The Appointed High Holy Days of YHWH

CORNERSTONE UNIVERSITY

THE APPOINTED HIGH HOLY DAYS OF ADONAI THE PURPOSE OF VAYIKRA (LEVITICUS) 23

REL330: MOSAIC LITERATURE DR. DWAYNE ADAMS

BRIAN TICE / BOX 3594 22 NOVEMBER 2005/20 CHESHVAN 5766 2

Tucked neatly into the Torah’s third book, Sefer Vayikra (Leviticus) – between instructions for the cohanim (priestly line) regarding cleanness and the teachings for the Hebrew people concerning the sin and guilt offerings – lies the stageplay script for

Adonai’s plan of salvation. The twenty-third chapter of Vayikra contains the extra

Sabbaths and high holy days, or moadim, given by Adonai through Moshe (Moses).

Though instituted as memorials of past events in Israel’s history, they also foreshadow and even prophesy future events connected with the first and second advents of the

Jewish Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus).

This chapter from the Levitical Code speaks not only to the Levites, but also to the Hebrew people, generally, as indicated in it’s opening few verses, “ADONAI said to Moshe, ‘Tell the people of Israel: The designated times of ADONAI which you are to proclaim as holy convocations are My designated times.’” (Vayikra 23:1-2).1 The message to Israel begins with a reiteration of the V’shamroo (Sh’mot/Exodus 31:16-17), calling for adherence to the Sabbath rest mandate, and calling it a “holy convocation” (v.

3). Adonai then gives instruction pertaining to the “extra Sabbaths,” or “high holy days;”

Pesach, Chag HaMatzot, HaBikkurim, Shavuot, Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and

Sh’mini HaEretz.

Only a few small details are given for the first of the moadim, Pesach, also called Passover. The passage quickly moves from Pesach to Chag HaMatzot, or Feast of

Unleavened Bread, giving but a few verse apiece to each of these holy convocations.

Moving next on to HaBikkurim, which is Firstfruits, again very little is said in the

1 All Biblical quotations used herein, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Complete Jewish Bible. 3 passage. More detailed instructions are laid out when the topic of Shavuot, or Pentecost, is presented; particularly regarding the types of offerings to bring before the Lord. Sin, peace, burnt, grain, and drink offerings were required on this holy day. It is twice uttered in this passage that Shavuot is “a permanent regulation through all your generations, no matter where you live” (vv. 14, 21). It is in the discussion of this feast day that the command is given to leave a remnant of the crop unharvested “for the poor and the foreigner” (v. 22). From these few short addresses on the Spring moadim, Adonai shifts to the Fall moadim.

Yom Teruah, which has come to be known in modern times as Rosh

Hashanah or the Jewish New Year, actually means “day of shofar (ram’s horn) blowing.”

Not much detail is given in the passage regarding this commemoration of the requested sacrifice of Isaac and Adonai’s provision of the substitutionary ram (B’resheet/Genesis

22:1-19). After the ten days now called the Yamim Noraim, or “days of awe,” comes the next of the moadim, Yom Kippur, which translates “day of covering” or “day of atonement.” Like Shavuot, Yom Kippur is “a permanent regulation through all your generations, no matter where you live” (v. 31). The remainder of the chapter, with the exception of a few verses on Sh’mini HaEretz, discusses the seven-day convocation called Sukkot, or Feast of Tabernacles (Booths).

Sukkot is the week-long holy event wherein the Israelites are to take up residence in a temporary sukkah, or booth, as a reminder of Adonai’s provisions in the Wilderness, as stated in verse 43, “so that generation after generation of you will know that I made the 4 people of Israel live in sukkot when I brought them out of Egypt; I am ADONAI your G-d.”

