The interesting thing about Yom HaBikkurim and Shavuot is that, in Leviticus 23, these two Appointed Times do not have a specific date assigned to them. For Yom Habikkurim we are simply told that on ‘the day after the Sabbath’ the priest is to wave this first fruit offering before HaShem (Lev 23:11); and then for Shavuot (Pentecost, lit. – Weeks), we are told to count seven complete Sabbaths after Yom HaBikkurim, that is fifty days to ‘the day after the seventh Sabbath’ (Lev 23:15,16). It is clear in the text that these two unique, dateless festivals are inextricably connected. But what Sabbath is being referred to in Leviticus 23:11? When should we start counting the fifty days to Shavuot?
Let’s take a quick look at the context of verse 11…
4 ‘These are the appointed times of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them.
5 ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the LORD’S Passover.
6 ‘Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
7 ‘On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.
8 ‘But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.’”
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| The Dates for Pesach and Chag HaMatzah. |
In this passage, verses 4-5 explain the date and time for celebrating Pesach. Pesach is on the fourteenth day of Nisan at twilight. Twilight is understood to be in the evening, or near sunset, on the fourteenth leading into the fifteenth.
Verses 6-8 describe Chag HaMatzah, the seven-day festival that is given as a specific span of dates, Nisan 15-21, but not specific days of the week. In contrast, Shabbat is a weekly Moed (Appointed Time), therefore a specific day is assigned to it but not a specific date (Lev 23:1-3). Because Chag HaMatzah is an annual Moed it may start on the first day of the week in one year and on the third day of the week the following year. This is why specific days are not assigned to these dates. The day of the week that Chag HaMatzah begins and ends is not important, but the dates are.
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| The corresponding dates for this year’s calendar. |
Let’s continue in the text:
9 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,In this passage, HaShem is talking to Moses about Yom HaBikkurim and He tells him that it shall be observed on the day after ‘the Sabbath’. What Sabbath? Keep in mind that the word sabbath is used in a number of different ways in the Bible, especially in Leviticus 23. In verse 3, for example, the word sabbath is used to refer to ‘rest’ and the ‘weekly Sabbath’.
10 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.
11 ‘He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
3'For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the LORD in all your dwellings.Putting verse 11 in context, we’ve already established that the focus of verses 6-8 is the seven-days of Chag HaMatzah. In verse 11 then, the Sabbath that is mentioned is a reference to one of these seven days. This is because one weekly Sabbath will occur during this seven-day period and the day following it, will be Yom HaBikkurim. Keep in mind that Chag HaMatzah can begin on any day of the week, therefore the weekly Sabbath will inevitably ‘move around’ within this seven-day period from year to year. But once the seven-dates for Chag Hamatzah are determined for the given year, then the weekly Sabbath can be identified. Once the weekly Sabbath is identified then we know that ‘the day after the Sabbath’ will be Yom HaBikkurim and the counting to Shavuot can begin.
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| The Sabbath is identified in BLUE and Yom HaBikkurim in PINK. |
Continuing in Leviticus 23, verses 12-14 prescribe the various sacrifices made on Yom Habikkurim. This passage ends with the command that ‘this is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places’ and then in verse 15 the explanation of Sefirat HaOmer (Counting of the Omer) and Shavuot begins:
15 ‘You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths.In verse 16 we are told the day that the festival of Shavuot is to be observed, but like Yom HaBikkurim, this day is vaguely described. It is simply referred to as ‘the day after the seventh sabbath’. Seventh Sabbath?
16 ‘You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the LORD.
We have already established that the first ‘day after the sabbath’ is the day following the weekly Sabbath that falls within the seven days of Chag HaMatzah. This day would be the first day of the week known in Hebrew as Yom Rishon (First Day). We call it Sunday. But now regarding Shavuot it says there shall be ‘seven complete sabbaths’ and then the following day is Shavuot. Here we have another use of the word sabbath; this time it refers to a ‘week.’ Shavuot means weeks in Hebrew so this festival is literally called the Feast of Weeks, seven weeks to be exact. You can say it is a week of weeks. But what kind of weeks are these? The text says ‘complete’ weeks. In some cases a week can simply mean a seven-day period but in this passage it is clear that these are to be seven ‘complete’ weeks. In Hebrew the word for ‘complete’ is tamim. It is the same word used to describe animals that are without blemish and it is also used to describe a person who is blameless or perfect. So, what would a perfect week look like?
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| A week starting on Yom Chamishi (Thursday) and ending on Yom Revi’i (Wednesday). |
In Rabbinic tradition, Yom HaBikkurim is reckoned on the day after the first day of Chag HaMatzah. In other words, Yom HaBikkurim will always be on Nisan 16. The Rabbinic Sages consider the first and seventh days of Chag HaMatzah as ‘Sabbaths’ since no laborious work is to be performed. But in the Tanakh (Old Testament), Chag HaMatzah is never referred to as a ‘Sabbath.’ Now what about this description of a complete or perfect week? In the Rabbini tradition, if the first day of Chag HaMatzah is on Yom Revi’i (Wednesday) then Yom HaBikkurim will be on Yom Chamishi (Thursday). So each of the seven weeks that lead up to Shavuot will start on Yom Chamishi (Thursday) and end on Yom Revi’i (Wednesday). Is this a perfect week? In Genesis the week of creation, the archetype of all weeks, began with Yom Rishon (Sunday) and ended with Yom Shabbat (Saturday). The week of creation is a Biblical example of a perfect week.
