Chesed

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Kosher

One would think that the rich and powerful king/pharaoh would be the one to bless someone but here you see that it is Israel (Jacob) that is blessing the king/pharaoh. It is only through a citizen of heaven that can give the blessing from God.

We are here temporarily. We are not citizens of earth. We are created for a holy purpose.

When we travel to another country, the locals can see that we are visitors or foreigners.

We dress differently, we speak differently, we think differently, we act or live differently, we celebrate different holidays and have different traditions, and we even eat differently.

Being set apart is being different from the world, for a holy purpose.

God tells us not to conform to the ways and traditions of the world, from what holidays and traditions we delight ourselves in or that we put effort to observe, to what goes into our mind, our heart, and our body. (Deuteronomy 18:9-14, Romans 12:1-2)

Let’s not approach this with a self righteous superiority (snobby) perspective, nor a legalistic or dogmatic perspective.

Let’s stay humble about it but deeply rooted as well.

Obeying God because of fear and reverence is good. Obeying God out of love, is even greater.

Speaking for myself, I was not raised up in the ways of God as a child. Now I ask God to renew my mind and heart daily and even annually.

I try to strive to learn and keep the commandments gradually with the intention to do it out of love and not hypocrisy.

So I start off by little steps and each year I understand it better so I take more steps into the commandments and traditions. Ultimately I stick to the commandments of God in the Bible. Any rabbinical laws, traditions or commentary may be used to illuminate my understanding and growth but I place God’s commandments above any human teachings. I am not against any traditions if Yeshua exercised or observed them, or if they align with the spirit of God’s teachings.

So what does it mean to be kosher?

It means fit to be food.

So for example, the most common kosher law is not to eat pigs. I do not see pigs as dirty because God created it. But God created it for a different purpose. It is for cleaning the land.

Have you heard the saying, “you’re sweating like a pig.”? It is a common saying so I grew up thinking that pigs sweat a lot.

But my understanding of what I learned is that if pigs sweat, it is very little, because the toxins in pigs are stored in their fatty tissues instead of excreted. They clean up the land and remove toxins from the land so releasing toxins from sweating would contradict their purpose.

Hence, they are not “kosher”, not fit to be food.

Even though I believe that God can protect those that love Him from poison, because we love Him, we would delight in doing His commandments which includes the biblical kosher laws (different from rabbinical kosher laws).

If you have read the page on Love, I wrote about how God’s commandments are eternal, they are from eternity. King David said in Psalms 119:96, Your commandments are boundless, they are limitless, they are more perfect than the heaven. They never end. It is before time and space were created.

God created heaven and earth in the beginning. Hence, heaven has a beginning. But the commandments being eternal has no beginning or ending. We cannot change it or remove it.

Yeshua (Jesus) said, heaven and earth may disappear but my commandments will last forever, none of it will disappear, not even the smallest commandment, not even the smallest word, not even the smallest letter, not even a stroke of a letter. (You can read about this in Matthew 5:18).

Some Christians have used Peter’s dream as a reason to ignore the eternal kosher laws of God but that dream was to teach him that the gentile believers have been cleansed by Yeshua and that Peter can go to their house. (Read all of Acts Chapter 10)

Remember, we are created for a holy purpose. So let’s engross ourselves in God’s eternal commandments (from eternity) and be sanctified (made holy) by God in doing them.

The word “holy” is often used interchangeably as “perfect”. But I have learned that being holy means that we do what God says for us to do, not what the world tells us to do. In a way, that does lead to perfection because we are living by His standards and not the world’s standards and in that, God perfects us, He sanctifies us, it is a lifetime process and not an over night process. It is not the food that makes us holy but in the love that we have for God to delight and perform His commandments, He makes us holy.

I wanted to mention this because I think some sincere believers leave His commandments because they feel bad for failing. With respect to our ancestors that are great examples of faith and obedience, righteous servants in the Bible also made mistakes but their heart were sincere and God counted most of them as righteous. I am not saying this with the mindset of the new christian teaching of “hypergrace”. I believe that grace (for lack of vocabulary, is a gift given to us that we did not deserve) is not a license to sin.

You can find the biblical kosher law in Leviticus chapter 11.

Leviticus 11

Kashrut for Holiness

11 Adonai spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them, ² “Speak to Bnei-Yisrael, saying: These are the living things which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth. ³ Whatever has a split, divided hoof and chews cud among the animals—that you may eat.

⁴ “Nevertheless, you should not eat of those that only chew cud, or have a split hoof. The camel, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof, is unclean to you. ⁵ The coney, though it chews the cud yet does not have a divided hoof, so it is unclean to you. ⁶ The hare, though it chews the cud, does not split the hoof, so it is unclean to you. ⁷ The pig, though it has a split, divided hoof, does not chew cud, so it is unclean to you. ⁸ You are not to eat meat from them, nor are you to touch their carcasses. They are unclean to you.

⁹ “From all that are in the waters, you may eat whatever has fins and scales, within the waters, in the seas and in the rivers. Those you may eat. ¹⁰ But any that do not have fins and scales in the seas or the rivers, among those that swarm on the waters, or among any of the living creatures that are in the waters, they are loathsome to you. ¹¹ They are to be detestable to you. You shall not eat meat from them and you should detest their carcasses. ¹² Whatever has neither fins nor scales in the waters, that is a detestable thing to you.

¹³ “Among the birds you should detest the following—they are not to be eaten—they are loathsome: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, ¹⁴ the red kite, any kind of black kite, ¹⁵ any kind of raven, ¹⁶ the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, ¹⁷ the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, ¹⁸ the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, ¹⁹ the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.

²⁰ “All flying insects that walk on all fours are detestable to you. ²¹ Yet you may eat from all winged creeping things that go on all fours, which have legs above their feet, with which to hop on the earth. ²² You may eat from any kind of locust, any kind of katydid, any kind of cricket and any kind of grasshopper. ²³ But all winged creeping things that have four feet are loathsome to you.

²⁴ “Moreover, by these also you will become unclean: whoever touches their carcasses shall be unclean until the evening. ²⁵ Whoever carries any part of their carcass is to wash his clothes, and will be unclean until the evening. ²⁶ “Every animal with a separating hoof but not split, or does not chew cud, is unclean to you. Everyone who touches them will become unclean. ²⁷ So whatever moves on its paws, among all animals that go on all fours, is unclean to you. Whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean until the evening. ²⁸ Whoever carries their carcasses, is to wash his clothes and will be unclean until the evening. They are unclean to you.

²⁹ “Among the creeping things that creep on the earth, the following are unclean to you: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, ³⁰ the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon. ³¹ Among all that creep these are the ones that are unclean to you. Whoever touches them when they are dead, will be unclean until the evening. ³² Whatever falls on them when they are dead will become unclean, whether it is any vessel of wood, or clothing, or skin, or sackcloth. Whatever vessel it is, with which any work is done, it must be put into water, and it will be unclean until the evening, then it will be clean.

³³ “Now if any of them falls into a clay pot, everything that is in it will become unclean, and you are to break it. ³⁴ Any food that may be eaten but has water on it from such a pot will become unclean. Also any drink that may be drunk in any such pot will become unclean. ³⁵ Everything on which part of their carcass falls will become unclean. An oven or stove for pots is to be broken in pieces. They are unclean and will be unclean to you. ³⁶ Nevertheless, a spring or a cistern for collecting water will be clean, though anyone who touches their carcass will become unclean. ³⁷ If part of a carcass falls on any seed for sowing that has yet to be sown, it is clean. ³⁸ But if water is put on the seed, and part of a carcass falls on it, it is unclean to you. ³⁹ “If any animal that you may eat dies, the one who touches its carcass will become unclean until the evening. ⁴⁰ He who eats of its carcass is to wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening. Also, the one who carries its carcass is to wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening.

⁴¹ “Every creeping thing that crawls on the earth is detestable—it should not be eaten. ⁴² Whatever moves on its belly or crawls on all fours or has many feet among all the creeping things that crawl on the earth, these you are not to eat, for they are detestable. ⁴³ You are not to contaminate yourselves with any creeping thing that crawls nor make yourselves unclean with them or defiled by them.

⁴⁴ “For I am Adonai your God. Therefore, sanctify yourselves, and be holy, for I am holy. You are not to defile yourselves with any kind of creeping thing that moves on the earth. ⁴⁵ For I am Adonai who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God.^[a] Therefore, you shall be holy, for I am holy.

