Festivals to Be Observed

(Leviticus 23:1 - 23:44)
Jehovah told Moses to convey to the Israelites these instructions: "These are the established festivals that are to be enshrined as official holidays for the religious congregation.

"For six days you will work, but the seventh day, the Sabbath, is to be set aside as a day for rest and religious services.  On the Sabbath, dedicated to Jehovah, you will do no work, regardless of where you may live.

"The following are Jehovah's established festivals, official holidays for religious service that are to be observed at the appropriate times of the year.

"There is Jehovah's Passover, which commences on sundown on the 14th day of Nisan, the first month of the year.  The 15th day of the month is the time of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  For seven days only unleavened bread may be eaten.  On the first day of Passover there should be a sacred convocation, and everyone must take a day off from work.   On each day food offerings should be sacrificed to Jehovah, and on the seventh day there should be another sacred convocation, with everyone taking off from work.

The Jehovah told Moses to convey to the Israelites these instructions: "When you have settled in the land I am taking you to and have harvested the first crop, bring to the priest a sheaf from the first grain you reap.  The priest should wave it above the altar on the first day after the Sabbath, so that it may be accepted by Jehovah on your behalf.  On the same day you should sacrifice to Jehovah a burnt offering of a yearling lamb without defect, along with a grain offering of two tenths of an ephah of finest flour mixed with olive oil -- a burnt offering that will create an aroma most pleasing to Jehovah-- and also a drink offering of one quarter of a hin of wine.  You should eat no bread or any fresh or roasted kernels of grain until you make this sacrifice to Jehovah.  This will be an established custom that you must observe through the generations regardless of where you may live.

"From the day after the Sabbath, the day that you bring in the sheaf of grain to be waved above the altar, you should count off 7 full weeks.  Keep counting until the day after the seventh Sabbath, 50 days; you should then present to Jehovah an offering of new grain.  From your home you should bring as an offering to be waved above the altar two loaves of leavened bread made with two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour.  These will be a part of the offerings of first fruits to Jehovah.  In addition to the bread, sacrifice as burnt offerings to Jehovah 7 yearling male lambs without defect, a male calf, and 2 rams.  These will comprise the burnt offering to Jehovah, accompanying the offerings of grain and drink -- food offerings that will create an aroma most pleasing to Jehovah.  Then sacrifice, for a guilt offering, one male goat and, for a peace offering, 2 yearling male lambs.  The priest will raise and wave above the altar these offerings to Jehovah as he did with the 2 loaves representing the first fruits of the harvest.  These sacred offerings made to Jehovah will belong to the priests.  This day will be an official holiday for sacred convocation, with everyone taking off from work.  This will be an established custom that you must observe through the generations regardless of where you may live.

"When you harvest your crops do not reap the grain to the edges of the fields, or collect the gleanings that remain.  Leave it for the poor and the foreigners who live among you.  Thus says Jehovah your god."

Jehovah told Moses, "On the first day of the seventh month of Tishri you are to observe a Sabbath-like day of rest.  There should be a sacred convocation proclaimed by blasts of the ram’s horn.  Refrain from doing any work and sacrifice a food offering to Jehovah."

Jehovah told Moses, "On the tenth day of the seventh month of Tishri is a Day of Atonement celebrated with a sacred convocation.  You are to fast and refrain from work and present sacrifices of food offerings to Jehovah, for this is a day to atone and to purify yourselves before your god Jehovah.  Anyone who does not fast on that day should be banished from the community.  Anyone who does any work during the course of the day I will strike down in the midst of the people.  Do absolutely no work on that day!  This will be an established custom that you must observe through the generations regardless of where you may live.  It must be a Sabbath-like day of complete rest and you must fast on that day.  You are to observe this day of rest from sundown on the ninth day of the month to sundown on the following day."

The Jehovah told Moses to convey to the Israelites these instructions: "On the fifteenth day of same month, five days after the Day of Atonement you should begin to celebrate Jehovah's Festival of Tabernacles, which lasts seven days.  On the first day is a sacred convocation, when no one must work.  On each of the seven days you must make food sacrifices to Jehovah.  On the eighth day is a solemn holiday when burnt offerings to Jehovah are to be made and a sacred convocation held.  No one must work on that day. 

