[Written to be read on Sunday 11th October 2020 (23 Tishrei 5871)]
Today is Simchat Torah (Rejoicing in the Torah) where the year-long reading cycle of the Torah books come to a climactic close to then recommence at the beginning once again; Simchat Torah closes the story of salvation at the end of the Book of Deuteronomy to begin again with the Book of Genesis.
The meaning of this journey from the first to the fifth book of the Torah is both embedded in, and dispersed throughout, the seven biblical feasts outlined in the Book of Leviticus 23:
1. The Sabbath (Shabbat)
2. Passover (Pesach)
3. Unleavened Bread (Matzot)
4. First Fruits & Weeks (Bikkurim & Shavu’ot)
5. Trumpets (Rosh Hashana / Yom Teruah);
6. The Day of Atonement (Yom haKippurim);
7. Tabernacles / Tents / Booths (Sukkot)
“And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.”
(Leviticus 23:1-2)
Since reading The Sabbath by A.J. Heschel prior to Passover 2019, and celebrating my 26th birthday on the Day of Atonement on the very same year, I’ve been particularly interested in the layers of meaning embedded in the celebration of the biblical feasts.
However, it is not just because they are biblical that I’m interested and it is not just legalistic ritualism or religious fanaticism as to why I find myself following them. Rather, it is because I realise that partaking in them to a reasonable degree permits us taste several layers of spiritual significance; I find that they are prophetic because they are embedded with meaning that originates in, but extends beyond, Jewish blood and Hebrew-Israelite heritage to confirm a spiritual truth relevant for all people at all times.
These seven feasts and their dispersion through the Hebrew-Jewish calendar are climactic chapters in a seven-stage story contextualised in the agricultural year; the festivals are critical checkpoints in the Torah’s seven-stage narrative throughout the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy retelling a sojourn from suffering and affliction towards the salvation of God.
The first and recurrent checkpoint in the sojourn is the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day was, and remains, one of rest and repletion and a microcosm of the final destination for the Hebrew Israelites’ pilgrimage to the Promised Land.
Back then, the Torah served as God’s Law that instructed God’s chosen people how to conduct themselves on their journey away from the slavery and suffering of Egypt, and towards the final Sabbath of God’s salvation. Today, the Torah serves as God’s cyclical story for His chosen people that works as a roadmap of deliverance to the very same Day of rest and repletion. This roadmap works as God’s promise and provision for all people who truly seek Him, whether Jew or Gentile.
Despite being born & bred in Britain from Black African descent, this promise of an everlasting time of rest and repletion speaks to me. Through my own Black African blood and heritage, I am encouraged to reach out to Jews and confirm our shared spiritual DNA. This spiritual DNA is embedded with a past of persecution, oppression and exploitation; a shared history encountering hatred, slavery and profiteering.
“Now therefore, our God, We thank You, and praise Your glorious name.
(1 Chronicles 29: 13-15)
But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from You, and of Your own we have given You.
For we are aliens and pilgrims before You, as *were* all our fathers …”
From the outside, my enthusiasm for these feasts might seem like cultural appropriation, but instead it’s a recognition of spiritual relation between Jew and (Black) Gentile that looks beyond genetic differences and identifies in a way that simply says “I’m with you” and “you’re like me”.
“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
(Acts 17:24-28)
Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ ”
The seventh and most recent checkpoint in the sojourn is Sukkot (Tabernacles/Tents/Booths). Sukkot was, and continues to be, a week-long feast celebrated in the seventh month (Tishrei). During this time, native-born Jews are instructed to re-enact the pilgrimage of their forefathers by living in tents.
“You shall keep it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
(Leviticus 23:33-44)
You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths […]”
This week is unique as it is acknowledged as an eight-day week that begins and ends with a holy gathering of God’s people and produce; it is unique as the first and last two days – Hoshana Rabbah & Shemeni Atzeret – of this feast observe God’s Sabbath and celebrate God’s provision.
“Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the LORD *for* seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-*rest* and on the eighth day a sabbath-*rest*.
Leviticus 23:33-44
Also you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.”
As my 27th birthday fell on the Seventh day of Sukkot – Hoshana Rabbah – this year (Oct. 9th 2020), I chose to celebrate the eighth-day Sabbath by setting-apart time to half-cook and cater intimate plant-based dinners with loved ones from all walks of my life’s journey (three groups of six).
“Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Leviticus 23:33-44
‘Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month *shall be* the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the LORD.
On the first day *there shall be* a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work *on it*.
*For* seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a sacred assembly, *and* you shall do no customary work *on it*. […]”
Back then, this feast was observed and celebrated in the midst of the Hebrew-Israelite pilgrimage to the Promised Land. Currently, it is observed and celebrated by Jews to remember their shared heritage and future hope in the World to Come (Olam Haba). I chose to celebrate this feast by inviting people to come together in the midst of their modern-day individual journeys to share in what is most sacred; to remember that, despite our differences and divergent paths, we are all in this pilgrimage to salvation together.
On Simchat Torah, joy is found in shared heritage and hope is found in God’s seven-stage story of salvation, from the first to the fifth book of the Torah and back again; rejoicing in the Torah is to celebrate it as a cyclical story that we are ingrafted into that begins and ends in the joy of God’s salvation.
“Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever,
Psalms 119: 105-112
For they *are* the rejoicing of my heart.
I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes
Forever, to the very end.”
Bibliography
(Anon.) 1982. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Booker, R. 2016. Celebrating Jesus in the Biblical Feasts. USA: Destiny Image Publishers, Inc.
Heschel, A.J. 1951. The Sabbath. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Navone, John J. 1979. Seeking God in Story. Collegeville, Minesota: Liturgical Press.
Pitre, B. 2011. Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist. New York: Image.
Sy 'Adamah #SageSpeaks 
I liked the link between between the African & Jew (Shared persecution). That was interesting & significant. I see the thought process; it’s more than a feast, a day, but part of a cycle, a journey, markets, checkpoints, with significance, which currently is still slightly beyond my understanding.
Encouraged to re-visit the Old Testament. To read it like a road map & understand his pattern more. It’s important.
Shalom
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I’m glad you liked the link between the African and the Jew as I feel like it’s overlooked despite it feeling like an obvious similarity between us.
You’ve got it despite thinking it’s beyond you. The feast and the day is more than just another holiday but a holy day.
I would recommend following along with Chabad.org’s calendar where it has daily/weekly readings that are aligned with the cycle: https://www.chabad.org/calendar/view/day.asp?tdate=10/27/2020
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