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Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
Showing posts with label Shavuot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shavuot. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Bible Reading for Shavuot ✡ "Your People Shall Be My People" - ISRAEL365
Sunday is Shavuot - the Feast of Weeks! - Israel Today Staff
Sunday is Shavuot - the Feast of Weeks!
Tuesday, June 07, 2016 | Israel Today Staff
The Jewish festival of Shavuot has many facets: the Feast of Weeks - 7 weeks being counted from Passover, or the Harvest Festival. Tradition has it that the Torah was given to the children of Israel via Moses by God on this day. In Israel this festival is a happy day when Torah is traditionally studied through the night and mainly dairy foods are consumed.
"And thou shalt keep the commandments of Jehovah thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. For Jehovah thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey; Deut 8:6-8
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Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Israel's History - a Picture a Day Passover: Whoever Is Hungry, Come and Partake of this Yemenite Seder
Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta) |
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Posted: 12 Apr 2016 12:05 PM PDT
The Library of Congress photographic collection includes a series of photographs of Yemenite residents of Jerusalem celebrating their Passover seder in 1939. Note their low table and compare it to the painting of a Seder during the time of the Temple, taken from the Passover Seder Haggadah of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem. In 1882, the Christians of the American Colony adopted a wave of Yemenite Jews who arrived in Jerusalem penniless, hungry and sick. The Colony believed the Jews were from the lost tribe of Gad. For decades the American Colony photographers continued to take pictures of the Yemenite community.
The Yemenite community has a tradition of a soft matza, similar to Middle East pita or laffa bread, which they bake daily during Passover. 
The traveler reported, "I enjoyed their special kind of matza -- it was warm, soft and didn't have the usual burnt sections which was present in every matza I had ever eaten until then."
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Monday, March 21, 2016
PHOTOS: Priests Demonstrate the Glory of Ancient Biblical Temple Service By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz - BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS
Photo: Joshua Wander
PHOTOS: Priests Demonstrate the Glory of Ancient Biblical Temple Service
“Also in the day of your gladness, and in your appointed seasons, and in your new moons, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt-offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace-offerings; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God.”Numbers 10:10 (The Israel Bible™)
A special ceremony was held in the Cardo in Jerusalem on Thursday, March 10th. It was the beginning of the month of Adar, or, to be precise, the second day of Rosh Chodesh Adar Bet. In temple Times, the new month was considered a minor holiday and the ceremony, a reenactment of the Temple service, gloriously illustrated that.
On the day of the new month, special sacrifices were brought to the Temple: two oxen, a ram, seven lambs, wine libations, flour, and oil (Numbers 28:11-15). This is identical to the sacrifices offered on Passover and Shavuot, indicating the holy aspect of the new month. Special trumpet blasts were also added in celebration.
To commemorate the special nature of the day, the Temple Institute, in conjunction with the Sanhedrin and other Temple organizations, held a reenactment of the service as it would have been performed in the Temple. The ceremony was intended to be educational for the spectators and a dry-run for the priests who participated.
The priests, students of the Temple Institute’s Nezer HaKodesh Academy for Kohanim, wore authentic garments made to Biblical specifications, and performed the Kohanic blessing. Musicians played instruments suited for use in the Temple provided by the Temple Institute, accompanied by a choir.
Though no animals were actually slaughtered, the organs and special fats were displayed and explained. There was also a demonstration of how blood is sprinkled on the altar. A mincha offering of semolina was burned on the altar, a precise scale model, approximately one meter tall and two-and-a-half meters square.
In addition to the demonstration of the sacrifices, three members of the Sanhedrin accepted the testimony of two witnesses for the Torah commandment of declaring the new month.
Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, the founder and head of the Temple Institute, also gave a lesson about the Biblical commandment of the Machatzit HaShekel (Exodus 30:11-16) , the half shekel-weight of silver, given to the Temple every year by Jewish men in this month. Rabbi Ariel explained that the half-shekel was used to purchase the daily sacrifices offered for all of Israel.
Events like this help prepare for the actual Temple. Not only does it raise public awareness, it also helps instruct Kohanim, Jews of the priestly class.
Joshua Wander, a resident of the Mount of Olives who has attended several of the Temple Institute’s events, noted that it also helps fix lapses in practical knowledge.
“When we did the reenactment of the Pesach offering, we discovered that it is difficult to roast a whole animal without burning the outside and leaving the inside raw,” Wander said. “We found out that you have to wrap it up and seal it, which had to be done carefully since it is forbidden to break any of the bones.”
Friday, May 22, 2015
Shavuot: A Jewish Perspective on Pentecost
Shavuot: A Jewish Perspective on Pentecost
Friday, May 22, 2015
Understanding this many-faceted holiday from a Jewish perspective provides a fitting background to the Christian celebration of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which took place on the same day about 1,300 years later.
