got a copy of the Aleppo codex, to show you how these things are annotated. These two cycles or annotated. This is the full Parsha of Deuteronomy, 30 31 through 34 12. It's visit to Brock the last reading. This is the Aleppo codex and it's also the entire stay there. So this is the only reading which the Parsha and the Seder are absolutely the same. Usually, it's 321. Satyrs to Parsha. Car show. Soft on the side. You can see these margin notes and you can see there's some interesting things outside the text on the, on the right side of the scroll. And so here we got a closer in view of that and you see there's the letter Sonic and the letter pay rest Sheen.

So the pay Rasheen is for the mark in the margin of the Codex, that identifies the start of the story unit. And the Babylonian cycle. Parsha. The start of the reading, this is the first time we ever had anything like verse numbers. People began. The remember the, the story units, Noah that could say no. And you know what? I'm talkin about God created and you know what I'm talking about and so on and so forth. This one right here, visit a bracha is the beginning of the story unit partia. No verse numbers, just stories Mark by primary first words. Porsche right next to the garage or partial. We have the stomach or say there. It's the smaller story unit. The, the beginning of a say they're in the semi septennial cycle. So they're they're both there, the Parsha and the Seder, they're both marked in. The oldest codex says we have the Aleppo codex, the one that we're looking at being one of those. Why is it called the triennial cycle? Some people. Say it's only a 3-year cycle. Babylonian talmud records. that there's a one year that we do it in one year, but the, the people in the West, They finish their reading in 3 years. So the thing that you're talking about here is when they celebrate seem cup to Harrah. And there's a reference Babylonian talmud megillah 29b. And the early church knew both traditions. I believe it's interesting that the Eastern Church, the Byzantine Church, the Greek East Church like the Babylonian Jews. They kept a cycle. It's only one year long. So, if you, if you had if you're going to church that descends from the Eastern tradition, your church probably uses a lectionary based on a one-year cycle. Just like the ancient Jews and Juice today, use a one-year cycle of readings and the Roman church for the western church uses a three-year cycle of readings. If you attend a Lutheran Church, the Methodist Church of very many, Western descendant, churches. All use of three years cycle. Why is it 35? Thinq e, cuz they misunderstood, what's the Babylonian talmud was saying, Scholars? Today are generally in agreement that the Babylonian talmud is talking about, a three and a half year cycle. Partly? Because some of the other other other references that they they have That's why it's called a triennial. And try Neil shorter. It's easier to say than semi septennial. Why is it called a Palestinian cycle? Some people get really confused on. This one person will say, well, babblings evil. I don't want anything to do with the Babylonian. It's so what I mean is where this cycle was established, finally. Codified as the lectionary of the Jewish people. Why is it called Palestinian? Why was it called Palestine? Its erase the idea that Jews had ever even been there. And after he stopped barcode his Revolt. He renamed Judea as Syria Palestine in a d135 and Hadrian's rename took. And it's from Pella sheets. It's a word that we see eight times in the Bible. Also, we translate that Philistine, which means rolling or migratory. So the Philistines apparently were or made may have been a seafaring people or that area may have been controlled by seafaring people's, but the Philistines occupied, the Mediterranean Coast from about twelve hundred b.c. Sol. Hadrian is saying it's Palestine. Its Philistine, philistia, pillow sheet, Syria Palestine in, It's all the same thing. Hadrian was saying it was never Judea. The Jews were never there. Israel was never there. I'm going to rename it going to wipe out their cities and build Greek cities and their place. And that's exactly what he did. So, here's a map of the Roman world and you see Syria Palestinian Palestina on the map if you're looking at the at the video at the video. Why use a semi septennial cycle back to back to the beginning? We want to be as close to Jesus as we can get, we want to hear him teach. We want to walk with him on the road. We want to be covered in his Dust. We want to be familiar with his Bible, with his scriptures, Jesus disciples New Testament. Authors and the entire early church used something like this cycle. Very close to this cycle. in their practice and many evidences still remain and we have access today, too, many of the clothes descendants of these Traditions, so we may not know what Jesus used but the reason Record through this cycle. We're going through this study. The reason we're moving forward as quick as well, as we can do using what we have available. As we want to be as close as we could be to our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ, Alleluia. Cinnamon. Till next time. Rob Wilson, still here. Blessings on each of you.