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Last edited 5929± 01 27 2025 [2009-04-23]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Feast of Weeks

 -

The Ante Type for the Cycle of Jubilee

 

 

 

What are some of the reasons that the Children of Israel historically

have not been “long upon the land”?

 

According to the Torah the Feast of Weeks is within,

not after, [the Weekly] Shabbat, and

the Year of Jubilee is the Same as, not Subsequent to,

the Last Shabbat Year in the Jubilee Cycle.

 

Machar haShabat [מחרת השׁבת] means

“the Morning of the Shabbat” or “the Morrow after the Beginning of the Shabbat.”

 

According to the Torah ante-typical events

 each Shabbat year and each and every year begin with HaAtzeret (the Eighth Day,) in

the Seventh lunar month while it ends with the Feast of Ingathering / the Feast of Tabernacles of the subsequent Seventh month.

 

There was no controversy between the Jews and the first Christians re the timing of these Shabbat/Sabbatical events.

 

Even the prophet Daniel was reckoning the Omer based upon a Shabbat morning sacrifice.

 

Thus, the keeping of Pentecost on Sundays seems, like replacing the Seventh-day Sabbath with the Vatican Sunday celebration, to be a tradition of men, and an error bearing the mark of Cain, begun within the last two millennia…

 

 

Abstract:

In order to permit the intended lessons inherent in Day of Shabbats aka. the Feast of Weeks, and the corresponding blessings inherent in the instructions for the cycle of Jubilee years, and as well the promised blessings of the fifth Commandment, it appears necessary to revise tradition such that it once again gets in tune with the Torah. The chief errors of current tradition seem to be that Hag Ha-Shavuot is celebrated on a Sunday rather than upon a Shabbat, and that, correlating with the before said, the year of Jubilee is considered an extra year of rest following upon a regular Shabbat year, rather than being one and the same as the last Sabbatical year in the cycle.  These errors stem from starting the count of days and years one day/year off from their respective bases, while forgetting the emphasis the Torah always places upon firsts, beginnings, and ultimate foundations, always being remembered. The Hebrew word pair ‘macharat haShabat [מחרת השׁבת] means “the morning of the Shabbat”, or “the morrow after the eve, the beginning, of the Shabbat”.

 

 

I’ve been impressed with the idea that Hag Ha-Shavuot / the Day of Shabbats / the Feast of Weeks / Pentecost, as given in the Torah, is, among other things, intended as an annual reminder and as an instruction for the cycles of Jubilee.  If there were no annual Feast in reminiscence of the 49 year cycles of Jubilee, it would be exceedingly difficult for the people to carry forward correctly the instructions re the year of Jubilee, especially since the year of Jubilee only occurs once or twice within the lifetime of most people ever since the time of Moses.

 

 

Looking at the Day of Shabbats as the ante type for the cycle of Jubilee many things starts falling into place:

 

1.      Both the Feast of Weeks and the year of Jubilee are the crowning events of a 7 week, or 49 day/year, space of time.

 

2.      The Feast of Weeks is counted from the time and day when Omer Reshit, “the waving of the sheaf” [of first fruits], is given. The basis for the count of fifty days is the first weekly Shabbat following Aviv 14.  Similarly the year of Jubilee is counted from the year when land is once again returned unto the original grantees of such land. Isn’t such a return the crowning event, the ultimate harvest, of the seed sown during the preceding 49 year “season”?  Doesn’t the one event foreshadow the other beautifully?

 

3.      I do also perceive important correlations between both of these events (i.e. the 50 day count and the 50 year count) on the one hand, and on the other the 5th Commandment [compare also the numbers 5, 50, and 500], which is a promise unto the children who honor the instructions given them that they may long live in the land granted them by their Father since the beginning of time.

