Day#4: Leviticus 23:1-22 (Study Notes)
Parsha: Emor
Day#4: Leviticus 23:1-22
(Study Notes)
In chapter 23 of Leviticus, HaKadosh Baruch Hu communicates the various aspects of His fixed times—our Jewish Holy Days. After reminding us that He is our God, who brought us out of Mitzrayim, Hashem reiterates the various celebrations that we Jews partake in yearly in honor (mainly) of the very fact that He brought us, His kedoshim, out of Mitzrayim in order to make us His nation and to be our God.
(Leviticus 23:1-2)
This chapter opens with HaKadosh Baruch Hu communicating that the Holy Days are “My fixed times; the fixed times of the LORD.” He also clarifies that each Holy Day is a “sacred occasion.”
The fact that Hashem has set these Holy Days as “fixed days” should not be taken lightly. Rather to be fixed days means they correlate to His very acts in Creation. These Holy Days are like the stars, sun, and moon that HaKadosh Baruch Hu set in the sky to be “signs for the set (or fixed) times; for days and years,” (Genesis 1:4). This means the fixed Holy Days were indeed a part of Hashem’s wisdom at the outset of the universe. Thus, these Holy Days were set in stone on HaKadosh Baruch Hu’s eternal calendar and time clock long before space and or time began.
In Genesis 15, we are told the stars represent the Kedoshim that would be birthed from Abraham and Sarah’s (barren) seeds.
In Psalm 89, we are told that the sun and moon were set in the heavens as an eternal promise to establish the Davidic throne eternally.
When we connect these biblical truths with HaKadosh Baruch Hu’s declaration that these are the very things that will serve for Hashem’s fixed, Holy, and sacred occasions, we can be certain that HaKadosh Baruch Hu had the marriage vows already written for His beloved Jewish people long before people or the earth existed. As we have written elsewhere, the eternal promise of wedding vows for the Jewish people are written all throughout the creation narrative—here, we simply see yet another sign.
(Leviticus 23:3) The Holy Days: Shabbat
Every week, we celebrate the Holy, sacred occasion of Shabbat. While HaKadosh Baruch Hu does not communicate the depth and breadth of how we are to keep Shabbat in this portion of Tanakh, He does communicate that “For 6 days you shall do your work and on the seventh day, you shall rest completely.” While the Jewish people rest, the seventh day is also “a sabbath of the LORD.”
This does not indicate that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gets tired, or that He sleeps all day—indeed, the God of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps!
Rather, as we Jews celebrate a day that commemorates His wonders, creations, and miracles of Mitzrayim, He gets to rest from fulfilling our needs—for part of resting is to include not worrying about or asking after our needs or concerns. Instead we are to pray praises and offer thanksgiving, we are to study and bathe in His fountain of living water.
It is not always easy, and yes, Hashem will hear you if you cry out to Him on the Sabbath—but in general, we are to treat Shabbat as if it is the practice for the eternal days of moshiach. When the earthly Davidic kingdom is restored, so too will be the Temple. At that time, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will return to Zion, He will gather all Jews to Israel, and He will teach us all wisdom. The way in which He will teach will affect the entire world. Everyone will see, know, and confess that HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the G-d of Israel is LORD, King, and God alone.
Everyone will also willingly chose to keep Torah.
Such mitzvot-keeping will bring an end to all war, pain, suffering, and strife. These earthly ailments will be replaced with blessings, healing, abundance, and eternal global shalom—it will not be only for Jews, but all people whose hearts are not hardened and who come to accept HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
In such a state, striving will cease and Shabbat will commence. It will not be like now—when sometimes (if we are honest) the struggle to “just be,” clashes with the worries of this world. But, in the days of moshiach, the struggle will stop entirely. May it be quickly in our days!
(Leviticus 23:4-8) Holy Days: Pesach & Feast of Unleavened Bread
The next Holy Day is Pesach and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This combination Holy Day is also called a set time of the LORD. Like Shabbat (and all other Jewish Holy Days), this Holy Day was fixed eternally at the outset of creation. It will also exist on into eternity. It is more than a celebration of freedom, it is an eternal vow made by HaKadosh Baruch Hu with His holy people, the Jews.
