Barley update
11 February 2025
It is that time again to watch for barley updates from the land of Israel in anticipation for the upcoming new Hebrew year (Rosh HaShanah), and the feasts of the first month. As of 11 February 2025, we have no reports of an omer’s worth of aviv barley in the land of Israel. (See the most current report from Becca Biderman below.)
The new moon of the next Hebrew month is expected to be visible on 1 March 2025. Before Nazarene Israel can declare Rosh HaShanah (the head of the Hebrew year), an omer’s worth of aviv barley would have to be ready to present 15-21 days later (on Yom HaNafat HaOmer, the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering).
In simple terms, what this means is that in order for Nazarene Israel to declare the next new moon day (expected on the evening of 1 March 2025) as Rosh HaShanah, we must be sure that there will be an omer’s worth of aviv barley for Yom HaNafat HaOmer 15-21 days after the new moon. The determination must be made not later than the sighting of the first crescent sliver of the new moon.
Messianic barley witness Becca Biderman, Poriyah Illit, Israel, reports:
“You may remember I mentioned seeing wild barley with fruiting heads in my travels last week. I saw the barley from the train on the way to the dentist. Today I was able to go back to this location to try and locate it. I found the area, and there is fruiting wild barley in the area. It is not barley that I can use for the start of the year.
- The quantity is insufficient
- It was peppered with a domestic field of cereal grass (other grains that didn’t have fruiting heads)
- Even if I were to consider this barley I cannot reach my hand in with a sickle and take a handful it’s too sparse.
“This area is south of Haifa and north of Hadera and a little east. This area presents as Be’eri/Re’im in that there is a distinct swath of early development and outside of this swath there is no barley with fruiting heads.
“Most of my time today was spent trying to locate the barley I had seen from the train. From the edge of the village to the train track turned out to be quite a large area and it took me a while to locate it. I plan on heading back to this area later and looking for wild fields within that early swath. For reasons I won’t go into I feel that this is an area that needs to be watched in addition to further investigation in other areas. To date I have seen no other area of Israel that presents with any significant amounts of fruiting wild barley.”[Becca Biderman, Ancient Path New Moon, Israel]
Rosh HaShanah/feasts of the first month 2025 scenarios
Below are the two likely scenarios for Rosh HaShanah and the feasts of the first month. Neither scenario is confirmed at this time. As always, we must remain attentive as reports come in from Israel. And we encourage everyone to remain attentive as we continue to post updates on our Torah Calendar News page. We also encourage those new to the Torah Calendar to check out our studies which explain how to correctly declare Rosh HaShanah and the importance of observing the correct calendar.
| ROSH HASHANAH SCENARIO #1 | ROSH HASHANAH SCENARIO #2 |
| New Moon: 01 March at evening (3.75%) | New moon: 30 March at evening (2.28%) |
| Pesach: 15 March afternoon | Pesach: 13 April afternoon |
1 ULB: 16 March (begins evening before) | 1 ULB: 14 April (begins evening before) |
Omer: 16 March | Omer: 20 April |
| 7 ULB: 22 March (begins evening before) | 7 ULB: 20 April (begins evening before) |
| Shavuot: 04 May (begins evening before) | Shavuot: 8 June (begins evening before) |
Calendar studies
Find more on how to correctly declare Rosh HaShanah (according to Scripture) here!
Find full calendar studies below.