 

4.      I’ve been considering why it is a fact of history that the Jubilee return of the land has not become what it was intended to become.  Why is it that the land has rarely if ever been returned on the year of Jubilee in accord with the instructions given?  Did Yahweh fail in giving effective instructions?  Or, did man, as he so often does, misunderstand the instructions, or allow the original procedure to become corrupt, such that the forthcoming tradition was off the point and thus accordingly ineffective, thus failing to provide the promised blessings?  Has the traditional Feast of Weeks somehow or other changed in character from such a sacrifice as Abel provided unto a sacrifice comparable to that of Cain? Perhaps it is a matter of not taking enough time to “remember” as per the first word in the 4th Commandment? Selah! Consider it!

 

5.      Considering the meaning of the Hebrew word “machar”:

When exactly is “the morrow after the sabbath” as referenced in Leviticus 23:11? Is this a reference to Sunday morning as dictated by recent tradition, or is it a reference unto the morning of the Shabbat? The Hebrew word used is “machar” (Strong’s #4283 and 4279) which means “the morrow, deferred.” It is used as when we say in English, during the afternoon or evening hours, “tomorrow,” i.e. referencing the time after we wake up next time, isn’t it? When we say “tomorrow” we don’t mean “day after tomorrow,” do we? The feminine form of the same word is used as when we say in English “in the morning”, which words do not specify whether past, present, or future, do they? Genesis 19:34 and Exodus 8:10 are the first Scriptural passages where these Hebrew words [Strong’s #4283 and 4279] are used in reference to a specific point in time.  In both passages it is obvious from the context that the word is referencing the morning following immediately upon an evening, while not referencing the next subsequent sunset to sunset day of the week. From a comparative study [e.g. Ex. 9:5,6 and Ex. 32:5,6] of how the masculine [Strong’s #4279] and the feminine [Strong’s #4283] forms of this word are used I deduce that the masculine form is used “as a seed” [masculine] giving reference unto a point in time yet in the future, while the feminine form is used to give reference specifically to the morning hours, i.e. to the hours “enclosing” [feminine] the hours of the morning breeze. Thus, it is clear to me from the Torah that the sheaf of the firstfruits was to be waved before the LORD on the morning following Shabbat eve, i.e. on the Seventh Day Sabbath, not on Sunday!

I am aware that according to recent tradition Omer Reshit, “the waving of the sheaf”, is performed on the day following the weekly Shabbat.  However, as best I can tell, this is not how the prophet Daniel reckoned and observed this day, nor is it how any of the Jews observed this day in New Testament times. More importantly, I fail to see how observing Omer Reshit on a Sunday morning can be in accord with either the exact meaning of the Hebrew word “machar”, or with the corresponding Scriptural instructions as given for the year of Jubilee.  Yes, the year of Jubilee, the fiftieth year, has also traditionally been perceived as the year following the last Sabbatical year within the cycle of 49 years, but isn’t this too an error mirroring to the misapplication of the instructions given for the Feast of Weeks?

 

6.      Considering the ante type of the biblical time reckoning. When does the year of Jubilee begin and end? What year and what time of the year?:

A biblical day has its cut off points at the beginning of the dark portion and at the end of the light portion of a 24+ hour cycle respectively. Thus the first half of any biblical day consists of the dark hours while the latter half consists of the light hours of day. 

Correspondingly the biblical year may be considered in terms of the first five or six plus lunar cycles (from the Eighth Day until the beginning of the First Moon, Aviv) being as it were the dark, or sacred part, or the time of the year devoted for planning and preparation, while the latter half of the year may be considered the time of substantiation, the time when invisible plans made “in the dark hours” take visible form perceivable by any and all.

The last week before the beginning of the First Moon of the year, the time of the year when aviv is being searched for, and the last week of the Seventh Moon beginning with the Eighth Day, HaAzeret, may be easily perceived as corresponding to dawn and dusk of the year respectively. 

