Shavuot, Feast of Weeks, Pentecost

Chaim Topol as Tevye in the 1971

film version of Fiddler on the Roof

“Because of our traditions, we have kept our balance for many, many years. Here in Anatevka, we have traditions for everything: how to eat, how to sleep, how to wear clothes. For instance, we always keep our heads covered, and always wear a little prayer-shawl. This shows our constant devotion to God. You may ask, ‘How did this tradition get started?’  I'll tell you. I don't know. But it's a tradition. And because of our traditions, every one of us knows who he is, and what God expects him to do.” 
- Tevye, Fiddler on the Roof


As we celebrate Shavuot here in Israel, I thought it would be nice to write an article on this biblical feast.  When I began researching it, something became abundantly clear to me.  I am not the only one who feels there is inadequate information on this holy day.  There is very little written about it in the Torah, yet there seem to be a number of traditions associated with Shavuot.  This makes Shavuot the perfect time to talk about the role of “tradition” in religion.


I devoted an entire chapter to tradition in the rough copy of my book, and I would have copied and pasted it on my blog, but there is some information from early chapters that is essential to understanding my chapter on tradition.


As you have probably guessed from the title of this blog (“An American Goy in Israel”), I was born in the United States, and although, I am not Jewish, I am currently residing in Israel.  In 1998 I met a young, Jewish woman who had grown up in Israel and I fell in love.  Naturally, she wanted nothing to do with this American Goy, until she found out that I had more than just a passing interest in Judaism. I began attending a Messianic Synagogue with her in Northeast Philadelphia, where we would continue to attend for the next ten years, the last nine of which we attended as man and wife.  But before we got engaged, my future wife told me that God had promised her she would return to live in Israel, so if we were going to get married, I had to be willing to live in Israel.  I said, “If God calls us to be there,” which she joyfully accepted as an affirmation since she knew in her heart the promise He had already made.


My wife and I were relatively young when got married, I was twenty-six and she was twenty-three. She was just a couple years removed from the Israeli Army, and I was just a few years out of college when we met.  We had not had time to really develop our own traditions away from our parents. Since she grew up in Israel, we had come from different cultures, and although we had similar religious beliefs, the congregations we had attended while growing up had vastly different traditions.


One of the biggest obstacles to overcome in a marriage, especially if you come from different religious or cultural backgrounds, is deciding what family traditions to hold on to, which ones to sacrifice, and which ones you can blend together, as two become one.  Likewise, as Christianity spread throughout the world, we see that many of the pagan traditions the people had practiced before they were Christians were blended into Christianity.  Many of these traditions were given new meaning so those who observed these traditions could continue to practice them while still observing this new religion which was often being forced upon them.


One of the reasons Messianic Judaism has taken the form it has today is because many Jews coming to faith in their Messiah want to hang on to their Jewish traditions, and there is nothing wrong with that.  However, sometimes these traditions conflict with the traditions that have arisen in the Church, such as on what day to have weekly meetings.  It is important to separate the traditions, which we often hold to dearly, from those beliefs that are the foundations of our faith.  Whether we believe Yeshua was born on December 25 or during the biblical feast of Sukkot, we must recognize that no one but God knows the exact day of his birth.  Furthermore, since we were not told to celebrate the birth of Yeshua anywhere in the Bible, how we go about doing so is merely tradition, no matter how close we hold those traditions to our heart.


When my wife and I were first married, my grandfather had a hard time with the idea that we did not celebrate Christmas in the “traditional” way.  Truth be told, he seemed to have a hard time with a lot of Messianic ideas.  One day while I was helping him in his basement, he asked me, “If you believe in Jesus, how come you don’t have a Christmas Tree?”  To me, having a Christmas tree and believing Yeshua is the Messiah have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but to my grandfather, his belief in Jesus was tied to his tradition of having a Christmas tree (at this point in my life, I associate Christmas trees more with Jeremiah 10:3-4 than I do with Luke 2:1-7).  Many of us hold so strongly to our traditions that they become a part of our faith.  We mistakenly feel if someone rejects our tradition, then they are also rejecting our faith.