We are reminded that this Holy Day is to commence on the 14th day of the first month. This does not mean January—the Jewish Holy Day calendar is not set according to the Gregorian calendar. Instead the first month of the Holy Day year is Nisan.
At twilight on the 14th day of Nisan (when the Temple stood, and again will stand), every Jew is to bring a Pesach offering. This offering is to be a male goat or sheep, without blemish.
As in the days of the Exodus, the blood from the Pesach is to be placed on the doorposts and lintel of every Jewish home. As we mentioned in a previous study, this blood marking literally marks the home and its inhabitants for life. For eternity and in every generation, HaKadosh Baruch Hu promises that Pesach is a night of vigil for the LORD where He watches over His people and protects us and our homes from the destroyer—the angel of death.
We are then reminded that on the 15th day of Nisan, the LORD’s Feast of Unleavened Bread is to commence. This feast is to last seven days, during which no leaven may be eaten by anyone in the global Jewish Community. Instead, we are to feast on unleavened bread as a reminder of how Hashem brought us out of Mitzrayim so quickly that our dough had no time to rise.
HaKadosh Baruch Hu communicates that the first day (Pesach) is to be a sacred occasion, wherein we are to rest and perform no work at our occupations. This is to be a practice-run for the eternal Shabbat of unending rest, simcha, and shalom.
On this first night, over a 15-step Pesach Seder, we recount the story of our Hebrew ancestors, their slavery in abusive Mitzrayim, and the miraculous miracles HaKadosh Baruch Hu performed to bring us out to freedom.
From the 15th-21st of Nisan, we feast on unleavened bread. And on the final day, we celebrate another sacred occasion, or Shabbat-like day of rest to the LORD.
(Leviticus 23:9-14) Holy Days: Omer Count
Next, HaKadosh Baruch Hu communicates the Holy Day of the Omer Count, which is to be celebrated when we enter and settle in land. Here, as in most of the Tanakh, “the land” is referring to the Holy Promised Land of Israel, or Zion.
It is true that this holy promised land was once controlled by Ham and his descendants, namely Canaan and all of the tribes listed at the end of Genesis 15. But, after the flood, Noah feasted on a bit too much of the wine that the land produced for him and Noah fell asleep in his tent. Ham dishonored his father, Noah, and uncovered his nakedness.
After Ham revealed Noah to his two brothers, Shem and Jephath quickly entered their father’s tent backwards and covered Noah’s nakedness with a covering. Because of Ham’s sin, Hashem cursed the land of Canaan and vowed Canaan and all of Ham’s descendants would be the slaves in Shem’s tents eternally—this essentially laid the foundation for the promise of the land of Canaan being transferred to a descendant of Shem later on.
Abraham (whose name was eternally changed from Abram) was the descendant of Shem to whom the (cursed) land of Canaan was promised. Because the land was cursed for Ham and his descendants, the “promised land” is generally dry, arid, desert land. Not much blooms for anyone. We got first glimmers that the land can produce vast quantities of massive fruits when the 10 spies went in and came out with a branch of grapes so large that two men had to carry it back to the wilderness on their shoulders.
Otherwise, however, generally the land has trouble producing for everyone, save for one specific people: the Jewish Israelites. This is no accident. This is a way to prove the wisdom and promises of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, both to His chosen Jews and to the world.
When HaKadosh Baruch Hu brought our ancestors into the land, as promised, the land of Israel started producing at massive scale. This abundance of provisions was the promised blessing that would and will come when Jews keep Torah. Historically, when the Jewish people went astray, Hashem placed our ancestors in exile, and Zion became a barren waste again. Then He brought us back, as promised, and she thrives under her children’s care.
Here, in Leviticus 23:9-14, we are commanded to bring the first sheaf of our harvest from Zion when we have entered in and settle the land of Israel.
This sheaf is to be brought to the priest, who will wave it before HaKadosh Baruch Hu on our behalf for acceptance. Along with the sheaf, we must also bring a burnt offering which is to be a lamb of the first year, without blemish, plus a meal offering of 2/10th measure of choice flour with oil mixed in—unleavened—and 1/4 hin of wine. (Leviticus 1 & 2).
