Archive for the ‘Holidays- Holy Days’ Category

8th, 9th & 10th of Tevet Fast Days

Posted: December 17, 2010 in Holidays- Holy Days
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Today (12/17/10) is the 10th of Tevet  on the Hebrew calendar. The 8th, 9th and 10th of Tevet have great historical significance and all of these 3 dates are dates remembered with fasting. 

On the 8th of Tevet 132 BC,  the Greek King Ptolemy II had 72 (6 from each of the 12 Tribes) translate the Torah into Greek. It became know as the Septuagint. Following the translation from Hebrew to Greek, there was 3 days of total darkness over the land (Tevet 8-10). It is believed that the darkness was due to the fact that the Torah would no longer be treated with great reverance and holiness, but with the Greek mindset that everything had to be reasoned out and understood mentally. At this time the Holy Torah was downgraded, from the supernatural (spiritual) to the natural (mental).

On the 9th of Tevet, 4th Century BC, Ezra the scribe died. He was the founder of the Great Assembly, a body of 120 prophets and sages who established important matters like the standard text found in Jewish prayer books today.

On the 10th of Tevet, 587 BC, Babylonia King Nebuchadnezzar began his siege of Jerusalem. Actually, there was little damage on that first day and no Jews were killed, yet it began a chain of disasters which ended with the destruction of the Holy Temple seven months later on the 9th of Av. The 10th of Tevet is still observed today by Jews as a public fast day, as mentioned by the prophet Zechariah (8:19).

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/141201 

This is a time to draw close to God, to humble ourselves before Him and bring back the holy fear of God into our lives.

Hanukkah / Chanukah

Posted: December 1, 2010 in Holidays- Holy Days
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Tonight at sundown begins the 8 day Hebrew festival of Hanukkah. It is also spelled Chanukah, or called the Festival of Lights or Feast or Dedication. The word Hanukkah itself means “re-dedication“. This festival is always from Kislev 25 to Tevet 2 on the Hebrew calendar, but on the calendar we use in our everyday lives it falls on different Gregorian calendar days. This is the only holiday (holy day) that covers 2 months. 

John 10:22, “And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.”  The NLT Bible reads “It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah” 

In John 8:12 & 9:5 Jesus says that He is the light of this world. In Matthew 5:14 Jesus says that we are to be the light of this world. We can only be the light of this world by reflecting the true Light of Jesus. As we behold the glory of His face, we will shine in this world’s present darkness. 

This is not one of the 7 Feasts of the Lord, but a memorial holiday. They remember the miracle that happened and to celebrate the miracle and provision on that first Hanukkah in 167 BC. The holy temple of God had been defiled, to the extent that a pig was sacrificed on the holy altar of God by the successors of Alexander the Great. Judah Maccabee (The Hammer) organized a revolt and they succeeded in getting back the Holy Temple of God. The problem, cleaning up the unholiness and bringing back holiness into the Temple. There was only enough holy oil for the Menorah to light the Temple for 1 day and it took 8 days for the procedure to make the oil holy. A miracle happened when 1 day’s supply of oil lasted 8 days. On the 8th day they celebrated the miracle and from then until now, they celebrate and remember the miracles of God. 

This holiday (holy day) reminds us:

  • God’s miraculous provision– God never changes and Jesus who is the same yesterday, today and forever is still doing miracles
  • The defeat of our enemy, both spiritual and physical- we are to have an expectation of overcoming 
  • Dedication to God on a national level– expect God’s Light to awaken the Church, expect a Great Awakening on a national level
  • Jesus is the true Light of this world – ” Let there be light ! ” Bring out the beauty and truth of Jesus to a hurting world.
  • We are called to be light, but we must be light as He is Light and reflect the glory we find in our quiet times with Him.
  • As the Temples of God (1 Corinthians 3:16 & 6:19) we need to rededicate our bodies back to God. As we walk in this dark world it is easy to pick up the unholy habits and mindsets. Especially in these days prior to Christmas.
  • Remember– call back to your memory how God has miraculously provided. Be thankful and praise Him, as you draw near to Him – He will draw near to you.

To learn how to celebrate this holiday as a Christian see this link. There is a Bible reading for each of the 8 days. http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Winter_Holidays/Chanukah/chanukah.html

Tu B’Av (7/25/10)

Posted: August 2, 2010 in Holidays- Holy Days
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Shalom Havarim,
Tu B’Av is the 15th of the Hebrew month of Av and this year it falls on July 26, 2010. Because it is mid-month there will be a full moon.

“There were no holidays as joyous for the Jewish People as the fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur …” (Mishnah, Taanit)

15th of Av, Happy Day, Holiday of Love Yom Kippur is known as the “Wedding Day” of Israel to the Lord and Tu B’Av to be the day of Jewish weddings.

Burial Day  One can therefore appreciate the emotion of dread which would cause them, as the Midrash says, to dig their own graves on the night of Tisha B’Av, the anniversary of their Great Sin, and lie in them. In the morning, Moshe (Moses) would proclaim, “Separate yourselves from the Living!” After a horrible moment of uncertainty, all but fifteen thousand would arise from their graves, “happy” that they had survived another year. On the fortieth Tisha B’Av, they followed this practice, but this time, nobody died. Thinking they had erred in their calculation, they repeated the exercise the next night, and the next, until, on the Fifteenth of Av, they saw a full moon, and knew that they could not have erred, and rejoiced that Hashem had shown mercy on the last fifteen thousand. On the 15th of Av on the 40th year in the Wilderness, the punishment for the evil report of 10 of the 12 spies was finally ended.

15th of Av, Happy Day, Holiday of Love Yom Kippur is known as the “Wedding Day” of Israel to the LORD and Tu B’Av is the day of Jewish weddings or engagements.

Day of finding one’s predestined soul-mate with dancing in the Vineyard. It is now known as Chag Ha’Ahavah, the festival of love- the Jewish version of Valentine’s Day. Yom Kippur and Av 15 both are dates for prospective marriage partners. The remnant 600 from the tribe of Benjamin were allowed to pick virgins to keep the tribe alive after the massacre with the other 11 tribes, (Judges 21:18-23). Story begins with “At this time there was no king in Israel” and ends with “Each man did that which was right in his own eyes.”

Burial of the Beitar Victims  Beitar was the stronghold of Bar Kockba, who led the last Jewish revolution against the Romans. Roman General Adaryanus massacred the fighters of Beitar and there were rivers of blood and hundred of thousands of Jewish corpses. The general did not allow the bodies to be buried, but rather piled them up. When a new Roman general arrived, he allowed the burial of the bodies on the 15th of Av. (Recorded miracle that there was no smell from the decomposing bodies during that time)

Axe-breaking Day No more wood would be cut down for the Holy Altar burning because of the shortness of daylight for drying out the fresh cut logs (to make sure they had no worms or bugs).

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/53683/jewish/The-Day-of-the-Breaking-of-the-Ax.htm

King Hoshea of Israel removed the guards from the border to Judah and allowed the people to go to Jerusalem and worship. This is the only good thing recorded that this wicked king did. The day the borders were opened was the 15th of Av

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Modern_Holidays/Tu_BAv.shtml

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/tubav.html

the gemara (Taanit 30b-31a) lists seven reasons to celebrate Tu b’Av, and three of them offer the underwhelming applause line, “We didn’t die!” 

:http://rechovot.blogspot.com/2010/07/tu-bav-holiday-of-hitting-rock-bottom.html

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