An important question then is: What half of the year corresponds to the night hours and which half of each year corresponds to the day hours? The Sacred year beginning with Aviv, the First Moon, so also named in the Torah, begins, on the Northern hemisphere, with spring and then summer, i.e. the light and hot part of the year, while the Civil year beginning in the Seventh Moon, begins, on the Northern hemisphere, with fall and winter, i.e. the dark part of the year. [The opposite situation, re summer and winter, and re the light and dark parts of the year, is true for the Southern hemisphere. Were we to consider the Southern hemisphere as our corrected point of reference we would run into the problem that the Feast of Tabernacles seems to symbolize the building of tabernacles, i.e. a resting place for the night, in the beginning of the day rather than in the beginning of the night when such a structure is naturally called for. Thus, moving our reference frame to the Southern hemisphere can hardly be the solution to our dilemma.]

The baking of bread and the eating thereof is something universally done in the early morning hours upon breaking the fast of the night, as clearly symbolized by the annual Feast of Unleavened Bread. Thus the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Omer Reshit are events occurring on “the machar” part of the year, while the Day of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Eighth Day are events occurring ”in the evening” part of the year. Notice how the Omer Reshit naturally and easily corresponds to the breaking of the nightly fast, i.e. breakfast, while the Day of At‑one‑meant, the one and only biblical day prescribed for fasting, becomes the symbolic beginning of the nightly fast. Any number of other parallels immediately comes to mind as well, as the awake and alert reader will probably also soon notice… Let me point to one or two:

Passover blessings and the “annual morning part of the year:” The angel of death is passing by, passing over, the ones with the appropriate sign of life upon their doorposts. Thus, wherever the hours of Shabbat are properly observed and respected, while not forgetting the importance of remembrance itself, of reviewing the past and past history, there is, naturally, a relief from the rut and slavery characterizing the remainder of the week. The blessing of this weekly day of rest following upon the Preparation Day, i.e. a “Passover Day” of sorts, will be specially noticed upon awakening on Shabbat morning when there is no rush, no stress, and no running off to work, no work for self, nor any running into the service of another. Since the Passover, Aviv 14, is in effect the day of preparation before the sacrificing of the Passover lamb on the eve between Aviv 14 and Aviv 15 (cf. Deut. 16:4,) this Passover preparation is closely connected, symbolically, with our need to relieve ourselves of, burn, sacrifice, get rid of, everything that identifies each and any of us in terms of a beast, the Beast, 666, and/or any organization, hierarchy, State, &c., designed and controlled by men. Making this relief, this liberation, a reality in each our lives requires preparation, sacrificing of temporal worldly values in favor of the many blessings offered us by our Creator, preparation and cleansing before the time of arrival of the Passover Angel of Death (that went over Egypt during the dark part of Aviv 15,) while staying focused upon a most important task, a task consisting of attaining an ever more truly abundant life (not necessarily materially or financially speaking,) in the here and now, a life characterized by freedom (and health) for each one among us, and to an ever greater degree.  Thus the Passover, and the Passover sacrifice, and the eating of it during the subsequent night, represents being in a state of preparation towards an ever greater freedom, while the Omer Reshit, the First Fruits, represents, the first harvest reaped in consequence of such Passover life. Notice the focus upon foods connected with these Passover events!

And what about the Day of Trumpets?: How does the Day of Trumpets relate to the fasting of the Day of Atonement or to the Feast of Tabernacles?  Isn’t the focus of the Day of Trumpets simply the clear and unequivocal sound of notice to everyone that the working days/months are now almost past, and that the Seventh Moon, the Shabbat Moon of the year, is now at hand for all to enjoy together?! And immediately following those feast days of the Seventh Moon, on the Eighth Day, we find the beginning of a new year (but not the first month of the year) as designed by the Creator, at the beginning of fall and a time of less work in the field while it is dark, rainy, and cold. Most importantly, at the same time, the Day of Trumpets serves as a reminder to all present at the holy convocations in the Seventh Moon what year is being concluded and what year is following the feasts of that month, whether a regular year, a Sabbatical year, or most importantly, a year of Jubilee!

