Tag Archives: Torah

So Many Holy Days!

On the eighth day hold an assembly and do no regular work.

 Bemidbar (Numbers) 29:35

Tishrei is a special month in the Biblical calendar due to the number of Holy Days observed.

 The first day of the month, which the world calls Rosh Hashanah, the so-called Jewish New Year, is really the Festival of the Sounding of the Shofar.Yom Teruah marks the beginning of a time of spiritual introspection and community reconciliation culminating in Yom Kippur. Five days afterwards is the seven-day long, Sukkot. Immediately following the seventh day of Sukkot is another holy day, called in Hebrew Shemini Atzeret, which simply means the “Assembly of the eight (day).”

Shemini Atzeret coincides with the completion and recommencing of the annual cycle of the reading of the Torah. A special celebration, called “Simchat Torah” (Joy of the Torah) is observed. In the Land of Israel Simchat Torah is observed on Shemini Atzeret. Outside of the Land of Israel where certain holy days are doubled, Simchat Torah is observed on the second day of Shemini Atzeret.

If all these special days seems like a lot to you, it’s because one half of this whole Biblical month is given over to a special focus on G-d. Fulfilling all these observances would mean major changes to our normal schedule. In Bible times, celebrating Sukkot meant taking your whole family to Jerusalem for the week.

But I think G-d knows that our normal schedules need upsetting.

In our fast paced society, it seems that we have a lot of difficulty breaking our normal routine to give G-d this kind of attention, but I don’t think we need it any less than the people of ancient times.

Those of us who do take time for G-d often approach him as we do many other things we do. We slot him in somewhere. We spend time with G-d just like any other meeting, rarely taking time to linger in his presence, not to mention setting apart several days just to focus on Him.

When G-d provided His people with His yearly calendar, He directed us to give over to Him large amounts of time. Besides the weekly Sabbath, there are festivals throughout the year. Once a year there would be these two weeks, which includes even more intense time with Him.

Those who know Yeshua but believe the L-rd has “released” His people from Torah may think that we are “free” from such observances. But if the people back then needed this kind of time with G-d, how much more should we want to have intense and prolonged times with him now?

 If we know the love of G-d in Yeshua should we not want to spend more time with him, not less?

Series: 1 and 2 Peter [audio]

The epistles of 1 and 2 Peter (Kefa) contain priceless wisdom for the maturing believer in Messiah Yeshua. Below is a collection of messages from Derek Blumenthal comprising a verse-by-verse study of the two letters.

 

Why We Don’t Celebrate Christmas

“We have a question for Beth Sar Shalom. Do you celebrate Christmas?”

This question is posed to us at BSS somewhat regularly, as to be expected.The following is an explanation of our position on Christmas in the life of a Messianic believer.

Christmas is, without question, a very sensitive subject for many Believers—and I would emphasize understanding between those who do not celebrate it, and those who celebrate it in ignorance. We cannot find in Scripture where God mandates that we observe a holiday with decorated trees, mistletoe, holly, Santa Claus, and presents.

On the contrary, the Prophet Jeremiah tells us that we are to not be as the heathen who adorn trees:

Thus says the LORD, ‘Do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens although the nations are terrified by them; for the customs of the peoples are delusion; because it is wood cut from the forest, the work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool. They decorate it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers so that it will not totter’” Jeremiah 10:2-4.

This same concept is reemphasized for us in Deuteronomy 16:21“You shall not plant for yourself an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of the LORD your God, which you shall make for yourself.”

We do not celebrate Christmas, nor do we endorse a “substitute” for it, either. We do not believe that the celebration of Christmas was God’s original intention. There is much more that can be said about the anti-biblical/anti-Jewish origins of Christmas, however, they fall outside of the scope of this explanation.

Christmas today is highly commercialized and is often more about self-indulgence than anything else. Of course, we are not against “giving gifts,” but the purpose of Christmas today for many people, including Believers, is about self rather than about seeing the Messiah lifted up.

We do not celebrate Christmas. But, we are not against people remembering the birth of Yeshua, either, although it probably did not occur during the Winter. The birth of Messiah Yeshua is a part of the Bible that is to be remembered and taught upon, something appropriate for any time of year (we do so during Sukkot, making the connection between the sukkah and the Gospel declaration that Messiah came to “tabernacle” with us). So with this in mind, it is important to remember that at “Christmas time,” people are relatively open to talking about Yeshua and the gospel, and many are presented to Him who would normally not be during the rest of the year. Obviously, in spite of the questionable origins of December 25.

Without question, this issue will continue to baffle many Messianic Believers in years to come, as we learn to properly deal with those who celebrate Christmas in ignorance, not knowing where it comes from. As a faith community we will need to change all the “Christmas is pagan!” rhetoric to something less sensationalistic, yet still be able to properly communicate that we do not celebrate it. We also must emphasize understanding and fairness for others in this area. Christmas as it is known today is not a Biblical, and on this basis we do not celebrate it.

Thanksgiving Through Jewish Eyes

We usually think of Thanksgiving as a secular American holiday based on the story of the Pilgrims. But if you take another look, you can find some Biblical ways to see, enhance and enjoy this wonderful holiday.