Although I usually like to start off with a verse from the Bible, I decided to buck tradition (pun intended) in this blog post and start with a quote from Fiddler on the Roof.  The last line of the quote is “because of our traditions, every one of us knows who he is, and what God expects him to do.”  The Bible is full of commands, according to the Rabbinut there are 613 commands in the Old Covenant, but there isn’t always a lot of information on how we are to go about fulfilling these commands.  So how are we to know the right way to fulfill God’s commands?  According to Tevye, we know what God expects from us from our traditions.  


It is part of the human condition.  We want to know how to do things so we don’t make a mistake.  Many of you may read this blog because you want to know how to observe the Jewish Holidays, or how to live a Messianic lifestyle.  And if indeed this is why you are reading this blog, I shall do my best not to disappoint you.  I will share with you many observances of Messianic and Traditional Jews, and I will also try to share with you what is Biblical, and what is the traditional way to go about carrying out what is written in the Bible.


So, when we read the Bible verses on Shavuot, what are we expected to do?  According to Leviticus 23 we are to make a bunch of sacrifices that most of us wouldn’t know how to begin going about.

Leviticus 23:15-21; “‘From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord.  Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings —a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.  Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering. The priest is to wave the two lambs before the Lord as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the Lord for the priest. On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.’”

The only thing that makes a lot of sense for me is found in verse 21 where we are told, “On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.”  For those of you who do not celebrate any of the Biblical feasts, you may want to reconsider.  It does say this is to be a lasting ordinance, not just an ordinance until the Messiah comes.  So if you are willing, how do you do this?  We are not to do any regular work, which works out for most of us since, according to this scripture, we are to count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath.  The “day after the Sabbath” in Judaism is Sunday, and for those of you living outside of Israel, you don’t work on Sundays anyway.  For those of us in Israel, we get off for Shavuot (although it is not always a Sunday here – more on that later). And we are to hold a sacred assembly, kind of like a Church service.  Hopefully you all went to Church for Pentecost, and didn’t skip out because it happened to fall on Memorial Day weekend this year (this year being 2012).  If you did skip church, don’t worry, we have a merciful God.


Shavuot is also mentioned in Numbers.  Again, these verses tell us to “hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work,” but the focus in on offerings here too:

Numbers 28:26-31; “‘On the day of firstfruits, when you present to the Lord an offering of new grain during the Festival of Weeks, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.  Present a burnt offering of two young bulls, one ram and seven male lambs a year old as an aroma pleasing to the Lord.  With each bull there is to be a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with oil; with the ram, two-tenths; and with each of the seven lambs, one-tenth.  Include one male goat to make atonement for you.  Offer these together with their drink offerings, in addition to the regular burnt offering and its grain offering. Be sure the animals are without defect. ’”

 I find the verses pertaining to Shavuot in Deuteronomy to be fascinating:

Deuteronomy 16:9-12; “Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.  Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing the LORD your God has given you.  And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name – you, your sons and daughters, your menservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you.  Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.”

This verse starts by telling us to “count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.”  This is not the traditional counting of seven weeks from Passover.  Looking back on the other verses about Shavuot, there is no mention of counting from Passover either.  So, why do the Rabbinut count from Passover?  Going back to Leviticus, we read “From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord.” Each time the Bible mentions Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, it always does so after the Feast of Passover, but there really is no direct reference to Passover.  Even in these verses to Leviticus, where there is a reference to a prior verse, “the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering,” the reference isn’t to verses about Passover, but is a reference to a day called Firstfruits in my NIV Bible.  Leviticus 23:10-11:

“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest.  He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath.’”

These verses appear between those about Passover and those about Shavuot.  From this reading, Shavuot should be determined by counting seven weeks from an agricultural event:  “Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.”  This would explain why we are told to count off seven weeks.  If it was determined by a set day during Passover as the Pharisees believed, then we would know the day, and wouldn’t need to count.  Of course, you could argue, if you count according to the Sadducees who count from the first Sunday of Passover, the actual day of the month could change and you would still need to count.  This may be true, but there is still no reference to Passover in any of these verses.  Also, basing Shavuot on an agricultural event where a farmer brings grain to the priest, gives the “honor” of determining when Shavuot is to be observed to ordinary farmers, not the religious leaders.


