Leviticus/Wayyiqrah 23: What makes a day 'holy'?

[First posted July 5, 2013, this is being reposted on the occasion of the celebration of the Giving of the Torah, commanded to be celebrated as one of the seven “My feasts” in Leviticus 23.  Sinaites have determined that just like Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and the weekly Sabbath,  this feast is not for Jews only but for Gentiles as well; for the “mixed multitude” of Israelites and non-Israelites who stood on Sinai to receive to Torah.

 

Here’s the original introduction to this post:

 

Continuing the commentary from Pentateuch and Haftarahs . . . Again, a reminder:  since you will read “Jewish festivals” and “Jewish year”, please think in general and not in particular, that these are laws given only to Israel, for Jewish observance.  The Rabbis write for their people, the Torah-observant among the Jews.  Hence, they particularize their comments and even their titles, to Jewish this and Jewish that.  

 

Let us bear in mind that the God of Israel gave these instructions for all humankind to observe.  If the Jews are, thankfully, observing what was initially given to them to model a lifestyle to the nations, we are grateful for their trailblazing this God-given lifestyle for us; but as we constantly caution our readers, learn to discern what is “biblical” or “Torah” and what is “Jewish”.  

 

Highlights and reformatting added though we have retained the British spelling of words.  Also, you might have noticed by now if you have followed these chapters where we began adding the P&H commentary, that the translation of EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses does not quite jibe with the translation used by P&H; it should not be a problem, since the meaning communicated by either translation is practically the same.—Admin1]

 

THE HOLY DAYS

This chapter gives a comprehensive description of the sacred seasons in the Jewish year. There is no mention of the New Moon, because it was not necessarily a day of cessation from work, and was not ranked as one of the ‘holy convocations’.  The sacrifices for each Festival are given in Num. XXVIII.

 

 

Leviticus/Wayyiqrah 23

 

1 YHVH spoke to Moshe, saying:
2 Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: 

The appointed-times of YHVH, which you are to proclaim to them (as) proclamations of holiness- these are they, my appointed-times:

appointed seasons.  Or, ‘appointed (or fixed) seasons.’

holy convocations. An assembly ‘convoked’, or called together, for worship at the Sanctuary.  The calling together was done by means of sounding two silver trumpets (Num. X,1-10). Although it was only on the three Pilgrimage Festivals that the Israelites were to appear before the Lord at the Sanctuary, many would no doubt also come for the Days of Memorial and Atonement.

 

3 For six days may work be done,

 but on the seventh day (is) Sabbath, Sabbath-ceasing, a proclamation of holiness,

 any-kind of work you are not to do.

 It is Sabbath to YHVH, throughout all your settlements.

 sabbath of solemn rest. The reference to the Sabbath in this connection is, according to the Rabbis, to emphasize the fact that the seventh day of the week must always be ‘a sabbath of solemn rest’–even when it coincides with a Festival, on which day, otherwise, only manual labour is prohibited, but not such as is necessary for the preparation of meals.

 

4 These are the appointed-times of YHVH, proclamations of holiness, which you are to proclaim at their appointed-times:

5-8.  THE PASSOVER

For the meaning and observance of this Festival, see Exodus XII,1-28.

 

5 on the first New-moon, on the fourteenth after the New-moon, between the setting-times

 (is) Passover to YHVH.

 at dusk is the LORD’S passover.  Better, towards even is a passover unto the LORD (Friedlander); i.e. a paschal offering in honour of the LORD.

 

6 On the fifteenth day after this New-moon 

 (is) the pilgrimage-festival of matzot to YHVH: 

 for seven days, matzot you are to eat!

 feast of unleavened bread. Only the 15th day of the month is ‘the feast of unleavened bread’, so called because the partaking of matazah is obligatory on the eve thereof, although unleavened bread is eaten for seven days and the seventh day is a ‘holy convocation’.

 

7 On the first day 

 a proclamation of holiness shall there be for you, 

 any-kind of servile work you are not to do.

servile work. lit. ‘work of labour’, the usual work which one does on an ordinary week day.  It implies a less strict abstinence from labour than was demanded for the Sabbath (v.3) and the Day of Atonement (v.28), and does not include the prohibition of preparing food.

