Reflections on Rosh Hashanah

Shalom Kineti readers,

L'shana tova, a happy Rosh Hashanah/Yom Teruah to all you fine folks. If you're wondering how to celebrate, see my previous post.

Can I share something that's on my heart this week?

Turn to the Lord, now, in this special time. The Scriptures command us to "seek the Lord while he may be found." There's never a bad time to return to God, but during these High Holy Days the time is right.

In Jeremiah, God warned the people again and again to turn from their sins. Jeremiah says to Israel in exasperation,

For these 23 years the word of Adonai has come to me. So I have spoken to you, speaking early and often, but you have not listened.

Additionally, Adonai has sent to you all His servants the prophets, sending them early and often—but you have not listened or inclined your ear to hear— saying: ‘Turn, now, everyone from his evil way, and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell in the land that Adonai has given to you and to your fathers forever and ever. Do not go after other gods to serve them, to worship them, and so do not provoke Me with the work of your hands, so I would do you no harm.’

“Yet you have not listened to Me,” declares Adonai. “So you are provoking Me with the work of your hands, to your own hurt.”

Can you hear and heed that?

Don't think about other people, or the culture, or the politicians you don't like. Think about yourself.

Our sin -- my sin, your sin -- provokes God to anger, to our own destruction.

God says that He is slow to anger, but not so that we'd keep sinning. Rather, slow to anger so that we'd return to Him:

But you, O man—judging those practicing [sin] yet doing the same—do you suppose that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you belittle the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience—not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?

Can you return to God, dear reader? Can you get rid of the sins, even the private ones you keep from everybody?

Our reward for turning to God is glory and joy and honor and eternal life. Our reward for sin is destruction.

But by your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed. He will pay back each person according to his deeds. To those who by perseverance in doing good are seeking glory, honor, and immortality—eternal life. But to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—wrath and fury. There will be trouble and hardship for every human soul that does evil—to the Jew first and also to the Greek. But there will be glory, honor, and shalom to everyone who does good—to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

I am turning to God now, friends, getting sin out of my life and returning to the Lord. I hope you'll do the same, dear reader.

What does all this have to do with Rosh Hashana/Yom Teruah? One of the few commandments God has for us on this holy day is to hear the sound of the shofar and remember. Remember what? The coming judgment and the resurrection of the dead.

There will come a day, friends, when a loud blast of the shofar from heaven will sound and God will, by incomprehensible miracle, raise the dead. At the end, the living and the dead will be judged. Let's turn to God now, before that time. The shofar you hear on this day will be a reminder for you to turn from sin and turn to the Lord.

Passover: What's Commanded and What's Tradition?

A scene of Passover. How much of the above are actual commandments from the Bible, and how much is later tradition? Traditions are beautiful, but they should be negotiable to you and your family's faith practice.

Quick, what does God require of us at Passover?

Does God command us to drink 4 cups at Passover? Does God command us to have a seder meal at Passover? Should the meal have karpas/parsley? How about charoset? Should we sing the hallel?

Over the last 2000 years, Judaism has developed beautiful traditions around Passover. These are thoroughly ingrained into our faith practice today: A seder meal. 4 cups of Passover. The zeroa (shankbone). Karpas (parsley/veg). Maror (bitter herbs). Charoset (sweet mixture). The haggadah. The Passover hallel. Mah nishtanah / the four questions.

These traditions have become so ingrained today, it’s not clear to many what is Biblically commanded and what is later tradition.

Traditions aren’t bad – we might think of them as “nice-to-haves” that can bring additional meaning. Indeed, in the Gospels, Yeshua himself observed what appears to be traditions around Passover: for example, eating a Passover meal, taking multiple cups of Passover, or singing the hallel psalms after the meal. 

And all of us practice various traditions: bowing heads, closing eyes, holding hands when praying, for example. Or meeting at a church or congregation on Saturday or Sunday. Singing songs after a sermon. All traditions and not strictly commanded by God.

Still, it is helpful to clarify what parts of Passover are commanded by God, and what are the nice-to-haves on top of that.

As I see it, for me and my family, I want the commandments to be front-and-center to me and my kids. Traditions are negotiable items in my celebration of Passover; if they don’t bring additional meaning (or worse, make the Passover celebration an excessively long drag for my kids), then there’s no shame in modifying or dropping them.

Maybe you’re in the same boat.

So! Let’s go over what’s Biblical and what’s tradition.

What’s actually commanded?

I discussed the Passover and Unleavened Bread commandments previously. But let’s list them there with minimal commentary. Note I include both commandments for Passover (the one-day Feast) and Unleavened Bread (the 7 day Feast following Passover), as they are melded together in modern minds and practiced essentially as a single feast.

1. To eat matzah (unleavened bread) on Passover.
   

   During the first month in the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, you are to eat matzot.
   -Exodus 12:18

2. To eat matzah for the 7 days of Unleavened Bread.

   Matzot is to be eaten throughout the seven days.
   -Exodus 13:3

3. Remove chametz (leaven) from your home during Unleavened Bread week.
   

   For seven days no chametz is to be found in your houses, for whoever eats hametz, that soul will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an outsider or one who is born in the land.
   -Exodus 12:19

4. Not to eat chametz during Unleavened Bread week.
   

   For seven days no hametz is to be found in your houses…You are to eat no chametz; in all your houses you are to eat matzot.”
   -Exodus 12:20

5. Tell your kids about the events of Passover.

   You are to tell your son on that day saying, ‘It is because of what Adonai did for me when I came out of Egypt. So it will be like a sign on your hand and a reminder between your eyes, so that the Torah of Adonai may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand Adonai has brought you out of Egypt. You are to keep this ordinance as an appointed time from year to year.
   -Exodus 13:8-10

6. To rest on the first day of Unleavened Bread week.

   On the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Matzot to Adonai. For seven days you are to eat matzah. On the first day you are to have a holy convocation and you should do no regular work.
   -Leviticus 23:6-7

7. To rest on the last day of Unleavened Bread week

   On the seventh day is a holy convocation, when you are to do no regular work.
   -Leviticus 23:8

8. If you’re unable to celebrate Passover, celebrate it a month later.

   If any man, whether you or your descendants, becomes unclean because of a dead body, or is away on a long journey, he may yet observe Adonai’s Passover. They are to celebrate it at twilight on the fourteenth day of the second month. With matzot and bitter herbs they are to eat it. They are not to leave any of it until morning, or break any bones. When they celebrate Passover they are to observe all its regulations.
   -Numbers 9:10-12

9. Uncircumcised men should not eat the Passover.
   

   This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner may eat it, but every man’s servant that is bought for money, after you have circumcised him, may eat it. Nor should a visitor or hired servant eat it…But if an outsider dwells with you, who would keep the Passover for Adonai, all his males must be circumcised. Then let him draw near and keep it. He will be like one who is native to the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat from it. The same Torah applies to the native as well as the outsider who dwells among you.”
   -Exodus 12:43, 48-49

10. To slaughter the Passover sacrifice at the specified time.

    Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family one lamb for the household. But if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor are to take one according to the number of the people. According to each person eating, you are to make your count for the lamb. Your lamb is to be without blemish, a year old male. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You must watch over it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it at twilight…
    -Exodus 12:3-6

11. To eat the Passover sacrifice with matzah and maror (bitter herbs).

    They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over a fire. With matzot and bitter herbs they are to eat it.
    -Exodus 12:8

12. To roast the Passover sacrifice whole.

    Do not eat any of it raw or boiled with water, but only roasted with fire—its head with its legs and its innards.
    -Exodus 12:9

13. Not to leave any meat from the Passover sacrifice until morning.

    Let nothing of it remain until the morning. Whatever remains until the morning you are to burn with fire.
    -Exodus 12:10

14. Not to bring the meat of the Passover sacrifice outside the home.

    It is to be eaten inside a single house. You are not to carry the meat out of the house.
    -Exodus 12:46a

15. Not to break any of the bones of the Passover sacrifice.

    You are not to break any of its bones.
    -Exodus 12:46b

16. Bring additional offerings during Unleavened Bread week.

    On the fifteenth day, there is to be a feast. For seven days, matzot will be eaten. You are to hold a sacred assembly on the first day. You are not to do any laborious work. You are to offer to Adonai burnt offering by fire, two young bulls, one ram and seven male lambs a year old. They are to be flawless. You are to offer their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah per bull, two tenths per ram, and one tenth per each of the seven lambs, plus one goat for a sin offering to atone for yourselves. In addition to the morning burnt offering and regular burnt offering, you are to offer these. Just like this you are to offer each day, for seven days, the food to be offered by fire for each day as a pleasing aroma to Adonai, beside the regular burnt offering with its drink offering.
    -Numbers 28:17-24

17. Appear before God with an offering.

    Three times a year all men are to appear before the LORD your God in the place He chooses—at the Feast of Matzot, the Feast of Shavuot, and the Feast of Sukkot. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed— the gift of each man’s hand according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you.
    -Deuteronomy 16:16

What are merely traditions?