The instructions regarding this appointed convocation are briefly interrupted by verse

36’s mandate to observe the last of the year’s high Sabbaths, Sh’mini HaEretz. Though no mention is made here regarding what the day signifies or commemorates, other passages of Scripture fill in that gap. John 7:37 identifies it as the Hossanah Rabbah, some of the traditions associated with which have come to be incorporated into the Palm

Sunday celebrations of the modern mainstream church. The modern observance in

Judeo-Messianic congregations centers on the waterpouring element, in which water is poured over the alter to clean the residue out of the bloodgrooves.

Sefer Vayikra concentrates primarily on the holiness and Sabbath character of these moadim. Menachem Leibtag notes that though “it would seem logical for ALL the laws concerning the chagim (another name for the moadim) to be presented together in one parashah,” Moshe prefers to present certain details of them in particular books of the

Torah, “allowing each Sefer to focus on a different thematic aspect.”2 For Sukkot alone, details are scattered across Sh’mot, Vayikra, B’Midbar (Numbers), D’varim

(Deuteronomy); and even beyond the scope of the Torah into Shof’tim (Judges),

M’lakhim Alef (I Kings), Yechezk’el (Ezekiel), Z’kharyah (Zechariah), ‘Ezra, Nechemyah

(Nehemiah), and Divrei Hayamim Bet (II Chronicles).

This chapter is part of the thirty-first parashah of the Torah, titled “Emor”

(Speak), which carries from Vayikra 21:1-24:23. The first two chapters of this parashah

2 Menachem Leibtag. “The Dual Nature of the Chagim,” The Israel Koschitzky Beit Midrash. (Alon Shvut, Israel: Yeshivat Har Etzion, 1997), 1. 5 are addressed specifically to the cohanim (priestly line) and give regulations binding specifically on them. These chapters set the stage for the chapter on the moadim in that they place a strong emphasis on the concept of holiness and the necessity of the cohanim modeling holiness before their charges and appearing as holy before their G-d. A later parashah illustrates Moshe being denied entry into the Promised Land due to a failure to satisfactorily demonstrate an acceptable level of holiness for his people to follow

(D’varim 32:48-52; 34:4). This priestly holiness code was given to the cohanim, the sons of Aharon (Vayikra 21:1), and included regulations pertaining to marriage, physical flaws, diseases such as “tzara’at3 or a discharge” (Vayikra 22:4), eating of holy food, and the sacrificial system. Its segue into the chapter on the moadim reads, “You are to keep my mitzvot and obey them… I am to be regarded as holy among the people of Israel; I am

ADONAI who makes you holy, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your G-d; I am ADONAI” (Vayikra 22: 31-33).

This chapter of Vayikra sews together the entire Torah. It puts all in one place the liturgical calendar of the Judeo-Messianic faith, drawing together all the other elements of the moadim that are woven into other portions of the Torah. There are several connections in Vayikra 23 back to previous portions, as well as forward as far as to the two advents of the Messiah. As previously mentioned, the shofar (ram’s horn) that ushers in Yom Teruah is an echo from B’resheet 22:1-19, when G-d asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, but then provided a substitutionary ram to be given in his place. The blowing of the shofar also projects forward to the day that the ultimate substitutionary

3 Tzara’at is generally mistranslated “leprosy,” but is clearly not Hansen’s Disease (leprosy), cf. Vayikra 13-14. Due to the uncertainty as to what it actually was, the Complete Jewish Bible leaves it untranslated, retaining the original Hebrew rendering. 6

Sacrifice – Yeshua – “will come down from heaven with a rousing cry, with a call from one of the ruling angels, and with God’s shofar….” (1 Thess. 4:16). The observance of

Sukkot takes the reader back to the account in Parashah B’shallach wherein Adonai delivers the Israelites from Pharaoh’s army and provides them with manna enough to sustain them through their weekly Sabbath (Sh’mot 13:17-17:16). The future aspect of

Sukkot anticipates the day when the Messiah will be permanently tabernacling with His

Elect (Olive Tree Israel with her engrafted Gentile branches, cf. Romans 11:16-18). The

Prophet Z’kharyah wrote that at that time, Sukkot would be a global event and that “there will be a plague with which ADONAI will strike the nations that don’t go up to keep the festival of Sukkot” (Z’kharyah 14:18).

