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Jewish Holidays & Traditions
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This got lost at the end of the Narnia post, so I’m reposting here:
Rachel and Linda- I am not a messianic jew, but have always thought that would be the best of both worlds!
Would either or both of you mind sharing about your Jewish traditions, such as the different feasts, etc. and how you celebrate them? I would love to be able to incorporate some of those rich traditions into our family.
Tara (pink ballerina) also said she’d like to know more.
Nanci
And so would I. Our church had a Seder meal earlier this year and it was a wonderful experience. My daughter actually enjoyed the parsley and salt water combo at the beginning. I would like a recipe for the sandwich with the horseradish MINUS the horseradish of course.
Thanks for asking this question Nanci, as we too have had much interest over the years. A resource we’ve used is Robin Sampsons “A Family Guide to Biblical Holidays”. It explains the historical, spiritual, and prophetic purposes of each holiday and shows how each points to Christ. I look forward to what Rachel and Linda have to say!
God Bless!
Heather
Heather- it’s good to know that A Family Guide to Biblical Holidays is as good as it sounds in the description. I was wondering about it.
Nanci
I’ll be happy to; it will come in sections, as I am in the middle of harvesting and preserving my garden; about 40 lbs. of tomatoes today
. I think a good start is to look at the title of the post; if I could bring to light a common misconception among both the Jewish and Christian Communities that makes a monumental difference in perspective.When you actually read Levitcus 23, over and over The L-rd refers to these ‘holidays’, not as Jewish, but as HIS! All through the entire chapter, He repeatedly refers to the Feasts/Festivals as “My” and, depending on the translation of your BIble; as Designated Times of the L-rd, Feasts of the L-rd, My Feasts, My Appointed Feasts, etc. many different times and ways. The original Hebrew is Moedim, Appointed Times; literally Times He has Appointed or set aside/designated to meet with us and us with Him and we see His Redemptive Plan; what I call His blueprint.
There are wonderful Jewish Traditions, but the Festivals belong to Him, just like the Land of Israel, that He gives to His People with whom He’s made a Covenant with. So you are part of His People, as is myself, a spiritual seed of Abraham, grafted in to Israel (Romans 11:16, 17), sharers in the rich root of the olive tree, which is Israel. You will be Blessed by observing His Appointed Times in the fullness of Messiah! Then there are the historical and presented in Scripture festivals, Hanukkah and Purim, that recall the Hand of G-d working mightily; we know Yeshua (Jesus) definitely observed Hanukkah (John 10:22) and assuming He did Purim, too.
Hopefully that’s some food for thought! Gotta go eat (no pun intended), I’ll check back in later,
Rachel
We bought A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays last year after having giving up celebrating Christmas and Easter. Is everyone going to incorporate the biblical holidays with Christmas/Easter or replace? I wanted to start new traditions with our family to replace old ones. I’m still trying to cope with the fact we have disappointed many extended family members with our decision. They accept but don’t understand why. And so that time of year our girls are asked by every stranger it seems if they are excited Santa is coming, etc. Our girls never believed in Santa anyway. But I teach them that people don’t know and just assume, so just smile and politely answer. Sorry off topic but we feel blessed to follow God’s holy days as Rachel well explained. The Family Guide…Holidays explains that the holy days were changed by influence of paganism in the culture.
Tara
Are there other holidays that celebrate Jesus’ birth and resurrection? I have been interested in riding our family of worldliness or paganism of holidays like we don’t do Santa or Easter bunny or Halloween, but I would hate to think of not celebrating Christ’s birth and resurrection. Thanks!
To be honest, in Scripture, celebrating His birth isn’t something that G-d seemed to find to be of importance; however, since Yeshua’s birth is part of the Redemptive plan, I believe His birth exists within the Feasts, specifically Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). I believe, among the other theoroies, it brings in the most Scriptural evidence on the Hebraic calendar, prophetically and that the Romans wouldn’t have done a census in the Winter, either.
Our family has never made it a point to celebrating it and it’s not something that is “absent”. We mention it, reading all the Scriptures referencing it; emphasizing the prophetic nature of the conception, since Yeshua could not have the ‘sin of Adam”, His circumcision, His presentation at the Temple (Luke 2) to fullfil Torah, but the only thing I do is set out a small wooden nativity scene (with no wise men, since they weren’t there then, only shepherds). Other Messianic Believers do other things; it’s not a Command so there is flexibility and you can incorporate it into the week, mainly the first day for the Birth along with G-d’s Commands for an assembly and no work; for example, some Believers sing the “Christmas” songs, like “Little Town of Bethlehem”, etc. on that first day of Sukkot.
