CHAPTER 4.
The Feast of Weeks
Shavuot ("shah-voo-OAT"), which means "weeks", is the next of the three pilgrimages to Jerusalem in which all grown and able-bodied men are to appear before YHWH. (Ex. 23:16-19) It is the culmination of a "week of weeks"--that is, seven weeks, in which we are specifically commanded to count the days. These seven weeks lead up to this feast, but do not include it. It is on the fiftieth day.
The seven weeks are called "the Counting of the Omer". This begins shortly after Passover, and still within the Feast of Unleavened Bread. On the first day, which is called Yom haBikkurim (the day of the firstfruits), the first and best of the barley harvest is brought to the Temple for the priests.
In ancient times there were two ways of understanding when the firstfruits were to be brought. The actual Scriptural command is:
"On the morrow after the Sabbath..." we are to bring two loaves made from two tenths of an eyfah of fine flour, along with seven flawless year-old lambs, one young bull, two rams for an ascending offering, one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs to be a peace offering. (Lev. 23:15-22; see also Deut. 16:9-10; 26:5-8)
The Sadducees took this Sabbath as the ordinary weekly Sabbath that falls during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Pharisees took it to mean the first day of the Feast, thus the counting of the Omer for them always begins on the 16th of Aviv.
Rabbinic Judaism today follows the Pharisaical view, while we at Beth Lechem, along with the Karaites and others, follow the Sadducean view, so that Yom haBikkurim always ends up being on the first day of the week, as does Shavuot. This is because there is another Hebrew word used for Festivals, Shabbaton (which means "a great Sabbath" or "high day"), while the only commanded festival ever simply called a Sabbath in the Torah is Yom Kippur, which is a "ceasing" but not a feast. (Lev. 16:31; 23:32) We are also commanded to count "seven complete Sabbaths" (Lev. 23:15), but in the Pharisaical count, one can count seven weeks, but there might not always be both seven Sabbaths and seven weeks. (For example, if the first day of Unleavened Bread fell on a Friday, the firstfruits would be brought on the Sabbath, but then this would count as the first Sabbath, and the seventh Sabbath would only be six weeks after the count began, and the count would only reach 43 days instead of 49.)
Shavuot is the firstfruits of the wheat harvest. The two loaves of wheat bread are to be baked with leaven this time. (Lev. 23:17) This means that during this season leaven is a picture of something different from during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, where it symbolizes sin and pride. Yahshua gives us a clue in his parable of the woman who hid three measures of leaven in her dough until it was fully leavened:
"The kingdom of the heavens is like leaven..." (Mat. 13:33)
So leaven is a picture not of sin, but of the Kingdom during this season. In every case, leaven is something that thoroughly permeates. Sometimes the result is negative (as depicted at Hag HaMatzah) and sometimes it is positive (as here).
The Mishnah (a Jewish commentary on the way Torah commands were carried out during Second Temple Times) tells us that landowners would mark the first produce to ripen. When it was time to bring them up to the Temple, the men would gather in open squares of the towns designated for each priestly course, sleep outside to be sure they would not contract corpse-uncleanness, and depart at dawn walking behind an ox whose horns were overlaid with gold with a wreath around its head, and a flutist would walk before them to Jerusalem. The rich brought firstfruits in baskets of silver and gold, while the poor brought them in baskets made of peeled willow branches. They would decorate the firstfruits with other forms of produce, and on arrival in Jerusalem, recite the declaration in Deut. 26:3-10, but only for the firstfruits of the seven species for which Israel was known: barley, wheat, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates.
We can see strong parallels between the five ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11-16 and the process of bringing the wheat (us) to maturity so it can become bread (which represents unified community, according to 1 Corinthians 10:17):
The evangelist harvests (removes from the ground where we grew up)
The pastor/shepherd threshes (gently separates from what once protected us and acclimates to the new environment)
The teacher winnows (elevates us to where the wind/spirit can do its work)
The prophet roasts (brings fire in a controlled way to remove the unusable weightiness of self)
(YHWH Himself does the crushing between the two stones of the Torah)
The apostle sifts (tests to see where each fits and if each is ready to blend in with community or is still too much of an individualist to fit through the sieve)
The flour used for the two loaves for the Temple at Shavuot was passed through thirteen different sieves, each with a finer mesh.