This sheaf is to be elevated to HaKadosh Baruch Hu on the day after Pesach. This 15th day of Nisan is significant. It is the day the feast of unleavened bread is to commence. Unleavened bread is generally cooked in a very hot oven, leaving the edges nice and toasted. BUT, Jews are prohibited from eating toasted (or parched) grain or bread or fresh ears of grain until the first Omer is counted and waved and elevated before HaKadosh Baruch Hu. This prohibition (arguably) commemorates Joshua, crossing the Jordan, and entering the Promised land. Only then did manna stop and the land bloom.
Furthermore, the Omer count does not begin until after the Pesach, as a commemoration and celebration of our freedom from Mitzrayim—like the first sheaf, the Jewish Israelites are the firstfruit of Hashem’s Harvest (Jeremiah 2:8). While in Mitzrayim, we could not grow. Upon the Exodus, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us Torah, established our ranks, founded us as a nation, and then brought us into the promised land of Zion.
Again, the first Omer Count is celebrated by Joshua and the Israelites after he brought us through the stopped Jordan and into the promised land. After celebrating Pesach, he elevated the first sheaf, then manna ended and a full and abundant harvest began.
(Leviticus 23:15-21) Holy Day: Feast of Weeks (Shavuot)
From the day after the Shabbat of Pesach, when the first sheaf is counted, we are to count 7 complete weeks (so, 7 days/week x 7 weeks = 49 days), which are to be counted until the day after the end of the 7th week—a fancy way of saying, until 50 days.
On the 50th day, (when we have entered and settled the Holy Land) then an offering of new grain shall be brought to the LORD. The offering is the first fruit offering, which is to be:
2 loaves of bread—as an elevation offering.
Made from: 2/10th measure of choice flour
Leavened
And baked.
A burnt offering of:
7 lambs
1 Bull
2 Rams
PLUS the meal offer and wine libations for each.
A sin offering Of:
1 he-goat (for chieftains)
2 lambs (male—which indicates a well-being offer)
These are to be elevated before HaKadosh Baruch Hu. They are Holy, and as Thanksgiving offerings, the thigh and breast are the priest’s portion.
On the same day all of the above offerings are performed, we are to celebrate a sacred celebration. Like other Holy Days, no work should be performed—it is a day of rest and Celebration to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
This day of Shavuot not only celebrates the first fruit harvest of the physical land of Israel, but also the first fruit harvest of Hashem (Jeremiah 2:9)—the Jewish people.
According to Talmud and Mishnah teachings, it is common belief that the Torah was given on Mount Sinai 50 days after leaving Mitzrayim. This 50 day count coincides with the 50 days of the Omer count.
Just as a full harvest of the land occurs after 50 days of the first blooming sign of life, so the Jewish people could bloom as a nation after 50 days of wilderness wandering and her laws were established on Mt. Sinai.
Though it took another 40 years to enter into the Promised land, the nation of Israel was fully formed there in the wilderness. Thus, as we were, HaKadosh Baruch Hu harvested His first fruit with the giving of the national Jewish law, which we also celebrate yearly on Shavuot.
(Leviticus 23:22)
Along with the commands of Shavuot, HaKadosh Baruch Hu communicates a repeated command that we are not to reap all the way around the edges of our field when we bring in a harvest. Rather, we are to leave gleanings in the field for the poor, orphan, widow, and stranger.
This repeat of the command here not only directly relates to the harvest of Shavuot, but should also reminds us of the gleaning portion that Hashem left around the edges of the wilderness when He first brought Israel into the promised land.
As we mentioned earlier, the tribes of Gad, Ruben, and 1/2 tribe Manasseh settled on the East side of the Jordan; they chose not to cross over the Jordan to dwell in the promised land. Rather, since HaKadosh Baruch Hu had blessed them so greatly with herds and flocks, they asked Moshe Rabbeinu to assign their land lots in the land of the Amorites. While Moshe Rabbeinu first gets angry, he eventually concedes and grants the request of the 2.5 tribes so long as the tribes helped their brothers conquer and settle the promised land.
Side note: if we look at Genesis 15:21, HaKadosh Baruch Hu actually promises that the land of the Amorites wound part of the Israelites’ promised Holy land. So, we again have an instance of man seemingly having a plan, but really it was the plan of HaKadosh Baruch Hu all along for His chosen kedoshim.
Am Yisrael Chai!
Kimberly Davis