What about the numbering of months?: When does the numbering of the hours of each day begin? Is it not in the morning, when the sun rises and when people wake up from their nights rest? Isn’t it natural then that, correspondingly, the numbering of the months of the year also begins with that part of the year that begins the lighter and more active part of the year, i.e. spring and summer?  Thus, Aviv, the First moon; Zif, the Second moon; &c…

And isn’t it quite natural for the month serving as an anchor in time for the numbered lunar months relative to the solar year, by the aviv stage of barley ripening, to be declared “the head of months” or “the foremost among the months of the year?” Thus, considering the fact that the Seventh Day of the Feast of Unleavened bread – not the First, the 15th, which is also a Shabbat, but the 21st day of the First Moon - is named “the Foremost of the Shabbats” (Matt 28:1: Greek Textus Receptus:μιανG1520 A-ASF  σαββατωνG4521 N-GPN;” Shem Tov’s Hebrew Matthew: "יום הראשׁון מהשׁבע",) isn’t said fact further emphasizing that “First” in this setting means most important, while not in this instance first in time. Furthermore, in most years this will mean that the Seventh Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is almost exactly in the middle of the Year – just like one’s head is located almost exactly between the span of one’s outstretched arms. Thus also that very day, the 7th Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, concludes and culminates the week of teaching re the exact base of the calendar for the next 12 months such that everyone may have an opportunity to be optimally oriented in God’s time.

It follows from these ante types, as here represented, that Omer Reshit, “the waving of the sheaf,” in the morning [“on the morrow” and “deferred” from the beginning of the Shabbat hours of the prior evening,] while properly observed, is an event occurring during the first hour among the light hours of Shabbat, the point in time especially blessed with a sense of rest, peace, delight, security, freedom, and family intimacy.

In like manner a most special sense of rest, peace, delight, security, freedom, and family intimacy was designed to be experienced during the year of Jubilee, which is simultaneously the first year among fifty and the fiftieth year among fifty while always recurring as the seventh Shabbat year among seven regular Sabbatical years. The first half of every Sabbatical year then, ought to be characterized by such Shabbat activities as are associated with each weekly Shabbat eve and night, while the latter half of each Sabbatical year, ought to be characterized by such Shabbat activities as are associated with the light hours of the Shabbat day. 

When the waving of the sheaf is performed, as traditionally, on Sunday, then the above described ante type falls apart and cannot be easily, if at all, perceived as foreshadowing an event connected with the Jubilee cycle.  Many, or even most, corresponding lessons will be lost, as will the blessings attached.  The results are similar to those of the dysfunctional sacrifice of Cain, i.e. the blessings and promises otherwise available remain in absentia, never happening.  Curses, which are in effect the absence of blessings, are, and will forever be, the end result of such negligence.

 

 

7.      This calls for a reconstruction of sorts! What does the Torah teach specifically re Shabbat years and Jubilee years?: 

 

What is the pattern, the annual ante typical event, teaching the principals for a successful Jubilee year?

“And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the [beginning of the zeroeth] sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete [i.e. the zeroeth through the sixth Sabbaths:] Even unto the morrow after the [beginning of the] seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.” Lev 23:15-16 (KJV)  [All emphasis and parenthetical comments mine.]

Notice: By the exact instructions given in the above passage the first and the last of the “fifty days” can be considered as being no more than about twelve hours each, can they not? That is, counting the 12 hours of light on the first Shabbat and the 12 hours of darkness on the seventh Shabbat. Thus, counting in another manner [cf. the brackets above:] 12+24+24+24+24+24+24+12=7x24. Counting the first and eighth twelve hour Sabbaths, we get no more than seven complete 24 hour Sabbaths, correct? Yet, if we count the “complete” Sabbaths, i.e. from even to even, we get 8 Sabbaths and 50 days for each such cycle, don’t we? Within the 50 day time period from Sheaf offering to Sheaf offering there are no more than seven 12 hour periods of light and heat (יום) and seven 12 hour periods of darkness, are there? Likewise for the 50 year count: Beginning our count (i.e. #1) at Passover (the time of the Exodus out of Egypt) in the accession year, i.e. the base year or year zero, corresponding to the time for the Waving of the Sheaf sacrifice on the morning of the Shabbat, we count 49 summers (ימים, cf. Strong’s  H3222 & H3117) before arriving at the beginning of the seventh Sabbatic year in the 49 year cycle. Accordingly the 50th year is identically the same as the 7th Sabbatic year while also the 1st year in the next cycle of 50 years.