The above sum up the Passover and Unleavened Bread week commandments. Some of them are not kept today. The last 8 commandments, #10-17 above, deal with the Passover sacrifices, which are not sacrificed today due to the Temple being destroyed.

So if we remove those last 8 commandments, we’re left with about 9 commandments that are relevant for us today, mostly around eating matzah, not eating leaven, resting during Passover, and teaching your kids about Passover.

Notice the absence of things we traditionally associate with Passover:

• Seder (evening meal) is kinda-sorta there in the text, but mostly about eating the paschal sacrifice.
• Haggadah (guidebook to retell the story of Passover) isn’t in the text, though one could argue it’s one way of keeping the Biblical command to tell your kids about Passover.
• The four cups of Passover are not commanded in the text, but they allude to Biblical texts. The 4 cups of Passover are linked to the 4 “I will” statements of Exodus 6:6-7, in which God says “I will bring you out…I will deliver you…I will redeem you…I will take you as My people.”
  
  From the Gospels, it appears Yeshua ascribed meaning to the cups at Passover, signifying his blood to be poured out for the sins of the world. He also ascribes meaning to the last cup of Passover, saying he would not drink it again until the Kingdom of Heaven/Messianic Era was in its fullness. So, this is a rich tradition with much meaning for Jews and Christians.
• Hallel - Psalms 113-118 are traditionally recited, chanted, or sung during Passover. Some of these psalms are overtly Passover-themed (e.g. Psalm 114) and help fulfill the Biblical command to tell the Passover story. In the New Testament, it appears Messiah may have observed this tradition, as Matthew 26 records after the Passover meal, Yeshua and his disciples, “sang the Hallel and went out to the Mount of Olives.”
• Zeroa (shankbone on seder plate) isn’t in the text. It likely is there to remind us of the now-defunct Passover sacrifice.
• Dayenu The chant/response (and sometimes, song) saying “it would have been enough” isn’t a commandment, though it is a means of telling the Passover story.
• Drops of blood for each plague In some traditions, we place a drop of wine on our plate for each of the 10 plagues God brought on Egypt during the Exodus. This is a nice tradition that helps fulfill the commandment regarding telling the Passover story to your children.
• Karpas Parsley or lettuce is used during Passover meals, usually dipped in salt water, to remind congregants of Israel’s tears in Egyptian slavery, and other associated themes from the Passover.
• Charoset, usually a sweet mixture of apples, honey, grape juice, and cinnamon, is used as part of the Passover seder to explain the sweetness of the deliverance from slavery. It is a means of keeping the commandment regarding telling your children about the events of Passover.
• Rachtzah/hand washing Ritual handwashing is done during the Passover seder but not commanded.
• Afikoman and related rituals, where a piece of matzah is hidden, ransomed (sometimes to a child for money) and distributed among the people present, is a mysterious and beautiful tradition, perhaps connected to the Messiah, but not a commandment.
• Elijah’s seat - one common tradition at Passover is to leave a seat open at the table for Elijah. This is not a Passover commandment, but a tradition built around the Biblical prophecy that Elijah will announce the coming of Messiah. Additionally, some traditions hold that Messiah will come during the month in which Passover occurs.
• Mah nishtanah At Passover, we have kids (in some traditions, the youngest child) ask or sing four questions about why this night is different from all others. This is a nice tradition that helps fulfill the Biblical command to tell your children about Passover.
• "Next year in Jerusalem" - at the end of the Passover, we together exclaim, “Next year in Jerusalem!” In some traditions, we also sing the song, L’shana haba’ah b’Yirushalayim. These words close the Passover with the hope of the end of the Jewish exile and the ultimate rebuilding of the eternal city of Jerusalem. Christians too look for this, as the last book of the Christian Bible speaks of God at the end of time creating a new heavens, new earth, and a new Jerusalem as its focal point. Of course, Jewish exile has ended – in 1948 when Israel was reborn. Jews in Israel often change this line to “L’shana haba’ah b’yirushalaim habnuyah” - next year in the rebuilt Jerusalem.

Summary

Passover has many beautiful traditions around it, many of them based around Biblical commands. They can be useful in keeping the actual Biblical commandments of Passover, of which there are about 9 unique Passover commandments applicable to us today.

Personally, I look at these traditions as beautiful but optional. If I’m celebrating Passover with just my family, I may omit some traditions to keep the Passover from becoming too long and monotonous. In a larger group of mostly adults, I may include more of them. I think the purpose in all of them is to recount the works of God and make it real and meaningful for the people present.

Traditions aren’t meant to be forever and eternally binding, but rather helpful habits and practices to help apply the Bible to your life and teach it to the next generation. That’s how I look at them, at least. Maybe it helps you too.

Shalom, fine Kineti readers, and may you have a joyful & meaningful Passover! חג פסח שמח

Sukkot: Destroyer of Contemporary Theologies

Sukkot, the Biblical Feast of Tabernacles, is a theology buster.

• “We don’t do that Jewish stuff”
• “The Old Testament is no longer binding”
• “Christians shouldn’t celebrate it”
• “Jesus nailed those commandments to the cross”
• “It's partial/soft/hard One Law”
• “Gentiles shouldn’t keep Jewish identity markers”

All these theological objections are undermined by God’s words in Zechariah:

“In that day, people from every nation shall go up year after year to
worship the King and keep the Feast of Sukkot.” 

-Zechriah 14:16

It's good for us in the nations to celebrate Sukkot. Here in the nations, celebrating Sukkot is a way to rehearse for the time when all the world goes up to worship the King at Sukkot. Yeshua celebrated Sukkot, so should his followers. It's a small way to go about joyfully keeping God's commandments.

Here’s a few shots of my Sukkah this year:

חג סוכות שמח!

Yom Kippur's Adon HaSelichot אדון הסליחות

At Yom Kippur every year, the nation of Israel chants this song

Each line of the song declares a different attribute of God, each beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, starting with aleph א and ending with tav ת.

Aleph א

Adon haselichot אדון הסליחות
Master of forgiveness

Bet ב

Bochen levavot בוחן לבבות
Examiner of hearts

Gimel ג

Goleh amukot גולה עמוקות
Revealer of depths

Dalet ד

Dover tzedakot דובר צדקות
Speaker of righteousness

Hey ה

Hadur b’nifla’ot הדור בנפלאות
Glorious in miracles

Vav ו

Vatik benechamot ותיק בנחמות
Great in comfort

Zayin ז

Zocher b’rit avot זוכר ברית אבות
Remembering the covenant of the fathers

Khet ח

Khoker kelayot חוקר כליות
Knowing the innermost being

Tet ט

Tov umetiv labriyot טוב ומאיב לבריות
Good and doing good to mankind

Yud י

Yode’a kol nistarot יודע כל נסתרות
Knowing all hidden things

Kaf - כ

Kovesh avonot כובש עוונות
Conqueror of sins

Lamed ל

Lovesh tzedakot לובש צדקות
Clothed in righteousness

Mem מ

Maleh zakiyot מלא זכיות
Full of virtue

Nun נ

Norah tehilot נורא תהילות
Awesome in praises

Samekh ס

Sule’ach avonot סולח עוונות
Forgiver of sins

Ayin ע

Oneh b’et tzarot עונה בעת צרות
Answers in times of sorrow

Peh פ

Poel yeshuot פועל ישועות
Worker of salvations

Tzade צ

Tzofeh aht yidot צופה עת ידות
Seer of the future

Qof ק

Koreh ha-dorot קורא הדורות
Calling out to the generations

Resh ר

Rokhev aravot רוכב ערבות
Riding on the skies

Shin ש

Shomea tefilot שומע תפלות
Hearer of prayer

Tav ת

Temim de’ot תמים דעות
Perfect in knowledge

And after each section, Israel’s response is:

Chatanu lefaneicha rachem aleinu! !חטאנו לפניך רחם עלינו
We have sinned before You, have mercy on us!