Pesach, or Passover, was the commemoration of Adonai’s protection of the

Israelite children from the plague of the death of the firstborn during their Egyptian captivity (recorded in Sh’mot 12) and emphasizing the command, “You are to observe this as a law, you and your descendents forever.” (Sh’mot 12:24). The lamb sacrificed for the marking of the doorposts became an annual sacrifice at the Temple, until the paschal event of Yeshua about 1480 years later. To use the imagery of the Apostle Sha’ul (Paul),

“our Pesach lamb, the Messiah, has been sacrificed.” (1 Cor. 5:7). The Seder itself is full of imagery of the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua, from the breaking, “burying” and

“resurrecting” of the middle of the three matzot, to drinking of the “cup of redemption,” to the purging of the hametz (leaven) from the home. Segal notes that leaven represents 7 impurity (sin) in the Passover tradition, “because leaven seems to work unseen – like the

Devil.”4

Though HaBikkurim, or Firstfruits, doesn’t officially commemorate a specific event from the earlier portions of the Torah, it is somewhat attached to a promise

Adonai made to Israel prior to Vayikra 23. HaBikkurim is a harvest feast, a moed that could not actually be properly observed until after Moshe’s time, when the Israelites took possession of the Promised Land. Adonai shows this land to Moshe, as recorded in

D’varim 32:48-52 and 34:1-4, as the land promised to Abraham and his progeny in

B’resheet 17:8. A widely held scholarly opinion with regard to this holy day is that the feast of HaBikkurim shared the same calendar date with a rather significant event, the resurrection of the Messiah.5 Again going to the Apostle Sha’ul, “the Messiah is the firstfruits; then those who belong to the Messiah, at the time of His coming” (1 Cor

15:23b).

Shavuot, or Pentecost, is a commemoration of the day that Adonai blessed

Israel through the giving of the Decalogue on Mount Sinai/Horeb. The central feature of

Shavuot seems to be the involvement of flames. In Sh’mot 19:18, “Mount Sinai was enveloped in smoke, because ADONAI descended onto it in fire….” In Acts 2:3, that imagery is again present in the account of the Shavuot festivities where the crowd “saw what looked like tongues of fire, which separated and came to rest on each one of them.”

Though the original meaning of the day has been since eclipsed by the Acts 2 event, to

4 J. B. Segal. The Hebrew Passover from the Earliest Times to A.D. 70. (New York & Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1963), 34. 5 Kevin Williams. The Holidays of God: Spring Feasts. (Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2000), 20. 8 the Israelites in Moav, it was a celebration of the covenant relationship they enjoyed with their G-d as illustrated through the giving of the Decalogue as a set of vows between

Israel and Adonai.

There is an interesting relationship between the Messiah and Yom Kippur.

According to the Talmud; in the first century, the azazel (scapegoat) which carried off the sins of the Israelite nation was taken to a cliff with a crimson strap about its neck and forced off to make sure it wouldn’t return. The goat was ritually inspected upon its demise to ensure its death, and for many years, the red cord was miraculously turned white every year. It was believed that this was in fulfillment of Isaiah 1:18, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’ “During the last forty years before the destruction of the

Temple the lot [‘For the Lord’] did not come up in the right hand (as it had for many consecutive years prior), nor did the crimson-coloured strap become white….”6 The rabbis took this as a sign that Adonai was no longer accepting their azazel sacrifice nor forgiving their sins. Once the atoning Sacrifice was made by Yeshua, 40 years before the destruction of the Temple, it appears that Adonai rejected the inferior substitutes being offered Him via the Temple priests.