We all learned the story about the Pilgrims in school, that these were Christian people who fled to the New World to establish a new life for themselves. Things were difficult for them in this country and they suffered greatly. But they did take a timeout from their struggling lives to have a feast and say thank you to God. The rest is history. And now we get Thursday and Friday off every year, the postal service stops delivery and we pig out…let me make that kosher: we eat a big meal!

What does this have to do with Biblical Judaism? On the surface, not too much.

But, if you look just a little beneath the surface, it is easy to find a Biblical connection. Were the Pilgrims Hebrews (Jewish)? Of course not, but they were spiritual people (often called Puritans for their effort to return to a pure Bible faith). They were very aware of the Hebrew Bible and kept all of the Biblical Holy Days as part of their faith.

In the fall of the year, at the end of the harvest season is the feast of Sukkot (English: Tabernacles). This thanksgiving to God for his provision was a part of the lives of these believers. I believe this is what has been passed down to us today that is called Thanksgiving.

Consider this: the Holy Days as described in our Bible are really thanksgiving holidays: Passover, Sukkot, Shavuot, Hanukkah, Purim and so on. The Biblical calendar is full of these Holidays (Holy Days). They are structured ways to reinforce the belief in the one true God.

Going beyond that, the Bible tells us to be constantly thankful–on a daily and hourly basis. That is one of the reasons we have a blessing for everything. Many blessings are really prayers of thanksgiving and we have a blessing for almost anything you can imagine: eating, getting up in the morning, seeing something beautiful in nature, encountering a smart person, everything! I have always loved the example of how we have a blessing for everything found in the play Fiddler on the Roof. When the village of Anatevka’s Rabbi is asked if there is even a blessing for the wicked and anti-Semitic Czar, the Rabbi replies: “May the Lord bless and keep the Czar… far away from us!”

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween – History and Appropriation

nohalloweenHalloween or Hallowe’en (a contraction of “All Hallows’ Evening”), also known as All Hallows’ Eve, is a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on October 31, the eve of the Western Catholic feast of All Hallows (or All Saints) and the day initiating the triduum of Hallowmas. (See also Michaelmas and Christmas).

According to most scholars, All Hallows’ Eve is a syncretized pagan feast originally influenced by western European harvest festivals, and festivals of the dead with pagan roots, particularly the Celtic Samhain.

Typical festive Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (also known as “guising”), attending costume parties, decorating, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.

Though the origin of the word Halloween is Catholic, the holiday has pagan roots. Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while “some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain”, which comes from the Old Irish for “summer’s end”. Samhain was the first and most important of the four quarter days in the medieval Gaelic (Irish, Scottish and Manx) calendar. It was held on or about October 31 – November 1 and similar festivals were held at the same time of year in other Celtic lands; for example the Brythonic Calan Gaeaf (in Wales), Kalan Gwav (in Cornwall) and Kalan Goañv (in Brittany). It marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the ‘darker half’ of the year.

Samhain (like Beltane) was seen as a time when the ‘door’ to the Otherworld opened enough for the souls of the dead, and other beings such as fairies, to come into our world. The souls of the dead were said to revisit their homes on Samhain. Lewis Spence described it as a “feast of the dead” and “festival of the fairies”. However, harmful spirits and fairies were also thought to be active at Samhain.

People took steps to ward-off these harmful spirits/fairies, which is thought to have influenced today’s Halloween customs. The practice of lighting bonfires during Hallowmas may have been a synchronized one with Catholicism, as the Celts lit bonfires during Samhain as well.

Snap-Apple Night (1832) by Daniel Maclise depicts apple bobbing and divination games at a Halloween party in Blarney, Ireland.

Halloween falls on the evening before the Catholic holy days of All Hallows’ Day (also known as All Saints’, Hallowmas or Hallowtide) on November 1 and All Souls’ Day on November 2, thus giving the holiday on October 31st the full name of All Hallows’ Eve. They are a time for honoring the saints and praying for the recently departed souls who had yet to reach Heaven. All Saints was introduced in the year 609, but was originally celebrated on May 13. In 835, it was switched to November 1 (the same date as Samhain) at the behest of Pope Gregory IV. Some have suggested this was due to Celtic influence, while others suggest it was a Germanic idea.

By the end of the 12th century they had become holy days of obligation across Europe and involved such traditions as ringing bells for the souls in purgatory. “Souling”, the custom of baking and sharing soul cakes for “all crysten christened souls”, (hot cross buns) has been suggested as the origin of trick-or-treating. Groups of poor people, often children, would go door-to-door on All Saints/All Souls collecting soul cakes, originally as a means of praying for souls in purgatory. Similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as Italy. Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his master of “puling [whimpering or whining] like a beggar at Hallowmas.” The custom of wearing costumes has been linked to All Saints/All Souls by Prince Sorie Conteh, who wrote: “It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints’ Day, and All Hallows’ Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes to disguise their identities”.

In Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, Nicholas Rogers explained Halloween jack-o’-lanterns as originally being representations of souls in purgatory. In Britain children would set candles in skulls in graveyards.

