The Ten Days of Awe – Why Study the Jewish Holy Days and Biblical Feasts?

The Ten Days of Awe – Why Study the Jewish Holy Days and Biblical Feasts?  (this post is in process and incomplete at this time).

“These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.” (Lev. 23:2).

Like millions of others, we have a home that strives to be Christ-centered, that seeks to nurture the truth of the Christian faith in our children. But at the same time we celebrate many Jewish traditions in order to nurture that faith. Why is that? Much of our motivation to add rituals from Hebrew Scripture or history, fulfilled in Christ, to our family life is due to our recognition of the Jewish roots to our Christian faith. We believe in the value of:

1. immersing ourselves in the same Bible that Jesus used, memorized and lived by;
2. studying the Jewish Bible (OT) as the long, exciting, helpful prelude to the Main Event;
3. learning from those believers who paved the way for the Messiah, savoring the stories of triumph and tragedy, and the fascinating events, that were the building blocks for Christ’s appearing in the flesh;
4. learning from the bloodline and heritage of our Savior;
5. utilizing the full-bodied, multi-sensory, experiential way children were taught in the Jewish homes;
6. exploring biblical ways to live out Scripture and learn from experience, which is how children, and all the rest of us, learn best;
7. using our family celebrations as vehicles for hospitality, as events in our home for friends and neighbors;
8. respecting our Lord by relishing the religious faith that He embraced and completed;
9. pondering and learning the deep spiritual truths revealed by the Jewish feasts and holy days, seeing as how these very truths lead inevitably to Jesus Christ the Messiah.

It’s amazing, and instructive, how family-centric the Hebrew Bible is. It appears that a main component of Jewish faith development is the celebration of historical feasts and liturgies in the home. That was God’s strategy for how to hand down the Jewish faith, from one generation to the next. Homespun activities, centered on the Torah, were how Jewish children became true believers. And this was how Jesus himself grew in his faith, through the religious orthodoxy of Joseph and Mary. That is something to seriously consider, isn’t it? Maybe OT rituals are ways to nurture the Christian faith as well.

Thinking With Both Hands: ON THE ONE HAND THIS, AND ON THE OTHER HAND THAT!

“The Christian faith is divinely revealed and is securely anchored in the Hebrew Bible. God breathed his word into the minds of the biblical authors within a Jewish cultural environment. Consequently, for us, in the most succinct terms, ‘to ignore Hebraic ways of thinking is to subvert Christian understanding.’ We must therefore focus on the language and thought-patterns found in the Scriptures so that we are able to penetrate the mind of the Hebrew people. When we enter their civilization and view it through their eyes, we find that the contour of their thought is vibrant, rich and colorful. It has its own nuances and features. Indeed, the Hebraic background to Christian thought is at the heart of the rich spiritual legacy that the Jews have shared with Christians.” (Dr. Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith)

Tendencies in Ways of Thinking: “The message of the New Testament is in the Hebrew tradition as against the Greek tradition. Our tutors to Christ are Moses and the Prophets, and not Plato and the Academies.” (Norman Snaith, The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament).

HEBREW THINKING                                          WESTERN THINKING

1. Embrace 2 Truths in Tension                  Seek 1 Truth Exclusively
2. Story, Meal and Song                                Catechism, Doctrine, Lecture
3. Embrace Paradox/Mystery                      Design a Logical System
4. Trust the Immeasurables                         Trust the Measurables
5. Poetic/Imaginative                                    Linear/Sequential
6. Community/Interdependent                   Individual/Independent
7. Experiential/Multi-Sensory                     Cerebral/Rationalistic
8. Theonomy/Responding to God               Theology/Defining God
9. Functional Faith/Deeds                            Propositional Faith/Creeds
10. Practical/Tangible/Earthy                        Theoretical/Abstract
11. Describe and Demonstrate                        Explain and Analyze

“When we open the Bible, we are invited to undergo a kind of intellectual conversion to the Hebrew world of the East.” (R. Martin-Achard, An Approach to the Old Testament).

I may be doing a little bit of stereotyping here, but for the most part these tendencies mentioned above are true to my experience as a lifelong Christian, Western in my upbringing but more Hebrew in my preference in my later years. I find that the more comfortable I am with Hebrew thinking, the better I can understand and be formed by that Jewish book, the Bible.