May your name be written in His book of life, fine Kineti readers. 

!גמר חתימה טובה

The Hallel in Messianic song

At Pesach (Passover) each year, the Hallel, Psalms 113-118, has been traditionally recited as a joyful praising of God as the Passover draws to a close.

This tradition spans thousands of years; the gospels suggest the Master and his disciples practiced this, as Matthew 26 says that following their Passover meal, Yeshua and his disciples “sung the hymn and made their way to the Mount of Olives.” It’s plausible, even likely, that the hymn referred to here is the traditional Hallel, Psalms 113-118.

Going through the Passover haggadah this year, I wanted to infuse some music for the Hallel. After all, the Psalms were generally set to music! And music has a way of amplifying and setting to memory the words of the text.

As someone with a passion for Messianic music, I thought I’d be great to find Messianic musicians who have put these psalms to music.

Here’s what I’ve come up with, fine Kineti readers, the Messianic Song List for the Hallel. Enjoy!

Psalm 113

• Marty Goetz – From the Rising of the Sun (mp3 | chords)
  
  Marty’s typical uplifting, almost soaring tune makes this one a favorite on Chavah Messianic Radio. Marty also weaves in a bit from the gospels regarding Messiah’s empty tomb, fitting for the Passover season.
  
  
• Micha’el Ben David – Mi Mizrach Shemesh (mp3 | chords)
  
  Beautiful song, great praises! Micha’el’s praises are sincere and genuinely enthused, few artists like him. Check it out yourself:
  
  
  
  
  
• Ted Pearce – Mi Mizrach (mp3 | chords)
  
  Fast tempo, Hebrew and English, with a touch of eastern, almost Indian, sound. Fun song!
  
  
• Kathy Shooster – From the Rising of the Sun (mp3)
  
  One of Kathy’s greatest hits and her album’s namesake, this rhythmic, upbeat song weaves Psalm 113 and the Song of Moses (Exodus 15).

Psalm 114

• Sons of Korah – Psalm 114 (mp3)
  
  While perhaps identifying as Christian, rather than Messianic, this Australian group is popular among many Messianics. They put Psalm 114 to a beautiful tune with an extended instrumental.
  
  
• Savae – B’tseth Yisrael, When Israel Went Forth From Egypt (mp3)
  
  A chant put together by this group which aims to implement 1st-century instruments and vocal arrangements for a rather ancient sound. Starts with repeated horn blasts, followed by harps and beautiful vocal arrangements in the style of the eastern Orthodox churches.
  
  
• Star of David Singers – Psalm 114 (mp3)
  
  A rare item from the 1970s with a very folky and upbeat sound from these early pioneers in Messianic music.
  

Psalm 115

• Tents of Mercy – Not To Us, Oh Lord (mp3)
  
  Beautiful, underappreciated song by Israeli congregational music group Tents of Mercy, the group affiliated with Messianic pioneer Marc Chopinski. Sung in Hebrew, then Russian (?), then English.
  
  
• Roeh Israel – Not To Us (mp3)
  
  Rare item from congregation Roeh Israel.
  

Psalm 116

• Lamb – I Love the Lord (mp3 | chords)
  
  Classic favorite from Messianic music pioneers Lamb (Joel Chernoff, Levi Coghill). Well known, and still played in Messianic congregations to this day.
  
  
• Avner & Rachel Boskey – The Cup of Salvation (mp3)
  
  And oldie from Israeli believers Avner & Rachel Boskey. The Cup of Salvation refers to Psalm 116:13, “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. This cup may be related to the traditional 3rd cup of Pesach, the Cup of Redemption.
  

Psalm 117

• Avner & Rachel Boskey – O Praise the Lord (mp3)
  
  Perhaps the most well-known song from the Boskey’s, this song still enjoys singing at modern Messianic congregations today.
  
  
• Barry & Batya Segal – Hallelu Et Adonai (mp3)
  
  A cover of the Boskey’s song, Israeli believers Barry & Batya Segal produce perhaps a superior version that simply sets feet to dancing. Hebrew and English.
  

Psalm 118

• Paul Wilbur – Shouts of Joy (mp3 | chords)
  
  ”Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous of the Lord!” goes this dizzying praise anthem.
  
  
• Marty Goetz – Ana Adonai (mp3 | chords)
  
  Heart-moving rendition of Psalm 118:25-26 by Messianic psalmist Marty Goetz. Hebrew.
  
  
• Karen Davis – Ana Adonai (mp3)
  
  Israeli believer and well-known Messianic singer Karen Davis offers a moving, meditative version of Psalm 118.
  
  
• Troy Mitchell – Psalm 118 (mp3)
  
  Chant. Upcoming Messianic artist Troy Mitchell offers a liturgical chant of the whole of Psalm 118.

There it is, fine Kineti reader! Your nearly-comprehensive list of Hallel in Messianic Song.

Have a blessed Passover in memory of the Master.

The Greatest Commandments: Super Sensational Sukkot Edition

♪ This is the time of our rejoicing, z’man simchateinu! ♫

Oh yes, fine blog readers, it is Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, one of the 7 feasts of the Lord, a time we’re commanded to rejoice before the Lord for a full week, and then some.

Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the festival to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.

-Deuteronomy 16

I’ve had a great Sukkot, despite some busy-ness and even (gasp) controversy (more on that in the next post) – yes, even with these distractions, I’ve had a time of rejoicing. I was singing some praises on the guitar last week and it was positively joyful and renewing.

With Sukkot winding down this week, I wanted to add the Sukkot commandments to the Greatest Commandments Project. For the uninitiated, the Greatest Commandments Project is a massive visual hierarchy of all the commandments in the Torah, each deriving from another, starting with what Yeshua said was the most important commandments. Here’s what it looks like today:

(Click to enlarge)

In Maimonides’ famous list of 613 commandments in the Torah, he finds 13 (!) mitzvot related to Sukkot. I’ll list ‘em here, then map them below with a short blurb on each.

• #104 To rest on Sukkot
• #105 Not to do prohibited labor on Sukkot
• #106 To rest on Shemini Atzeret (last day of Sukkot)
• #107 Not to do prohibited labor on Shemini Atzeret
• #117 To dwell in a Sukkah for the seven days of Sukkot
• #118 To take up a Lulav and Etrog all seven days
• #390 To bring additional offerings on Sukkot
• #391 To bring additional offerings on Shemini Atzeret
• #420 To be seen at the Temple on Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot
• #421 To celebrate on these three Festivals (bring a peace offering)
• #422 To rejoice on these three Festivals (bring a peace offering)
• #423 Not to appear at the Temple without offerings
• #425 To assemble all the people on the Sukkot following the seventh year

Whew! That’s a lot of miztvot mappin’ to do!

Let’s map them below, with a little blurb on each:

Rest on the first day of Sukkot

…and…

No prohibited labor on the first day of Sukkot

The LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD’s Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work.

-Leviticus 23:34-35

Tabernacles, or Sukkot, is a sabbath of rest from regular work. Consistent with Maimonides’ habit of gleaning 2 commandments from a single passage on resting during sabbath festivals, so it is with the Sukkot commandments. I’ve derived these commandments from the “begin your year in the month of Passover” commandment.

Rest on the last day of Sukkot

..and…

No regular work on the last day of Sukkot

For seven days present food offerings to the LORD, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the LORD. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work.