⁴⁶ “This is the Torah of the animal, the bird, every living creature that moves in the waters, and every creature that creeps on the earth, ⁴⁷ to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean, and between the living thing that may be eaten and the living thing that may not be eaten.”

When God created the angels and when God created human beings in God’s image/likeness, He knew everything before it happened, He knew that the highest angel was going to be ungrateful and rebel and cause 1/3 of the angels to rebel too, He knew that Eve (Chava in Hebew) would also be ungrateful and rebel, He knew that Adam would be ungrateful and fail from losing his focus on God the giver of the gift and instead Adam was focused on the gift God gave to him, Eve (Chava).

It was not like He created us, then we rebelled, and then He realized He made a mistake. God is perfect. He does not make mistakes. He is all knowing and knows everything. He is not a human and so it is hard for us to fully understand His capabilities.

So when God made the angels and the human beings, He also created a plan, this is God’s plan and not man’s plan, God made a plan of redemption and salvation for His possession and creation.

This is a divine plan that God has created from a long time ago, before He created time, space, angels, and human beings- so you can see how this is so significant and important to Him. He will not forget His plan of salvation for His possession and creation.

All of God’s Appointed Days together is a picture or map of His plan of salvation for us. Not only is it a moment in the future that we wait to come to happen, but it is for us to wait to happen every week and every year throughout our life time of following Him. It is a sanctuary in time, for His possession and creation. He gave this to us, for us. You can read a list of these Appointed Days in the book of Leviticus chapter 23.

Adonai (God in Hebrew) invites us to set a time and space to meet with Him every week (Saturday Shabbat) and every year (Spring and Fall Shabbats).

Sometimes people call these Appointed Days: Biblical holidays, Jewish holidays, Feast Days, Festivals, or Shabbats.

These days have such deep meaning that in the process of observing these Appointed Days, if we observe them out of love and not legalism (legalism means doing something to earn a ticket to heaven), the Holy Spirit sanctifies us.

For me personally, it is valuable to me because it is a way for me to show love to God the way He wants us to, not the way I want to, and it is so special to me because I see it as a process of sanctification.

As you learn the significance of each of this Holy Shabbat Days, you will come to understand how it can be a lifetime process of sanctification to prepare us for the return of the King Yeshua, God in the Son, God’s Son.

Please make sure to subscribe to my email list so that you can receive more in depth bible study of the Appointed Days.

Note: In Hebrew, Appointed Day, singular=moed, plural=moedim.

Weekly Holy Day:

Sabbath:

Past-God created the world in 6 days, He could have created it in 1 day or a moment. He numbered all of the days and only named one of the days, which was the 7th day, the Shabbat (Sabbath) day. He declared the 7th day to be a Shabbat, a holy day, as a memorial for His possession and His creation. He loves us that much!

Present-It is a day of ceasing. Ceasing means to stop. Trust is faith in action. As we cease to pursue to achieve our plans and goals, we are giving it over the our God, we are trusting Him with our works here. We know we can stop planning and pursuing because we can trust that after Shabbat, God has it already planned out for us to succeed. Shabbat is a reminder that we have an amazing God that is sovereign in our life, and that we can rely on Him and His plans, not rely on ourselves and our plans. It is a sanctuary in time and in that produces a rest, healing, and sanctification. Rest, health/strength, and holiness are the by products.

Future-to be fulfilled when the Messiah returns and reigns for a 1000 years. So you can see the weekly Shabbat is a big deal. It is important to our God and should be important to all that will have salvation in Yeshua the Messiah.

Spring Annual Holy Days:

Passover:

Past- The Hebrew slaves in Egypt were commanded by God to take an unblemished 1 year old lamb and take care of it for 4 days and then sacrifice it to Adonai (God in Hebrew), and put the blood on the door post. Those that had faith and obeyed, every first-born’s lives in the house will be spared. (Exodus 12)

Present- We observe this day to worship and honor our God, because Yeshua the Messiah (God in the Son), was our Passover Lamb once and for all. He had no sin but as a sin sacrifice, our sins were transferred to Him, so that we can be redeemed (our penalty fee was paid for, we were bought back from the devil). Now that we are cleansed by His sacrifice, we can have the Holy Spirit indwelling in us now (to be discussed in Shavuot/Pentecost).

Future- Yeshua the Messiah has already fulfilled this Moed (Appointed Day) when He first came down from Heaven to Earth. In this context, fulfilled means to make happen and to bring into fullness, it does not mean to delete, terminate, or abolish. The only change from this fulfillment is that we do not have to sacrifice animals for our sins anymore, because we are such sinners that no blood of any creation can redeem us, only God’s life and blood can save us. So He sent His Son in a human form. He emptied His Godship and came as a human. But remember, He is God, so when He returns to Israel, Earth, He will come in His fullness, His full Godship.

Unleavened Bread:

Past-The Lord commanded the Hebrew people to not make bread with yeast and instead eat bread that has no yeast for a week. This was because they were in a rush to leave Egypt. After the Lord gave the pharoah at that time, many chances and he refused 10 times, which led to the 10 plagues. The Lord rescued the Hebrew slaves and brought them out of Egypt and delivered them. He gave them freedom so that they can learn to serve and worship Him again.

Present- This holy week is to praise God for liberation from enslavement. When the wicked rules over His people, His people are forced to sin against God. Now that we have freedom, we ought to honor that freedom. We remember our past, not to glorify evil, but to be grateful for the freedom and blessings we have now. For those of us that believe in Yeshua as our Messiah and God in the Son, some of us may ask “but how does this pertain to me, I was not in Egypt?” Well Yeshua being our Passover Lamb, believing in His deity (Godship), spared us our life so we can have a chance to be in His Presence and worship Him again. He rescued us from Egypt, Egypt resembles our past sinful life, a life enslaved and controlled by the devil. In God’s love, there is freedom, love, and life. The yeast resembles sin in this context, so before this week, we take time to remove any sin, even the small ones hidden in our heart, mind, and life, we give it to the Lord to help us remove them, cleanse us, and conform us to be more and more like Him, every day, and every year.

Future: Yeshua already fulfilled this Moed at His first coming down to Earth as the Suffering Servant, Passover Lamb, and our Eternal High Priest after His resurrection- but as we read above in the Passover section, in the future when He returns again, this time in His fullness of Godship, not as a human, if we believe in God’s Son (God in the Son Yeshua) then our faith in Him, His holy living blood spares us from the wrath of the Lord. I can only speculate that this week can parallel with our deliverance by Yeshua from this world controlled by the Pharoah of this world. We will not have to experience the wrath of the Lord, which is not the same as the tribulation time of the Anti-Messiah (Anti-Christ).

There are many details in the Jewish traditions that have deeper meaning and purpose revealed or unconcealed with having faith in Yeshua the Jewish Messiah as God in the Son. Please subscribe to my email to receive more in depth Torah (Bible) Study.

First Fruit:

Past- The Lord spoke to Moses and told him to tell the Hebrews when they arrive to the Promised Land and become a nation “Israel”, and when they reap its harvest, they shall bring the “sheaf” of the “first fruits” of their harvest to the priest (the priest served in the Tabernacle until the Temple was build by King Solomon in Jerusalem, before Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) came down to Earth, this was known as the dwelling-place of God). The priest waves the sheaf before the Lord for Israel so that Israel may be accepted. On the day after the Shabbat (Sabbath) the priest must wave it. On the day the priest waves the sheaf, the Israelites are to offer a male lamb 1 year old without blemish (no disease, no broken bone, perfect). A sheaf is a bundle of grain stalks laid lengthwise and tied together after reaping. By definition, first fruits is the first agriculture produce of a season, especially when given as an offering to God. Why? The explanation is not in Leviticus 23 (?? Check in other version and parts of the Bible??) but I believe this is so we are to remember that our deliverance and provision are from the Lord, not by our own capabilities, but by the Lord’s Spirit and divine power, by His love, compassion, and grace.

Present- We shall remember to worship, praise, and live a life with the Lord because He rescued us from being slaves and rescued us from being controlled by the adversary, and we shall show honor and respect to the “first fruits” of the harvest. We, as followers of Yeshua (Jesus), we are part of the harvest. Yeshua is the first of the resurrected and is our Eternal High Priest and our spotless and perfect Lamb. He came as a human, suffered on the cross as our sin sacrifice, and resurrected. Not because He is one of us, but proof that He is the living God, with power over life and death. Proof that He is the most almighty, the most humble, and the most holy. The barley harvest is the saints of the Tanach (Old Testament/Covenant), those that were sleeping before Yeshua’s coming down to Earth. We shall honor them, the first fruits, the forefathers, the patriarch and matriarch of our family (even if you are a gentile grafted into the family and covenant). The wheat harvest are the saints of the Brit Chadashah (Renewed Covenant/New Testament-Covenant). The tares are not part of God’s harvest but they are present in the field. They are fake believers or false teachers, in which written in Scriptures, will be separated from the wheat in the end times before King and God in the Son Yeshua returns.