If we return to my previous blog post, we see there was a power struggle between the Sadducees, who represented the Priests, and the Pharisees, who would become the foundation of the Rabbinut.  Both Sadducees and Pharisees counted from Passover, but used a different interpretation of when to start counting.  In my opinion, neither group wanted to admit that this holy day should be determined every year without their control.  And just like modern Republicans and Democrats, if one group said it believed counting should be done a particular way, you could be sure the other group would come up with their own way.  The Pharisees count from the second day of Passover, since the first day of Passover is considered a Sabbath, and we are told in the bible to count from the day after the Sabbath.  For those of you who are thinking this way of counting contradicts the verse about counting up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, they have an explanation for that, but their explanation is beyond the scope of this blog.


If all the “religious” leaders say that you are to count from Passover, who will be bold enough to argue against this tradition?  Certainly not some poor Goy from America.


Maybe I’m reading too much into this, and since most of us don’t actually have new grain to offer as a sacrifice to the LORD, perhaps we should not waste too much time focusing on the agricultural aspect.  It is important to recognize “the counting,” often referred to as “the counting of the Omer,” is solely a determination of when Shavuot is to be observed, and any other traditions that accompany the “counting” are mostly tradition.  Nothing is mentioned in the Bible beyond this.  But if you are a Messianic or Traditional Jew who wants to keep the tradition of “The counting of the Omer,” there is nothing wrong with doing so, and I certainly will not argue with you if you feel it is beneficial to your relationship with God.   However, we must be careful not to include other traditions, such as the ban on marriages during the counting of the Omer, which I consider an unnecessary burden with no biblical basis (I think I will wait until next year to talk about the counting of Omer).  I truly believe it is these types of burdens Yeshua spoke against in the New Covenant, but unfortunately I think a lot of good, Jewish “traditions” were also pushed off by the Church as “burdens” because they did not fully understand the significance.  I will definitely be writing more about this in future blogs.


The counting of the Omer is considered by the Rabbinut to be a biblical mandate corresponding to the number of days it took the Israelites to reach Mount Sinai to receive the Torah after they departed from Egypt, but there is no direct biblical teaching concerning a celebration of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai during this agricultural holiday.  This tradition comes from Exodus 19.  If you count seven weeks from Passover (starts on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month), that puts you in the beginning of the third month, the sixth day of the third month according to the counting of the Pharisees.  Exodus 19:1 (NIV) reads; “In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt – on the very day – they came to the Desert of Sinai.”  We could dissect the language in this verse and try to figure out what is meant by “on the very day,” but again, this is really beyond the scope of this blog. There is no written correlation between Shavuot and the giving of Torah at Mount Sinai in the Bible.  It is speculation and tradition, but a tradition that is the foundation for much of the rabbinical and church teachings on Shavuot and Pentecost we have today.


So what is Shavuot?  If we don’t have new grain to offer a sacrifice, what are we supposed to do? Let’s go back to the verses in Deuteronomy:  “Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing the LORD your God has given you.  And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name – you, your sons and daughters, your menservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you.  Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.”  That’s what is important.  Give a freewill offering to the Lord in proportion to what He has given you and rejoice before the Lord your God.  Hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.  Amen.  Otherwise, from any literal reading of the Bible, this holy day is related to agriculture.    


It is traditional in Judaism to read the book of Ruth on Shavuot.  This is due to the agricultural aspect of Ruth, among other reasons, which may change depending on what Rabbi you talk to.  It is also traditional to Study Torah because of the aforementioned tradition of the arrival at Sinai.  By the way, Jews celebrate the actual giving of the Torah after Sukkot, an Autumn Festival, on a day called “Simcha Torah.”  Shavuot may be more connected with the giving of the oral law, but it is hard to get a good reference for this.  


