Feasts of Adonai

First Tabernacle Fellowship

3604 Stockton Blvd. Sacramento, CA 95820

 

CONGREGATION

Saturdays at 1:30 PM

Feast Days for 5773/5774

(2012/2013 Gregorian)

As those who are familiar with the Hebrew calendar may know, it is difficult to predict the exact dates of the Holy Days, as we are now on a lunar calendar. What this means, is that the Hebrew months do not begin until the sighting of the New Moon (Rosh-Hodesh). Therefore, the dates are tentative based on when Yahweh allows the moon to be sighted. The only feast day that is not totally dependent on Rosh-Hodesh is Pesach. Pesach is determined by the ripening of the barley. Aviv does not start until the New Moon after the first green barley head is found. Without the harvest, there is no matzo for Pesach or any sheaves to bring the Bikkurim (First Fruits Offering). It all goes back to the Messiah, He being the first fruits of the harvest and coming in the fullness of time. He was the Passover lamb, the wave offering, the hidden matzo. Since Yahweh is in charge of everything, including Rosh-Hodesh and He has His own self-adjusting time schedule. He allows us to sight the moon by having a clear sky and he says when the barley will ripen. Humans have intervened and tried to calculate and readjust His calendar; however, He does not need our help. That is why He postponed the full celebration of some feasts until Yisra'el arrived in the Land.

 

Arrival in the Land meant that they were no longer moving and unsettled in a desert place. It also meant that they had their own land and could live according to Yah's appointed time schedule. They would grow crops, allowing them to bring grain offerings and Bikkurim (First Fruits). When we fully get to the Land, we will be able to do the same thing. A short explanation of the feasts and their dates are attached. Remember we are on Yah's time schedule, but I will get any corrected dates to you as soon as possible.

 

 

Shabbat

(7th Day)

Begins sunset 6th day of the week (Friday) to Sunset (Saturday)

 

We are commanded by the Father to keep the Shabbat holy. It is a celebration of His completed work of creation. It is also the seal that sets us apart (sanctifies). During Shabbat, we are to do no servile work, do our own thing, or have our own conversations; it is a day of complete rest. Yahweh is most attentive to His people on Shabbat.

 

 

Rosh-Hodesh

(Head of the Month)

Begins at the sighting of the first sliver of the New Moon

 

Rosh-Hodesh is the beginning of the months based on the sighting of the moon. It is greeted with the blast of the shofar and thankfulness that Yah has allowed us another month of life, health and prosperity. Rosh-Hodesh can be 28, 29 or 30 days. That's why we have to watch starting several days prior to the onset of the New Moon.

 

 

Rosh Hashanah

(Head of the Year 5773)

Rosh Hashanah begins the civil New Year as it celebrates the time from the beginning and the renewal. Are there two New Years? In order to understand the Hebrew calendar, we have to change our thinking regarding times and seasons. In the eyes of the Father, time is measured in events not minutes, hours, etc. Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of creation, sabbatical years and Yovel (jubilee).

 

The Days of Awe or Yamim Nora'im are the most sacred days of the Hebrew Year. They include Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Awe is a loose translation of the Hebrew word nora which can also be translated as "reverence." What does this time commemorate? It deals exclusively with the fundamental questions of human nature and human destiny and with the connection between Yah and humans, sin and repentance, and mercy and justice.

 

The 10-day period beginning on Rosh Hashanah and ending on Yom Kippur is also known as the "Ten Days of Repentance." This is a crucial time as the Prophet Yesha Yahu (Isaiah) 55:6 mentions this day as a day in which Yah may be found. During these days it is a definite time to seek Adonai.

 

Rosh Hashanah is also known as Yom Teruah (day of sounding or blasting/noise). This sounding of the shofar is to awaken us, as it begins the season of teshuvah (repentance). For those looking forward to the resurrection as recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:52 this day will occur with the sound of the Shofar "it will take but a moment, the blink of an eye, at the final shofar. For the shofar will sound, and the dead will be raised to live forever, and we to will be changed."