-Leviticus 23:36

Called “Shemini Atzeret”, the 8th day of the assembly, or the day following the week of Sukkot, is a day of rest as well.

Is Shemini Atzeret the last day of Sukkot? Or is it really the day after the last day of Sukkot? A plain reading of the text suggests there are 7 days of Sukkot (see v.36), and that Shemini Atzeret is really a separate holy day following Sukkot.

At this time, however, there is no certainty on it, with many people referring to this day simply as the 8th day of Sukkot.

Live in a sukkah during Sukkot

Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’”

-Leviticus 23:42

The most recognizable Sukkot commandment: live in a sukkah! The feast’s namesake, Sukkot, is plural for sukkah: a tent, tabernacle, or other makeshift temporary dwelling.

It's interesting to note that this commandment applies specifically to native-born Israelites. This may excuse various Sukkot-honoring people in the diaspora from having to live in make-shift shelters for a week, which, more than inconvenient, may actually be a health concern in colder climates. (I’m in Minnesota in the northern United States, and living in a Sukkah here for 7 days would be rather bone chilling this time of year.)

Rejoice before the LORD with branches from luxurious trees on Sukkot

On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees—from palms, willows and other leafy trees—and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.

-Leviticus 23:40

After living in sukkahs, the most recognizable sign of this feast is the waving of lulav and etrog, and the rest of the four species of plants used in Jewish prayers during sukkot.

Biblically, the commandment is to take fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palms, boughs of thick trees, and willows of a brook, and rejoice before God. How they are to be used is a matter of debate.

The modern Jewish understanding is that they are to be waved around before the Lord. The practice is something of the worshipper taking the species above his head, waving them in all 4 directions.

But there is evidence that may not have always been the intended use. After all, waving fruit and branches over your head might be joyous for some, for others it may be awkward and ritualistic. Jewish blogger DovBear highlights the Samaritan Sukkah and Nehemiah’s Sukkah, in which these species of branches and fruit are used in building beautiful sukkahs, rather than waving them over the head. To this day, Samaritans use these species as sukkah-building materials, rather than ritual waving:

This seems to coincide with Nehemiah 8:13-18, where the people, having heard the Torah for the first time, went out and gathered these species for sukkah building:

On the second day of the month, the heads of all the families, along with the priests and the Levites, gathered around Ezra the teacher to give attention to the words of the Law. They found written in the Law, which the LORD had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month and that they should proclaim this word and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem: “Go out into the hill country and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees, and from myrtles, palms and shade trees, to make temporary shelters”—as it is written. So the people went out and brought back branches and built themselves temporary shelters on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God and in the square by the Water Gate and the one by the Gate of Ephraim.

-Nehemiah 8:13-18

It isn’t how it’s practiced today by modern Judaism, but take it or leave it.

In Maimonides’ list of 613 commandments, he described this commandment in the way that it’s practiced today: To take up a Lulav and Etrog all seven days.

Issues of how the species are used aside, I differ with Maimonides in the focus of this feast: rather than species, the focus is rejoicing in the Lord. I’ve mapped the commandment accordingly.

Appear before the LORD during Unleavened Bread, Shavuot, and Sukkot

Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles.

-Deuteronomy 16:16a

Though the text literally commands appearing before the LORD, it's assumed the appearance before the Lord is before the Tabernacle/Temple. Maimonides comes to this conclusion as well, and as such, I've marked this commandment as not able to follow today, given the lack of a Tabernacle.

No appearing before the LORD empty-handed and without offerings

No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.

-Deuteronomy 16:16b

The appearing before the Lord on the pilgrimage festivals required the worshipper to bring offerings seemingly according to the degree with which God blessed him. There’s almost a taboo in modern religious thinking that tells us not to measure God’s involvement. I mean, “count your blessings” is cute, but in reality, do we actually measure this? The Israelites were to bring gifts on the feasts in proportion to the degree God blessed them.

Celebrate on Unleavened Bread, Shavuot, and Sukkot

…and…

Rejoice on Unleavened Bread, Shavuot, and Sukkot

Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.

-Exodus 23:14

Maimonides equates celebrating on these festivals with bringing a peace offering in the Tabernacle. Though this was part of the celebration, I have not limited the commandment so. Instead, I allow for keeping this commandment today through celebrating the festival, even without bringing offerings in the Tabernacle.

Bring additional offerings on the first day of Sukkot

…and…

Bring additional offerings on the last day of Sukkot

On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. Celebrate a festival to the LORD for seven days. Present as an aroma pleasing to the LORD a food offering consisting of a burnt offering of thirteen young bulls, two rams and fourteen male lambs a year old, all without defect.

-Numbers 29:13

Present as an aroma pleasing to the LORD a food offering consisting of a burnt offering of one bull, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect. With the bull, the ram and the lambs, offer their grain offerings and drink offerings according to the number specified. Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering.

-Numbers 29:35

Nearly all of Numbers 29 is a detailed explanation of the Sukkot offerings, each day of the festival having different offerings of animals and grains.

Hear the Torah at the end of the 7th year on Sukkot

Then Moses commanded them: “At the end of every seven years, in the year for canceling debts, during the Festival of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing. Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the foreigners residing in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law."

-Deuteronomy 32:12

This seems like a lesser-known commandment; I can’t say I remember hearing this commandment in the past 10 years, let alone following it. The law itself may seem a little outdated: since the people didn’t have access to the Torah themselves, necessarily, nor could all read it if they had access, the Torah was to be read before all the people – men and women, natives and foreigners, old and young – so that everyone would know the Torah. This coincided when all Israel had come up to the Tabernacle/Temple during the pilgrimage feast of Sukkot, an opportune time to make God’s commandments in the Torah known to the whole people.

Maimonides’ interpretation is a little lacking, it seems. His interpretation is: To assemble all the people on the Sukkot following the seventh year.

Yes, the people were to be assembled, but the point here is not the assembly, but the hearing of the “words of this law”, which seems to be referring to the whole Torah.

Despite this commandment seeming a bit outdated, nonetheless it can be carried out today.

The Big Picture

Wooohooo! Almost all of the feast commandments have now been mapped. I’ve highlighted them in purple below for easy viewing:

(Click for full size)

Or alternately, view the commandments map in this deep zoom visualizer:

And here are the statistics for the commandments thus far:

• 107 commandments have been mapped thus far.
• 91% (97 commandments) are concerned with loving God.
• 9% (10 commandments) are concerned with loving others.
• 31% (33 commandments) are related to idolatry.
• 91% (97 commandments) can be carried out in modern times.
• 22% (23 commandments) can be carried out only in Israel.
• 44% (47 commandments) are positive.
• 56% (60 commandments) are negative.
• 5% (6 commandments) have alternate readings.
• 18% (19 commandments) are from Exodus.
• 40% (43 commandments) are from Leviticus.
• 6% (6 commandments) are from Numbers.
• 36% (39 commandments) are from Deuteronomy.
• Generally, Christians observe 48% of all the commandments.
• (26% actually carried out, 15% attempted by many, 6% recognized but not widely carried out, 53% no attempted observance.)
• Generally, Messianics observe 83% of all the commandments.
• (55% widely carried out, 16% attempted by many, 12% recognized but not widely carried out, 17% no attempted observance.)
• Generally, observant Jews obey 84% of all the commandments.
• (58% widely carried out, 16% attempted by many, 12% recognized but not widely carried out, 16% no attempted observance.)
• Average commandment length is 176 characters.
• Average commandment summary is 36 characters.
• The Greatest Commandments Project is 17.5% completed!

I hope you all have had a time of rejoicing this Sukkot, fine blog readers.

It’s good to have unity in the Messianic movement

Just had a Shavuot celebration with multiple Messianic congregations from the Twin Cities joining us and celebrating with our congregation.

Something very right about Messianics not fighting, not nitpicking each other over various theologies, not battling about correct theology, for once.

Just celebrating God’s feast together, Jews and gentiles.

Man, it was so right.

I wish the blog world were more like the real world!

Chag sameach Shavuot!

The Greatest Commandments, Part 15: Yom Teruah Edition

For the uninitiated, the Greatest Commandments Project is an undertaking to map all the biblical commandments in the Torah into a massive visual tree.

