As the months marched on, The Feast of Tabernacles loomed. This feast is known as the season of Joy. The Feast of Tabernacles, also called Booths, comes on the fifteenth of the seventh Jewish month of Tishri or between September-October on our Western calendar. This was the third Feast that required a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship in the Temple and offer sacrifices and an offering to God. Deuteronomy 16:16-17 says, Three times a year all your men must appear before the Yahweh at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed. Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord Yahweh has blessed you. The Feast of Tabernacles is Israel’s Thanksgiving feast in which they acknowledge the fall harvest and Yahweh’s provision for them. It is a time of great joy and rejoicing. This Feast is also a remembrance of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and their subsequent wandering in the wilderness for forty years. …show more content…
During that time Israel lived in tents and worshiped at the Tabernacle which was also a tent.
In memory of the wilderness years, Israelites build small tabernacles or booths with walls of weaved branches and straw roofs as Yahweh instructs in Leviticus 23:42. Since Joseph was required to appear at the Temple with an offering for the Feast of Tabernacles, he made preparations to travel to Jerusalem with great joy to honor God. With his pregnant wife on a camel’s back, he traveled all the way to Bethlehem, just six miles outside of Jerusalem. There they stopped because the time came for the baby to be
born. We can only imagine what the scene must have been like. Thousands upon thousands of people coming together to remember and celebrate God’s deliverance and His provision, all setting up temporary shelters or booths as part of the requirements of the Feast. Joseph and Mary desperately searched for a place to deliver the baby but because of the Feast, no place could be found that was not already occupied. The local Inn offered them their stable and it was there in that barn that Mary gave birth to the Son of Man. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger. Temple shepherds were living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. Shepherds usually kept their flocks inside at night but for the Feast of Tabernacles the flocks were allowed to graze all night. This was done so that the flocks would be at their fattest for the Festival sacrifices. An angel of Adonai appeared to the Temple shepherds and the glory of Adonai shone around them, and the shepherds were terrified. But the angel Gabriel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. Here is a sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel Gabriel, praising God and singing, “Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on Earth to those on whom the favor of Yahweh rests.” After the angels left and disappeared into the stars, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the angels told us about.” So they hurried off and they found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. After they saw the child, they spread the word concerning what had been told to them by the angels and all who heard the story were amazed. So it was, the Messiah was born in a stable and placed in a manger, a temporary dwelling place and he was named Yeshua – meaning Yahweh saves. This fulfilled what was written in Isaiah 7:14 – Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel – (meaning Yahweh dwells with men). Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds left the scene, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.
This image, and the detail that goes into it in the Torah’s description, loom large in the Jewish imagination, and our conceptualization of our community. As the Israelites move forward into the desert, surely they can rally behind this glorious homage to God’s greatness – surely they will be proud to march to the Promised Land behind this banner for holiness, the ultimate reminder of God’s presence. And within the Ark, the tablets themselves, perhaps the broken first set alongside the second set that Moses carved himself. What could be more powerful?
The Jewish religious tradition of Rosh Hashanah celebrates the birthday of the world and a time of divine judgment. It is then followed by another holiday, called Yom Kippur ten days later. These two traditions are called the High Holidays. Rosh Hashanah encapsulates four major and interconnected themes, which are: The Jewish New Year, The Day of Shofar Blowing, The Day of Remembrance, and The Day of Judgment (Layton, 2014). This is the most significant time in the Jewish year, as it marks the chance for repentance and forgiveness in the eyes of God. During the High Holidays, Jews cleanse their soul and get the chance to start fresh with an unburdened conscience and the intention of doing better in the coming year (Layton, 2014).
Rosh Hashanah Rosh Hashanah heads the year of Jewish festivals and. traditions. The. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year and is usually celebrated for two days in September or October, depending on the weather. when it falls in the Hebrew calendar.
1996. “Sacrifices and Offerings in Ancient Israel” in Community, Identity, and Ideology: Social Science approach to the Hebrew Bible., ed. Charles E. Carter.