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| A week starting on Yom Rishon (Sunday) and ending on Yom Shabbat (Saturday). |
Notice that Chag HaMatzah is also a seven-day period but it is not referred to as a week. This is because this seven-day period may not always be a complete or perfect week.
Yom Habikkurim and Shavuot are not assigned specific dates in Leviticus 23 because the days that they fall on will be different year after year. Like the rest of the Moedim, Yom Habbikurim cannot be determined until the date for Pesach is identified. Shavuot can only be determined when the day for Yom Habikkurim is identified. Finally, if Sefirat HaOmer begins on Yom HaBikkurim, which is on Yom Rishon (Sunday), and we count seven complete weeks, then the following day, Shavuot, will also be on Yom Rishon (Sunday). For the two dateless festivals, the days on which they will be celebrated will always be the same, but the dates on which they are observed may change.
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| Shavuot - fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; seven complete weeks. |
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3 comments:
11 ‘And he shall wave the sheaf before Yãhweh for you to be accepted; in the day after the ceasing¹ the priest shall wave it.
(MISB: Lev. 23:11): http://www.torahtimes.org/NewTranslation/BasicBooks/leviticus.html#23:11
(Link to MISB: http://www.torahtimes.org/NewTranslation/bibleframe.html)
1. The word שַׁבָּת truly means “cessation” or “ceasing” (שֹׁבֵת). This is the literal sense to one who understands Hebrew, which is lost to the English reader. In this place it is critical to understanding the count to Shavuot to have it litterally. “The ceasing” is the ceasing from leaven on the first day of unleavened bread in Exodus 12:15, which text the reader should see to understand that the sheaf is waved in the day after the first day of the feast. The MISB is not the first bible to render this text literally. Other Jewish bibles have “rest day” to explain the same thing, that the rest day of the first day of the feast is meant, but this is less literal than “the ceasing”, which ties in perfectly with Exodus 12:15.
15 ‘You shall also count for yourselves in the time to comeª after the ceasing¹, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven² complete³ Sabbaths. 16 ‘Yet in the time to comeº after the seventh Sabbath you are counting a fiftieth day; then you shall present a new grain offering to Yãhweh.
(MISB: Lev. 23:11): http://www.torahtimes.org/NewTranslation/BasicBooks/leviticus.html#23:15
(Link to MISB: http://www.torahtimes.org/NewTranslation/bibleframe.html)
a. The Hebrew מִמָּחֳרַת means “in the day after” in the most literal sense, but here it is an idiom for “in the time after”. The same idiom can be seen in Gen. 30:33, בְּיוֹם־מָחָר in an uncontracted form. Hebrew usage elsewhere shows that מָחָר means “time to come”. This meaning is required in this text because seven Sabbaths cannot be counted in one literal day. The idiomatic meaning of “time to come” or “time after” is thus required.
1. The Hebrew here is הַשַּׁבָּת or הַשֹּׁבֵת. It refers to the “ceasing” in vs. 11 and back to Exodus 12:15, where for the first day of the feast one is to “make cease” the leaven, and also cease from work: תַּשְׁבִּיתוּ. The counting, thus, begins after the first day of the feast.
2. Not seven “weeks” as the word sabbath never means “week” before AD 135, but “seven sabbaths”: שֶׁבַע־שַׁבָּתוֹת. That seven sabbaths were counted is clear from the resurrection accounts, where Messiah is raised, “on the first of the Sabbaths” = בְּאַחַת־הַשַּׁבָּתוֹת.
3. The word “complete” (תְּמִימֹת) signifies weekly sabbaths as opposed to feast sabbaths, which is to say the seventh day of unleavened bread should not be counted, but only the weekly sabbaths following the first day of the feast. All seven have to be completed before the feast of Shavuot. Also “complete” shows us that each sabbath completes a week. This is what a “perfect” sabbath is as opposed to a feast day sabbath. Feast day sabbaths do not “complete” in that sense. This refutes the Rabbis who want to translate the word שַׁבָּתוֹת to mean “weeks” and then make them broken weeks, i.e. not corresponding to the real weekly cycle.
o. As in vs. 15 the Hebrew מִמָּחֳרַת means “in the time to come” because in this case the 50th day may fall anywhere from one day to seven days after the seventh Sabbath. The contraction מִמָּחֳרַת is shortened from מִן־יוֹם־אַחַר־ת, which = “in day after of”, where “day” is used as in Gen. 2:4 to mean a period of time lasting a week. Once it is realized that “in the time after the Sabbath” does not automatically mean the first day of the week, the Karaite interpretation looses its proof text. And then the Karaite argument is finally silenced by the fact that Yeshua rose from the dead “on the first of the sabbaths (בְּאַחַת־הַשַּׁבָּתוֹת). Whatever any human motives are for the Sadducean/Karaite error, Satan’s motives are to glorify Sunday and to confuse the times and seasons of scripture.