“I can no more understand Jesus apart from his Jewishness than I can understand Gandhi apart from his Indianness. I need to go way back, and picture Jesus as a first-century Jew…” (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew).

So, we celebrated many Jewish traditions and activities, as well as a number of Christian liturgies. Here is a brief overview:

Dinner Table. We believe in the sanctity of the daily dinner table, and how it was not a time for “business as usual.” We didn’t want to limit our time together to domestic details, daily minutia, homework, school matters. We wanted to discuss more important things, to pick each other’s brains about thoughts or experiences we’ve had, dilemmas to unpack, satisfying or happy moments to share, etc. We also wanted the table to be open to friends and acquaintances, who then add to the whole experience together.

Sabbath. Often we would gather on a Friday or Saturday night, with candles on the table and a nice meal. We turned off all technology, we prayed through the fairly brief Sabbath liturgy, during which we honored mom/wife, and dad would place his hands over each child to offer a fatherly blessing.

Passover. We would host a seder for the family and friends, reading through the formal haggadah liturgy, and close with one or two joyful songs of freedom. We would discuss how Jesus was the fulfillment of the Passover, a Lamb without blemish, who was sacrificed to give us life and freedom. It was important for us to honor the Jewish traditions while acknowledging that it points to Christ. So we would use all the elements of Jewish Passover, all of which have historical and spiritual meaning.

Tashlikh. This was a family time of repentance, fun and adventure. We would walk together in the dark late at night with flashlights to a source of “living water,” such as a stream, creek, or river. While walking in the dark, we would each gather little stones and put them in our pockets. When at the water site, we would each think about mistakes we have made, things we’re sorry for, and throw in the stones one at a time. And then we noted how God’s forgiveness covered those mistakes like the water covers over the stones, and we would watch as the stones disappeared into the bottom of the water. We would discuss how God removes our sins as far as the east is from the west, as far as the bottom of the sea where it is lost forever.

Sukkah. We made a temporary hut in the back yard with whatever we can find, to symbolize: the Jews in the wilderness; God’s faithfulness during insecure times; our wandering journey in this life; how God provides for and protects us during our temporary journey here before He provides a permanent shelter for us in the next life.

House Blessing. When we moved to a new house, we would invite a priest/pastor over soon after moving in, and we’d walk throughout the house, in each room, and throughout the property outside. The Blessing has prayers for each room and space, and led by candle light, we dedicated the house to God for His purposes. We liked inviting friends to join us in this Blessing.

We have found it doesn’t pay to be overly legalistic, rigid, or tedious with these traditions. There is plenty of room to enjoy spontaneity, to make age-appropriate adjustments, and of course each family can add their own particular flavor within the basic structure of the activity.

“I hate, I despise your religious feasts! I cannot stand your assemblies! Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs!”  (Amos 5:21-23).

On the one hand, Yahweh loved the Feasts and Sacred Assemblies seen in the Hebrew Bible… the fasting and feasting, the family celebrations, the remembrance of God’s saving deeds, the acknowledgment of God’s character, the focus on God’s truth. Of course God loved the Feasts! They were his ideas in the first place! “These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.” (Lev. 23:2). The Jewish Feasts and Assemblies were opportunities to remember, to worship, to teach, to listen to the Word of the Lord, and speak of His care and presence. They were intended to cause believers to reenact sacred events, to confirm the Faith of the people of God. Celebrations like Sabbath, Passover, Tashlikh and Succoth filled a deep need to offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving and to be reminded of God’s actions on behalf of the believers.  The people are spiritually fulfilled when they gain the habit of pointing to God as the supreme reference point in all of history.

But on the other hand, if these appointed spiritual activities become personally meaningless, if the words become empty, if the people are just going through the motions of faith, then the celebrations become repugnant to God, a stench in His nostrils. And how can the LORD tell if the Feasts are merely rote, useless and pointless? The answer according to the prophets: When the religious celebrations, whether in large groups or family settings, don’t result in a lifestyle of justice and mercy. If the biblical celebrations don’t result in a changed heart, in a transformed way of life that reflects the heart of God, then He says, Don’t bother! I hate your feasts if your faith style is empty and doesn’t reflect My priorities. Keeping the Law doesn’t necessarily translate to pleasing God. As Jesus told the Pharisees in Matthew 23:23, how ridiculous it is to observe the tiniest details of the Torah and at the same time ignore the weightier matters of justice, mercy and faithfulness.