The holy feasts of Vayikra 23 flow easily out of the holiness code of Vayikra 21-

22 and just as easily into the “permanent regulations for all generations” given regarding the Tabernacle in chapter 24. This entire parashah, as well as the previous one –

6 Rabbi Dr. Isadore Epstein, ed. The Babylonian Talmud Seder Mo’ed Yoma, Vol. I. (New York: Rebecca Bennet Publications, Inc., 1959), 186. 9

Parashah K’doshim (Holy People, Vayikra 19:1-20:27) – speak of a people set apart to be holy by Adonai (Lev. 20:7-8). Another thread flowing throughout not only Parashah

Emor, but also connecting it to the parashot on either side of it, is the element of

Theophany. In all three parashot, the opening verse begins, “Adonai spoke to Moshe…”

(Vayikra 19:1; 21:1; 25:1). The parashah following the one conataining Vayikra 23 returns once again to the discussion of the moadim, specifically Shabbat and Yom Kippur, and closes with the familiar command, “Keep my Shabbats, and revere my sanctuary; I am ADONAI.

The chapter is more than just a flourish to the holiness code; it is a basic outline of events designed by Adonai to keep up reflecting on His past relationship with humanity,

His present relationship with humanity, and His future relationship with humanity. The moadim encompass the whole message of the Torah, from covenant living with an omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent G-d woven into every scene and every act of the drama played out through the observance rituals associated with the collective set of holy festivals. Within the corpus of Sefer Vayikra, it is the particle of that scroll (book) which makes it accessible and practical to the non-Levite. Though many parts of Vayikra are directed to the layman, the greater portion was written for the cohanim. The moadim given in Vayikra 23 make the message tangible and experiential for the Israelites, particularly those camped at Moav in such close proximity to the Promised Land, as they engage in the prescribed activities given through Moshe. 10

As the Vayikra 23 calendar progresses through the year, the Israelites see

Adonai’s covenant with them played out before them. From Pesach and Chag HaMatzot, they see Adonai the Redeemer and Deliverer; from HaBikkurim, they see Adonai the

Provider, who will grant the harvest and the land from which they will reap it. From

Shavuot, a very personal, interactive Adonai is seen, the One who gave them the

Decalogue as a sort of mirror to reveal to them what needs to be fixed in their relationship with Adonai. The Spring moadim focus the Moav-encamped Israelites in on the G-d who has carried them that far and is faithful to His covenant with them.

Yom Teruah, entering in with the distinct call of the ram’s horn shofar bring to their minds the G-d who spared Isaac by providing a substitute sacrifice. Through Yom

Kippur’s sacrifice and azazel scapegoat, the Holiness and Mercifulness of Adonai is seen.

And as they camp out in their temporary tabernacles during the week of Sukkot, looking out upon the land that will soon be theirs, they know that Adonai dwells among them, and will see them leave their temporary dwelling to enter and occupy that land. Though they are certainly thinking more of the Promised Land than the promised Messiah (a promise not yet given to them), there is a shared theme between the two hopes. Both promises represent a means for restoration, whether to the rightful possession of the land or to a right relationship with the L-rd.

The appointed holy days of Adonai are not a curse, but a blessing; not a prison, but a privilege. They were Adonai’s voice to the generation at Moav, and are still

Adonai’s voice to those who await Yeshua’s ultimate fulfillment of those moadim still 11 yet to reach fulfillment. When the shofar sounds and Yeshua comes to tabernacle permanently among us, the believers of that generation will experience an even greater sense of elation than the believers who entered into the Promised Land after wandering for half their lives or more… waiting. As DeHaan wrote, “The ancient festival cycle of

Israel is a timeless source of spiritual renewal…. Those who believe that the Messiah has already made an appearance believe He fulfilled the spiritual meaning of the first four feasts, leaving the three final feasts for fulfillment in the last days.”7 Everything is a matter dependent upon God, and His mercy, and His faithfulness, and His holiness, and

His timing.