Bikkurim ("firstfruits") also means "firstborn", so we can see many analogies with how we ourselves should present to YHWH the first and best of all our resources, our generous thoughts, and in a figurative sense, our children.
Yom haBikkurim is the day Yahshua was resurrected. While usually translated "on the first day of the week", in Greek it actually says, "[day] one of the Weeks", i.e. the seven weeks. (Mat. 28:1) This is confirmed when Paul calls Yahshua "the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep". (1 Cor. 15:20-23)
It was probably on the 17th of the month that year, three days after Passover, and on the anniversary of Noah's ark coming to rest (Gen. 8:4), and by tradition the anniversary of Israel coming out of the Reed Sea, and Haman being hanged--all pictures of redemption.
Some other names for Shavuot are Hag haQatzir ("feast of the harvest"), "the fiftieth day", and the Firstfruits of the Wheat Harvest.
Themes of the Counting of the Omer and Shavuot:
Growing to fullness of Maturity
Giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai (which tradition says took place on Shavuoth)
The offering of the Torah to all 70 nations (though only Israel accepted it)
The wedding of YHWH and Israel (under the chuppah/canopy of the uplifted mountain – Ex. 19:17). In this scenario, Passover is seen as His courting Israel, and Sukkoth as the setting up of a household faithful to the Torah.
Jewish Traditions in regard to Shavuot include staying up all night to study the Torah (because tradition says the Israelites overslept at Mt. Sinai on the day the Torah was given), and to study some part(s) of it that one does not normally study to "give the Torah a beautiful birthday present". Another is to read psalms (because David was born and died on this date), and to read the story of Ruth (which takes place in the barley harvest). Synagogues are decorated with greenery to celebrate the harvest theme, and homes are decorated with branches and especially with roses.
The account of the Shavuoth (better known by the Greek term "Pentecost", which simply means "fiftieth") the year of Yahshua's resurrection and ascension (Acts chapter 2) seems to confirm the tradition of David dying on that day, since Keyfa ("Peter") alludes to David being long dead and his tomb being still with us. (2:25-29) One of the traditions on the day of someone's death is to visit their tomb, so Keyfa would have been speaking to people who either had just done so or were preparing to do so soon thereafter.
The themes of the fullness of maturity and being completely unified are clear in this account:
"When the day of [Shavuot] had fully arrived, they were all in one place and in perfect harmony [or unison, with one mind, in full agreement], and suddenly there came from the skies the sound of a mighty, rushing wind…and there appeared to them tongues of fire that were distributed and settled down on each of their heads." (Acts 2:1-3)
This clearly recalled the thunderings and fire descending onto Mount Sinai the day the Torah was given (Exodus 19:18; 20:18), and it is easy to see how YHWH marked this year of the renewal of the covenant with the refreshing of the offer of the Torah to all nations, as the message of the apostles was spoken to each of the pilgrims to Jerusalem in their native tongue. And a tikkun ("tee-KOON", meaning reparation or reversal) was made for the incident of the golden calf, for which 3,000 people was struck dead in one day, because on this day the book of Acts tells us that 3,000 souls were added to the ranks of those who followed the Messiah. (2:41)
Beth Lechem's Traditions include the children making creative charts to help them count the 49 days and some sort of wall mural for the feast or the period of counting, done as a group by those in the congregation who are artistically inclined. On Shavuot itself, we eat breakfast together with a lot of dairy foods, with the two lumps of dough from which the two loaves will be made already being leavened in the meantime. When the dough has risen, we follow a flute player down to the outdoor earthen oven and bake the loaves there. We read and discuss the implications of the book of Ruth, and have a cookout with homemade ice cream.
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