Main Heading Goes Here

THE FEASTS OF THE LORD click for comparative chart of Feasts Click for Holidays

Passover begins on the night of the fifteenth day of the month of Nissan and lasts for eight days.

The name of the festival, Pesach in Hebrew, passing over or protection, is derived from the instructions given to Moses by God (Ex. 6:6-8). Moses was chosen by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

This holiday commemorates the departure of the nation of Israel from Egypt. Pesach marks the birth of the Jewish people as a nation led by Moshe (Moses) over 3000 years ago. This is a as much a celebration of our spiritual freedom as the physical liberation from slavery. The highlight of Pesach is the observance of the Seder, a unique ceremony performed on the first two evenings of Passover. At the Seder, we eat different special foods, we tell the story of our departure from Egypt, we sing songs and praises, and say special prayers.

Passover falls in the Springtime; it is the festival of the Exodus from Egypt (c. 13th century BCE) and liberation from bondage. Freedom is, indeed, the dominant note of Passover. The rites of Passover begin long before the festival, as families and businesses cleanse their premises of hametz - leaven and anything containing it - as prescribed in the Bible (Ex. 12:15-20). The day before the festival is devoted to preparatory rituals including ceremonial burning of the forbidden foodstuff. On the holiday evening, the seder is recited: an elaborate retelling of the enslavement and redemption. At this festive meal, the extended family gathers to recite the seder and enjoy traditional foods, particularly matza (unleavened bread). The following day's observances resemble those of the other pilgrimage festivals.

Passover is probably second only to Yom Kippur in traditional observance by the generally nonobservant. In addition, a secular Passover rite based on the festival's agricultural connotations is practiced in some kibbutzim. It serves as a spring festival, a festival of freedom, and the date of the harvesting of the first ripe grain. Passover also includes the second "intermediate" week - five half-sacred, half-ordinary days devoted to extended prayer and leisure - and it concludes with another festival day.

^{Exodus 12:14} "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance. ¹⁵ For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat-that is all you may do.

Leviticus 23:5 'On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover.

Exodus 12:1-The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ² "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. ³ Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb ^[1] for his family, one for each household. ⁴ If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. ⁵ The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. ⁶ Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. ⁷ Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. ⁸ That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. ⁹ Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire-head, legs and inner parts. ¹⁰ Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. ¹¹ This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.
¹² "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn-both men and animals-and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD . ¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

UNLEAVENED BREAD

Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are held in immediate sequence. These are distinctly different holidays falling on different days; however, due to their closeness they are usually treated as one festival.

Immediately after the Passover the Feast of Unleavened Bread began at sunset. All leaven, a type of sin, was removed from the houses and the unleavened bread was eaten throughout the days of the feast.

It is one of the three major feasts of the year that the Lord has commanded us to go to each year. It is one of three times a year that we must all gather out of our homes to do as GOD tells us. We remember this time as when GOD brought the people of Israel out of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 16:5-6 ⁵Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates, which the Lord thy God givith thee ⁶ But at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name in there thou shall sacrifice the Passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest fourth from Egypt.

Here the Lord is telling us to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He tells us when to do it. The first month of the year is called Abib. The feast starts on the 14^th day of the month until the 21^th of the month at evening. This is a seven-day feast but we gather on the night of the 14^th day to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. The 15^th day and the 21^st day are Holy Days. We keep these days holy just like we keep the weekly Sabbath holy. For seven days we eat unleavened bread. We must not eat anything with leaven it in. Leaven is an agent used in cooking. That is the ingredient that makes our cupcakes and bread rise and get fluffy. It is also the thing the Lord uses to teach us that we are not complete without him. This is a way of getting rid of the sin in our lives.

We are instructed to do this in all our generations forever. This means that parents observe it, then the children observe it, and then the children’s children observe it and so on throughout the generations. It is important for children to be at the Passover to listen and learn what is done and why, so that when their time comes as an adult they will know when, how and why it is done.

Leviticus 23:6 'And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7 'On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it. 8 'But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.'"