 

8 You are to bring-near a fire-offering to YHVH, for seven days,

 on the seventh day (is) a proclamation of holiness,

 any-kind of servile work you are not to do.

offering.  This is defined in detail in Nu. VIII,19.

9-14. THE OMER

At the beginning of the barley harvest–barley ripens two or three weeks before the wheat—the first sheaf was presented at the Sanctuary; see Deut. XXVI,2.

 

 9 YHVH spoke to Moshe, saying:

10 Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: 

 When you enter the land that I am giving you, 

 and you harvest its harvest, 

 you are to bring the premier sheaf of your harvest to the priest.

when ye are come. When the Israelites had begun to till the soil of their land.

 

11 He is to elevate the sheaf before the presence of YHVH, for acceptance for you;

 on the morrow of the Sabbath the priest is to elevate it.

 on the morrow after the sabbath.  Better, on the morrow after the day of rest; Heb.  The interpretation of this phrase was the subject of heated controversy in early Rabbinic times between the Pharisees and Sadducees.  The latter took the word ‘sabbath’ in its usual sense, and maintained that the Omer was to be brought on the morrow of the first Saturday in Passover.  the Pharisees argued that ‘sabbath’ here means, ‘the day of cessation from work’; and the context shows that the Feast of Unleavened Bread is intended: therefore, the Omer was to be brought on the 16th of Nisan.  This is supported by the Septuagint, which renders ‘on the morrow of the first day’, and by Josephus.  ‘The offerings of the sheaf took place on the 16th, the first busy work-day of the harvest, in relation to which the preceding day might well be called a Sabbath or rest-day, though not all labour was prohibited.  This is alone compatible with the context, and is free from the objections to which all the other opinions are open’ (Kalisch).

 

12 You are to perform-a-sacrifice on the day of your elevating the sheaf:

 a sheep, wholly-sound, in its (first) year, as an offering-up to YHVH,

ye shall offer.  The offering in connection with the bringing of the Omer is here specified, as it finds no mention in Num. XXVIII.

 

13 and its grain-gift: two tenth-measures of flour mixed with oil, a fire-offering to YHVH, of soothing savor; 

 and its poured-offering of wine: a fourth of a hin.

14 Now bread or parched-grain or groats, you are not to eat, until that same day,

 until you have brought the near-offering of your God- 

 (it is) a law for the ages, into your generations, throughout all your settlements

 neither bread . . . day. Josh.V,11 contains a historical reference to this regulation.

 

15-21.  FEAST OF WEEKS —SHAVUOS

One of the three agricultural festivals, the feast of the first harvest.  Jewish tradition, however, connects it with the Covenant on Mount Sinai, and speaks of the festival as ‘the Season of Giving of our Torah’.  The Israelites arrive at Sinai on the New Moon.  On the second of the month, Moses ascended the mountain;  on the third, he received the people’s reply; on the fourth, he made the second ascent and was commanded to institute three days of preparation, at the conclusion of which the Revelation took place.  Hence its association with the Feast of Weeks, which became the Festival of Revelation.

 

15 Now you are to number for yourselves, from the morrow of the Sabbath, from the day that you bring the elevated sheaf, 

seven Sabbaths-of-days,

whole (weeks) are they to be;

 and ye shall count. The paragraph dealing with the Feast of Weeks has no introductory formula, ‘The Lord spake unto Moses’, such as we find in connection with other Festivals, because it was conceived as the complement of the Passover, and not something independent of it.  Its name in Talmudic literature is not Shavuos, but almost invariably ‘the concluding festival’ to Passover.  

 

‘We count the days that pass since the preceding Festival, just as one who expects his most intimate friend on a certain day counts the days and even the hours.  This is the reason why we count the days that pass since the offering of the Omer, between the anniversary of our departure from Egypt and the anniversary of the Law-giving.  The latter was the aim and object of the exodus from Egypt’ (Maimonides).  

 

In other words, the Deliverance from bondage was not an end in itself; it was the prelude to Sinai (Exod. III,12).  Liberty without law is a doubtful boon, whether to men or nations.

unto you.  From this addition, the Rabbis deduce that each Israelite had the duty of counting for himself; hence the ‘counting of the Omer’ even after the Omer itself was no longer brought to the Temple.  The season between Passover and Shavuos (or Pentecost, which in Greek means ‘the fiftieth day’ after the first day of Passover) is known as Sephirah, Period of Counting.  It is a period of semi-mourning because repeatedly dire calamities befell the Jewish people at this time.

 

day of rest.  This is a departure from the RV which translates ‘sabbath’.

 

seven weeks. lit. ‘seven sabbaths’.  It is evident that here and in  XXV,8, the Heb. shabbath signifies ‘week’.  Hence the most common name for the Festival, the Feast of Weeks; Deut. XVI,10.

 

16 until the morrow of the seventh Sabbath you are to number-fifty days, 

then you are to bring-near a grain-gift of new-crops to YHVH.

seventh week.  Instead of, ‘seventh sabbath’ (RV). 

 

new meal offering. The cereal offering of the produce of the new wheat harvest; see next v. 

 

‘With the destruction of the Second Temple, the agricultural aspect of the Festival receded, and Shavuos became primarily the Feast of Revelation.  An echo of nature, however, still lingers in the present custom of adorning the Synagogue with flowers’ (H.M. Adler).

 

17 From your settlements you are to bring bread as an elevation-offering,

two (loaves of) two tenth-measures of flour are they to be, 

leavened you are to bake them, 

as firstfruits to YHVH.

your dwellings. The Rabbis explain this as meaning that the corn must have grown in the Holy Land.

baked with leaven. The loaves were made to represent the common food of the people, and symbolically mark their gratitude to the Provider of their sustenance.  They were not offered upon the Altar (II,11), but only ‘waved’; they belonged to the priest.

 

 ye shall offer.  These offerings are additional to those mentioned in Num. XXVIII,27.

 

20 The priest is to elevate them, together with the bread of the firstfruits 

 as an elevation-offering before the presence of YHVH,

 together with the two sheep;

 they shall be a holy-portion for YHVH, for the priest.

 to the LORD for the priest. i.e. they are devoted to God by being eaten by the priest; Num. V,8 for a similar usage.

 

21 And you are to make-proclamation on that same day, 

a proclamation of holiness shall there be for you, 

any-kind of servile work you are not to do- 

a law for the ages, throughout your settlements, into your generations.
22 Now when you harvest the harvest of your land, 

you are not to finish-off the edge of your field when you harvest (it), 

the full-gleaning of your harvest you are not to glean;

for the afflicted and for the sojourner you are to leave them,

I am YHVH your God!

when ye reap.  A repetition of XIX,9f.  A significant reminder to the Israelite that his thankfulness to God for the wheat-harvest was to be demonstrated by more than an offering on the Altar.  If he failed to share God’s bounty with the poor, his observance of the Festival would be unacceptable.

 

24-25.  DAY OF MEMORIAL —ROSH HASHANAH

As the seventh day in the week was a holy day, so was the seventh month was the holy month in the year.  Each New Moon was made the occasion for additional offerings (Num. XXVIII,11f).  It is, therefore, not surprising that the New Moon of the seventh month should be a Festival of special solemnity.  In later times, it was known as Rosh Hashanah, New Year’s Day.  But unlike the New Year celebrations of many ancient and modern nations, the Jewish New Year is not a time of revelry, but an occasion of the deepest religious import.

 

23 YHVH spoke to Moshe, saying:
24 Speak to the Children of Israel, saying:

On the seventh New-moon, on (day) one of the New-moon, 

you are to have Sabbath-ceasing, 

a reminder by (horn-)blasting, a proclamation of holiness.

