Yom Teruah, Rosh HaShanah

The Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘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 23:23-25

Over the next few weeks I will be discussing the Jewish Autumn Holy Days. In order to keep these posts from getting too long I am starting with basic information about the holy days. If you feel I left out anything important about Rosh HaShanah (Yom Teruah), please feel free to add more information in the comments section.

The Feasts of Trumpets, Yom Teruah (יום תרועה, day of horn blowing), has come to be the civil New Year in Judaism and is commonly called Rosh HaShanah (ראש השנה, literally head of the year). Yom Teruah is the first day of the month of Tishrei on the Jewish calendar. The religious New Year starts in the month of Nissan in the Modern Jewish calendar. The modern Jewish calendar uses the Babylonian names of months, most likely from the time of exile in Babylon. The biblical name of the first month is Aviv, the Hebrew word for the Spring season. Although first month signifies the beginning of the year, some Rabbinic scholars believe the months are numbered in the Torah according to the Exodus from Egypt. So the first month means the first month in which the Israelites left Egypt. Therefore, Passover is celebrated in the first month.

Scholars have several theories on why there are two New Years in Judaism. The Mishnah actually states there are four New Years in Judaism and I will include an excerpt from MyJewishLearning.com (I have no connection to this website, nor am I making any recommendation pro or con regarding this site) at the bottom of this post for those that are interested. This article is focused on Rosh HaShanah.

One theory is that the Feast of Trumpets fell in line with the agricultural New Year of the region. Evidence for this is given in Exodus 23:16 and 34:22, as it refers to the Feast of Sukkot (סוכות‎  Tabernacles) or The Feast of the Ingathering at “the end of the year” and at “the turn of the year” respectively. Therefore, it is believed this time of year was always considered to be the time when a year changed and Aviv was only called the first month as it was the first month the Israelites left Egypt.  Perhaps the turn of the year was moved from the end of Sukkot  (toward the later half of the month) to the first day of the month, which happened to be Yom Teruah, for the convenience of calendars.

Another theory is that the New Year was changed to the first day of the seventh month when the Israelites returned to Jerusalem after their exile in Babylon. Just as Passover was the First month when they returned from their exile in Egypt, in books of Ezra and Nehemiah we read they returned from their exile in Babylon in the seventh month. Thus there were two New Years to mark the two returns from exile. The Babylonian calendar gave significance to this day as the beginning of the second half of the year.

The only other theory that made any sense to me was that the Israelites may have changed the New Year from the Spring to the Autumn in order to separate themselves from the idolatrous practices of their neighbors.

Biblical References

The two main biblical verses for Yom Teruah are Leviticus 23:23-25 (above) and Number 29:1-6 (below):

“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, offer a burnt offering of one young bull, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect. With the bull offer a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive 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 food offerings presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma.”

The biblical celebration of this holy day is very simple, as stated in Leviticus; 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.’

Traditional Observances

The New Year celebration in traditional Judaism is a more solemn occasion than typical New Year celebrations in other cultures. A shofar (שופר‎ horn) is blown, unless Rosh HaShanah falls on Shabbat. Rabbinic law forbids blowing a shofar on Shabbat, although there is no direct commandment against it in the bible. According to rabbinic law, a shofar is preferably made from the horn of a ram, although the most common long ones are made from the horn of a kudu (species of antelope). Rabbinic law states any Bovidae animal with a horn is acceptable except for cows.

It is traditional to eat sweet foods such as apples dipped in honey and pomegranates, to symbolize a sweet year. Round challahs are severed to symbolize the circle of a year and in some cultures the head of a fish is served to symbolize the head of the year.

Greetings include, “Shanah Tovah” (שנה טובה), meaning “good year” or “L’Shanah Tovah Tikotevu” (לשנה טובה תכתבו), “to the good year may you [plural] be written [in the book of life]” as well as other more complex Hebrew greetings I have yet to attempt. Although it has become common in Jewish communities in the United States to say “L’Shanah Tovah,” meaning “to good year... ” this phrase is incomplete and sounds even stranger to a Hebrew speaker than its translation may sound to you.

Judgement Day, Days of Awe, Tashlikh

The Talmud refers to Rosh HaShanah as “the day of judgement,” where God will discern between the righteous, the wicked and those in between. The righteous are immediately written into the Book of Life, the wicked are expelled from the Book of Life, and those in between are given the ten days until Yom Kippur, called the “Days of Awe,” to reflect on their year and get right with God. In the greeting above, when you say to someone, “may you be written [in the book of life],” the interpreted meaning is that you want the recipient to be counted among the righteous and be immediately written in the Book of Life.

Tashlikh is a ceremony in Judaism where rocks are cast into a natural body of flowing water to represent the casting off of sin.

