The Fall Hebrew Feasts

June 1, 2020

 The Fall Hebrew Feasts (see more at May 31, 2020 post)

God’s feasts revolve around Israel’s spring and fall agricultural seasons. There are seven of them, and the number seven constantly recurs within them. The first four celebrate planting in the spring, and the last three commemorate the harvest.

1. God’s Passover begins at sundown on the fourteenth day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar of 354 days. It initiates a week long observance of …
2. God’s Feast of Unleavened Bread, which begins on the day following Passover. Eat unleavened bread for seven days. Hold a sacred assembly (a celebration) on the first and seventh days and do no regular work on either of those two days.
3. God’s Feast of First Fruits takes place on the day after Sabbath in the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This is our Easter.
4. God’s Feast of Weeks, or Shavout, or Pentecost is celebrated on the day after exactly seven weeks following the Passover Feast, because according to tradition on that day “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the Holy One of Israel – bound himself in covenant with his people at Mt. Sinai amid lightning, thunder, fire, billowing smoke and a shofar blast. From then on they would be a nation who would manifest His glory and bring redemption to the world. (see more in yesterday’s post for Pentecost, May 31, 2020)
5. God’s Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah or “Head of the Year”), on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Jewish calendar. This is the Jewish world’s civil New Year’s Day and entry into the ten “Days of Awe.” The trumpet and the shofar blast a wakeup call for us to repent and keep repenting for ten days until …
6. God’s Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), on the tenth day of the seventh month. After Shabbat itself (the weekly Sabbath), this day is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, a day for somber reflection, prayer, and fasting from both food and work. Do no work from the evening of the ninth day until the following evening.

On the Day of Atonement two goats are brought to the High Priest, one to be sacrificed and other (the scapegoat) released into the wilderness. The blood of the sacrificed goat will be sprinkled on the “mercy seat.” The High Priest will lay hands on the second goat, confess the sins of Israel, and send him away, carrying and thereby freeing the people from their guilt.

7. God’s Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths/Shelters (Sukkot), begins five days later, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. This is the most joyous of times. It is the ingathering of our crops, and of God’s crop – us! After gathering the grain, celebrate this festival for seven days. Begin with a sabbath day and do no work. End on the eighth day with another sabbath. Jesus cried out his offer of redemption to Israel on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, that great day: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37)!

Dance through the first sabbath with palm and willow leaves. Use the leaves to make tents in which to dwell during the feast, to remember the lives of our ancestors in the desert. Hang fruit from your crops in these tents. Party every day! We might need to work at being joyful now, but not forever. “On that day there will be one Lord and his name the only name” (Zechariah 14:9). Joy will come easy then, in the morning and the noontime and the night.

The Jewish calendar has 354 days, and 12 months, at least most of the time. The names are a little different: Nisan, Iyyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Ab, Elul, Tishri, Heshvan, Chislev, Tebeth, Shebat, and Adar. There is a thirteenth month, Veadar, which comes along once every two or three years. Complicated!

Anyway, since the four spring feasts are in the first three months, and the three fall feasts in the seventh month, that leaves a lot of months without much to celebrate. But there are other holidays.

Most notable is the Festival of Lights/Dedication (Hanukkah) in Chislev (near our December), which celebrates the re-dedication of the Temple in the second century BC. It is not religiously significant, it is not one of “God’s Feasts,” but it matters a lot to Jewish people who, like all of us, get tired of cold winter days and want a break. Christians have Christmas, but they don’t. This is a good time for Jewish folks to give each other gifts.

And there is Purim, held on the fourteenth day of Adar (March or April before Passover). This is Esther’s day, the day the Jewish people were saved from Haman (see the whole book of Esther in the Bible). On this day, the mitvot is celebrated: read the book of Esther twice, donate to the poor, exchange gifts of food, have a feast. Dress up and have a party. This is often the “most fun” Jewish holiday.

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