The celebration of the Lord’s Supper is an expression of grace, shared by the community that gathers on the day of the Lord. To commune is to enter into dialogue with God and feast at the table where relationships are mended and strengthened, memories are cherished, new insight is gained, and covenants are renewed. As people, we are privileged to be invited to partake in God’s ongoing story of redemption and
It is not known exactly when Jesus, the son of God, was born to the Virgin Mary and Joseph. Jesus is believed to have been conceived within the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. Joseph, her fiancé at the time, was instructed by an angel of God to continue with his plans to marry her. Shortly after they wed, Mary and Joseph had to travel to their ancestral city of Bethlehem for a census being taken by the ruling Roman Empire. Jesus is said to have been born in a stable among animals, because there was no room at the inn for Mary and Joseph when they arrived at Bethlehem. Some stories tell of Shepard’s traveling to see Jesus to pay their respects after angels of God had come to tell them a Savior had been born. Others tell of three Wise ...
Sinai for forty days and forty nights. God gave Moses tools and guidelines for the Israel people. However the Hebrew people of Israel were becoming impatient and began disobeying the laws God created. God became enraged and Moses begged the lord to forgive the people. Because of Moses’s cries God gives the people a chance to change their wrongful choices. However they finally remembered where they began, as the slaves in Egypt, ending carrying the tabernacle they had built for god. Exodus is an excited story of God’s guidance that begins in gloom and ends in
In the desert wilderness on Mt. Sinai God gave Moses two things for us. He gave Moses the ten commandments including judgments and ordinances: the law. He also gave Moses the pattern of the tabernacle. Tabernacle means “tent,” “place of dwelling” or “sanctuary.” It was a sacred place where God chose to meet His people, the Israelites, during the 40 years they wandered in the desert under Moses’ leadership. It was the place where the leaders and people came together to worship and offer sacrifices. The Tabernacle was the finest establishment built because of the structure, the preparation, the history, and the important people of the tabernacle.
wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the
...tovah tikateiv veteichateim,” “May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.” c) Tashlich, a special prayer said near a body of water (an ocean, river, pond, etc.), in evocation of the verse, “And You shall cast their sins into the depths of the sea.” And as with every major Jewish holiday, after candle lighting and prayers Jews recite kiddush and make a blessing on the challah. Both in Judaism and Hinduism the New Year is a time of celebration. A time where all people but the past behind them and enter the New Year with a clean slate, where God had forgiven all people for all there sins from the previous year.
The people dwelling in Palestine at the time of Pentecost were mainly from agricultural society with a spring harvest of grains and fruits that was taking place. Many pilgrims had made a long journey to be present for the Shavuot.
The Jewish tradition of the Passover has been very important for the welfare and freedom of the Jews since the Old Testament. Each part of the Passover brings forth the knowledge of what God promises to his people. “The name “Passover” is derived from the Hebrew word Pesach which is based on the root “pass over” and refers to the fact that G-d “passed over” the houses of the Jews when he was slaying the firstborn of Egypt during the last of the ten plagues.” The Christian belief is that the Last Supper fulfills the promise made to the Jews through Jesus Christ. The Passover and the Last Supper are important in understanding the relationship between the Jewish belief and Christian belief. They are also important to help grasp what it means to be free with a God.
During the month of “Nissan”, or the month in which Passover is to occur, on the tenth day each person must take a lamb from his or her home. They have to keep it until the fourteenth of that month and then must eat it in a hurry because it is the Passover Sacrifice. Then once they do that they must eat bread for seven days than on the next day they have to clear out yeast from their houses. Although today religions don’t exactly practice it in this way. For instance, Christians we experience Passover every spring, where we are essentially suppose to pray and fast for forty days.
The Torah provides a calendar of festivals that have an important role in Judaism. At the heart of these festivals is the Sabbath Day that Jewish individuals engage in. The Sabbath is a weekly reminder of God’s work throughout the nation of Israel. The Sabbath is considered a day of “compassion” and “remembrance” of deliverance shown to God’s people.
A year exactly after the Passover took place; when the Israelites were freed from Egyptian slavery, the Tabernacle was first founded in the wilderness. The Tabernacle was a portable tent that could be transported everywhere the Israelites traveled. It would be set up anywhere they stopped, and the Tabernacle would be the center of the camp where all twelve of the Israel tribes would stake their tents accordingly. However, the instructions on how to build the Tabernacle were first given to Moses, who in turn, told the Israelites. For example, when God said in Exodus 29:45-46, “Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought