“Each holiday has a body and a soul. The commandments and customs of each holiday are its body; the breath of life is infused into this body by the soul of the holiday, the spiritual message it conveys.”
The Sabbath
The Sabbath is the most consistent cultural memory marker for the Jewish people because of its frequency and the easiest to identify with creation. The Sabbath communicates to the Jewish people that the God of Creation is sovereign over time. It reinforces the redemptive gift of work that we will explore in further detail later in this work. The purpose of the Sabbath is to remind man that he can trust God to take care of him. Six days you must work but on the Seventh you are to trust God to provide for your provision and for your rejuvenation. I believe there is a continuity that extends from the Garden to the present as it relates to the Sabbath, but it is not consistently manifested across cultures. Robert Beckwork’s work Calendar and Chronology, Jewish and Christian: Biblical, Intertestamental and Patristic Studies states, “Assuming that God’s decree was known from the beginning there is little reason to think humanity quickly realized its implications. If the seven day week and Sabbath…had been institutionalized…one would expect to find traces of the fact among ancient nations. Yet those who have looked for such traces have failed to find them.” The People of Israel’s observance of it communicates God’s faithfulness to them before watching nations. In the same manner the observance of a day of worship within the context of Christianity, or Islam reflects the same trust in God.
Judaism
“Though all Jewish Holidays commemorate events in our history, they enable us not only to recall these experiences, but also to relive them. At the same time every year, the very same spiritual forces which brought about the event commemorated by a holiday are again expressed.”
A source concerned about the affects of intermarriage on the modern Jewish community in the United States, sites the following statistics, “even among those in the "intermarried/Jewish" category—namely, interfaith couples who decide to identify as Jewish—only 65 percent attended a Passover Seder on a regular basis, while more than 90 percent of in-married couples do so.” The short term concern among Jewish leadership about intermarriage between Jews and non Jews is understandable, but when 90% of the people within the community keep the major festivals after 4,000 years it would seem God is still directing the hearts of his people.
God ordained 7 great feasts for the people of Israel in order to remind them of his sovereignty over creation and to prick their conscience through seasons of self examination. The power of keeping these festivals has caused the Jew to remember the work of God despite the absence of land or formal power in the governments where they lived. “Over three hundred years ago King Louis XIV of France asked Blaise Pascal, the great French philosopher of his day, to give him proof of the existence of miracles. Without a moment's hesitation, Pascal answered, "Why, the Jews, your Majesty-the Jews." The ‘miracle of the Jew’ is also attached to the Jewish experience of keeping their Biblical festivals. I will consider the feasts based on their efficacy to direct men toward God’s creation and the toward their own consciences The feasts are the Sabbath, Passover/The Feast of Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Feast of Weeks, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Again, these feasts have bound together the Jews for nearly four thousand years.
Passover/ Feast of Unleavened Bread
Passover is a meal that is prepared in haste, which contains a specific liturgy that provokes memory of the God of creation, who is also the God of Israel. The connection is made each time the God creates a miracle for their deliverance. These are better known as the ten plagues. Within the Passover meal there is a recitation of each one of the miracles. Haggadahs, which contain the liturgy of the Passover meals, are standard possessions in most Jewish homes to the present time. The miracles are recited three times, beginning with ‘blood, blood, blood, and ending with ‘death of the first born’. A finger is dip into a cup of wine, reminding the participant of the sacrifice of the lamb and the blood that covered the doorpost of the Jewish homes in Egypt. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is seen, felt, and experienced within the meal for Christians who participate in a Passover celebration. Each one of the plagues has a parallel in idolatrous religious system of the Egyptians. Which gods represent which plagues are a matter of debate, one correlation with false religion and the God of the Egyptian’s is as follows.