There are so many wonderful ways to observe The Feast of Tabernacles, some in Scripture, some man-made, and we’ve just come off the heels of the Fall Feasts. It doesn’t take a backseat in our mind, but it’s not the only thing going on that week. Here’s a good run-down of the different theories, though I don’t put a lot of faith in the traditions of the early church fathers mentioned at the bottom for a variety of reasons-http://www.hebrew4christians.net/Articles/Christmas/christmas.html
Hope that makes sense! Basically, you can make His birth as big or as small a deal as you like; I just think it shouldn’t replace what’s required for the Feast of Tabernacles established by G-d Himself, but man-made traditions can (and are by many) definitely be incorporated into it with joy; as long as the “tradition” doesn’t “make null and void the Word of G-d”(Matt. 15:6).
As for his death and Resurrection, I’ll make that a separate post.
Rachel
We tried to make the resurrection a bigger celebration by observing Passover and had our own mini sedar as a family. I agree with Rachel to read about Christ’s birth during Sukkot (we’d like to try observing Sukkot this fall). But no traditions like exchanging gifts, tree, santa, etc which has nothing to do with his bday. 😉 Just praising God for sending His Son singing choice hymns. Last year we celebrated Hannukkah and that was fun for us all! I’m glad Hannukkah is so close to the other winter holidays so that we are celebrating something! As well as Purim afterwards.
Look forward to your next post Rachel. Thanks for the info!
This is all so facinating! Thank you ladies for sharing this wonderful information. 🙂 Look forward to the post on the Resurrection Rachel. 🙂
Rachel- Thank you for your posts! I am learning so much already. I especially liked how you clarified that they are not Jewish holidays (forgive my ignorance) but God’s holidays. Thank you for your time.
I bought a copy of Robin Sampson’s EBook so I have started reading it today. It’s fascinating.
For anyone that’s interested, I looked up the dates of the September holidays in case you’d want to study/ incorporate these:
The Feast of Trumpets aka Tom Teruah/Rosh Hashanah is September 11, 2010
The Day of Atonement is September 20
Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) is September 25
Last Great Day (Shemini Atzerct) is October 2
Thank you Nanci, for asking the question and thank you so much, Rachel, for taking the time to answer so thoughtfully.
Rachel or anyone who knows…. I just flipped my calendar to September and it says that Rosh Hashanah is September 9, and Yom Kippur is the 18th. The previous dates I listed were from an internet search.
Which is correct?
Hey, the dates for:
Yom T’ruah (Biblical name-Day of the Blowing) /Rosh HaShanah (Rabbinical name-Head of the Year, specifically the civil calendar)- begins the evening of the 8th and lasts through till sunset of the 10th-two days (Rabbis added an extra day for historical diaspora reasons). You only need to celebrate the one day, as called for in Scripture.
Yom Kippur (day of atonement)-starts at sunset of Sept. 17th till evening of 18th. It’s extra special as it is also falls on a weekly Shabbat (the first Appointed Time, Lev 23:2-3-weekly instead of yearly). BTW, I (our Congregation as a whole) do not fast for my/our salvation but for the Salvation of Israel (Paul’s plea-Romans 10:1).
Sukkot/Feast of Tabernacles-starts evening of Sept. 22 till evening of the 30th.
The 29th/30th (8th day) is Shemini Atzeret (meaning “eighth day of assembly”).
G-d’s days always start in the evening. Hope that clarifies. G-d Bless you for looking them up!
Shalom,
Rachel
Oh, and the first candle for Hanukkah/Feast of Dedication-aka-Festival of Lights, is lighted on the evening of Wed. Dec. 1st, a candle a day until the last candle lighted on the evening of the 8th,w/Hanukkah ending the evening of the 9th. It’s a great time for boys to practice their sword fighting and be brave Macabbees for The L-rd G-d!
Rachel
. I think a good start is to look at the title of the post; if I could bring to light a common misconception among both the Jewish and Christian Communities that makes a monumental difference in perspective.
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