Major feasts of the
Jewish year
 
 
The Jewish Worldview To get a handle on the Jewish Liturgical Calendar and its major feasts, one should first understand how the ancient Hebrews viewed the world. I shall summarize in a few bullet points: • God’s Torah is evident in creation. God’s Law is woven directly into the very fabric of the world. Psalm 19 nicely demonstrates this belief: The heavens proclaim the glory of God and the firmament shows forth the work of his hands. Day unto day takes up the story and night unto night makes known the message. No speech, no word, no voice is heard. yet their span extends through all the earth, their words to the utmost bounds of the world. • Creation exists to be a place for the covenant between God and man, the place where God and man meet. The world and its inhabitants were created within a space of time that reached its apogee in the Sabbath. All creation was a movement toward this moment of rest when both master and slave are made equals. Together, rich and poor, master and slave, offer fitting worship on this memorial of the culmination of creation. • Creation itself must be thought of as a space for worship. This is very different than the Gnostic worldview which shuns creation as an unholy burden. Creation is the place God has given man for the sake of acting out the Covenant. It is a cosmic temple. • Earth is a “cosmic temple.” Look for example at Job 38, which describes God’s act of creation in terms of a temple-building project. A foundation is laid (v. 4), its measurements are determined (v. 5), its cornerstone is established (v. 6), its bars and doors are set (v. 8-10). In it, the clouds are the “cloud of presence” (v. 9) and the angels sing like the Levites (v. 7). This is typical biblical imagery. Conversely, the temple construction is often described in terms suggestive of the creation accounts. In this way, we can see that the temple is a microcosm of the cosmos and the cosmos is a macrocosm of the temple. The Liturgical Year Let us now look at some of the basic beliefs underpinning the development of the Jewish Liturgical Year. • Worship is woven into God’s design. Creation itself indicates how God is to be worshipped. If the earth is the place for worship, then time is the means for determining when and how to worship God correctly. • God creates the sun, moon and stars for the purpose of determining the seasons and liturgical feasts. (Cf. Gen 1:14) God provided the means necessary to determine how he wishes to be worshipped. Principally, he provided the heavens and the movement of their bodies to calculate the correct time for worship. So the Jewish liturgical calendar is determined by the solar and lunar cycles and by the natural progression of the seasons.
 • To summarize, the world is the place of worship and the movement of time is the means of hallowing it. The Three Great Pilgrimage Feasts • Passover • Pentecost • Feast of Tabernacles On each of these three feasts, each faithful Jew was required to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice at the Temple. Because Judaic history is so rich and layered, as we continue our discussion you’ll find that each feast celebrates more than one thing. Usually, there is an earthy element, like the celebration of the harvest, and an historical element, commemorating an event in salvation history. This speaks to (1) God’s action in creation, providing the earth as a space for worship, as well as (2) God’s action in history, delivering and guiding his chosen people. Each of these feasts has a Christian counterpart. Each of them point to something eschatological, which is fulfilled in Christ and will be brought to consummation at the end of time. As we discuss these feasts, hopefully you will see how Christianity builds upon the liturgical foundation of the Jewish people. Passover • Background: Commemorates the Passover of the Lord, the last of the 10 plagues, ending bondage to the Egyptians.
 Passover refers literally to the “passing over” of the Angel of Death. Any home whose inhabitants spread the blood of an unblemished lamb on their lentils was spared their firstborn son. The Angel, however, slaughtered the Egyptian sons, and Pharaoh finally capitulated to Moses and released the Hebrews • Purpose: To remember deliverance from Egyptian bondage.