Hapi, the god of the Nile Water Turning to blood
Heket, goddess of Fertility Plague of Frogs
Geb god of earth Plague of Lice from dust the earth
Khepri, god of movement and creation Plague of Flies
Harthor, goddess of love and protection Plague upon livestock
Isis, goddess of medicine and peace Plague of Boils
Nut, goddess of sky Plague of Hail
Seth, god of storms and disorder Plague of Locust
Ra, god of sun Plague of three days of darkness
Pharaoh Plague of the death of the first born
It could be argued that the plagues capture the digression of men into false religion, beginning with their most personal needs such as nourishment from the Nile. Then ultimately leading to the proclamation that a man is a god, in this case Pharaoh, along the way the earth, the sky, storms, and the sun are all worshipped. In other words they worship the created things instead of the creator. They give credit to an idol made by the hands of man for fertility. The redemptive gift of children is fought eighty years prior to Israel’s deliverance at the birth of Moses. The Israelites and the midwives women each were blessed with fertility because of the favor of God the creator. More importantly the plagues point the people of Israel to a God who has power over all of creation and all forms of idolatry. The Lord then begins to add festivals that direct Israel to his work in creation and their work in developing their God given consciences.
The Feast of First Fruits
“First Fruits is celebrated in Spring to acknowledge the early crops. It was a wave offering. “This rite, together with that of "heaving" or "raising" the offering was an inseparable accompaniment of peace offerings. In such the right shoulder, considered the choicest part of the victim, was to be ("heaved," and viewed as holy to the Lord, only eaten therefore by the priest: the breast was to be "waved," and eaten by the worshiper. The scriptural notices of these rites are to be found in Ex 29:24,28; Le 7:30,34; 8:27; 9:21; 10:14,15; 23:10,15,20; Nu 6:20; 18:11,18,26-29 etc. In conjecturing the meaning of this rite, regard must be had that it was the accompaniment of peace offerings, which were witnesses to a ratified covenant --an established communion between God and man.””
The connection of the First Fruits Festival is frequently and rightfully connected to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, however, “The Feast of the First Fruits began the harvest.” Any harvest festival is a commemoration of creation’s bounty being brought forth from the Earth. People groups do not always give credit to the Lord for his work in the world, but that is the purpose of the First Fruits Festival. It reminds Israel specifically of his blessing on creation as evidenced by the harvest. First Fruits is an offering to the Lord. They would offer the first of the grain that was harvested, and then return to work and the harvest would be continued. The symbolism of the First Fruit related to Christ are found in 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23 states. “Those who have and will believe in Jesus Christ for salvation since that time are the harvest.”
Shavu'ot, Feast of Weeks, Pentecost
“The period from Passover to Shavu'ot is a time of great anticipation. We count each of the days from the second day of Passover to the day before Shavu'ot, 49 days or 7 full weeks, hence the name of the festival. See The Counting of the Omer. The counting reminds us of the important connection between Passover and Shavu'ot: Passover freed us physically from bondage, but the giving of the Torah on Shavu'ot redeemed us spiritually from our bondage to idolatry and immorality.”
The Feast of Weaks or Shavu'ot is the connection between the God of creation, the God who is worshipped in sacrifice and the God of history. Each reinforces the cultural memory of the Jew. The first is seen in the agricultural nature of the festival, the second relates to sacrifice because it was brought to the temple where sacrifices were completed, and lastly the people of Israel believe that the Torah was given on this day as well. The festivals fulfillment as a teacher of conscience is in the giving of the Torah and on the call of the crowd on the day of Pentecost, that asked “what must we do to be saved” Acts 2:20
Feast of Trumpets
The feast of Trumpets is a call for the gathering of the people, Sam Nadler list the following reasons why the trumpet blast may have been used in the scriptures, they are a call to assemble, a command to move, a call to war, preparation for an announcement, warning of judgment, and a call to celebration and worship. Each of these can be used to condition men to examine their hearts or consciences. Nadler adds, “Because so little is said about this feast in the Hebrew Scriptures, there has always been a sense of mystery regarding what the Feast of Trumpets refers to.” The Rabbis have conjectured the feast as a cultural memory marker. They have applied it to many different events, including the giving of the Torah and the sacrifice of Isaac. The church looks forward to the blowing of the Trumpet as the call that is associated with the rapture of the church. It relates most directly in this work to the arresting of the soul, the call to attention, the anticipation of a great moment.
All of the Jewish festival season is a reminder of the deliverance from the bondage and their freedom from the Egyptians. The Feast of Trumpets reminds the people that God obtained it for them through miracles in creation but that they must maintain it through the fortitude of a trained conscience that is reinforced through the honoring of the festival seasons.
The Day of Atonement,
"This shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year."—Leviticus 16:34.