 

What are the Torah instructions re Sabbath years and re Jubilee years?

Which year in the Jubilee cycle is counted as the first year, and which year is counted as the fiftieth year within a 49 year Jubilee cycle? What are the instructions?

“And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.” Lev 25:8 (KJV)

 

 Lev 25:8  וספרתH5608  לך  שׁבעH7651  שׁבתתH7676  שׁניםH8141  שׁבעH7651  שׁניםH8141  שׁבעH7651  פעמיםH6471  והיוH1961  לך  ימיH3117  שׁבעH7651  שׁבתתH7676  השׁניםH8141  תשׁעH8672  וארבעיםH705  שׁנה׃H8141  

 

Lev 25:8 (TLT)  And thou shalt number unto theeH5608 sevenH7651 sabbathsH7676 of years,H8141 sevenH7651 yearsH8141 sevenH7651 times;H6471 and there existsH1961 unto thee the summersH3117 of sevenH7651 sabbathsH7676 of yearsH8141 within fortyH705 and nineH8672 years.H8141

 

A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.” Lev 25:11 (KJV)

“And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.” Lev 25:20-22 (KJV)

Clearly, the instructions given in the above verses show that there is a rich harvest “in the sixth year” and that “ye shall sow in the eighth year,” thus leaving only one [full] Sabbath year at a time for the land to rest, so also at the time of the year of Jubilee, which “fiftieth year… ye shall not sow, neither reap… in it”.

Clearly also the end of the 49th summer after the last prior Jubilee Passover coincides with the end of the 48th of 49 years, i.e. it coincides with the end of the year preceding the seventh of seven Sabbatic years. At that time the year of Jubilee is to be announced by sounding the Shofar on the Day of At-One-Meant. Thus also the Sabbatic year Passover, coinciding with the Jubilee year Passover, will be counted as the fiftieth Passover while counting the last prior Jubilee Passover as the first of fifty.

 

What are some of the lessons taught by the symbolic events, i.e. by the annual Feast Days etc.?

What part of the annual ante typical events represents the crowning event of the year of Jubilee, i.e. the returning of the land?  Is it not Omer Reshit, the waving of the sheaf?  It seems to me that the Omer Reshit is the ante typical annual event foreshadowing the actual realization (in the Jubilee year) of release out of slavery, and out of miscellaneous binding obligations, and as well the actual returning of the land, which events were proclaimed some six or seven moons prior during the Seventh Moon convocations, with annual reminders before that, beginning always on the Day of Trumpets, and which events should, since at least the last preceding Eighth Day, HaAzeret, have been in a state of final preparation.

I believe that the Day of At-one-ment, and also the Feast of Tabernacles are designed to teach important additional points related to the Jubilee events. At what time of the year should each of these Jubilee activities commence? Isn’t it only natural and sensible that the exact timing of each of these Feasts should constitute the beginning of the corresponding activities? Isn’t this emphasized by the fact that Omer Reshit, the “waving of the sheaf” [of first fruits,] is tied to a prohibition for eating anything out of this harvest until the Omer Reshit is completed? Cf. Leviticus 23:14 and Joshua 5:11:

 

“10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: 11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it… 14 And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. Lev 23:10-14 (KJV.)

 

“10 And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. 11 And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. Josh 5:10-11 (KJV.)