 

For those who thought that Rosh Hashanah was only relative to the Jews think again. When it occurs for real, this will be the most important day in the life of humanity and particularly the bride of Yeshuah. We celebrate it in preparation for that day.

 

 

Yom Kippur

It is the holiest day of the year – the day on which we are closest to Yahweh and to the quintessential core of our own souls. It is the "Day of Atonement" – Lev 16:29-31 "It is to be a permanent regulation for you that on the tenth day of the seventh month you are to deny yourselves and not do any kind of work, both the citizen and the foreigner living with you. For on this day, atonement will be made for you to purify you; you will be clean before Adonai from all your sins. It is a Shabbat of complete rest for you, and you are to deny yourselves. For twenty-six hours, from several minutes before sunset we "afflict our souls": we abstain from food and drink, do not wash or anoint our bodies, do not wear leather shoes, and abstain from marital relations.

 

 

Sukkot

Festival of Tabernacles

Vayikra (Leviticus) 23:34-36
with Simchat Torah

Lev 23:34-36 "Tell the people of Isra'el, 'On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of Sukkot for seven days to Adonai. On the first day there is to be a holy convocation; do not do any kind of ordinary work. For seven days you are to bring an offering made by fire to Adonai; on the eighth day you are to have a holy convocation and bring an offering made by fire to Adonai; it is a day of public assembly; do not do any kind of ordinary work." It completes the sacred festivals of the seventh month. In contrast to Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Atonement and Yom Kippur, this feast is a time of joy referred to in many cases as the Season of Our Joy.

 

The Scriptures seem to indicate that Yeshuah was born during this festival season, as there are many evidences that bear this out. It is also referred to in the Brit Hadashah (NT) as the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

 

 

Feasts of Dedication

Chanukah

Although not a Biblical Feast this holiday is mentioned, in the Gospel of John, 10:22: "Then came Chanukah in Yerushalayim. It was winter and Yahshuah as walking around inside the Temple area, in Shlomo's Colonnade." Also known as The Festival of Lights, Chanukah is observed for eight days by the lighting of the Chanukah Menorah. The Chanukah Menorah has place for nine candles instead of the seven places on the Temple Menorah, the center candle holder is called "the servant candle" which lights the others. Each night, one candle is lit and added to the others until all the candles are lit. This holiday is observed for the rededication of the Alter of the Temple along with the celebration of the victory by a group of Jews, let by Yehudah Maccabee, against the Hellenizing and defiling of the Holy Temple by the Greek ruler Antiochus IV, one of the four generals of Alexander the Great. It is fitting that Yochanan (John) would choose to mention this feast during the time that the 'Light' walked the earth.

 

 

Passover - Pesach

The Passover Seder meal is customarily eaten on the eve of Passover day, in accordance with when Yeshuah ate the meal with His disciples the evening before his being sacrificed for our sins. See Exodus 12 for this feast's requirement. This feast is commanded by Elohim, commemorating the death of the Egypt's first born. It was the final judgment before Yisra'el made their Exodus from captivity.

 

 

The Feast of Matzot

(Unleavened Bread)

Vayikra (Leviticus) 23:6-8

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is to remember the haste with which Isra'el left Egypt at the Exodus; no time to leaven the bread they took with them. It is customary to "spring clean" the house of all leavening agents, as only unleavened goods are to be eaten during this time.

 

 

Feast of First Fruits

(Bikkurim)

The Feast of First Fruits is the first day of the counting of the Omer forward to the Feast of Weeks, which is to begin the day after the Sabbath of Passover and counts 50 days to the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot (See below).

 

No Holy Convocation (within The Feast of Unleavened Bread)

 

 

Feast of Weeks

Shavuot (Meaning 50)

Vayikra (Lev) 23:6-8

The Feast of Weeks not only commemorates the end of the grain harvest, but most importantly, it represents the anniversary of when Moses gave the Torah to the people of Yisra'el at Mount Sinai, which is the pivotal point in the creation of Elohim's people and the nation that was later to occupy the "Promised Land."

Holy Convocation