Have a look at:

• The latest snapshot of our work.  
  
• Our previous installments.
• Our open source software project.
  

The Feast of Many Labels

Yom Teruah (“Day of Blasting/Shouting”), also called the Feast of Trumpets, falls this week.

But you might be more familiar with the modern name: Rosh HaShana (“Head of Year”), which Judaism celebrates as the new year.

Also note that, because it is the only feast that falls on a new moon, it has been referred to by Messianics as “the day no man knows”, however, I have not seen this name in use by greater Judaism, so that may be a Messianic analogy more than a real name.

Some independent Messianics have suggested the name Rosh HaShana derives from Israel’s captivity in Babylon. While it’s true the Scriptures do not use the name “Rosh HaShana”, and while it’s true that the Scriptures does not refer to this day as the head of the year, it’s worth noting that the actual observance of this holiday is carried out Scripturally: shofar blasts, and rest. Dunno ‘bout you fine blog readers, but I’d rather focus on actual observance than label correction.

For further Yom Teruah/Rosh HaShana commentary, see J.K. McKee’s Rosh Hashana FAQ.

The 4 Yom Teruah commandments

The Scriptures contain relatively few commandments on this feast; in his famous list of 613 commandments, the medieval Jewish sage Maimonides finds only 4 on Yom Teruah.

Nonetheless, the commandments were explicit: sound the shofar, rest, don’t do regular work, and bring offerings.

A Sign of Things To Come?

While God commands us to sound the shofar on Yom Teruah, he doesn’t explain why. Perhaps for this reason, as First Fruits of Zion notes, medieval sage Rav Saadiah Gaon listed shofar blast remembrances as aspects of Yom Teruah:

1. The Coronation of the King
2. The Call to Repentance
3. The Giving of the Torah at Sinai
4. Warning of Impending Judgment
5. The Destruction and Future Rebuilding of the Temple
6. The Binding of Isaac
7. Fear of God
8. The Day of Judgment (Yom Kippur)
9. The Ingathering of Israel
10. The Resurrection of the Dead

The red-highlighted ones above are also mentioned by Messiah and his disciples in the New Testament, which I’ll touch on below. It could be argued that #8 and #9 are also mentioned in the New Testament, albeit indirectly.

A number of Messianic and Christian scholars have suggested the feast – known for its trumpet blasts – has prophetic significance with regards to the return of the Messiah and the final judgment. For example, Messiah says his return will come with a loud trumpet blast,

Immediately after the distress of those days 'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ [Isaiah 13]

At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

-Messiah, as recorded by Matthew

Also, Paul seems to agree with both Messiah and Rav Gaon that the dead will be raised at this time, with this great trumpet blast:

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."

-Paul, in his letter to Corinth

Finally, Revelation records final judgment and Messiah’s return being signaled with the trumpet blast.

While not definitive evidence, it does seem fitting that Messiah’s trumpet-blast-return would occur on or following the Day of Blasts, Yom Teruah, perhaps as a crowning fulfillment of the feast.

And that, my fine blog readers, is something to look forward to you. Man. Messiah’s return. Dead people coming back to life. Final judgment. (On second thought, maybe that last one isn’t so appealing! Still, the final, setting-right-the-wrongs justice is something to look forward to for all but the world’s worst characters.)

Mapping the Commandments

All that commentary out of the way, let’s get down to business: map the Yom Teruah commandments into our massive visual hierarchy, oh yes!

Sound the Shofar

On the first day of the seventh month hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. It is a day for you to sound the trumpets.

-Numbers 29:1

Maimonides summarizes this commandment as “Hear the shofar on Rosh HaShana”.

I’ve deviated slightly from this in an effort to remain closer to the plain wording of the text. Rather than the passive “hear the shofar”, I’ve interpreted this as “sound the shofar”.

Seeing as how Yom Teruah is known for the day of shofar blasts, I’ve mapped this commandment as the root Yom Teruah commandment, deriving from “Keep All God’s Commandments”:

Rest On Yom Teruah + No Regular Work On Yom Teruah

Two related commandments here: to rest on Yom Teruah, and to refrain from regular work on Yom Teruah. They are both taken from Leviticus 23:

On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the LORD by fire.

-Leviticus 23:24-25

This pattern follows Maimonides’ previous interpretations with regards to not working on Passover: there, he likewise distinguished between commandments to rest and commandments to refrain from regular work.

I’ve derived these commandments like so:

Bring Additional Offerings On Yom Teruah

On the first day of the seventh month hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. It is a day for you to sound the trumpets.

As an aroma pleasing to the LORD, prepare a burnt offering of one young bull, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect. With the bull prepare a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with the ram, two-tenths; and with each of the seven lambs, one-tenth. Include one male goat as a sin offering to make atonement for you. These are in addition to the monthly and daily burnt offerings with their grain offerings and drink offerings as specified. They are offerings made to the LORD by fire—a pleasing aroma.

-Numbers 29:1-2

Maimonides tends to combine sacrifice commandments into a single commandment. Here we see he consolidates perhaps 7 sacrifices – bull, ram, lambs, grains with the bull, grains with the ram, grains with the lambs, and a goat – into a single commandment: bring additional offerings. This is consistent with Maimonides’ interpretation of the Yom Kippur sacrifices.

This commandment to bring additional cannot be carried out without a tabernacle or Temple. Or at least, not in the way the Torah prescribes. This is the 3rd such commandment we’ve mapped which cannot be carried out today. Such commandments are highlighted in red in our commandment tree.

I’ve derived this commandment from the “sound the shofar on Yom Teruah” commandment:

The Big Picture

That summarizes the Yom Teruah commandments, fine blog readers: sound the shofar, rest, refrain from regular work, and bring additional offerings.

Here’s the current state of the Greatest Commandments Project:

(Click to enlarge)

Absolutely bee-ay-you-tee-ful.

Have a great Yom Teruah, fine blog readers!

Feast of Trumpets - Yom Teruah

Fine blog readers, one of God’s special days is coming up. Yom Teruah, also known as the Feast of Trumpets or Rosh HaShana, is quickly approaching in the next few days. I’ll be doing a little Greatest Commandments Project goodness in the next day or so to go over God’s commandments for this feast.

In the meantime, here’s a bit of info on this feast of the Lord, courtesy of First Fruits of Zion.

Thought for the Week

In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.

-Leviticus 23:24

Commentary

On the first day of the seventh month is this festival the Torah simply calls a "reminder by blowing of trumpets." This is the festival we call the "Feast of Trumpets," the day of trumpet blowing. The Torah tells us to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets by blowing a ram's horn (shofar, שופר). The Feast of Trumpets is a festival that is meant to prepare us for the holy Day of Atonement that comes ten days later.

The festival is called Rosh HaShanah (the head of the year). This is the Hebrew way of saying New Year's Day. The Torah commands us to blow the shofar on the Rosh Hashanah as a memorial, but it does not tell us what the blowing of the shofar memorializes. The Sages offered various attempts to explain the festival. They searched through the Scriptures for references to shofars and trumpet blasts and derived a plethora of different remembrances. The early medieval sage Rav Saadiah Gaon codified these various explanations of the Feast of Trumpets and listed them. According to Rav Saadiah Gaon, there are ten primary remembrances for which the shofar is blown on the Festival of Trumpets. Each of these remembrances highlights a unique aspect of the festival:

1. The Coronation of the King
2. The Call to Repentance
3. The Giving of the Torah at Sinai
4. Warning of Impending Judgment
5. The Destruction and Future Rebuilding of the Temple
6. The Binding of Isaac
7. Fear of God
8. The Day of Judgment (Yom Kippur)
9. The Ingathering of Israel
10. The Resurrection of the Dead

Even as we wait to hear the trumpet blast of the king, the great shofar of our returning Redeemer, we celebrate the appointed time of the Rosh Hashanah. The annual blast of the shofar during the Feast of Trumpets foreshadows that day when the heavens will be rent by the blast of Messiah's trumpet. For disciples of the Messiah, Rosh Hashanah is a reminder of that appointed time yet to come when the Master "will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other." (Matthew 24:31) It is a day on which we anticipate the coming judgment, the trumpets of the book of Revelation, and the beginning of the end. It is a glimpse of the future, a shadow cast through time. As such, the Feast of Trumpets is relevant for everyone who believes in Messiah's return. It is an important festival for the disciples of Yeshua.