 • Activity: “Kill, spill, eat your fill”: The Passover lamb is slaughtered, the lamb’s blood is placed on door lintels and the lamb’s meat is consumed with bitter herbs, unleavened bread and wine. • Additional information King Josiah, in seeking to reunite the divided kingdoms of Israel, centered his attention on returning to the Lord with this feast. (Cf. 2 Chron 35:18-19). He knew that if he was going to lead Israel in national repentance, then this was the feast that needed to be kept faithfully. It is what unites all the people of Israel because they all share the same history of bondage and deliverance. Passover eventually developed an eschatological dimension. As the Lord once delivered Israel on the feast of Passover, so it was expected that in the future the restoration would come during Passover. Of course, we find this fulfilled in Christ. Passover: The Christian Fulfillment • Messianic expectations of the Passover are fulfilled in Christ, who becomes the sacrificial lamb. This is demonstrated scripturally by the several connections made by the Gospel writers. Luke tells us that the Holy Family went up to Jerusalem for Passover every year. The Finding of the child Jesus in the Temple occurs during Passover. And of course, the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus is told against the background of Passover.
 • The New Exodus surpasses the first Exodus. We are freed not only from political or physical bondage, as in the first Exodus; but we are freed from spiritual bondage to sin. We are led to the true Promised Land: from captivity and death to freedom and eternal life. • With a new Exodus comes a new Passover meal: the Eucharist. Christ himself becomes the Lamb of God upon the altar that we are to consume. Pentecost: The Feast of Weeks • Second major feast of the Jewish Year • Celebrated during Spring harvest, 50 days after Passover (hence name “Pentecost”) • Purpose: To celebrate God’s blessings and give thanks for the Spring harvest. It also commemorates the giving of the Law on Sinai. The ingathering of grain serves as an image of the ingathering of the renewed Israel.
 • Activity: Unleavened bread and the first fruits of the wheat harvest are presented to God in thanksgiving. The bread was then consumed by the priest. This was an acknowledgment of God’s dominion over all creation. All good things of the earth belong to God, so a portion of the firstfruits are returned to their proper owner. Pentecost: The Christian Fulfillment • With the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the true ingathering of Israel finally arrived.
 • As Ezekiel described the future ingathering of Israel and their cleansing with sprinkled water, Peter tells the people to “Repent and be baptized” (Acts 2:38), thereby gathering all into the one Body of Christ, the Church. • In another way, just as the Jews offer the firstfruits of the harvest to God in sacrifice, so also do we offer Christ, the first fruit of the Resurrection, to God in sacrifice at every Mass. The Feast of Tabernacles • Third major feast of the Jewish Liturgical Year • Celebrated during the Fall harvest • Purpose: To memorialize the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. Additionally, to celebrate the dedication of the temple by Solomon. Finally, to celebrate the Fall harvest.
 • Activity: A booth is built and lived in for seven days. These booths recall the time wandering after deliverance from Egypt, as well as the booths that are built by harvesters in the field. Candelabra are lit in the temple. Feast of Tabernacles: The Christian Fulfillment • Christ is the new and eternal tabernacle of the Most High, and we are his Body. We become the Temple of God, his tabernacle, inasmuch as we participate in the communion of the Church. • As the Israelites wandered in tents in the wilderness, so we wander for a time until the Judgment. We are a pilgrim Church. We wander in the wilderness just as the Jews did. They commemorate this wandering with tents, we observe this wandering by emphasizing the holiness of the temple of our bodies, looking forward to their glorification. A Few Further Feasts • Day of Atonement A day of resting, fasting and sacrifices in atonement for sins. The one day on which the high priest entered the Holy of Holies. The High Priest confessed the sins of the people over the head of a goat and then sacrificed the animal in atonement. • Feast of Unleavened Bread Associated with Passover All yeast, symbolizing sin, is removed from households. Only unleavened bread is eaten for seven days. • Hannukkah: Feast of Lights Celebrates the rededication of the Temple by the Maccabees after its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanies.
 • Purim: Feast of Lots Celebrates the victory over Jewish oppressors by Queen Esther. Celebrated by the reading of the Book of Esther and a Mardi-Gras-like celebration with noisemakers and costumes.