Jewish Holidays & Traditions

Tara, just wanted to clear up about the use of the egg on the seder plate for Passover.  It has nothing to do with Easter, but is used to recall two sacrifices which can no longer be made because of the destruction of the Temple.  The first was killed on 14th Nisan and eaten at the seder before the paschal lamb; the other was slain during the day of 15th Nisan (or possibly later in the week) as a freewill offering to rejoice before the Lord.  The reason an egg is used is that it is a sign of mourning and a symbol of the hope of spiritual restoration and of resurrection.

Michelle, it’s funny you mention about Christmas being a big attention getter for the Jews.  When I was a kid one of the biggest things that the Lord used to get my attention was the Charlie Brown Christmas Special.    I was also in the school choir and I was instructed by my mom that I could sing with them at Christmastime as long as I didn’t say “that” name.  Well, that got me wondering why the Christians seemed to have stolen the King of Israel from us!  I wanted my King back!  LOL!  Now that I am a believer and we don’t celebrate Christmas that has opened up the door for me to share the truth about Messiah, why we don’t celebrate Christmas, when Messiah was most likely really born, etc.  God doesn’t waste anything!

Shalom,

Linda

Tara, that’s exactly why we stopped.  And it seems that every year there is more and more magic associated with Christmas, right down to having Harry Potter movies running for Christmas and Harry Potter tree decorations.  Something is definately not right about that!

Linda

I would LOVE to know how you ladies got your husbands to go along with not celebrating Christmas!  That season, though pretty, has always been such a chore for me.  The commercialism is irksome and makes me want to have nothing to do with the season at all.  Besides, as someone else has aptly stated, it is more likely to think that the Messiah was born in Sept./Oct.

We stopped celebrating Christmas about 4 years ago.  About 10 years ago, right after getting the internet, I started a yearly research project to see if we shoud be celebrating Christmas or not. It always was my favorite time of year, even it it never turned out the way I wanted or planned for it to (think Norman Rockwell…), but I read a lot online that bothered my conscience. Every time the season rolled around I would agonize and read articles and fret.  Finally I decided that I was just going to enjoy Christmastime and leave it up to my husband to decide.  Well, that very year, my husband said “no more Christmas!” 

Although it’s really just another day for us (that my husband gets off work!), we don’t pretend it doesn’t exist and we realize it’s a very important time for most people.  Christmas and Easter are often the only times in a year that our extended family actually gets together, so we join them and don’t make our not celebrating a big deal to them.

Thanks Ginnie.  Praise God He spoke to your heart & you came to know His love! Christmas was one of my favorite holidays. Lots of warm memories. But I love the Lord even more and can still love the fall/winter time of cozy home with fire, hot cocoa, Hanukkah lights, and fellowship. 🙂

Tara

HI, everybody-overwhelmed with cukes and making pickles, among other things! Nice to see everyone enjoying themselves in conversation!

I am hoping this gives you a great jumping off point to dig deeper. Forgive the length in advance. Since “For now we see obscurely in a mirror, but then it will be face to face. Now I know partly; then I will know fully, just as G-d has fully known me” 1 Cor. 13:12, I will do the best I can to give the big picture of the Spring Feasts in general and without getting into the theological debates that exist within the Messianic Community. In addition to the good info. previously noted about the timeline theories though, it did leave out the Thursday crucifixion theory; unless I missed it while reading. Anyway, after you follow Messianic/Hebraic based teachings for a length of time, you will come across them yourself. When reading Scripture through Hebraic eyes, you study the context, culture and history; what you think you know can change, stemming from that previous “Greek-thinking” mindset (as Ginnie pointed out). There is no separating the Scripture from the culture, customs and historical realities of the time period; not to mention the eastern Hebraic thought that was different than the Greek thought that ended up permeating the new religion of Christianity, forming new celebrations and Scripture interpretation; bit-by-bit chopping their branches off from the root. I should probably stop there b/c this is an area I can get most passionate about when it comes to church history and their complete dismissal of Paul’s warning to the gentile believers in Romans 11 regarding arrogance; but I digress.