Future- This Moed is already fulfilled when Messiah and King Yeshua, God in the Son, resurrected from the dead proving He is the living God. If you do a careful study on this, He resurrected on Shabbat (Saturday) near the end of Shabbat (Saturday evening). There are different interpretations as to when He resurrected and this is not shared to divide us. We can read in John 20:1, that Messiah and King Yeshua revealed the truth of His Godship, that He resurrected from the dead, alive again, that He has power over life and death, on Sunday the first day of the week, when it was dark, before sunrise. So this means Saturday night or Sunday morning. What I am sharing here is written in the Bible. But in Leviticus chapter 23, the Lord commanded us to observe the Moed First Fruits on a Sunday. Now going back to Yeshua’s fulfillment of this Moed. Soon after He resurrected, we can read in Matthew 27:52-53, that the tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life, and they went into the Holy City and appeared to many. We can read in John 20:17-18 that when Yeshua appeared to Mary (Miriam in Hebrew) of Magdalene, He told her “do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” We can read in John 20:26-27, that 8 days after the resurrection, the Messiah and King Yeshua appeared to Thomas and allowed Him to touch Him. This reveals that Yeshua fulfilled the Moed First Fruits. He resurrected, the Tanach (Old Tesament) saints resurrected, and He brought them up to Heaven to offer to the Father Adonai as His first fruits offering. That does not mean to sacrifice them again, it just means to offer to the Lord, so that Israel may be accepted (Leviticus 23:11).

Moed “Weeks” leading up to “Pentecost/Shavuot”:

Past- We can read in Leviticus chapter 23, the Lord told Moses to tell the children of Israel to count 7 weeks from the day of Moed First Fruits. I assume for clarification, we read in Leviticus chapter 23, that the children of Israel needs to count 50 days from the Shabbat of Passover week. So from my understanding, they are to start counting 7 weeks from Sunday (49 days) or from the Shabbat (50 days). Then they are to present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord. They are to bring two loaves of bread and wave it to the Lord. This bread is to be made of “fine” flour (“fine” emphasizes a worthy offering, not cheap offering) have yeast/leaven and as a first fruits offering to the Lord. They are not to reap all of their harvest  of their land, but to leave the gleanings and the harvest at the edges of the land for the sojourner. That statement ends with, “I am the Lord your God.”  That last part is to show us that the Lord is compassionate and so all of God’s children should be compassionate to sojourners too. So what is the new grain? Why are there two loaves of bread? Why are they considered First Fruits too?

Present- Remember to worship the Lord that gave us deliverance from slavery and death and gives us provision. So how? What are these 50 days about? In Torah/Bible, we read that we are to count the days and the omer. What is an omer? We are to follow Yeshua’s example, we are not the high priest, but we are to be His nation of priests. We must intercede for those that are in the body of Yeshua, Israel, and the rest of the nations. Are we praying for Israel and the nations? Are we sharing the Good News, planting seed, growing and building the body of Yeshua and His Kingdom with the gifts and ministry that we have that are appointed by Yeshua and given to us by the power of the Holy Spirit?

Yeshua said the harvest is great but the workers are few. But He also said that many are called but few are chosen. I believe we can all serve and plant seeds but as for actively working in our ministry, I believe we should be mature, sound, and equipped or else we can unintentionally turn people away from the truth or mislead others.

Perhaps this is what Yeshua means when He said there are not enough workers? Because if you look around, looks like there are many servants right? Pastors, Evangelists, Prophets, Apostles, we see them on the streets or knocking on doors, visiting people in the prison or hospitals, on youtube, radio, podcasts, books, and all around the world. I am not saying all of them are inadequate but I think there are an amount that are inadequate, either unintentionally and are immature or intentionally as false teacher.

It is easier to want to do something than to actually do something. But with the Holy Spirit, His power and help can make it possible for us to conform into a person that reflect God’s likeness and image, helps us walk in the mitzvot (commandments), and helps us to do God’s work if we have the proper heart condition and if we are persevering in the Lord’s work.