Shavuot falls exactly 50 days (seven Sabbaths) after the first day of Passover (Pesach); hence the name Pentecost, the Greek word for "50."
"Count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord." (Lev. 23:16)
It's the second of the three biblical pilgrimage festivals, following Pesach -- the Feast of Unleavened Bread -- and before the fall festival of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. Many themes are interwoven in this holiday. Here's a few.
The Book of Ruth
In biblical times, Israelites countrywide traveled to Jerusalem to present an offering at the Temple on Mount Zion (Temple Mount). Also known as Hag Ha'hkatzir (Harvest Festival), Jews traditionally read the Book of Ruth, along with the Torah portion, which reminds them to share God's bountiful provision.
"When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God." (Lev. 23:22).
The Book of Ruth tells the story of the Moabite woman who chose to return to Israel with her mother-in-law, Naomi.
"Entreat me not to leave you or turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go and wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God, my God." (Ruth 1:16)
When the young widow goes out to glean, she finds herself in grain fields belonging to Naomi's close relative, Boaz, who becomes her husband. Ruth then gives birth to Jesse, the father of King David, placing her in the genealogy of Israel's Messiah.
First Fruits and Giving of the Torah
Israelites brought the first fruits of the harvest to the Temple, hence the name Hag ha'Bikkurim, the Festival of First Fruits. They likely brought some of the seven species with them -- olives, grapes, wheat, barley, figs, dates, and pomegranates -- those harvested in the spring after the winter rains.
Today, Israel produces these same fruits in abundance. On Shavuot, dairy products and fruit are traditional fare, celebrating the land flowing with milk and honey.
Shavuot is also called Hag Matan Torateinu (Festival of the Giving of the Torah), celebrating God's giving the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. It's traditional to stay up all night studying the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.
Another Outpouring
On Shavuot, nearly 2,000 years ago, 120 followers of Yeshua (Jesus) were waiting in an upper room in Jerusalem to be imbued with power from on high. They were told to tarry until it happened.
They may have prayed about the promise foretold by the prophet Joel, which Peter described.
"There came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty, rushing wind…when they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." (Acts 2:2-4)
The outpouring of God's Spirit produced quite a harvest -- about 3,000 people joined the 120 disciples to become "witnesses to Me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth."
And so it happened, just as the prophet foretold.
"And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh…And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Acts 2:17a, 21)
Many would agree that such an outpouring is what today's world needs the most.
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
What Will Israelis be Celebrating Tonight?
What Will Israelis be Celebrating Tonight?
Wednesday, May 06, 2015 | Israel Today Staff
The grave of Talmudic sage Shimon Bar Yochai will tonight (Wednesday) be the venue for one of the more festive holidays in Israel - Lag B’Omer.
Lag B’Omer is celebrated on the 33rd day of the Count of the Omer, which begins on the second day of Passover and ends on Shavuot, as commanded in the Bible (Leviticus 23:15–16).
Lag B’Omer is itself an extra-biblical holiday the origin of which remains something of a mystery. There are numerous myths, such as the story of Rabbi Akiva, a first century CE religious leader whose disciples were dying by the thousands to a mysterious plague, only to have the plague disappear under equally mysterious circumstances on the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer.
Another tale is that Lag B’Omer marks the passing of Bar Yochai, Rabbi Akiva’s greatest disciple and the supposed author of the Zohar, the chief work of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism.
For Orthodox Jews, the main event takes place in the small Galilee community of Meron, where Bar Yochai’s grave is located. Given the large number of people who usually show up, over 1,000 police and several helicopters are deployed at Meron to prevent forest fires.
Elsewhere across the country, Israelis will gather to light bonfires, creating a fun family atmosphere for most. Israeli children begin collecting scrap wood already weeks in advance in anticipation of Lag B’Omer.
Within the Messianic community, Lag B’Omer is a subject of some controversy. Many Jewish believers take part in the celebrations as it is a time of warm fellowship with a patriotic Jewish theme. But many feel it is wrong to mark the holiday due to the anti-Messianic side story that accompanies Rabbi Akiva’s activities in the Holy Land two thousand years ago.
Rabbi Akiva was the primary backer of the Bar Kochva Revolt against Rome, going so far as to declare the uprising’s leader, Simon Bar Kochva, to be the promised Messiah.
Obviously, Jewish believers in Yeshua at the time had a major problem with this, even if they wanted to support the revolt. When Yeshua’s followers refused to follow another “messiah,” Rabbi Akiva and the majority of the Jews who looked to him for leadership are said to have labeled the Jewish believers in Yeshua as traitors.
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