Within our family, the rememberance of our redemption, His Resurrection, and the giving of G-d’s Spirit  is completely observed and revealed in Passover/Feast of Matzah, First Fruits, and Shavuot (Pentecost); even if it’s not apparent to others that that is actually what we are doing because it doesn’t look like the way the rest of the world expects it should look; but it’s inherrent in the Feasts, since they are G-d’s “blueprint”, so-to-speak, of Yeshua’s Presence and Purpose on Earth. I must add, on a personal note: that having known Messianic Jews, direct preaching from visiting Rabbis from Israel and being in a Congregation that has been actively engaged with Israeli Congregations for 30 years, myself for 10; there’s no limitation of observing the gift of Messiah’s birth and Resurrection to just 2 days arbitrarily chosen by the church. Even though they don’t observe Christmas and Easter specifically as a way to celebrate G-d’s Gift of Messiah, it is due to their observance of this very gift that they risk everything. Messianic Jews risk their lives to walk with Messiah daily in Israel by the religious courts and extremists in the orthodox Community; they are persecuted in their homes and at their places of worship. It is for that very belief in the birth and resurrection of Yeshua that they are discriminated against.

I think Pesach has been discussed pretty well already, if I could just add in some extra thoughts. The order of the Passover service, even later Rabbinical additions have messianic meaning, so just because it’s rabbinical doesn’t mean it doesn’t match with Scripture. An example would be the Elijah cup within the ceremony; we can joyfully participate b/c we know that the “elijah” preceding The Messiah did come at Passover-specifically being born then and was heralded so in the Good News (Matthew 11: 7-15). As a spiritual seed of Abraham, with a circumcized heart, as part of the Commonwealth of the Nation of Israel, I should be in obedience to G-d’s instruction (Deut. 31:12).

 I give a good cleaning to the home, mainly focused on the kitchen and living room, removing the physical leaven; but as every year that goes by, I try to be more thorough and organized, it’s a family affair. G-d’s Commands shouldn’t be a burden, if it feels that way, then I know I have a heart issue going on regarding priorities. This was the first year  that all 7 days were completely unleavened in all of our meals and it was definitely an honor. It’s not just an act of obedience (Exodus 12:19-20) but also a spiritual work (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). And as someone with chronic physical problems and a husband that has multiple neurological problems, it’s not always easy, but it’s important. I make it a point to put on G-dly praise music and we read about the Feast as a family to prepare our hearts to let the L-rd sweep out the leaven. We have a family seder using the Lederer Haggadah mentioned previously. It’s not about gaining salvation through observance, but by being obedient in observance as a response to my salvation; that’s not legalistic (a perversion of G-d’s Word), being “under the law” or being a judaizer, either; just a heads up – these terms will be thrown at you, if they haven’t been already, due to your decisions, so please learn the true Scriptural meaning of those terms and not the way they have been used historically to control the direction of people’s faith, because you don’t want to truly be any of those.

First Fruits (barley) is the Resurrection of Messiah,(1 Cor. 15:20-23); a different day didn’t need to be set aside by man for this celebration either. Again, there are differing dates attached to the observation of the day, coming from the 1st Cen. concerning which day to actually observe it. It’s the beginning of counting the Omer and then to Shavuot. My Congregation follows a particular reckoning so we go to a specific Resurrection service during the week, during the Feast of Matzah. Which day of the week it falls on is different from year to year due to the lunar calendar and our reckoning of when First Fruits is. So even though the first Resurrection occured after sunset on Sat. and before dawn on the “first day of the week” (John 20:1), it’s not like that every year for us (for some Messianics, it’s always Sunday, following the Sadducean model); but the Firstfruits is always within the Feast of Matzah. There isn’t a Temple, but you can incorporate waving barley before the L-rd, reading Lev. 23, and of the resurrection and have praise and worship at home for First Fruits if you don’t have a Congregation to go to and invite friends over, too.