 

What are some of the additional points (re the Jubilee events) taught by the Day of Trumpets and the Feast of Tabernacles? Isn’t the Day of Trumpets a day of proclamation of the Day of At-One-Ment, and as such also the actual beginning of any Jubilee year? And isn’t there a direct parallel between the Seventh Day, the Seventh Moon, and the Seventh Year? And isn’t the Day of Atonement, in a very special sense, the day when the true leader(s), not likely the nominal ones or the ones elected by men, is doing what Noah did when he looked into the eyes of Yahweh and, seeing his own mirror image, realized who he, Noah, truly was (cf. the Hebrew language in Genesis 6:8?) And isn’t the Feast of Tabernacles, the subsequent feast, designed to remind each true Israelite (‘Israel’ means ‘the People prevailing in Yahweh,’ i.e. each Son and Daughter of Yahweh prevailing in the principles of Yahweh both in thought and in action) to focus peacefully and restfully, while yet in temporary abodes and tabernacles, upon the particulars of making real the consummation of the promise of lands, houses, and personal freedom being restored over and over again unto the original grantee families, and unto the offspring of said original grantee families, in every future generation, i.e. unto the true Sons and Daughters of Jahwe – in accord also with the 5th Commandment? It will follow that in order to realize these things in each their own lives, these Sons and Daughters of Jahwe will have to effectively claim and take possession of their belongings least they lose them by default and by relying passively upon an unlikely initiative of another unto whom they might have foolishly delegated such responsibilities.

"12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee." Exod 20:12 (KJV.)

 

Notice that when the light day hours, within the 1st Shabbat within the Feast of Unleavened Bread, is counted as the first of fifty days, then the 50th day, the Feast of Weeks, also falls on Shabbat, does it not? Is there any value left then in Sunday observance, in any of this?  I think not.

In accord with the annual ante-typical events, the 1st and the 50th years, the years of Jubilee, both fall on a regular Sabbatical year [the first and the eighth respectively (or the zeroeth and the seventh)] in the Jubilee cycle. One and the same Sabbatical year is the last year of the preceding Jubilee cycle of 50 years and the first year of the subsequent Jubilee cycle of 50 years, or else the first half year is considered the fiftieth year, and the second half is considered the first year.

 

 

 

 

8.      Further confirmation for Hag Ha-Shavuot falling on Shabbat is found in Numbers 28:26:

 

 

Num 28:26 TLT+  Also in the dayH3117 of the firstfruits,H1061 when ye bringH7126 a newH2319 meat offeringH4503 unto the LORD,H3068 within your count of sevens,H7620 ye shall haveH1961 an holyH6944 convocation;H4744 ye shall doH6213 noH3808 H3605 servileH5656 work:H4399

 

 Num 28:26  וביוםH3117  הבכוריםH1061  בהקריבכםH7126  מנחהH4503  חדשׁהH2319  ליהוהH3068  בשׁבעתיכםH7620  מקראH4744  קדשׁH6944  יהיהH1961  לכם  כלH3605  מלאכתH4399  עבדהH5656  לאH3808  תעשׂו׃H6213  

 

Num 28:26 KJV+  Also in the dayH3117 of the firstfruits,H1061 when ye bringH7126 a newH2319 meat offeringH4503 unto the LORD,H3068 after your weeksH7620 be out, ye shall haveH1961 an holyH6944 convocation;H4744 ye shall doH6213 noH3808 H3605 servileH5656 work:H4399

 

Notice that in the Hebrew original the time reference for the “holy convocation” is not “afterbe out” as translated in KJV, but “within your sevens.” How much clearer does it have to be?