And finally, I should put up Ex. 12:15
15 ‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but in the first day you shall make ceaseª leaven from your houses¹; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through² the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
(MISB: Ex. 12:15): http://www.torahtimes.org/NewTranslation/BasicBooks/exodus.html#12:15
http://www.torahtimes.org/NewTranslation/bibleframe.html
a. The term “make cease” is critically important here to translate literally and concordantly with Lev. 23:11, 15. It is in fact the verb form of the word “sabbath”, i.e. “to make take a sabbath”. The root verb in Hebrew means “to cease”, and in this construction “תַּשְׁבִּיתוּ” means, “ye shall make cease”. So the first day of the feast is when leaven is made to cease. It is also a day for ceasing from labor. So in Lev. 23:11, when it says, “in the day after the ceasing the priest shall wave it”, it means the first day of the feast.
1. The precise Hebrew is important: תַּשְׁבִּיתוּ. It means to cause or make the leaven to take a sabbath (cease). The verb is in the hiphil stem. To accomplish this, the leaven must be removed before the first day of the feast. Then on the day of the feast, one is causing it to take a sabbath, or literally, “making cease”. It is often mistakenly thought that the 14th of Aviv is being here also called the “first day” because leaven was removed on that day. But the Hebrew is not saying “remove it” on the first day. It is saying to cause it to “cease”, with the focus on the result for the 15th day. The cause has to be enacted on the 14th. It is also important in regard to the fact that the first day of the feast was called, “the Sabbath” (Lev. 23:11, 15) meaning “Rest Day” or “the ceasing”. It is a day of resting from both leaven and work for the Passover and Exodus feasts.
2. Once again our friendly Hebrew word עַד, which does not mean “until” in the strict English sense. It means to “pass by”, go “onward to/of” a point designated. That is why the same root also can have the sense of “perpetuity”. Many a person has mistakenly thought the text to teach that the obligation to abstain from leaven ended at the beginning of the seventh day.
Daniel, the key to understanding the timing of the Feasts of Firstfruits, is first understanding that Yom Rishon is better understood and translated as the "head day” of the Feasts and not the “first day” as referring to Sunday for the counting off the seven flawless sevens that lead to the 50th day Jubilee celebration, which always occurs on a Sabbath when it is understood that the Temple Scroll substantiates the 14th day of Abib and that it is always on the third day of the week as well.
Pinpointing Yom HaBikkurim has been impossible (until now) as the meaning for the word ממחרת as in Lev. 23:11 has a tradition of being mistranslated as “morrow”. In all reality it is not referring to any time after a Sabbath, but a certain Sabbath; the one after Passover on the 14th, which is substantiated by the precept meanings of the letters and the delineations for the feasts found in the “True Calendar” as laid out in the Temple Scroll, from the Dead Sea Scrolls. This would indicate the date as being the 18th of “ABIB”, which is the name of
חדשים
ראשון
according to G-D. This can all be determined with specificity when using the letter precept meanings of the original paleo-Hebrew pictographs.
With the given understanding of מחר which has the common translation as the word for “tomorrow”; this is referring to when the sun is at half diameter in the horizon and the day changes into "tomorrow." This is supported with the literal precept meanings substantiated by the pictographs themselves, for the letter מ has a precept meaning water. Here, without the pictograph, we can attempt to describe that it looks like when a pebble has entered the water and ripples form on the surface, we know where the pebble entered and where the ripples came “from”; similar to the points at the top of today’s modern M. The meaning of this pictograph is “from or water”. Likewise the ח looks similar to today’s modern H, with a heavier middle bar, thus meaning “middle, center”. The ר originally looked like a reverse P of today, with the loop on the left like a head, thus meaning “head.” Taken together מחר is referring to “from the middle of the head” or when the sun is at half diameter as when the day changes. As we know the scriptures say there was evening and there was morning… Now, with the additional מ indicating another and foremost “from,” and ת which looks like a modern t or cross, as the last letter in this five letter strand, indicating “the end” or “the sign/mark”, when the whole context presented is taken into account, this is referring to the Sabbath that is in the “middle” of the seven days of unleavened bread, starting at half diameter of the sun on the sixth day of the week a.k.a. Friday. This is precisely where to start off the count to the end of Shavuot, or 49 days which leads precisely to the start of the 50th day which is the beginning of the 50th day Sabbath celebration, with the count starting on Sabbath following Pesach. Again, it is interesting to note that the count begins in the “middle” of the week of unleavened bread; precisely when the first Sabbath after Pesach begins, the “Head” day of Firstfruits, the same day Yeshua rose from the dead, the 18th of Abib.
It is the original Hebrew Pictographs which provide the missing information contained in the written record of HIS WORD, complete with explanations; G-D has encoded the timing of מועד –“appointment times” of HIS Feasts like DNA encodes what we should look like.
Without an elaborate letter by letter translation with the literal precept meanings of the pictographs, there will always be “missing information” when engaging in the study of G-D’S WORD.
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