Exodus 12:17-20 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever. ¹⁸ In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. ¹⁹ Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your homes: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land. ²⁰ Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.

FIRSTFRUITS

God commanded the people to bring a sheaf of the harvest [Leviticus 23:10]. The Hebrew word for "sheaf" is omer. An omer is defined as "a measure of dry things, containing a tenth part of an ephah"; an omer is about two quarts.

The observance was carried out in this manner, when the standing ripe harvest of barley and wheat was ready to be reaped. The celebrant would take one sheaf from the standing harvest and bring it to the priest. The lone sheaf was called "the sheaf of the first fruits." The priest was then to take this one sheaf and wave it before the L-rd in His house. This was to be done "the day after the sabbath." Prescribed offerings were also to be presented along with the sheaf.

This feast was not to be kept in Egypt, or in the wilderness, but when they had entered into the Promised Land. It had to do with a harvest. Josh. 5:10-11.

The sheaf was barley, because Passover was a barley harvest. Until this ceremony was performed no harvest work was to be done. The sheaf was to be offered with a lamb, without blemish one year of age, and a meal offering. We see that the body and blood was involved along with bread and wine. All of Israel was not to eat any bread, corn or parched ears until the day that the sheaf was presented to the L-rd. The word that described the first fruit is “bikkur” which means first ripe or first ready. The sheaf was brought in a basket to the sanctuary and presented to the priest who was to set the basket down before the altar. Then Deut. 26:1-11 was read. The one who offered was to recite the story of Joseph.

Leviticus 23:9-14 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, [10] Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the Firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: [11] And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. [12] And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Lord. [13] And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin. [14] And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

SHAVUOT (PENTECOST)

Shavuot, the last of the pilgrimage festivals, when enumerated from the beginning of the Jewish year, falls seven weeks after Passover (6 Sivan), at the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest. The Bible (Deut. 16:10) describes this occasion as the festival of weeks (Heb. shavuot), for so is it counted from Passover, and as the occasion on which new grain and new fruits are offered to the priests in the Temple. Its additional definition - the anniversary of the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai - is of rabbinical origin. Shavuot is observed among the Orthodox with marathon religious study and, in Jerusalem, with a mass convocation of festive worship at the Western Wall. In the kibbutzim, it marks the peak of the new grain harvest and the ripening of the first fruits, including the seven species mentioned in the Bible (wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates).

The lengthy summer until Rosh Hashanah is punctuated by the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av, falling in July or early August), the anniversary of the destruction of the First and Second Temples. On the day itself, numerous rules of bereavement and the Yom Kippur measures of "self-denial," including a full-day fast, are in effect.

Ethnic communities observe further rites and celebrations of their own. Some better-known celebrations include the Mimouna, unique to Moroccan Jewry, on the day after Passover, celebrating the renewal of nature and its blessings; and the Saharana of Kurdish Jewry, after Sukkot, which was the national holiday of the Jews in Kurdistan. Another event is the Sigd holiday of the Ethiopian Jewish community, in mid-November, a celebration which began in Ethiopia, expressing their yearning for Zion, and continues in Israel today as an expression of their thankfulness.

Thus, with its diverse population and multiple lifestyles and attitudes, Israel celebrates the cycle of Jewish festivals and observances in a public manner that underscores the country's Jewishness and its centrality to Judaism.

Leviticus 23:15 'And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16 'Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD.

TRUMPETS (ROSH HASHANAH)

Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the Jewish new year. Its origin is Biblical (Lev. 23:23-25): "a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts [of the shofar, the ram's horn]." The term Rosh Hashanah, "beginning of the year," is rabbinical, as are the formidable themes of the festival: repentance, preparation for the day of Divine judgment and prayer for a fruitful year. The two-day festival falls on 1-2 Tishrei in the Jewish calendar, usually September in the Gregorian calendar, and starts at sundown of the preceding evening, as do all Jewish observances. Major customs of Rosh Hashanah include the sounding of the shofar in the middle of a lengthy synagogue service that focuses on the festival themes, and elaborate meals at home to inaugurate the new year. The prayer liturgy is augmented with prayers of repentance.