As I said, this post is meant to be informative regarding the biblical, cultural and rabbinic background of Rosh HaShanah. In order to keep this post from getting too long, I will save my commentary for a later post.

Excerpt from MyJewishLearning.com on four Jewish new years:

The Mishnah, a compilation of rabbinic discussions that was codified around 200 CE, lists a grand total of four new years in each Jewish year (Tractate Rosh Hashana 1:1). The first is the New Year of Kings at the beginning of Nisan. It was as of this date that the regnal years of Jewish rulers were to be reckoned. In addition, this day also serves as the New Year of Festivals. Hence, many books on the Jewish holidays begin their discussions with Passover, the first festival of the year according to this reckoning. The second is the New Year for the tithing of cattle at the beginning of Elul, the sixth month (although, the Mishnah records, Rabbis Elazar and Simeon date this to the beginning of Tishrei). The third is the civil New Year at the beginning of Tishrei, which eventually also became the religiously observed New Year. This New Year also serves as the New Year of Sabbath and Jubilee years, as well as of planting and of vegetables. The fourth is the New Year of Trees at the beginning of Shevat, the eleventh month, although the tradition of the House of Hillel eventually became predominant, which began this new year on the 15th day of the month and gave us the minor holiday of Tu Bishvat (the fifteenth day of Shevat).

Paul's perspective on the law

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.  Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.  For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

- Matthew 5:17-20

Reading the scriptures can be confusing at times.  In the above verse, Yeshua himself says that he has not come to abolish the law and that those “who break one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be the least in the kingdom of heaven.” But we all know from reading the letters Paul wrote that we are saved by grace and therefore we are not under the law.  We can read this in several ways, and I am not here to debate the scriptures, but to give a different perspective.

Judith and I went to a party, not long before we got married, where we met a young Jewish girl who was having a hard time understanding exactly what Messianic Judaism was.  We tried to explain, that since Jesus was Jewish, it only made sense that we live a Jewish lifestyle.  To which she replied, “If you want to believe that Jesus was Jewish, that’s your problem.”  Judith and I were both speechless, but unfortunately, there are actually people out there that don’t know Yeshua was Jewish.  Perhaps this is because Christianity seems so different from Judaism.  Yet, early Christianity was considered a sect of Judaism, so how did the two religions become so different?

Many people read the book of Acts as a history of the early church.  The first non-Jewish believer, Cornelius, doesn’t enter the book until chapter 10, and the Jews weren’t exactly sure what to do with him.  After hearing Peter’s story of how these uncircumcised Gentiles were baptized in the Holy Spirit, the other Apostles and brothers from Judea praise God saying (Acts 11:18), “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”

As more Gentiles came to faith, some brothers from Judea were teaching (Acts 15:1), “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”  In verse 5, we see this idea repeated from “some of the brothers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees,” who added that the Gentiles should also be required to obey the law of Moses. The decision was made that they should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God, and not to burden them with anything more than abstaining from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.

We read throughout the rest of the New Covenant how Paul took the Gospel message “first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” preaching first in the synagogues and then to others, in many of the provinces of the Roman Empire in the area of the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas.  It is believed that during Paul’s life, which ended a few years before the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (Paul is believed to have been martyred around 67 AD while the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD) Christianity was still considered a sect of Judaism, although, as we read in Acts, many Jewish leaders strongly opposed this movement.  Some historians believe there was a power struggle between Pharisaic/Rabbinic Judaism and the followers of Yeshua which eventually lead to the formation of these two separate religions [source needed].

After the destruction of the Temple, and the end of the Jewish revolt, the Roman Emperor Vespasian placed a tax on Jews throughout Roman Empire in place of the “tithe” Jews used to pay for the upkeep of the Temple [source needed].  Domitian expanded the tax during his rule to also include anyone who observed Jewish customs [source needed].  Naturally, Christians petitioned the Emperor to recognize Christianity as a separate religion so they would not have to pay the tax [source needed].  Nerva, Domitian’s successor, limited the tax to those who openly practiced Judaism, allowing Christians to avoid the tax by disassociating themselves from Judaism [source needed].

In 303 AD Christians were again persecuted in the Roman Empire under the Emperor Diocletian [source needed]. Christians pushed themselves further from Judaism at the Synod of Elvira in 306 AD when they banned marriages, sexual relations and community contact between Christians and Jews [source needed].  In 313 AD Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan officially recognizing Christianity as a separate religion.  Finally at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, the complete separation was made official when the church declared; “we desire dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews.” 

Part 2

While Judith and I were dating, we attended a college and career group.  The teaching one night, perhaps for our benefit, was on the question of differentiating between the “law” and “sin.” A leader of the group explained the law could be separated into different categories; moral law (as in the ten commandments), ceremonial law (as in the sacrifices) and civil law (as in an eye for an eye).  He argued that Yeshua and others who uphold obedience to the law were referring to moral law, while Paul, in arguing against the law, was referring to the ceremonial and perhaps the civil law. Perhaps, but that really ignores who Paul was.