 

a memorial.  In num. XXIX, the occasion is called ‘a day of blowing the horn’, i.e. Shofar, the ram’s horn; Josh.VI,4.  This act must be differentiated from the sounding of the t’trumpet’ (not the Shofar) which took place while the offerings were brought on all the Festivals and New Moons (Num.X,10).  The blowing of the Shofar had consequently quite a different significance, and was more awe-inspiring (see Amos,III,6) than the blowing of the silver trumpets, which generally was a joyous sound.  The sound of Shofar, consisting, as handed down by Tradition, of three distinctive Shofar-notes—tekiah, shevarim, teruah—has been looked upon from time immemorial as a call to contrition and penitence, as a reminder of the Shofar-sound of Sinai; and the day of Memorial, the beginning of the Ten Days of Repentance, which culminate in the Day of Atonement, as a time of self-examination and humble petition for forgiveness.  ‘The Scriptural injunction of the Shofar for the New Year’s Day has a profound meaning.  It says: Awake, ye sleepers, and ponder over your deeds; remember your Creator and go back to Him in penitence.  Be not of those who miss realities in their pursuit of shadows and waste their years in seeking after vain things which cannot profit or deliver.  Look well to your souls and consider your acts; forsake each of you his evil ways and thought, and return to God so that He may have mercy upon you’ (Maimonides.)

 

25 Any-kind of servile work you are not to do; 

you are to bring-near a fire-offering to YHVH.

26-32.  DAY OF ATONEMENT

 

No other nation, ancient or modern, has an institution approaching the Day of Atonement in religious depth—‘a day of purification and of turning from sins, for which forgiveness is granted through the grace of the merciful God, who holds penitence in as high an esteem as guiltlessness’ (Philo).

 

26 YHVH spoke to Moshe, saying:
27 Mark, on the tenth after this seventh New-moon,

it is the Day of Atonement, 

a proclamation of holiness shall there be for you. 

You are to afflict your selves, 

and you are to bring-near a fire-offering to YHVH;

 

day of atonement. Heb. yom kippurim, lit. ‘Day of Atonements’.  The name of this most sacred of Festivals is in the plural, ‘because it represents two streams of love.  As soon as the desire for reconciliation has awakened in the sinner’s soul, and wings its way Heavenward, God’s grace comes down to meet it, calming his breast with the assurance of Divine pardon and forgiveness’ (Zohar).

 

afflict your souls. See on XVI,29l this Day, set aside for penitence and moral regeneration, is the only one for which the Torah prescribes fasting—which is the intensest form of devotion and contrition.  ‘On that day,’ the Rabbis state, ‘the Israelites resemble the angels, without human wants, without sins, and linked together in love and peace.’ It is the only day of the year—they add—on which the accuser Satan is silenced before the Trone of Glory, and even becomes the defender of Israel.  Confession of sin is the most essential and characteristic element in the services of the Day of Atonement; ‘every one entreating pardon for his sins and hoping for God’s mercy, not because of his own merits but through the compassionate nature of that Being who will have forgiveness rather than punishment’ (Philo).  The Confession is made by the whole Community collectively; and those who have not themselves committed the sins mentioned in the confession regret that they were unable to prevent them from being committed by others (Friedlander).

 

28 any-kind of work you are not to do on that same day,

for it is the Day of Atonement, to effect-atonement for you before the presence of YHVH your God.

no manner of work.  The phrase is not qualified by the addition of the word ‘servile’.  With regard to work, the Day of Atonement is of the same strictness as the Sabbath (Exod. XX,10), with similar exceptions where life might be endangered.

 

to make atonement for you. ‘As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways’ (Ezek. XXXIII,11).

 

29 Indeed, if any person does not afflict-himself on that same day, 

he is to be cut-off from his kinspeople,
30 and if any person does any-kind of work on that same day-

I will cause that person to perish from amid his kinspeople!

will I destroy.  Synonymous with ‘shall be cut off’, showing that the punishment is not by a human Court.

 

31 Any-kind of work you are not to do- 

a law for the ages, into your generations, throughout all your settlements.
32 It is Sabbath, a Sabbath-ceasing for you, 

you are to afflict your selves; 

on the ninth (day) after the New-moon, at sunset,

from sunset to sunset, you are to make-a-ceasing of your ceasing!

in the ninth day. The Day commencing with the preceding eve (Gen.I,5).  Both the opening and closing evenings are marked by services (Kol Nidre and Neilah) of special solemnity.  The Neilah Amidah is one of the most masterly products of Israel’s religious genius.  It begins:

 

‘Thou givest a hand to transgressors, and Thy right hand is stretched out to receive the penitent.  Thou hast taught us, O LORD our God, to make confession unto Thee of all our sins, in order that we may cease from the violence of our hands and may return unto Thee who delightest in the repentance of the wicked.’