7 Martin R DeHaan II, The Holidays of God: Fall Feasts. (Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2000), 1. 12

Works Cited

DeHaan, Martin R, II. The Holidays of God: Fall Feasts. Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2000.

Epstein, Rabbi Dr. Isadore, ed. The Babylonian Talmud Seder Mo’ed Yoma, Vol. I. New York: Rebecca Bennet Publications, Inc., 1959.

Leibtag, Menachem. “The Dual Nature of the Chagim,” The Israel Koschitzky Beit Midrash. Alon Shvut, Israel: Yeshivat Har Etzion, 1997.

Segal, J. B. The Hebrew Passover from the Earliest Times to A.D. 70. New York & Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1963.

Williams, Kevin. The Holidays of God: Spring Feasts. Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2000.

What was His purpose in having us celebrate them every year? I believe that there are a number of reasons. One reason is to celebrate His awesomeness, to be constantly aware that He is G-d and that He is in control. Another reason is that He knew our need to be constantly reminded of what He has done in our lives. Left to our own devices, we would adopt pagan rituals (i.e. Easter - the celebration of the G-ddess Isthtar) and create something that didn't have anything to do with G-d (i.e. the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus). However, I believe there is yet another reason. The festivals reveal the complete redemption plan of G-d from the beginning — instituted before Adam fell, to the end — the creation of the new heaven and the new earth. It pleased G-d to reveal His plan to His people. He makes it quite clear so that we may be prepared in that day (Matthew 24:25). He also makes it known so that it will be obvious that it is He who has done it and not a pagan idol or false G-d (Isaiah 48:5).8

In Leviticus 23:2 the Lord declares that these are His appointed times: He says it again in verses 4 and 37. For some reason the Institutional Church (and the world) has come to call these "Jewish" festivals. However, Scripture shows that this is just not true. The question, then, is: If these are the appointed times of the Lord, why doesn't the Church celebrate them? Who are we making Lord? There is no answer; we are to observe them if we are making Jesus Lord.9

In separating itself from Israel and Torah, the Institutional Church has missed a tremendous blessing from the Lord. The celebration of the feasts is not bondage. G-d does not lead us into bondage. He does, however, require us to seek Him (Matthew 7:7, Jeremiah 29:13). When we seek Him, He will reveal Himself to us and make His ways known to us (Luke 11:10). (It is interesting to note that of G-d's festivals, none have become big commercial successes or have been blown out of proportion; however, the celebrations created by the Church have all degenerated into the ways of the world.)10

These moadim (appointed feasts) serve several purposes for the elect of YHWH (Olive Tree Israel with engrafted Gentile branches, not the Reformed Church): “These events, listed in Leviticus 23, are part of a national system of ‘time-outs.’ Together they provide weekly, monthly, and yearly rests from the common routines of daily life.”11 “They also provide a preplanned schedule for reflection and worship. These ‘holidays of G-d’ are sacred convocations that summoned a nation not only to the grandeur and majesty of the temple, but also to quiet and simple worship at home. Together these ‘appointed times of the Lord’ give every home, whether rich or poor, an occasion to

8 Lee Underwood, “G-d’s Plan of Redemption,” shamar.org, April 1995. Available from < http://shamar.org/articles/G-dsplan.htm>. 9 Lee Underwood, “G-d’s Plan of Redemption,” shamar.org, April 1995. Available from < http://shamar.org/articles/G-dsplan.htm>. 10 Lee Underwood, “G-d’s Plan of Redemption,” shamar.org, April 1995. Available from < http://shamar.org/articles/G-dsplan.htm>. 11 Kevin Williams, The Holidays of G-d: Fall Feasts. (Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2000), 3. 14 remember the holiness, power, and longsuffering love of the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”12