Happy Yom Teruah/Feast of Trumpets/Rosh HaShana to all you fine blog readers. Let it be a time we can look forward to the great shofar blast of Messiah.

The Greatest Commandments: Passover Edition

This week, millions of families around the globe will be celebrating God’s Passover. According to Exodus, Passover begins at twilight on the 14th day of the first month, and is observed for 7 days.

To commemorate, we’ll be doing something a little out of the ordinary: each day this week we’ll post a Greatest Commandments installment, each detailing God’s commandments regarding the Passover feast.

Yes, you heard right, folks – please don’t pee your pants in excitement – we’ll be dishing out mitzvah goodness straight from the text, no watered-down flavors, no preservatives, no sugar added! Just good ol’ fashioned, bare-edged mitzvot, straight from the Word. Yes! 

You might be surprised to know that, according to Maimonides’ list of 613 Biblical commandments, there are at least 30 commandments regarding Passover. Or another way to put it, about 5% of all Biblical commandments are about Passover! Wow. Our commandments hierarchy…she’s gonna grow large, cap’n!

Quite the list to tackle. We’ll start off today with our first batch of 5 commandments.

Stick around, and I hope you all enjoy it, and more importantly, I hope you all enjoy Passover with your families.

Tentative agricultural dates for the Feasts

There are a lot of Messianics who use the traditional Jewish calendar, created in the 4th century AD.

There are also a select few of us who use a calendar based off the agricultural seasons in Israel, as described in the Torah.

I don’t condemn people for using the traditional Jewish rabbinical calendar; this post isn’t meant to start a flame war about trivial calendar issues.

Rather, I’ve had some Messianics and Christians approach me about the agricultural dates for 2009: when does the Biblical new year start? When is Passover? And so on. This post addresses these questions. Provided abib barley is found as expected before the next new moon, these are the dates for the Feasts of the Lord:

Feast	Western calendar date for 2009	Rest?	Messianic fulfillment
Biblical New Year, 1st day of month of Abib	Sundown March 27th
Passover	Twilight, April 10th		Messiah, the Lamb of God, was sacrificed.
Unleavened Bread	Sundown April 10th through sundown April 17th	God commanded rest on the first and last days of Unleavened Bread.	Messiah was in the tomb during the week of this feast.
First Fruits	Sundown April 11th		Messiah rises from the dead on this feast. While Messiah rose on the first day of the week, many mistake this to be Sunday; because Hebrew days end at sundown, rather than midnight, the first day of the week begins Saturday at sundown, not Sunday morning.
Shavu’ot (Feast of Pentecost)	Sundown May 30th	God commanded rest on Shavu’ot.	Messiah sent his spirit to the apostles on this feast. They began speaking in foreign languages and were filled with God’s spirit.
Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets)	Sundown September 20th	God commanded rest on Yom Teruah.	Possible future Messianic fulfillment: the great shofar will sound, signaling the coming of the Messiah.
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).	Sundown September 29th	God commanded rest on Yom Kippur.	Possible future Messianic fulfillment: Messiah will judge the world on this feast.
Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)	Sundown October 4th through sundown October 12th.	God commanded rest on the first and last days of this Sukkot.	Possible future Messianic fulfillment: Messiah will dwell/tabernacle with us during this feast.

Most often, there’s a few days in between Passover and First Fruits. (Indeed, Messiah was in the tomb 3 days and 3 days nights before rising on First Fruits.) However, this year First Fruits falls the day after due to the commandment to celebrate it the “day after the Sabbath following Passover”. This happens to be only a day apart this year.

There you have it, fine blog readers. Shalom.

Gentile Christians Keeping the Feasts of the Lord

60 year old classic Christian, Mary Anne Clark, talks about how she -- a gentile Christian wife of an Anglican clergyman -- came to keep the Feasts of the Lord: Sabbath, Passover, Pentecost, and others. Why did she start keeping them? What business does a gentile Christian have in keeping the "Jewish" feasts?

Q. What did your family think about your keeping these traditions, I mean, was it welcomed wholeheartedly, was it, kind of, did they think it was weird? How did they respond?

A. Not so much weird as "don't quite understand it". I think for extended family members, umm, it's probably considered a little weird. "I wonder what they're into now." [laughs] That kind of thing. Because even being a born-again, sold-out-for-the-Lord Christian is a little bit weird for some people. So now taken this level of trying to understand Jesus and His life, yeah, it is considered a little weird. I don't know that it's judged so much as it is cautioned.

Q. What do you mean by cautioned?

A. I think they're cautious, people are cautious because they don't want to be weird, they don't want to do things that are weird. They want to be your normal, average people. And so they don't want to take themselves in any way that would make them look weird.

But the truth is, once you get to understanding this [the Feasts of the Lord], it doesn't matter what people think because you get so much more of a level of richness about your Christian faith and your Christian walk that it's all worth it.

This is interview comes from the fine folks at Threads Media, who were kind enough to send me a free copy of their Feast leader kit: a pack of materials for small Christian groups wanting to learn about the Feasts of the Lord.

It contains a CD with Christian Feast-centered music and interviews with the Christians who keep the Feasts, a DVD of Messianic Rabbi Derek Leman and friends sharing a Sabbath meal together and talking about the tradition and what it means in their lives as Messiah-followers to keep the Feasts of the Lord.

It also contains Derek's new book, Feast: Finding Your Place at the Table of Tradition.

Questions like,

Why keep the Feasts of the Lord?

Why should gentiles keep "Jewish" feasts?

How in the world can a non-Jew living in this culture keep the Feasts? What am I supposed to do?

The materials in the Feast leader kit look at these questions from a gentile Christian perspective and answers them with personal experiences of other Christians. If you're a Christian who's even the least bit curious about the Feasts of the Lord, you owe it to yourself to discover more of the times the Lord appointed for His people: His set-apart Feasts.

Some time in the coming weeks, I'll be doing a little Q&A interview with Derek about his book and about the Feast kit. Do you fine blog readers have any tough questions for Derek? Skeptical questions about the Feasts? Maybe you've got a quote from Paul that just shuts down all this Jewish stuff? Or maybe you're curious about how to go about actually celebrating one of the Lord's Feasts?

Here's your chance to ask a Real Live Messianic Rabbi® your questions about the Feasts. Post them in the comments and I may use them in the interview.

Shalom.

Deliverance

Tonight is the beginning of Passover, one of God's feasts in Scripture which he told Israel to keep as an eternal ordinance.

At Passover, God told each house in Israel to select a perfect, spotless lamb, to be the sacrifice lamb. In Egypt, the blood was put on the door posts of Israel so that when God went to strike against the captors, death would pass over Israel. Unleavened bread (bread without yeast) was eaten, as well as bitter herbs to remind us the bitterness of slavery in Egypt.

In the New Covenant, Messiah celebrated the Passover with his disciples. He told them, "When you do this, do it in remembrance of me." So we celebrate the Passover not only in remembrance of God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt, but also of Messiah's deliverance of us from sin and death."

A Messianic rabbi friend, Derek Leman, has something quite profound to say in Passover As a Spiritual Journey, touching on this dual remembrance that we, as believers in Messiah who keep the Lord's Passover, are in a position to carry out:

Passover calls us to think not only about Israel’s journey, but our own. God brought not only Israel out of Egypt, but us as well.

So then there is the second telling of the story, the one that begins with slavery:

And the Egyptians abused us . . . they afflicted us . . . and they subjected us to harsh servitude . . . We cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our plea and saw our affliction, our misery and our oppression . . .

And this is another way of looking at our story. It is the crisis perspective, looking at the things we needed saving from (and still do — let’s not kid ourselves about how far we have come).

It is good at Passover to think about these things also:

–What traps were we caught in? What dangers did we face (including judgment for sin)?

