There are many places on the Web to find tips on the best golf training aids, but how many give you so much solid Torah commentary? Here’s my commentary on Emor. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is Emor or “Say!” and covers Leviticus 21:1 through 24:23. In this week’s portion, the L-RD outlines many of his appointed times – the times He has set aside as special, times in which He can meet with those who love Him and obey all of His instructions.

The first of these appointed times is a weekly festival we’re celebrating right now, today: Shabbat. We read this in:

NIV Leviticus 23:1
The L-RD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the L-RD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies. ‘There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the L-RD.’”

So the Shabbat comes first, which emphasizes once again its importance to the L-RD. The Shabbat is that special time, once a week, where a whole day is set aside not to do any ordinary work, but to spend time with the L-RD. Thinking of the Shabbat in this way may seem a bit new to some folks, but let’s remember that our relationship with the L-RD is compared over and over again in the Torah to a marriage.

You know, in my own marriage, my wife and I have established a similar “appointed time.” Like many married couples, we set aside a few hours every week – for us, it’s usually Saturday nights – as a “date night.” Those few hours may not seem like a lot, but on the weeks we honor them, things do tend to go better for us, and on the weeks where we let that commitment slip, things aren’t as smooth.

In the same way, I think it’s not too odd to consider the Shabbat our weekly “date” with the L-RD. It’s that time where we purposely make time to spend with God; not just quality time, but quantity time as well. In fact, it has long been a custom among the Jewish people to seek to extend the Shabbat into the rest of the week by lighting the Shabbat candles before sunset, rather than at sunset; and by waiting a while after sunset before beginning the havdallah prayers and resuming the work of the rest of the week. Listen to the passage by:

Rabbi Hirsch, Horeb, Ch. 25
“It is above all your duty not to limit the influence of the Sabbath to the short period of its duration but to let its holiness overflow into the week. This means that you must in fact somewhat extend the celebration of the Sabbath beyond its prescribed period, adding to it, both before and after, a little of the working days. In this way you declare that the Sabbath does not stand isolated, as if your time was, so to speak, divided into one part in which you live for God and another in which you live for yourself alone. On the contrary, your working days, past and future, must be suffused with the spirit of the Sabbath. Thus will your workaday week itself in time become transformed, as it were, into a Sabbath, because you will be doing your work only in the Sabbath spirit; thus, its holiness must consequently sanctify you. This additional boon of the Sabbath is known as Tosafah.”

So the Shabbat is quite important, but what other festivals are outlined in this week’s portion? Well, there is the Passover, also known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Following the Shabbat, Passover was one of the first festivals established by the L-RD as a remembrance of the exodus from Egypt and how He delivered them from slavery there. Since we celebrated it so recently, this should be fresh in all of our minds.

That festival is followed by the feast of First Fruits, which we celebrated about a month ago. First Fruits is an agricultural celebration marking the first fruits of the wheat harvest. Symbolically, it is linked to the resurrection.

There is a small controversy over how to count out the days from First Fruits to Shavuot – a time we’re now in, known as the Counting of the Omer. Some, including many Jews, begin the counting on the day after Passover, since Passover is considered a Shabbat, but one must study the passage carefully to understand this interpretation is not correct. However, since that will be the focus of Stan’s sermon later today, I will leave that subject to him.

Yet there are more feasts commanded here. There is the feast of Rosh haShana, which is the Jewish New Year and is also known as the Feast of Trumpets. Rosh haShana falls on the first of Tishrei each year in the Hebrew calendar, and it marks the first day of time. The rabbis teach that God created the universe – the first day of creation – on the first of Tishrei, and that time will end 7,000 years after that day, on the 30th of Elul.

Not everyone realizes this, but there are only seven thousand years of time spoken of in the Bible. Here is what the Talmud teaches about this 7,000-year plan of God, as we read in:

Sanhedrin 97a-97b
The school of Eliyahu teaches: “The world exists for six thousand years – two thousand of them tohu (void); two thousand, Torah; and two thousand the era of Messiah. But because of our numerous iniquities, many of these years have been lost.”

After those six thousand years of creation, what follows is 1,000 years of Shabbat rest for creation; the earthly reign of Messiah, in which God alone shall be glorified. After that, all things return to the Father.

So what we are celebrating with Rosh haShana is not only the first day of creation, but the time in which Yeshua will return again. We read of that day in:

I Thessalonians 4:15-18
According to the L-RD’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the L-RD, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the L-RD himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Messiah will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the L-RD in the air. And so we will be with the L-RD forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Notice the reference to the trumpet call of God. That’s not just any trumpet call; it is the sounding of the shofar during the feast of trumpets – known as Rosh haShana. This identification is backed up by the teaching of Yeshua. We read this in:

Matthew 24:36
No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Yeshua is speaking here of His return, and He says “no one knows the day or the hour,” and many who are unfamiliar with the Jewish roots of the faith teach that this means we can’t have a clue as to the time of His return. But on the contrary, it helps identify the time of His return as falling on Rosh haShana, because that is a festival known as “one long day.” This is because the festival coincides with a new moon, and no one can be sure when that new moon will appear during that two-day stretch, so the holiday is celebrated for a two-day period, but is referred to as “one long day.”

So, we can trust that Yeshua’s return will be on some future Rosh haShana, at sunset, just as the 30th of Elul is ending and the first of Tishrei is ushered in.

In this week’s portion, we are also given instructions for the Day of Atonement – also known as Yom Kippur, which we discussed last week. After that, we are given the instructions for the Feast of Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths.

I like to joke that this is the day when the L-RD commands us to go camping.

We read this in:

Leviticus 23:41-43
Celebrate this as a festival to the L-RD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the L-RD your God.’”

Who do we also know who dwelled in a booth in the wilderness? That’s right, the L-RD Himself! The Tent of Meeting is also known as the Sukkot of Meeting.

So that’s what we have from the portion. At this point, the children of Israel have commands to observe the weekly Shabbat, Passover, First Fruits, Shavuot, Rosh haShana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Those are the seven major feasts of the L-RD.

Of course, there are others.

There is Simchat Torah, which means rejoicing over the Torah, which comes at the end of Sukkot. There is Hanukkah, also known as the Feast of Dedication, which wasn’t established until the time of the Maccabees, but which we know from the Gospels Yeshua celebrated. And there is also Purim, which comes to us from the Book of Esther and was established around the time of the Babylonian captivity. And there is the monthly New Moon celebration, as well as some other, minor observances.

It is important to learn all you can about these appointed times of the L-RD, because they are basically our “date nights” with the L-RD Himself. And who could be better company on a date than the L-RD, right?

These are the times the L-RD has set aside so that we might establish intimacy with Him and get to know Him better. And of course, if you’re interested in learning more, Rabbi Stan does have a 16-CD study covering all the festivals of the L-RD, so that you can learn how to observe each of these special times with God correctly. Amen?

Shabbat Shalom.

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