“It’s important for us to remember that this cycle of holidays is not just about Jewish culture. Even though they are linked to the harvest cycle of the land of Israel, and even though the festival calendar is used to retell stories of Jewish life and origins, these holidays provide a panorama of history that has strong implications for all of the families of the earth. Seen individually and together, these feasts paint a compelling picture of the past, present, and future work of a Messiah who is the source of life, hope, and peace for all the nations of the world.13

“According to a group of Jewish eyewitnesses, the plan of G-d was revealed during the holy days of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Pentecost. With a sudden turn of events, the first four feasts of Israel took on the personality of a miracle worker who bore the marks of G-d’s Messiah. On Passover, Jesus became the sacrificial Lamb whose blood marked all who believe in Him for deliverance. During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, He died to take away our sin and to give us, in the place of our own efforts, the ‘bread’ (life-sustaining provision) of His eternal presence. On the Feast of Firstfruits, He arose from the dead to show that it was by G-d’s power that He carried out our rescue. Then 50 days later on the Feast of Pentecost (also known as the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot), Jesus sent His Spirit to show His presence with all who are willing to stake their lives on Him.”14

Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets, often called Rosh Hashanah) “Bible scholars believe that the Feast of Trumpets refers prophetically to the last-days events.”15

From an Orthodox Jewish Rosh Hashanah prayer book: “May it be your will that the sounding of the shofar which we have done will be embroidered in the veil by the appointed angel, as you accepted it by Elijah of blessed memory and by Yeshua, the Prince of the Face (i.e. Prince of G-d’s Presence) and the one who sits on G-d’s throne. May you be filled with compassion toward us. Deserving of praise are You, Lord of compassion.”16

“With this prayer, Jewish synagogues have invoked on Rosh Hashanah the name of G-d’s coming King: Yeshua”17

The shofar (ram’s horn trumpet) is an echo from B’resheet 22:1-19, when G-d asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, but then provided a substitutionary ram to be given in his place. The blowing of the shofar projects forward to the day that the ultimate substitutionary sacrifice will come to claim us as His people (1 Thess. 4:17ff.).

12 Kevin Williams, The Holidays of G-d: Fall Feasts. (Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2000), 3. 13 Kevin Williams, The Holidays of G-d: Fall Feasts. (Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2000), 3-4. 14 Kevin Williams, The Holidays of G-d: Fall Feasts. (Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2000), 4-5. 15 Kevin Williams, The Holidays of G-d: Fall Feasts. (Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2000), 7. 16 Birnbaum, Behind the Curtain. (), 282. 17 Kevin Williams, The Holidays of G-d: Fall Feasts. (Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2000), 8. 15

“In many synagogues, the Akeidah (the binding of Isaac) is read every weekday of the year as a memorial, but from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, it is particularly emphasized.”18

Days of Awe (10-day Sabbath period) “In Jewish communities, the blowing of the shofar is followed by a time of introspection, when worshippers look into their own hearts for misdeeds against others and for transgressions against G-d. They are days of repentance, when individuals attempt to right the wrongs they have committed. It is a time to prepare for the coming Day of Judgment, Yom Kippur.”19

Yom Kippur (literally “Day of Covering”) “brings a close to the period of repentance begun on Rosh Hashanah”20

The cohen hagodol undergoes 5 mikveh (immersions) and is followed by “an entourage of 500 Levites to help guard him from anything that might render him ‘unclean.’”21

Scapegoat = azazel  “a dramatic picture of G-d’s willingness to separate His people from their sins.”22

HaBikkurim = Firstfruits = the day Yeshua rose from the grave

18 Kevin Williams, The Holidays of G-d: Fall Feasts. (Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2000), 9. 19 Kevin Williams, The Holidays of G-d: Fall Feasts. (Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2000), 12. 20 Kevin Williams, The Holidays of G-d: Fall Feasts. (Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2000), 13. 21 Kevin Williams, The Holidays of G-d: Fall Feasts. (Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2000), 14. 22 Kevin Williams, The Holidays of G-d: Fall Feasts. (Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2000), 15.