In many senses, Israel begins its year on Rosh Hashanah. Government correspondence, newspapers and most broadcasts carry the "Jewish date" first. Felicitations for the new year are generally tendered before Rosh Hashanah.

Leviticus 23:24 "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25 'You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.'"

ATONEMENT (YOM KIPPUR)

Yom Kippur, eight days after Rosh Hashanah, is the Day of Atonement, of Divine judgment, and of "affliction of souls" (Lev. 23:26-32) so that the individual may be cleansed of sins. The only fast day decreed in the Bible, it is a time to enumerate one's misdeeds and contemplate one's faults. The Jew is expected, on this day, to pray for forgiveness for sins between man and God and correct his wrongful actions against his fellow man. The major precepts of Yom Kippur - lengthy devotional services and a 25-hour fast - are observed even by much of the otherwise secular population. The level of public solemnity on Yom Kippur surpasses that of any other festival, including Rosh Hashanah. The country comes to a complete halt for 25 hours on this day; places of entertainment are closed, there are no television and radio broadcasts (not even the news), public transport is suspended, and even the roads are completely closed. It is reinforced in Israel by memories of the 1973 war, a surprise attack launched by Egypt and Syria against Israel on Yom Kippur.

Leviticus 23:26 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 27 "Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.

TABERNACLES (SUKKOTH)

Five days later falls Sukkot, described in the Bible (Lev. 23:34) as the "Feast of Tabernacles." Sukkot is one of the three festivals that were celebrated (until 70 CE) with mass pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem and are therefore known as the "pilgrimage festivals." On Sukkot, Jews commemorate the Exodus from Egypt (c.13th century BCE) and give thanks for a bountiful harvest. At some kibbutzim, Sukkot is celebrated as Chag Ha'asif (the harvest festival), with the themes of the gathering of the second grain crop and the autumn fruit, the start of the agricultural year, and the first rains.

In the five days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, tens of thousands of householders and businesses erect sukkot - booths for temporary dwelling, resembling the booths in which the Israelites lived in the desert, after their exodus from Egypt - and acquire the palm frond, citron, myrtle sprigs and willow branches with which the festive prayer rite is augmented. All around the country, sukkot line parking lots, balconies, rooftops, lawns, and public spaces. No army base lacks one. Some spend the festival and the next six days literally living in their sukkot.

In Israel, the "holy day" portion of Sukkot (and the other two pilgrimage festivals, Passover and Shavuot) is celebrated for one day. Diaspora communities celebrate it for two days, commemorating the time in antiquity when calendation was performed at the Temple and its results reported to the Diaspora using a tenuous network of signal fires and couriers.

The prayer liturgy is augmented with additional prayers, including the Hallel, a collection of blessings and psalms, recited on Rosh Hodesh (the beginning of each lunar month) and on the pilgrimage festivals.

After the festive day, Sukkot continues at a lesser level of sanctity, as mandated by the Torah (Lev. 23:36). During this intermediate week - half festival, half ordinary - schools are closed and many workplaces shut down or shorten their hours. Most Israelis spend the interim days of Sukkot and Passover at recreation sites throughout the country.

The intermediate week and the holiday season end on Shemini Atseret, the "sacred occasion of the eighth day" (Lev. 23:36) with which Simhat Torah is combined. Celebration of Shemini Atseret/Simhat Torah focuses on the Torah - the Five Books of Moses - and is noted for public dancing with a Torah scroll in one's arms and with recitation of the concluding and beginning chapters of the Torah, renewing the yearly cycle of Torah reading. After dark, many communities sponsor further festivities, often outdoors, that are not limited by the ritual restrictions that apply on the holy day itself.

Leviticus 23:34 "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the LORD. 35 'On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. 36 “For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it. 37 'These are the feasts of the LORD which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to the LORD, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, everything on its day; 38 'besides the Sabbaths of the LORD, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to the LORD.