In Britain, these customs came under attack during the Reformation as Protestants berated purgatory as a “popish” doctrine incompatible with the notion of predestination. The rising popularity of Guy Fawkes Night (5 November) from 1605 onward, saw many Halloween traditions appropriated by that holiday instead, and Halloween’s popularity waned in Britain, with the noteworthy exception of Scotland. There and in Ireland, the rebellious Guy Fawkes was not viewed with the same criminality as in England, and they had been celebrating Samhain and Halloween since at least the early Middle Ages, and the Scottish kirk took a more pragmatic approach to Halloween, seeing it as important to the life cycle and rites of passage of communities and thus ensuring its survival in the country.

North American almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th century give no indication that Halloween was celebrated there. The Puritans of New England, for example, maintained strong opposition to Halloween, and it was not until the mass Irish and Scottish immigration during the 19th century that it was brought to North America in earnest. Confined to the immigrant communities during the mid-19th century, it was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and by the first decade of the 20th century it was being celebrated coast to coast by people of all social, racial and religious backgrounds.

Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time. The turnip has traditionally been used in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween, but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin, which is both much softer and much larger – making it easier to carve than a turnip. Subsequently, the mass marketing of various size pumpkins in autumn, in both the corporate and local markets, has made pumpkins universally available for this purpose. The American tradition of carving pumpkins is recorded in 1837 and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.

The modern imagery of Halloween comes from many sources, including national customs, works of Gothic and horror literature (such as the novels Frankenstein and Dracula) and classic horror films (such as Frankenstein and The Mummy). One of the earliest works on the subject of Halloween is from Scottish poet John Mayne, who, in 1780, made note of pranks at Halloween; “What fearfu’ pranks ensue!”, as well as the supernatural associated with the night, “Bogies” (ghosts), influencing Robert Burns’ Halloween 1785. Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn husks and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween. Halloween imagery includes themes of death, evil, the occult, and mythical monsters. Black, orange, and sometimes purple are Halloween’s traditional colors.

Halloween has been “cleaned up” to one degree or another and presented as “harvest festivals” in evangelical Churches. However, as Messianic believers, we strive to live lives in reverence and obedience to Torah under the example of Messiah Yeshua. These “holiday” practices are a far cry from the culture of the Scriptures and should have no place in our families or congregations.

What the Torah Says [audio]

The topical series, delivered in April through June of 2014, was created according to the requests of Beth Sar Shalom congregants and explores what the Bible has to say on a variety of subjects.

Each message can be downloaded for offline listening by right clicking on the title and selecting Save Target As or Save Link As.

Topics:

1 – Shomar Shabbat 6 – Friendship and Fellowship
2 – The Tongue 7 – Marriage and Romantic Relationships
3 – Brit Milah (Circumcision), Tevilah (Immersion) 8 – Pain and Suffering
4 – Tzitzit, Tefillin, Head Coverings 9 – Our Adversary
5 – Work and Finances

 

The Covenants [audio]

This in-depth series provides an overview of the covenants HaShem made with Israel and how through them he gradually revealed His specific plan of salvation – all pointing to Messiah Yeshua. Also explained are several passages of Scripture that are commonly thought of as covenants but don’t actually fit the biblical description.

This series, delivered by Ryan Tyson in June 2013 through January 2014 at Beth Sar Shalom, uses Tim Hegg’s book “The Biblical Doctrine of Salvation” as its main source material.

Each message can be downloaded for offline listening by right clicking on the title and selecting Save Target As or Save Link As.

NOTE: Message 5 is intentionally missing from the playlist since there were errors in the recording.

Intro to Torah Living [audio]

The Intro to Torah Living series is a perfect primer for someone new to the Messianic Torah lifestyle. Covering topics such as Shabbat, holy days, kosher, synagogue liturgy, rabbinic literature, and much more, there is something in there for everyone to learn.

This series, delivered in September through November of 2012 at Beth Sar Shalom, uses Tim Hegg’s “Introduction to Torah Living” book as the primary source material.

Each message can be downloaded for offline listening by right clicking on the title and selecting Save Target As or Save Link As.

Topics:

1 – Who is a Jew? 8 – Synagogue Liturgy
2 – Judaism Overview 9 – Appointed Times 1 of 3
3 – First Century Judaisms 10 – Appointed Times 2 of 3
4 – Rabbinic Judaism 11 – Appointed Times 3 of 3
5 – Rabbinic Literature 12 – Cycle of Life
6 – History of the Synagogue and the Church 13 – Objects and Symbols Used in Jewish Worship
7 – Synagogue Traditions in Worship

Amidah Explained [audio]

The Amidah (or Shemoneh Esrei, “Eighteen”) is one of the most well-known and central Jewish prayers in the siddur. Much of the prayer dates back to period of the Men of the Great Assembly in the 1st century BCE. Although liturgical prayer can be intimidating to some due to its formality, there is great benefit in using it to guide your prayer time.

This series, delivered in January through April of 2014 at Beth Sar Shalom, explores the history and biblical basis for each of the 19 parts (as well as why it’s called “Eighteen” and not “Nineteen”!)

Each message can be downloaded for offline listening by right clicking on the title and selecting Save Target As or Save Link As.