So how do we grow and mature? Before we discuss that, I want to inform or remind us that there is no graduation end point. Does not matter how many times we read the Torah/Bible or how long we have been a follower of Yeshua. Learning to know the Lord, growing closer to the Lord, and the sanctification process is everyday of our life and not just a one-time process.

I learned this from my Hebrew teacher and we believe that the number 40 can mean “a time of change” and the number 10 can mean “a time of testing”. Like I said, if you subscribe to my email, you can receive a more in depth Bible Study. So the 40 days represent the time that Yeshua taught the disciples/talmidim about the Good News so that they can tell the rest of Israel and all the nations. Then Yeshua ascended to the Father Adonai in Heaven. He told them to wait until Pentecost/Shavuot (another 10 days) in Jerusalem because He would send the Holy Spirit down to Earth to be with us and write the law on our heart. Remember after His resurrection, when He appeared to the disciples, He gave them the Holy Spirit. On this 50 day, the Holy Spirit was sent down to Earth and the the Holy Spirit gave them gifts and helped them to share the Good News. So my belief is that we are supposed to grow daily but especially these 40 days. What can we learn to know Yeshua better by knowledge? The only way to know the Father and Holy Spirit, is to learn to know Yeshua. What can we do to know Yeshua better by applying the knowledge into our life, our actions and words, our heart and mind? And in those 10 days, I believe our heart is searched and our faith is tested. Can we remain firm in our faith when things get challenging and we don’t hear the Lord? Will we wait and trust in His promises?

Future- This Moed is the last of the Spring Moedim. The Spring Moedim are fulfilled already by Messiah and King Yeshua at His first coming to Earth. As discussed earlier, after Messiah and King Yeshua resurrected from death to life, spirit and body, He was on Earth for 40 days teaching the disciples/talmidim about the Good News and why He had to suffer on the cross and give up His life and resurrection and why He has to ascend to the Father Adonai and why He will return again in the end times. After those 40 days, He ascended and told the disciples to wait until Pentecost/Shavuot (10 days after) in Jerusalem to receive His gift. What if the disciples did not trust the Lord and did not stay in Jerusalem to receive the gift that Yeshua promised? They would have failed the testing of their heart and faith and separate from the Lord, depriving themselves of His gift of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The non-believing Jews (or we can call them rabbinical Jews) observe and commemorate Pentecost/Shavuot as the day that the Lord gave the children of Israel the 10 commandments and the rest of the Torah. They were given on stones. Believing Jews (or we can call them biblical or messianic Jews) also commemorate that event but we also observe it because we know that Yeshua engraved the law on our heart instead of stones. This is also a fulfillment of the holy scriptures Ezekiel 36: 26-27.

Fall Annual Holy Days:

Moed Trumpets or Day of Shouting:

Past- The Lord told Moses to speak (speak is by mouth) to the children of Israel to observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of shofars (trumpets), a holy convocation. The believing Jews (also known as rabbinical Jews, which is different from Messianic or Biblical believing Jews) observe this day as the day the Lord finished creating the whole world. They observe this as New Year’s Day in the Hebrew calendar. This is when the calendar year changes. For example, changing year 2024 to 2025. But they still acknowledge (although not celebrated) that the Lord instructed in the book of Exodus, that the first month in God’s calendar (Hebrew) calendar is called “Nissan”. The first month is called Nissan and is in Spring, the month of Pesach/Passover.  Some Messianics believe that Yeshua’s earthly birth date is 1^st of Nissan, not December 25. Again, this is not shared to divide. As one of my messianic rabbi say, we should not divide over our differences so long as it is not a salvation issue. What is an example of a salvation issue? When someone claims to be a messianic believer of Yeshua and believe everything messianic believers believe except that Yeshua and Holy Spirit is not God, we must know they are not a true follower, believer, and child of God. They can stay in the congregation (unless I am misinterpreting scriptures about not plucking out the tares until the end, allow them to grow with the wheat, bc if the tares are to be removed, that can remove the wheat/real believers unintentionally) but they cannot take any teaching roles or any servant roles in the congregation at all. I would not let them lead me in a bible study nor lead a prayer since they reject Yehsua and the Holy Spirit’s deity. There is one God but in 3 persons and are equal.