The Day of Atonement “is a day set aside to "afflict the soul," to atone for the sins of the past year.” This obviously requires an examination of conscience. It is a day that is associated with the awesomeness of God. The idea is to get a sense of the awesome potential for judgment and to receive awe inspiring mercy, for truly God has “not treated us as our sins deserve.” It is a day fasting. The day is embraced with a solemn liturgy that has different forms of liturgical confession. It includes sins of commission and omission, “the things we have done and the things we have failed to do” is the manner in which Roman Catholics would express it.
“There are two basic parts of this confession: Ashamnu, a shorter, more general list (we have been treasonable, we have been aggressive, we have been slanderous...), and Al Cheit, a longer and more specific list (for the sin we sinned before you forcibly or willingly, and for the sin we sinned before you by acting callously...) Frequent petitions for forgiveness are interspersed in these prayers. There's also a catch-all confession: "Forgive us the breach of positive commands and negative commands, whether or not they involve an act, whether or not they are known to us."
The Feast of Tabernacles
Sam Nadler describes the Feast of Tabernacles as “the culmination of all the feasts on God’s redemptive calendar”. For the purposes of this work that would the union of expression found in creation and conscience. Victory Buksbazen quoting the ancient Rabbis says, “He who has not seen Jerusalem during the feast of Tabernacles does not know what rejoicing means” “The feast is agricultural in nature. It is a joyous occasion. …It was a time in which the temple treasury was emptied only to be filled again by the faithful, so that the poor and the needy, throughout the land could be satisfied.” When glory is given to God for his bountiful harvest in the correct spirit the worship automatically leads to the provision for the poor and the accomplishment of justice in the land. Each citizen becomes aware of the grace of God in their lives. They come to understand a God who has dealt with them generously and therefore in like manner they listen to their conscience and deal with other men generously. When this dynamic is active in a community God truly ‘Tabernacles’ or dwells with the people because his character is reflected in their conduct.
Schneerson, Menachem, Timeless Patterns of Life (Kehot Publication Society, 1993) pg viii
Beckwith, Roger T. Calendar and Chronology, Jewish and Christian: Biblical, Intertestamental and Patristic Studies (Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2001) iii, Questia, Web, 18 Oct. 2010. http://www.questia.com/read
Schneerson, Menachem, Timeless Patterns of Life (Kehot Publication Society, 1993) pg viii
Rosner, Shmuel, “The Passover Test, What the Passover Seder Reveals about Interfaith Couples, Slate, April 17, 2008 http://www.joi.org/bloglinks/Slate%20-%20What%20the%20Passover%20Seder%20reveals%20about%20interfaith%20couples..htm
In the Doghouse, “Ten Egyptian Plagues for Ten Egyptian Gods” http://hubpages.com/hub/Ten-Plagues-For-Ten-Gods
“The Feast of Israel, Feast of First Fruits” Bible Truth Web Site http://www.bible-truth.org/Feasts-Firstfruit.html
“The Feast of Israel, Feast of First Fruits” Bible Truth Web Site http://www.bible-truth.org/Feasts-Firstfruit.html
“The Feast of Israel, Feast of First Fruits” Bible Truth Web Site http://www.bible-truth.org/Feasts-Firstfruit.html
Rich, Tacey R. “Sav u ‘ot: Level Basic”, Judaism 101 http://www.jewfaq.org/holidayc.htm
Rich, Tacey R “Shav u’ot; Level Basic”,Judaism 101 http://www.jewfaq.org/holidayc.htm
Nadler, Sam, Messiah in the Feast of Israel, (Word of Messiah Ministries, 2006) pg 112
Nadler, Sam, Messiah in the Feast of Israel, (Word of Messiah Ministries, 2006) pg 112
Nadler, Sam, Messiah in the Feast of Israel, (Word of Messiah Ministries, 2006) pg 112
Rich, Tacey R, Yon Kippur; Level Basic http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday4.htm
Rich, Tacey R, Yon Kippur; Level Basic http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday4.htm
Nadler, Sam, Messiah in the Feast of Israel, (Word of Messiah Ministries, 2006) pg 153
Buksbazen, Victor, The Gospel in the Feast of Israel, (The Friends of Israel, Gospel Ministry Inc. 1954) pg 46
Buksbazen, Victor, The Gospel in the Feast of Israel, (The Frie
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