–How aware were we of our misery when we sought God? What was happening?

–How do we need him to save us over and over again? I don’t mean in the Christian sense of the word “save” as a technical term for becoming a part of God’s people. I mean, in what ways do we find again and again we need God’s forgiveness and help in escaping the worst tendencies in ourselves?

–Put our own issues into the following sentence: And _________ abused us and _________ was our affliction and __________ was my harsh servitude and we cried to the Lord . . .

This year, as you celebrate Passover, why not take a minute to journal about these things. And put your writing inside your favorite Haggadah. You’ll read it from year to year and maybe even add to it. It is your own personal Haggadah.

In a moment of introspection, ask yourself who or what has abused you? What has been your affliction? What was your harsh servitude? What's been holding you down, suppressing you, stifling your relationship with God? What's caused you to cry out to the Lord, asking earnestly for deliverance?

I know I can fill in those blanks with some damning, ugly sins of my own. I can't even count the times I've cried out to the Lord for deliverance from the things the evil one has tripped me up with as I attempt to live a life for the Lord. Like Israel's journey out of bondage, we've lived our lives captive to sin -- even more so in this backwards culture! -- but the Father is drawing us out.

Messiah's atoning sacrifice, the once-and-for all sacrifice, is the thing that can deliver us from this bondage, make us clean before God; we need only come in sincere repentance to him, as we clean out the leaven from our lives and walking more in-step with the Lord, day by day.

Here's to remembering the Passover Lamb, Seh HaElohim, Yeshua HaMashiach. May He come quickly in our day and restore justice to this perverted world.

----------------
Now playing: Lamb - Yeshua Ha Mashiach
via FoxyTunes

Happy Scriptural New Year!

The new moon of the month of the Aviv (barley) was sighted in Israel after sunset at 7:05pm Jerusalem time on Monday, April 7, 2008. The barley crop in the land of Israel had matured to the stage of aviv during the added 13th month (Adar bet), which brings us to the Scriptural head of the year.

God told us in Scripture this indicates "the beginning of months for you." Scripture tells us that the 14th day of this first month, we are to celebrate God's Passover in remembrance of death passing over us in Egypt, and God's deliverance of Israel from slavery.

The New Testament tells us that Messiah celebrated Passover this month with his disciples, and we are to celebrate the Feast in 2 weeks "in rememberance" of him. This is also the month Messiah, the unleavened Lamb of God, was given up as the final atonement for our sin.

Happy Biblical New Year!

I'm Offended That You're Offended!

I've been offending a lot of people lately.

1. Wezlo, a Baptist pastor of Christdot.org fame, was offended at my statement on Barack Obama's pastor, "Shame on the fools who equate the murdering of children with the acts of a nation against the murderers." I further suggested Israel is morally right in its war against the murderers of these kids, and that there are times when God uses righteous anger, even righteous violence.
   
   So offended was the Protestant pastor that he ended up deleting several posts, closing the comments on one blog post, and finally hinted it as a reason to close his blog. "That was out of line", he tells me. "You're coming here trying to pick a fight", he asserts. "You should have said, 'I think it's foolish...' rather than 'Shame on the fools...'", so as not to offend anyone, he tells me in a now-deleted post.
   
   
2. A pluralistic man of the secular world was offended after I mentioned that the names of the months of our western calendar are named after "false gods". "False gods?", he asks, "How is my god any more false than yours?!"
   
   I suspect his was a rhetorical question; there are not too many people nowadays worshipping Aphrilis, namesake of the month of April.
   
   
3. Pakistani Muslim and long time acquaintance Adnan Siddiqi and his Muslim friends were offended by the implication that the Jewish people have survived 4000 years thanks to God's preservation, despite at least 8 different civilizations attempting to destroy them. I then suggested that Hamas et al will go the way of the dodo, as did the groups prior that tried to destroy the Jewish people. Needless to say, that didn't soothe his wounds.
   
   
4. Even some Jewish friends took offense after I pointed out the modern Jewish calendar differs from God's calendar in Scripture. All-around nice guy, dad of 8 kids, and friendly Messianic Jewish rabbi Derek Leman, found it wise to publicly distance himself from me for my remarks on the Jewish calendar.
   
   [Update: in the comments to the same post, another Jewish reader, Gene Shlomovich, is engaged in a debate with me over the merits of Messianic Israel theology, the theology that states both Jews and gentiles are part of Israel, either by descent or by Messiah's grafting-in.]
   

Combine those with the respectful theological disagreements with a Christian friend, Brian, regarding the dissolution of the Levitical priesthood, a debate with comments long enough to write a short novel, a debate which continued on privately for a few more back-and-forths.

In addition, I've recently discovered another Christian friend privately took deep offense at the recent assaults on Easter, finally admitting he "didn't want to hear anymore about it". Ignorance is bliss!

In the last few weeks, I've offended at least 4 Christians, 2 Jews, 2 Muslims, and a man who in all likelihood is an atheist. And those are just the people who've spoken up. :-)

All that said, here's some more red meat for the easily-offendable. :-) I suspect it will offend Jews, Muslims and atheists more than Christians, for it contains something most Christians believe, something I consider the Christians to be absolutely and entirely correct in. (Shocking, ain't it? Not too often I can agree with Christianity!)

It's a quote from an intellectual Jewish man, a former atheist, who turned to Messiah in his mid-life, Art Katz. He had this to say regarding the easily-offendable nature of the pluralistic western world. In some ways, it gives me reassurance through all these debates and arguments and offend-ings and disagreements,

Have you heard of pluralism? The whole modern western world is pluralistic. That is to say, "many paths to God." There's no single truth.

Jesus made a remarkable statement: "If you see me, you see the Father, I and the Father are one. No man comes to the Father but by me. If any man comes any other way, that man is a thief and a robber." You guys realize what a scandal the gospel is? You realize how abrasive the gospel is? Do you realize that God has chose the foolish things? That there's nothing about the gospel that's intellectually credible? God has given us something calculatingly foolish, compared to the wisdom of the world. The world that is pluralistic and likes to consider many paths to truth has got to contend with a gospel that insists upon itself, and the Jesus of that gospel, as the only truth. It is uncompromising in its insistence. It is absolute in its expression. And the very question of absoluteness and singularity itself runs right across the whole tenet and grain of the modern world. You understand that? Do you understand how pluralistic the whole mindset of the world is, how many options -- I don't know's, the maybe's, the grey's, who's to say's -- and into that whole mucky world of vagaries, and choices, and nuances, comes one statement out of the heart of God: "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by me."

If I hear anything from my Jewish kinsmen in conversations I have been involved with my people, invariably they bring up, "What about the other people of the world? What about Buddhists, what about Muslims, what about Hindus? Don't they have a religion, isn't it a world faith? Aren't there redemptive elements in these religions? And you feel a blush coming up to the roots of your being, when you have to insist and say, "No, these are satanic deceptions and false alternatives that lead unto death." To insist on the singularity of the gospel, to insist on the absoluteness of it: this is not just an issue of religion, it's hitting the world head-on in a confrontation of wisdoms, of moral systems, of mentalities.

I've found this to be true, that one bold statement goes against the grain and tenet of the world and induces all kinds of anger and offense: No man comes to God but through Yeshua the Messiah. Speak that truth, and you're a bigot by the world's standards. The world will slander you and attack you and mock you to no end should that tiny statement be uttered in public. It is the ultimate offender in this easily-offendable, politically correct world.

For the record, I'd like to say that none of the disagreements have created a cold between myself and any of you who know me personally. I always prefer clarity to agreement, and I think honest debates help bring about that clarity.

So if you're offended or disagree with me, I want to hear from you, I want to discuss it, I want to find the truth of the matter. Even if we can't attain agreement, at least we can find clarity in exactly where each side stands.

God's Calendar vs Man's Calendar

*Update*: some Jewish friends have taken offense to this post, as I mention some non-Biblical things in the Jewish calendar. The point isn't to condemn the Jewish calendar, as it is much more Scriptural than the western calendar, but instead to point out the few places it deviates from the calendar God gave us in the Torah.