"Keep in mind that this week-long festival to Jehovah, the Festival of the Tabernacles, begins on the fifth of the month of Tishri. after you have harvested your crops.  The first and the eighth day of the festival are holidays of total rest.  On the first day collect foliage, branches from citron trees, palm fronds, myrtle boughs, and branches from the willows that grow along the banks of streams -- and rejoice for seven days in honor of your god Jehovah.  Celebrate this festival to Jehovah for seven days every year.  This will be an established custom to be observed through the generations.  Observe it in the seventh month, Tishri.  Live in small, temporary shelters for seven days.  All native-born Israelites are to do so so that their descendants will remember that I had the Israelites live in such shelters when I brought them out of Egypt.  Thus says Jehovah your god."

These are Jehovah's established festivals, celebrated by sacred convocations and food offerings made to Jehovah -- burnt offering, grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its appropriate day.  These festivals are to observed in addition to the Jehovah's regular Sabbaths, and the offerings are in addition to whatever gifts, votive and voluntary offerings you may make to Jehovah.

Moses thus presented to the Israelites instructions for the observance of the annual festivals established by Jehovah.

Notes
1. In summary, these are festival or holidays established by Jehovah:

Passover, comprising the Feast of Unleavened Bread, celebrating the Israelites’ freedom from Egyptian bondage, on the 14th of the first month, Nisan, (late March, April) and lasting for 7 days (later 8 days).

Feast of First Fruits, Festival of Weeks, called in New Testament times, Feast of Pentecost, and now called Shavuot and observed on the 6th day of the 3rd month, Sivan (late May, early June), traditionally the day the Torah was given to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, time of wheat harvest and ripening of fruit.

New Year, or Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the seventh month, Tishri, (September, early October) celebrated with horn blasts, traditionally the day that Adam was created.

Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, 10th day of the seventh month, Tishri, (mid September, early October) celebrated with fasting, prayer, sacrifices.

Festival of Tabernacles, or Festival of Booths, Festival of Ingathering, or Festival of the Final Harvest, now known as Sukkot, 15th day of the seventh month, Tishri (late September to late October), 7 days celebrated by eating and sleeping in simple shelters covered with foliage and greenery.

Three of the festivals, Passover, Feast of First Fruits, and Festival of Tabernacles would become pilgrimage holidays during which Israelites were supposed to journey to Jerusalem.  How practical this ever was is doubtful. 

It must be remembered days begin at dusk.  The Jewish calendar is lunar so that the dates of the holidays will vary from year to year in relation to the solar calendar.  All these holidays are still celebrated by observant and, to varying degrees, by nonobservant Jews today.

2.  Two-tenths of an ephah is about 7 pounds. Those must have been whopping big loaves of bread!  A grocery store loaf of bread weighs as little as a pound and a quarter.  A quarter of a hin is about a quart or a liter.

3.  The second-to-last paragraph ("These are Jehovah's established festivals ...") is misplaced in the middle of the description of Festival of Tabernacles.  It is probably not part of Jehovah's speech, so I have inserted it afterwards, where it obviously belongs.

4.  It is odd that the names and descriptions of Jehovah's holidays given here is at some variance with those given in Exodus.  It is further evidence that the Books of Moses, or their source material,  were not all written at the same time or by the same authors.  It is obvious that these books, written by and for the benefit of the priestly class, record traditions that were established over time, probably hundreds of years, and not immediately put into practice at the foot of Mount Sinai.  It seems unlikely that either Jehovah or Moses would have been telling the freed slaves of Israel wandering in the desert what would be expected of them forty years hence.

5.  On the New Year, Rosh Hashanah, it is mentioned here that the ram’s horn, or shofar is sounded.  Many translations say “trumpet,” which is not quite accurate.  A trumpet generally refers to a wind instrument of metal.  Early ones, without keys or valves and of bronze and silver were in use during Moses’ time, but the ram’s horn is the musical instrument used by the Israelites, often for religious purposes.  The ram’s horn, like the bugle, requires the player to use his mouth to alter pitch.