Tutor: Richard Harvey                                                                                                                             Lecture 6

Jewish Studies                                                                                                                                 Module RS2.7

I.    Introduction

Jewish Holidays and Jewish Identity

Jesus and the Festivals  

The Jewish Calendar - lunar with extra month 7/19 years

II.   Shabbat - Sabbath

The Main Festival of Judaism - The Bride - 1/60 of Heaven

Begins at sunset (Genesis 1.31)

Memorial of Creation and Exodus

No work - 39x39 types forbidden

Kiddush, challot and candles

Family celebration - blessing of wife and children

Ends with Havdalah (ìseparationî)

III.  Pesach - Passover

     First Holiday in the Calendar - 14^th Nisan

     The first of the Pilgrim Festivals (Shalosh Raglaim Lev. 23 4-8)

     Celebrated in home with celebratory  meal (seder) and hagadah

     Eight day Feast of Unleavened Bread (Hag Hamatzot)

     Originally focused on Paschal Lamb, Unleavened bread, Bitter Herbs

     Significance of the Afikomen   

     Linked to Feast of First-fruits of barley harvest  (Lev. 23:9-11, 1 Cor. 15:20-23) 

IV. Weeks - Shavuot

Forty-nine days after 2^nd night of Passover, second pilgrim festival

Season of the Giving of the Law

Festival of the Firstfruits (wheat)

Whole night of study (Tikkun Leil Shavuot), with Book of Ruth

Milk Products eaten

V.   New Year - Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah - First day of the civil year, seventh month of Tishrei

Yom Hatíruah -  Day of Trumpets

Yamim Noraim -  Days of Awe

ìOn Rosh Hashanah it is written, On Yom Kippur it is sealed; How many shall pass on, how many shall come to be; who shall live and who shall die. But repentance, prayer and charity avert the solemn decree.î (Jewish prayer book)

Three books of names opened in the heavenly court on Rosh Hashanah (Ex. 32:32-3, Rev. 20:12) 

The Akedah (Gen. 22) read in synagogue as alternative to sacrifice

The sound of the shofar to herald the return of the Messiah (1 Thess. 4:16-17)    

Apples and Honey, Greeting cards, Tashlich ( Micah 7:19)

VI.  Day of Atonement - Yom Kippur

Kol Nidre  - All Vows

Avinu Malkenu

Our Father, our King, be gracious to us and answer us, for we have no merit of our own. Deal kindly with us and save us!

Fasting and repentance

VII. Sukkot - Tabernacles

Main themes: Booths, Ingathering, Rejoicing

Third of the three Pilgrim Festivals

Sukkah - temporary dwellings

Lulav  (Palm, Myrtle, Willow branches bound together) and Ethrog (citron)

Lev 23:40 And you shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days

Water Pouring ceremony (Isaiah 12:3, John 7:37)

VIII.       Simchat Torah- Rejoicing over the Law

Shemini Atzereth, the eighth day of Sukkot.

9^th day,  the Rejoicing over the Law (11^th century)

Completion and beginning of Torah cycle

IX.  Hanucah- Dedication

Winter festival commemorating re-dedication of Temple in 168 b.c.e (John 10:22, 1 Maccabees 4:56)

Festival of lights

Latkes (potato pancakes) and doughnuts fried in oil

X.    Purim

Feast of Esther - 14^th Adar

Purimspiel and dressing up, gifts to the poor

Wine and hamentaschen (Hamanís ears)

Bibliography - Many general books on Jewish festivals. These make the links:

V Buksbazen                         The Gospel in the Feasts of Israel (Friends of Israel:USA 1954)

A Edersheim                        The Temple and Its Services (Oxford 1874)

M Zimmerman Celebrate the Feasts (Bethany:USA 1988)