Who was Paul?  In Acts 22: 3, Paul says; “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city.  Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.”  Paul was a Pharisee.  As I mentioned in my earlier post, Judges, Pharisees and Rabbinut, during the first century, there were two types of law in Israel, the written Law, or the Mosaic Law, and the Oral Law, which would become the Rabbinic Law.  The Pharisees believed that their interpretation of the Mosaic Law, through the Oral Law which had been handed down to them, was to be held in higher regard than the scriptures themselves, for without the rabbinic interpretation, the meaning of the scriptures is unclear.  As Christians have separated themselves from Judaism over the centuries, they also separated themselves from the rabbinic law as we are told from the scriptures not to be under the law, which coming from a Pharisee would mean, not to be under the law of the Pharisees.

Take a look at what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:19-21: “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.”  Here, Paul specifies that he is outside of the law, “not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ."

Popular thinking is that Paul is referring to Jews when he refers to “those under the law.”  But if you read this as a Pharisee living in the first century (as Paul was), you read those under the law as those who live according to the interpretations of the Pharisees.  Remember, the Pharisees were not the only religious leaders at the time, there were also the Sadducees who believed the Law of Moses should be read literally, and does not need the interpretation of the oral law.

It is written in Matthew that Yeshua says “not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”  There are no pen strokes in the oral law, a point which surely wasn’t lost on the Jews listening to Yeshua.

Christians seem to like to call everything that is “Jewish” living “under the law.”  If you keep any type of kosher, keep Shabbat or celebrate Jewish holy days then you are living under the law.  Although Christians can back up decisions not to keep the above commands with other scripture, I would argue that we cannot just throw away everything Jewish by saying it is living under the law.  I would argue that we are taught not to be under the oral law and the rabbinic interpretation.  That when we read the scriptures, keeping kosher, keeping the Shabbat and celebrating the biblical feasts look very different from what Orthodox Judaism makes these commands look like.  Am I telling you that you need to start keeping kosher, keeping the Shabbat and the biblical feasts? Certainly not as the Orthodox Jews do today.  I would like to see what the scriptures say (Old and New Covenant) about these ideas, but we’ll deal with those scriptures another week.

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.

A New Begining

A short while ago I began writing a book.  For years I have thought about writing a book on what it means to be “Messianic.” Of course, there are books already out there.  There’s Daniel Juster’s Jewish Roots[1], David Stern’s Messianic Jewish Manifesto[2] and Restoring the Jewishness of the Gospel[3], but all of these titles were written by Jews, about Messianic Jews.  As David Stern points out in his Messianic Jewish Manifesto, since I wasn’t born to a Jewish mother, nor have I ever converted to Judaism through the Jewish Rabbis, I’m not Jewish.  

So, what am I?  And what are the thousands of other non-Jewish believers who attend Messianic congregations throughout the world.  If we cannot call ourselves “Messianic Jews,” do we call ourselves “Messianic Believers,” even though our fellow congregants call themselves “Messianic Jews,” or are we still just simply Christians?  And even if we are only Christians, aren't our religious roots still in Judaism?  Why don't we still celebrate the Jewish holidays?  Why does Christianity look so different from Judaism? 

I started writing my ideas down in book form.  I wrote chapters on who I am, where the Rabbis came from, thoughts on keeping kosher, the Shabbat, the Jewish Holidays, traditions and how all of these things relate to one another.  You may be asking, "what happened to the book?"  Unfortunately, as I began writing, I got more thoughts and learned more information and had new insights into the subjects I was writing about.  I had to go back and rewrite entire chapters as I found information contradicting my original assumptions, or found a source that I had used to be inaccurate.  The information seemed to take on a life of it's own and became overwhelming.  

With this blog I am attempting to cut the information I've learned into small manageable chucks, which I will post each week.  It is my hope that as the weeks, months and even years pass, I will be able to reorganize all these chunks of information back in to book form, supported by reliable and accurate sources.  Until then, I'd love to hear your comments each week, your opinions and find out if what I have rings true to you or just sounds like a bunch of rubbish.  As we discuss each topic, I'd also love to hear what you have to say from your personal experiences, what you have found out in your own research and I'd love to know what sources of information you use to support your ideas.

Until next week, Shabbat Shalom and Shavuah Tov!

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[1]Daniel Juster, Jewish Roots (Pacific Palisades, California: Davar Publishing Co., 1986)

[2] David H. Stern, Messianic Jewish Manifesto (Baltimore, Jewish New Testament Pulications, 1988)

[3] David H. Stern, Restoring the Jewishness of the Gospel (Baltimore, Jewish New Testament Pulications, 1988)