Bible Questions Answered: Festivals-Jewish

Bible Questions Answered:
How many Jewish special days are there?
Lucinda/ Camrose, Alberta, B.C.

Bible Answers:
Six Jewish festivals are mentioned in Leviticus twenty three.

Leviticus 23:1-44 NLT

The Appointed Festivals
1 The LORD said to Moses,
2 "Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. These are the LORD's appointed festivals, which you
are to proclaim as official days for holy assembly.
3 "You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest,
an official day for holy assembly. It is the LORD's Sabbath day, and it must be observed wherever you live.
4 "In addition to the Sabbath, these are the LORD's appointed festivals, the official days for holy assembly
that are to be celebrated at their proper times each year.

1)
Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread

Passover was the dominant feast of Israel. It told of the Jews freedom from slavery in Egypt.
It spoke of the day when the Angel of the Lord "passed over," all of Egypt slaying all firstborn,both of people and animals, but God's people because they applied the blood of the Lamb to the door posts of their homes, he "passed over," them (Exodus 12:).

5 "The LORD's Passover begins at sundown on the fourteenth day of the first month.
6 On the next day, the fifteenth day of the month, you must begin celebrating the Festival of Unleavened Bread. This festival to the LORD continues for seven days, and during that time the bread you eat must be made without yeast.
7 On the first day of the festival, all the people must stop their ordinary work and observe an official day for holy assembly.
8 For seven days you must present special gifts to the LORD. On the seventh day the people must again stop all their ordinary work to observe an official day for holy assembly."

2)
Celebration of First Harvest (Pentecost, Feast of Weeks, day of First Fruits.)

The word Pentecost, means fifty, i.e. fifty days from Pass Over.
It was the end of the wheat harvest, and the people went to the House of God to offer their "first fruits," of their harvest. Their offering was in the form of loaves of leavened bread.

9 Then the LORD said to Moses,
10 "Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you enter the land I am giving you and you harvest its first crops, bring the priest a bundle of grain from the first cutting of your grain harvest.
11 On the day after the Sabbath, the priest will lift it up before the LORD so it may be accepted on your behalf.
12 On that same day you must sacrifice a one-year-old male lamb with no defects as a burnt offering to the LORD.
13 With it you must present a grain offering consisting of four quarts of choice flour moistened with olive oil. It will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. You must also offer one quart of wine as a liquid offering.
14 Do not eat any bread or roasted grain or fresh kernels on that day until you bring this offering to your God. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live.


The Festival of Harvest

15 "From the day after the Sabbath—the day you bring the bundle of grain to be lifted up as a special
offering—count off seven full weeks.
16 Keep counting until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days later. Then present an offering of new
grain to the LORD.
17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves of bread to be lifted up before the LORD as a special offering.
Make these loaves from four quarts of choice flour, and bake them with yeast. They will be an offering to the
LORD from the first of your crops.
18 Along with the bread, present seven one-year-old male lambs with no defects, one young bull, and two rams as
burnt offerings to the LORD. These burnt offerings, together with the grain offerings and liquid offerings,
will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
19 Then you must offer one male goat as a sin offering and two one-year-old male lambs as a peace offering.
20 "The priest will lift up the two lambs as a special offering to the LORD, together with the loaves
representing the first of your crops. These offerings, which are holy to the LORD, belong to the priests.
21 That same day will be proclaimed an official day for holy assembly, a day on which you do no ordinary work.
This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live.
22 "When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do
not pick up what the harvesters drop. Leave it for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the LORD
your God."

3)
The Festival of Trumpets

A new year was ushered in by the blowing of trumpets.

23 The LORD said to Moses,
24 "Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. On the first day of the appointed month in early autumn, you are to observe a day of complete rest. It will be an official day for holy assembly, a day commemorated with loud blasts of a trumpet.
25 You must do no ordinary work on that day. Instead, you are to present special gifts to the LORD."

4)
The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)

A most sacred day, among the Jews. The people fasted and thought about their sins and short comings. Sins were atoned for by sacrifices at the House of God.