In Christianity Shavuot is called Pentecost, meaning fifty in Greek.  We read about Pentecost in Acts:    

Acts 2:1-12; When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.  Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?  Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?  Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”  Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

In Christianity, Pentecost in always on a Sunday, seven weeks after Easter.  In many American Evangelical Churches, not too much is made of Pentecost, but in many denominations, especially Eastern Orthodox Churches, Pentecost in held high regard.  Many European countries have a work holiday on the Monday after Pentecost, although in many countries, such as England and Sweden, it was changed from a religious holiday to a civil holiday.  This work holiday may be due to the verse where we are told to “do no regular work” on the day after the Sabbath.  In Christian thinking, the day after the Sabbath may be interpreted as Monday, instead of Sunday.


Pentecost is most well known in the Church for the passage in Acts 2 above, and the church commemorates this day as the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples and other early followers of Yeshua in the Upper Room.  Many also celebrate this day as the birthday of Christianity, as the Gospel was heard by Jews, from all over the world, in Jerusalem for the Feast of Shavuot.  Each one heard the Gospel preached in their own native language as the Holy Spirit enabled those in the Upper Room to speak in many languages.  Thousands became followers of Yeshua on this day.  Shavuot can also be seen as the birthday of Judaism as tradition tells us this is the day when Moses arrived at Mount Sinai, where he would receive the Torah.  I think this is stretching it, but I have seen this parallel made in my research.  Other traditional Christian teachings on this Holiday include teaching about the fruit of the Spirit and Baptism.


In the Messianic tradition, the resurrection of Yeshua is celebrated on the first Sunday of Passover (or the day after the Shabbat), which is called HaBikkurim, or Firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:20).  In this tradition, Messianic Jews use the same counting as the Sadducees do, so Shavuot would always fall on a Sunday.   I like this tradition, because it makes sense to me, but if I am going to be honest with myself, I must allow that there are other legitimate ways to interpret these verses.  Perhaps I will write more about my views on biblical interpretation in a future blog.  But this Messianic interpretation is also in line with Christian interpretation, with Shavuot falling on the Sunday seven weeks after HaBikkurim, or translated into church-speak, Pentecost falling on the Sunday seven weeks after Easter.


I also like this tradition because it falls in line with traditional Jewish thinking with the count beginning during Passover.  In taking away all of the tradition and just trying to understand the words in the Bible, I was left dizzy.  There was one verse that said you needed to start counting from Firstfruits (Leviticus 23:9-16) and in the next verse the bible said you needed to sacrifice your Firstfruits to God on Shavuot (Leviticus 23:17), which creates a circular logic that made my head spin.  But when we have tradition, we understand that Firstfruits, the “day” is during Passover and as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:20, God’s Firstfruit was the Resurrection of His Son, meaning Yeshua is the first of many who will be raised from the dead.  So we celebrate the Resurrection of Messiah on the Sunday of Passover and seven weeks later we have the gift of the Holy Spirit, when Jews from all over the world would be in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks.  I like this tradition because it allows us to celebrate the resurrection of Messiah in a biblical holiday, instead of having to use the pagan traditions from Spring holidays.  I like to use a biblical name like Firstfruits instead of using the ancient word for Spring, Eastre (now Easter), which was also the name of a pagan goddess.  The name Easter may have also come from a Germanic word for sunrise, ostern, but in either case, I prefer to use the biblical imagery Passover; the lamb, slain for our sins, the unleavened bread made without yeast, representing Yeshua who was without sin, the freedom from bondage in Egypt representing freedom from the bondage of our own sin.

This Byzantine church on Mount Zion

is the traditional location of both

David's tomb and the Upper Room

You can choose to avoid traditions that may have ungodly origins, which are prevalent in both Christianity and Judaism.  I have already mentioned a few in Christian traditions that I choose not participate in, like having a Christmas tree, but there are Jewish traditions that I won’t participate in either, such as Lag Ba Omer (you can click on “Lag Ba Omer” to see a short article I wrote on the subject before I started this blog).  We each must choose which traditions we hold on to and which ones to let go of, but let’s not judge one another by the traditions we keep, as long as those traditions don’t go against God’s word.   


You are free to make a comment below.  I am always curious to see how people interpret what I have said or what the bible says. Perhaps I said something that was unclear or just plain wrong.  I may have contradicted myself (as I said, some of this left me dizzy).  If so, I am open to correction.