 

 

 

 

9.      Clarifying an apparently subtle difference re the basis of reckoning time:

 

Scriptural reckoning is based on beginnings, not on terminations and conclusions; God is the God of Life, not the God of Death:

 

Some (cashed) base their 1st Day of the week observance of Hag HaShavuot upon arguments clearly depicted by these two diagrams:

 

 

Here it is pointed out that the basis for the phrase “Morrow After the Passover Sacrifice” is the end of “14 Nissan.” However, the same people are correctly emphasizing that the basis for said phrase, “Morrow After…,” is the “Passover Sacrifice [14th at Twilight]” [not the 24 hour period of “14th Nissan.”] True, the end of “14th Nissan” is more or less concurrent in time with the “Passover Sacrifice,” yet it is the latter, the Sacrifice, and not the former, the 14th, that constitutes the reference for the phrase the “Morrow After the Passover Sacrifice.”

 

Bible students should be well aware of the Scriptural emphasis on beginnings, e.g. “God is One…,” “In the beginning God created…,” “and the first evening [darkness] and the first day [light] were one day…,” etc., etc.. The God of the Torah is first of all the Creator of Life, not the destroyer and the God of Death, isn’t He? Thus, what sense would it make for the Torah to contradict itself by all of a sudden basing the reckoning of Shavuot upon the end of a 24 hour day rather than upon its beginning? 

 

Certainly while it is true that the Passover Sacrifice is made at the end of the light portion of “14 Nissan,” it is also true that the Passover Sacrifice is made at the very beginning of the dark portion of “15 Nissan.” And isn’t Passover Day, “14 Nissan” also sometimes referenced as a Preparation Day, just like the 6th Day of the week is the weekly Day of Preparation? The important point of time to observe and to focus upon is the beginning of the Shabbat (cf. Lev 23:3,) not the end of the 6th Day, the Day of Preparation. In fact the end of the 6th Day, strictly speaking, falls at the end of twilight, while the beginning of the Shabbat begins with the first beginning of darkness, which point in time may, strictly speaking, be applied to the astronomical sunset which occurs a few minutes before the visible sunset. Thus, strictly speaking, Shabbat begins before the end of the Sixth Day. The differences in time between the two points may be, at times, more than one hour. Yet, observers of God’s Shabbat always give precedence to that which pertains to the Shabbat, i.e. over and above that which belongs to the 6th Day. Likewise, the important point in time to focus on re the Passover Sacrifice is the beginning of “15 Nissan” not the end of “14 Nissan.”

Do you see the apparently subtle difference re exact timing? And, do you see the not so subtle differences re the consequences of reckoning one way vs. the other?!

 

One of the differences being that it follows that, in the year Israel entered Canaan, the Omer Offering was brought on the "Morrow after the Pesach [Sacrifice]" which “we now have established” (cashed) is the morning of the 15th of Nissan. Clearly in that year the 14th of Nissan fell out on a Sixth Day of the week and the 15th of Nissan fell out on a Shabbat (since the Wave Sheaf offering was always, i.e. per Torah instructions and as observed by the prophet Daniel as well as by Jews generally in NT times, brought on a Shabbat).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some questions for reflection in consequence of the above &c.:

What is the origin of Rosh HaShanah? Does it have a basis in the Torah or not? (Nehemia Gordon has provided some valuable answers to these questions in his article Yom Teruah How the Day of Shouting Became Rosh Hashanah.)

What time of the year constitutes the true and scriptural beginning of a Shabbat year? Aviv, Tishri, or the Eight Day, HaAzeret, the 22nd day of the Seventh Moon? The First moon, the Seventh moon, or that something new, the Eight Day, following at the end of the Seventh Moon? Spring or fall? What does the Torah teach? What did Moses and Aaron do, and for how long, before the actual exodus out of Egypt? Isn’t the Omer Reshit commemorating also the timing of the first Israelites exiting out of Egypt at the time of the Exodus?

Is “the first Sabbatical year out of eight”, being also “the first year of the 50 year Jubilee cycle,” beginning on the Day of Trumpets, on the eve when the 7th new moon is first being seen, is it beginning at sunset at the new moon of Aviv 1, or is it beginning with the Eighth Day, HaAzeret, at the time of sunset, moonset, and “the end of the year?” And what about the conclusion of the 8th Sabbatical year and the 50th year of Jubilee?