I didn’t count the Omer this year as I had wanted to and Scripture tells us to, our Congregation does and we should in the home. By G-d’s Grace, I am planning to do it next year.

Shavuot, or Pentecost, AKA Feast of Weeks is really special, too. You count down using the Omer. It has more than one meaning too. It is the traditional time of giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai (on the third day!)and also the time when the Holy Spirit was given. There again the ‘tradition’ fits perfectly with what happened in Acts. After the redemption of Passover/Feast of Matzah, then G-d gives His People the Instructions under which they are to live as a redeemed people; He did the same in the 1st Cen., -after our redemption,  G-d’s Spirit (literally in Hebrew His “Breath”) wrote His Torah on our Hearts. Interestingly, rabbinic legend (yes, it’s legend, but interesting) says there were 70 known languages at the time and that G-d spoke all of them at the giving of the Torah and that fire came to each Hebrew individually; in addition to the Scriptural smoke, fire and shofar blasts (Ex. 19:16-19)) and then, as prophesied from Jeremiah and Yeshua, He gave His Spirit at Shavuot, with a sound from Heaven, fire and the languages. So Shavuot also has a multi-level meaning.

Also, harvest wise it’s wheat, and it’s really awesome that two loaves were presented to G-d as an offering at Shavuot, just as Jew and Gentile are presented before G-d together as one. The traditional reading is of the Book of Ruth, as it is set in the Spring harvest time and it reflects the same symbolism; as she forsook her Moabite upbringing and bound herself to The G-d of Israel, honored by G-d to be the ancestor of King David and our Messiah! “But Ruth replied: Do not persuade me to leave you or go back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” Ruth 1:16. We have a Shavuot service at our Congregation, but at home we read from Ruth. This year I had my son use the children’s Artscroll Hebrew/english translation to work on his Hebrew, plus, it’s a beautiful text; anything that presents Rabbinic views that are incompatible with Scripture, we talk about it, that way they can develop discernment and can have these conversations with others when G-d provides the opportunities in their lives, esp. non-messianic Jews), we have Bible study, no working, I’ve had the children make their own Ten Commandments, decorate for a Spring Harvest festival, sometimes I remember to have some dairy (traditional), sometimes not. You can be creative. The wonderful thing is I am free to choose, without guilt, among the traditions, as long as they don’t contradict Scripture, then it’s an absolute no.

There is so much to discover, so many layers and consistancy. It’s exciting! Even after 10 years, I still get very passionate and discover more consistancy in my studies and new things that never made sense growing up, not to mention drawing closer to the Jewish Community in general, esp. from an eternal perspective. I was raised a Methodist minister’s dd in the South but married a man from Miami with possible Jewish parentage, so that’s how we moved in that direction originally, having already ruled out Halloween, then Christmas and Easter within the following year. I’ve learned alot in these past 10 ten years; this walk is gradual and takes time to unlearn then learn again; just like with homeschooling sometimes!

Thanks for reading this book and I’ll check back in soon,

Rachel

Hi,

I am new to SCM but immediately noticed this thread and I am thankful for all of the posts.  My husband is a Christian-Messianic? (not really sure if I understand what that means because I have seen it used in so many ways) Jew.  We have been wanting to incorporate some of the Biblical Feasts into our lives and teach our children about their heritage.  I was looking for resources to help me out.  So far I have incorporated Rosh Hoshannah and Yom Kippur, and the family really enjoyed it.  I hope to include more this year.  My husband’s mom didn’t really teach him any Jewish traditions or keep the feasts so he cannot help me too much with this, but some of his Jewish family have invited us for Passover and that was really amazing. 

All this to say, thanks for bringing this up and I look forward to future posts with more information.

Blessings,

Erika