The secular western calendar in use today is very different from the Biblical calendar.

Unlike the western calendar, God's calendar doesn't have months named after false gods:

• January is named after the Roman god Janus.


• February is named after the pagan cleansing ritual known as februa.


• March is named after the Roman god Mars.


• April is named after the Roman sexual goddess Aphrilis, also known as Aphros or Aphrophdite.


• May is named after Maia, a Roman goddess of fertility.


• June is named after the Roman goddess Juno.


• July is named after the Roman emperor-worshipped-as-god, Divine Julius Caesar.


• August is named after the Roman emperor, Augustus, who, upon his death, was claimed to have joined the Roman pantheon as a god.

Only the remaining months, September, October, November, December, are neutral and secular in meaning, having their names derived from Latin numbers.

Also unlike the western gentile calendar, the Biblical calendar does not have days of the week named after false gods:

• Monday is named after Mona, the pagan Gemanic god.


• Tuesday is named after the Nordic god Tyr.


• Wednesday is named after the Germanic god Woden.


• Thursday is named after the Nordic god Thor.


• Friday is named after the Nordic god Frejya.


• Saturday is named after the Roman god Saturn.


• Sunday is named after the Germanic sun goddess Sunne.

In addition to the days of the week and most of the month names, the western gentile calendar also has many holidays named after false gods, or derived from a false god but have since been renamed.

• The Lent holiday is derived from the Babylonian god Tammuz, in which 40 days are spent weeping for his death.
  
  
• The Easter holiday, exactly 40 days after the beginning of Lent, is in honor of Tammuz' mother goddess, Ishtar. Easter is celebrated as Tammuz is resurrected back to life as the reincarnation of his father god, Nimrod.
  
  
• The Christ's Mass holiday (Christmas) is celebrated on December 25th as it was the birthday of Deus Sol Invictus, the "invicible sun" god of the Romans, a title given to the false gods Mithras, Sol, Elagabalus, and Mars. Some scholars suggest that Tammuz was also believed to have been born on December 25th.
  
  
• Most of the paraphernalia associated with the big holidays can be traced back to pagan origins. For example, Christmas trees, Yuletide, Easter eggs, and Easter rabbits in conjunction with these festivals are of pagan origin.

What about the Jewish Calendar?

Some folks think the Jewish calendar to be the Biblical calendar. Unfortunately, this is not quite so; the Jewish calendar in use today mostly Biblical, but also mixes some elements of the Babylonian calendar picked up during the Israelite captivity some 2600 years ago.

For example, the Jewish calendar kept today by modern Jews has month names taken from Babylonian paganism: the Jewish month of Tammuz is named after the Babylonian god Tammuz, who's worship is mentioned in Scripture as an abomination, and who's death was mourned for 40 days prior to the day of his mother goddess, Ishtar.

(As mentioned prior, to this day, Christians celebrate this pagan holiday in the form of 40 days of Lent leading up to Easter, replacing 40 days of weeping for Tammuz with 40 days of fasting for Jesus, replacing Ishtar Day with Easter Day.)

The Jewish year starts in the middle of the calendar on a Jewish holiday not found in Scripture, a holiday called Rosh HaShanah ("head of the year"), which may be Babylonian in origin. It should be noted that while Rosh HaShanah is not Scriptural, it is celebrated at the same time as the Scriptural Yom Teruah, and the two are often interchangeable in modern times.

Ironically, because the Jewish calendar is a mix of God's calendar and the Babylonian calendar, Jews are left with the uncomfortable reality that the "head of the year" falls in the 7th month of the calendar! Yes, it's true, Jews say "happy new year" not in the first month of the year, but half-way through the Jewish year!

Unlike the western pagan calendar, the day names in the Jewish calendar tell a better story: they are the same day names in God's calendar.

So What Is God's Calendar?

God's calendar is the calendar He gave to his people in Scripture. Unlike the western calendar, God's calendar is based around lunar cycles. It also utilizes agriculture and natural ripening of crops to determine seasons.

And unlike the western calendar and the Jewish calendar, God's calendar does not have any months or days named after false gods.

According to Scripture, here are the days of the week we are to use:

• Yom Rishon (יום ראשון), "First Day"
  
  
• Yom Sheni (יום שני), "Second Day"
  
  
• Yom Shlishi (יום שלישי), "Third Day"
  
  
• Yom Revi (יום רבעי), "Fourth Day"
  
  
• Yom Hamishi (יום חמישי), "Fifth Day"
  
  
• Yom Shishi (יום ששי), "Sixth Day"
  
  
• Yom Shabbat (יום שבת or more usually שבת), "Sabbath"

In God's calendar, a new day doesn't start at midnight. Rather, the day starts at sundown and ends at sundown. Thus, the Biblical sabbath starts Friday at sundown and lasts until Saturday at sundown.

The names of the months are equally as simple as the days, Torah simply calls them "First Month", "Second Month", etc. The first month also goes by the name HaAviv or HaAbib in the Torah, meaning the month of "the aviv (ripe) barley", indicating that finding naturally ripe barely in the land indicates the beginning of the first month. God's calendar has 12 months typically, but a 13th month is inserted if barley is not naturally ripe by the end of the 12th month in Israel.

In God's calendar, there are holidays which God calls "My appointed times" (Lev 23), eternal landmarks in time we're commanded to remember all our generations. There are 7 Feasts of the Lord, (7 being a Hebrew number of completion), 8 if you count the weekly Sabbath (8 being a number of new beginnings). Here are the holidays God instituted, listed in the order they occur:

• Passover - 1st month, day 14. This year, Passover will fall in April in the western calendar.
  
  
• Unleavened Bread - 1st month, day 15, the day after Passover. This is a 7 day-long festival. We see Messiah and his apostles celebrating this Feast and the Passover in the gospels.
  
  
• First Fruits - 1st month, first day of the week following Unleavened Bread.
  
  
• Weeks - Also called Shavuot or Pentecost, falls 7 weeks after First Fruits. In the New Testament, we see the apostles celebrating this Feast of the Lord in Acts 2. This is the last Feast of the Lord occurring in the spring.
  
  
• Teruah - Also called Feast of Shofar Blasts, Feast of Trumpets, Feasts of Shouting. This is the first feast occurring in the fall. It falls in the 7th month, day 1.
  
  
• Atonements - Also called Judgments, called Yom HaKippurim or Yom Kippur in Hebrew, this feast occurs 9 days later: 7th month, day 10.
  
  
• Tabernacles - Also called the Feast of Booths, Tents, and Dwellings, this feast occurs 5 days later: 7th month, day 15.

Additionally, God calls the Sabbath day, the 7th day, a weekly feast, a feast that has been in existence since the time of creation.

All of these Feasts of the Lord have symbolic meaning, with special commandments given to us detailing how to commemorate these eternal Feasts of the Lord.

Messianic Jews and some wise Christians have suggested these feasts of God have special meaning because Messiah fulfilled some of these.

For example, the first 4 feasts -- all which occur in the spring -- were fulfilled in real-time by the Messiah: his betrayal coming the very night he was celebrating Passover with his disciples (becoming the sacrifice Passover lamb), his death during Unleavened Bread (the unleavened/sinless one being buried for 3 days), his resurrection on First Fruits (becoming the first fruits from the dead), his sending his spirit to the disciples while they were celebrating Weeks.

Likewise, we look forward to the last 3 feast which remain unfulfilled, so we speculate. We speculate that Yeshua the Messiah will return on Teruah, the day of shofar blasts; New Testament prophecy confirms Messiah will return with the blast of the shofar. 9 days later, on Atonement/Judgments we speculate is when he will judge the nations per prophecy in the Tenakh and New Testament. 5 days after that, on Tabernacles, he will tabernacle and dwell with us, the Prince of Peace bringing us lasting peace.

Want to learn more about God's calendar? Michael Rood, a Messianic Israelite gentile, has written an excellent article explaining the western calendar, the Jewish calendar, and the Creator's calendar: The Creator's Calendar.

He also has a podcast teaching on the subject:




Shabbat shalom, fine blog readers, and may the Lord use this to increase your understanding of his appointed times with humanity.