Festivals
At appointed days and in spontaneous moments throughout the year, the Jewish people understand that there is "a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance" (Ecclesiastes 3:4).
The feasts of Israel serve a number of purposes. They mark time and commemorate the great moments in Jewish history. They also serve as reminders of the great spiritual truths that the Jewish people have received. They uplift the Jewish soul and give it pause to remember its struggles. Yet even in times of grief, there is one overriding theme: it is the confident hope that our lives have meaning because we belong to God.
Leviticus 23:33-44 describes the festivals: Rosh Hashanah (Trumpets, New Year), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) Pesach (Passover), Matzot (Unleavened Bread), Yom Ha'Bikkurim (First Fruits) and Shavuot (Weeks).
Rosh Hashanah, observed on the first day of the seventh month, prepares the Jewish person for the Day of Atonement. In Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashanah requires the blowing of the shofar (ram's horn), calling the Jewish people to repent from sin.
Rosh Hashanah initiates what is commonly called "the ten days of repentance" or "the days of awe." It is during this period that Jewish people must repent of their sins before God and one another and make restitution. At the conclusion of the ten days, we observe Yom Kippur, which in Jewish tradition is the day when the Books of Judgment are closed and God decides the fate of each person.
Then comes Sukkot: a joyful seven-day celebration during which the Jewish people give thanks to God for a bountiful harvest and remember the wilderness wandering following the Exodus. Together with Passover and Shavuot, Sukkot is one of the three "appointed feasts" when pilgrims were instructed to gather in Jerusalem for worship and sacrifice.
The Spring Feasts of Pesach, Matzot, and Yom Ha'Bikkurim occur in the month of Nisan. Pesach, celebrating the Exodus of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, and Matzot, commemorating the use of unleavened bread during the Exodus, are celebrated in tandem. The last day of Matzot is also Yom Ha'Bikkurim, when the children of Israel brought their first fruits to the Temple for sacrifice. Fifty days after the second day of Pesach comes Shavuot, another harvest feast that remembers the giving of the Law to Moses at Mt. Sinai.
There are a number of other important Jewish holidays: Purim, which commemorates Israel's deliverance from a plot for their destruction during their exile in Persia; Hanukkah, which celebrates the great Jewish victory over the Hellenistic Syrian Kingdom in the 2nd century B.C.E.; Tisha B'Av (ninth day of Av), a day of mourning for the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem; and Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Israel Independence Day).
All of them speak to us of a God who not only transcends the human timeline, but actually entered it in the form of Messiah, who "made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a tree" (Philippians 2:7-8).