26 Then the LORD said to Moses,
27 "Be careful to celebrate the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of that same month—nine days after the Festival of Trumpets.* You must observe it as an official day for holy assembly, a day to deny yourselves and present special gifts to the LORD.
28 Do no work during that entire day because it is the Day of Atonement, when offerings of purification are made for you, making you right with* the LORD your God.
29 All who do not deny themselves that day will be cut off from God's people.
30 And I will destroy anyone among you who does any work on that day.
31 You must not do any work at all! This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live.
32 This will be a Sabbath day of complete rest for you, and on that day you must deny yourselves. This day of rest will begin at sundown on the ninth day of the month and extend until sundown on the tenth day."


5)
The Festival of Shelters

This festival, took place five days after The Day of Atonement. It spoke of Israel's wanderings in the dessert.
During the festival, Jews lived in "boths," consisting of branches and leaves, or they stayed in tents around Jerusalem.

33 And the LORD said to Moses,
34 "Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. Begin celebrating the Festival of Shelters on the fifteenth day of the appointed month—five days after the Day of Atonement. This festival to the LORD will last for seven days.
35 On the first day of the festival you must proclaim an official day for holy assembly, when you do no ordinary work.


6)
The Sacred Assembly

This festival, reminded the people, to bring an offering to the Lord.
This was a sacred, and solemn gathering.

36 For seven days you must present special gifts to the LORD. The eighth day is another holy day on which you present your special gifts to the LORD. This will be a solemn occasion, and no ordinary work may be done that day.


37 ("These are the LORD's appointed festivals. Celebrate them each year as official days for holy assembly by
presenting special gifts to the LORD—burnt offerings, grain offerings, sacrifices, and liquid offerings—each on
its proper day.
38 These festivals must be observed in addition to the LORD's regular Sabbath days, and the offerings are in
addition to your personal gifts, the offerings you give to fulfill your vows, and the voluntary offerings you
present to the LORD.)
39 "Remember that this seven-day festival to the LORD—the Festival of Shelters—begins on the fifteenth day of
the appointed month, after you have harvested all the produce of the land. The first day and the eighth day of
the festival will be days of complete rest.
40 On the first day gather branches from magnificent trees palm fronds, boughs from leafy trees, and willows
that grow by the streams. Then celebrate with joy before the LORD your God for seven days.
41 You must observe this festival to the LORD for seven days every year. This is a permanent law for you, and
it must be observed in the appointed month from generation to generation.
42 For seven days you must live outside in little shelters. All native-born Israelites must live in shelters.
43 This will remind each new generation of Israelites that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I
rescued them from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God."
44 So Moses gave the Israelites these instructions regarding the annual festivals of the LORD.


Now two additional Festivals are mentioned,and they were, while the Jews were in Babylonian exile.

7)
The Festival of the Feast of Lights (Hanukkah)

This festival, not mentioned in the Old Testament, but is mentioned in the Apocrypha.
Feast of Lights was begun by Judas Maccabeus in 164 B.C. after the temple had been cleansed and sanctified.The festival lasted some eight days. One candle on the Menorah, was lit each day, until all eight had been lighted.
Adventures of Judas Maccabeus, and others were told.


8)
The Feast of Purim (Lots: A celebration of two days.)

Taken from the book of Esther, the story of how she saved Israel from certain extermination.
During this time, the book of Esther was read aloud in the House of God.


Month Festival

Nisan (April) 14th Passover
15th Unleavened Bread

21st Close of Passover

Iyar (May)

Sivan (June) 6th Feast of Pentecost

Tammuz (July)

Ab (August)

Elul (September)

Tishri (October) 1&2 The Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah)

10th Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)

15th -21st Feast of Tabernacles

22 Sacred Assembly

Marchesvan (November)

Kislev (December) 25 Feast of Lights (Hanukkah)

Tebeth (January)

Shebet (February)

Adar (March) 14 Feast of Purim