Here’s my commentary for Sukkot Day 1. Or listen to it!
Shabbat Shalom.
Our parashah for Sukkot Day One, covers Leviticus 22, verse 26, through chapter 23, verse 44, as well as Numbers 29, verses 12 through 16. This week’s portion focuses on the L-RD’s commanded feasts; His appointed times that we are to set aside as special, as times to spend with our Creator in worship, study and sacred assemblies. And of course, there is a special focus on the festival that begins today, Sukkot.
Now, the celebration of the L-RD’s appointed feasts is one of the elements that helps define us as a Messianic congregation. And most of us who come here from Christian church backgrounds know that not all believers are convinced that observing the feasts of the L-RD is something that applies to them. But what you may not know, unless you come here from a Jewish background, is that not all rabbis believe the feasts of the L-RD, God’s appointed times, are for everyone either.
As a matter of fact, I know of one Messianic teacher at least who teaches if you are Jewish, there are 10 Commands, but if you are a non-Jew, there are only nine commands you are to observe because observance of the L-RD’s Shabbat is only for the Jewish people. Yet is that what the Torah teaches? Let’s take a closer look at this week’s reading, from:
Leviticus 23:3
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.
Pay attention to that last part and how it’s worded. Wherever you live it is a Sabbath to the L-RD. Wherever you live. Not just in Israel, not just in the Promised Land, but wherever you live, you are to do no work and observe the Sabbath. Does that sound like a command that is intended only for the Jewish people? No, of course not.
And in the feasts the L-RD commands to be observed, that is how he phrases it throughout the rest of this chapter. Wherever you live, do this. He often goes on to add, “this is a lasting ordinance for you, throughout all of your generations.”
So the case that is made that the festivals are not for non-Jews isn’t looking very good already. But especially with this week’s festival, with Sukkot, the case against non-Jewish believers not observing these feasts appointed by the L-RD breaks down entirely.
You see, to open up the meaning of this festival is to see clearly that the L-RD had more than just the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in mind. Let’s take a closer look at what the L-RD commands concerning Sukkot, starting in:
Leviticus 23:33-36
The L-RD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the L-RD’s Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. For seven days present offerings made to the L-RD by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the L-RD by fire. It is the closing assembly; do no regular work.
So here the parameters of the festival are made clear, but let’s look as the details of the sacrifices required during the festival, which we read about in:
Numbers 29:13
Present an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the L-RD, a burnt offering of thirteen young bulls, two rams and fourteen male lambs a year old, all without defect.
Now, each day of Sukkot, this offering is to be the same, with one exception: the number of young bulls required reduces by one every day of the festival. So on the second day, twelve bulls are to be offered, eleven on the third day, and so forth. By the time Sukkot is over, a total of 70 young bulls have been offered.
Why is this significant? Well, first we must understand who these bulls represent. When Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt, the sons of Israel are listed in Genesis and if you count them up, there are 70 in all. The L-RD also numbered the nations after the sons of Israel, and so at that time, there were 70 nations on the Earth. Obviously, there are many more than that today, but the numbering was done at the time of the migration of Israel into Egypt, so there are 70 nations.
We find this in Jewish tradition:
These seventy oxen corresponded to the seventy original nations of the world who descended from the sons of Noah, and who were the ancestors of all the nations till this day. Israel brought these sacrifices as an atonement for the nations of the world and in prayer for their well-being as well as for universal peace and harmony between them.
So here, we get our first confirmation about what the offering of these seventy bulls were about; it was an atonement for the nations of the world, and a prayer for peace and harmony between them. You know, another name for Sukkot is The Festival of Nations. Sukkot, in part, is about Israel making atonement to God on behalf of all the other nations on Earth! Now, granted, there are many levels of meaning to the festival of Sukkot and this is only one of them; however, I believe this makes clear the idea that the festivals were not declared by God to be only “by, about and for” the Jewish people alone.
Of course, it’s not as if involving the nations in this festival was repaid to the Jewish people by extra kindness or deference to them as a whole. As we read in:
B’midbar Rabbah 21
The Sages have said: ‘In place of my love they hate me, and I pray (for them), (Tehilim 109): You find that during the Festival, Israel offers You seventy oxen for the seventy nations. Israel says: Master of the Universe! Behold, we offer You seventy oxen in their behalf, and they should have loved us…instead–’in the place of my love they hate me.’
And that’s as true today as it was in the time of Jacob, isn’t it? How many of the nations today do you see lining up to bless Israel? How many of the nations today do you see lining up to curse Israel, or at least, to turn a deaf ear when others utter curses against her? Even our own country is now falling in line with this unfortunate tendency.
At a recent UN summit, Iranian President Mahmoud Achmadinijad spoke of Israel’s time “being short” and predicting Israel would “soon disappear off the map.” Yet did our government speak out against this rhetoric? Sadly, no. As the old saying goes, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Or, there’s Rabbi Stan’s version: “You have to pay for your good deeds.” This truth was also acknowledged by the sages, such as when:
Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi said
‘If the nations of the world would have known the value of the Temple for them, they would have surrounded it with fortresses in order to protect it. For it was of greater value for them than for Israel.
I believe that what this shows is that even some rabbinic traditions line up with what the Torah clearly states; that the feasts of the L-RD are to be observed as “eternal celebrations for you, through all your generations, no matter where you live.”
It also shows that Yeshua was not alone when he taught that we should love our enemies; after all, that’s what the feast of Sukkot essentially is – praying blessings and peace over the nations of the world, even when those nations are hostile toward Israel. It underlines the consistency of the message of the written Torah, and the Living Torah, Messiah Yeshua.
So we who are believers today, whether we come to Messiah from a Jewish or non-Jewish background, can have confidence that we are allowed, and even commanded by the L-RD, to observe His appointed times. The feast of Sukkot makes that clearer than perhaps any other festival, since a large part of the ceremony – the sacrifice of young bulls – is clearly dedicated to blessing the nations outside of Israel.
If the nations of the world had any sense, they would bless Israel in return, and seek for her the same sort of peace and blessing they are receiving as a result of the feast of Sukkot.
So as we begin this week of Sukkot, let us make this a part of our dedication to observing the L-RD’s festival. Let us pray not only for the peace of Jerusalem, but for a change of heart among the nations of the earth, that they would repent and seek to bless Israel as Israel blesses them, that they would pray for the peace of Israel as Israel prays for their peace. While that day has not yet come in fullness, may it come soon. If not in this world, then in the World to Come.
Shabbat Shalom.
Tags: Sukkot Day 1