There are only 49 full years, seven weeks of years, in a Jubilee cycle. Could it be that Rosh HaShanah was originally applied only to the latter of two consecutive Jubilee [half] years, i.e. the fiftieth and the first, each of which years would then consist of six or seven moons, the first one being six lunar cycles long, and the last one consisting of the remaining six or seven lunar cycles? Or is Rosh HaShanah merely a tradition of very recent origin (post-dispersion subsequent to the fall of Jerusalem in 55 CE [70 AD conventional?]) (Again cf. Nehemiah Gordon’s article Yom Teruah How the Day of Shouting Became Rosh Hashanah.)

Or else is HaAzeret the closest we have to the beginning of each year as originally instituted at the time of the Genesis creation event?

Is the light part of the Omer Reshit Shabbat, the “machar”, to be counted as the first day of fifty and as the first Shabbat towards the Feast of Weeks? And what about the fiftieth day: Should the dark part of the fiftieth day, the first 12 hours or so, be considered the whole of the Feast of Weeks Shabbat? I believe the answer to this last question is made clear in the above article.

Further, Aviv 14, the Passover Day, the day preceding the first day of the seven day long Feast of Unleavened Bread, though never numbered, is still the zeroeth day in that eight day festivity, while at the opposite end of the hot part of the year the seven day long Feast of Tabernacles is followed by an extra eighth day upon which one is restricted from doing servile work. These extra days would necessarily serve as a reminder to the people of how the days within each Feast are uniquely numbered in accord with very specific rules.  Could it be that the Eighth Day at the conclusion of the Feast of Tabernacles and the zeroeth day, the Passover, are designed to point towards each other as some kind of bridge tying the two half year periods together? Is the name Passover an indication of such a tie? And what about the Eighth Day, eight being recognized as a number connecting the last cycle of seven to something new? As in the beginning of a new year, the colder and darker portion of it? Or is the simple answer that Passover, Aviv 14, is to be remembered as the last day of winter while the Eighth Day is to be remembered as the first day of winter and the rainy season, i.e. are both of these days an eighth day of sorts indicating the boundaries of a period of time other than the season of most activity in an agricultural society and as such corresponding to the contrasts of night vs. day?

Is the absence of a unique Feast day on Aviv 1 an indication that this day is merely a continuation of the year already approaching its middle portion – a continuation of that wintery season which is not yet fully completed? ‑ Particularly in view of, and in contrast to, the Torah instructions regarding the Day of Trumpets announcing the Seventh and last Moon, the Sabbath Moon, of the year, as naturally followed then by the Eighth Day announcing at “moonset” and “at the end of the year” something new, a new year?

It wouldn’t make much sense for anyone without an exceedingly generous heart to sow their fields and reap any harvest in the fiftieth year, or even in the forty-eighth year, if and when most, or all, of the proceeds would go to another, would it? 

On the other hand there ought not be too much of a problem with Jubilee year starvation if and when the Jubilee year is coinciding with a regular Shabbat year, i.e. considering that the people would then be prepared for a double sized harvest every seventh year, and would then have made provisions such that they could enjoy a Sabbath year without any sowing or reaping every seventh year, ought there?  Additionally, they would then likely be having a surplus in storage every year, i.e. seeing that the capacity for two year storage would always be present, wouldn’t they?  On the other hand, wouldn’t people be much less likely to keep a three year surplus capacity for storage if such would be used only about once in a life time, i.e. only once every fiftieth year?

 

END

 

P.S.

Please do not hesitate to share with me any errors you find within.  I have no desire to share with others anything that is not in harmony with the Torah and therefore I remain most grateful for any correction(s) you may share with me before this study is shared with too many others.

 

Toda raba!

 

Shalom

 

 

 

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