Present- The month before this holy day, called Elul, is a time of reflecting on our good deeds and bad deeds, a time of giving thanks and praise to our God yet a time of repentance, asking the Lord to have mercy on us and forgive us, and take actions to resolve conflicts and change our behavior. Although as believers in Yeshua, we know that it is not by our works that we can have forgiveness and salvation but by Yeshua’s sacrifice and resurrection, that we can have forgiveness and salvation-and that our change comes from the power and help of the Holy Spirit. On this holy day, we blow or blast the sound of shofars or we shout, in honor and anticipation for when the Messiah God in the Son returns to rescue Israel and all those that call on the Name of Yeshua.

Future- A shofar blast can be for many different reasons, for the end times, it is a warning to repent quickly because judgment is coming quickly, it also blasted when judgement is here, and it is also blasted for the coronation of our King of kings, our Jewish Messiah, that returns to Israel, Earth, in His full Godship, not as a human. This is speculated to be fulfilled when Yeshua the Messiah returns to save and deliver His people.

Day of Atonement:

Past: the Lord told Moses to tell the children of Israel that this day shall be a holy convocation and said that they have to afflict themselves because it is a day to make atonement for them before the Lord. Shabbat are known for celebration and feasting, not fasting, but we can read in Leviticus 23:32 that this is also a day of Shabbat. It is a day of affliction so I think in this context, the word Shabbat is because we are to stop our daily task and put our focus on the Lord because we can also read in this chapter that this is a day of rest and no daily work are to be done.

Present: It is the holiest day in Rabbinical Judaism (non-believing Judaism) and the non-believing Jews fast on this day. They depend on how many good deeds they have done over the bad deeds that would allow them to be sealed in the Book of Life. And they reconcile with anyone that they have transgressed. For the Biblical Messianic Believing (in Yeshua-Jesus) Jews and Non-Jews, this is also a very holy day for us, and we afflict ourselves so that we can pray for Israel and the non-believing Jews, and to be one with Israel. But since we know that Yeshua is our sacrifice and atonement once and for all, and we know that we have salvation by grace and not by our own works/deeds because our salvation is by grace and what Yeshua-Jesus did on Passover for us, I take this time to remember what He did for me, how He saved me in a mighty, holy, and humble way- wrath of the Lord and eternal separation from Him. And I look forward to the time where we can be in front of the Lord in His throne and to be sealed in the Lamb’s Book of Life. I could not understand this before because I saw that God is so great yet so far from us that we would not know if we would be saved or not. But now that I know and understand the Lord a little more, that He is compassionate and wants a relationship/fellowship with us daily and wants us to have eternal salvation and not to perish, I can trust that I can be a part of His promises. We can read about this “assurance” in 1 John chapter 2. But we are to live in repentance daily and we do fall short daily so I can also take this day as a more intentional repentance.

Future:

Since the Lord has fulfilled the Spring Moedum perfectly and holy purposefully, we the believing Jews (biblical/messianic Judaism, not rabbinical Judaism) and believing Non-Jews trusts that Messiah and King Yeshua will be fulfilling these Fall Moedim and Weekly Moed (Saturday Shabbat) at His next and final return down to Earth. This time He will not be coming as a human but in His fullness of Godship. We believe this moed will be fulfilled in the end times when Yeshua will give His final judgment and seal our names in His Book of Life.

Booths/Shelters:

Past-Remembering the time the Hebrews were in the wilderness and the Lord provided all that they needed in their temporary mobile dwelling.

Present-We build sukka/booths/shelters to remind us that we are in temporary dwelling, the Lord provides and protects us, the Lord is with us as we move towards the Promised Land. We have meals and conversations in the Sukka with family, friends, and neighbors.

Future-Wedding Feast of the Lamb (Jewish tradition is that when the bride and groom gets married, their wedding celebrations last a week and they have to spend time together for a week. Work and military cannot separate them for that week; This is also biblical, you can see that Israel/Jacob had a week wedding celebration with Leah and then another week with Rachel).

Joy of Torah/The 8th Day:

Past-In Leviticus chapter 23, there are no explanation as to why to gather and have a holy convocation.

Present-Celebrating that God’s Word never ends, it is everlasting, we finish the Torah and we scroll it back to the beginning, we hug and parade with the Torah in the congregation.

Future-The New Jerusalem.