 

These words contain what has been called ‘the Jewish doctrine of salvation.’

 

33-43.  FEAST OF TABERNACLES

 

33 YHVH spoke to Moshe, saying:
34 Speak to the Children of Israel, saying:

On the fifteenth day after this seventh New-moon: 

the pilgrimage-festival of Huts, for seven days, to YHVH.

fifteenth day.  Like the Passover, this Feast commenced at full moon.

 

tabernacles.  Heb. Succoth. lit. ‘booths’.  In Exod. XXIII,16, it is called ‘the Feast of Ingathering’.  In Rabbinic literature, it is known as ‘the Feast’, because, as the time of harvest, it would naturally be a period of rejoicing and holiday-making.  It really consists of two groups:  the first seven days, Tabernacles proper; and the eighth day, Atzeres.  The seventh day of Tabernacle Festival became in later times an echo of the Day of Atonement and was known as Hoshanah Rabbah; and the ‘second day’ of Atzeres assumed the nature of a separate Festival under the name of Simachas Torah, Rejoicing of the Law, the day on which the annual reading of the Torah was completed and restarted.

 

35 On the first day (is) a proclamation of holiness, 

 any-kind of servile work you are not to do.

36 For seven days you are to bring-near a fire-offering to YHVH; 

 on the eighth day, a proclamation of holiness shall there be for you, 

 you are to bring-near a fire-offering to YHVH

 -it is (a day of) Restraint- 

 any-kind of servile work you are not to do.

 solemn assembly. Or, ‘closing festival’. Heb. atzereth, the concluding day of a festival season, applied to the seventh day of Passover (Deut. VI,8), and, in Rabbinic literature, to the Feast of Weeks (see on v.15).  Maimonides explains the purpose of this eighth day to be, ‘in order to complete our rejoicings, which cannot be perfect in booths but in well-built houses.’

 

37 These are the appointed-times of YHVH, which you are to proclaim as proclamations of holiness, 

to bring-near fire-offerings to YHVH-offering-up, grain-gift, slaughter-offering and pour-offerings, each-day’s protocol in its day,
38 aside from the Sabbaths of YHVH, aside from your presents, 

aside from all your vow-offerings and aside from all your freewill-offerings that you give to YHVH.

the sabbaths.  i.e. the additional sacrifices offered on the Sabbaths (Num.VIII,9f).

 

gifts.  The voluntary offerings that accompanied the Israelite on his pilgrimage to the Temple, when he was bidden not to appear before hte lORD ’empty’ (Deut. XVI,16f).

 

39-43.  Additional directions in regard to Tabernacles for the time when, after the settlement in Canaan, the people would be tilling the soil and reaping the harvest.

 

 39 Mark, on the fifteenth day after the seventh New-moon,

when you have gathered-in the produce of the land, 

 you are to celebrate-as-pilgrimage the pilgrimage-festival of YHVH, for seven days: 

 on the first day (is) a Sabbath-ceasing and on the eighth day is a Sabbath-ceasing.

 eighth day. Which is deemed a Festival on its own account, distinct from the Feast of Tabernacles.

 

40 You are to take yourselves, on the first day, the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palms, 

and boughs of thick tree-foliage, and willows of the brook.

And you are to rejoice before the presence of YHVH your God for seven days,

39 Mark, on the fifteenth day after the seventh New-moon, 

 when you have gathered-in the produce of the land, 

 you are to celebrate-as-pilgrimage the pilgrimage-festival of YHVH, for seven days: 

 on the first day (is) a Sabbath-ceasing and on the eighth day is a Sabbath-ceasing.

fruit of goodly trees. Tradition holds that this is the ethrog, the citron.

 

thick trees.  Better, thick-leaved trees; myrtle branches.  These traditional explanations are supported by the testimony of Josephus, who writes:  ‘On this Festival, we carry in our hands a branch of myrtle, and willow, and a bough of the palm-tree, with the addition of the citron.’

 

and ye shall rejoice before the LORD.  This phrase was closely linked with the preceding, and gave rise to the joyous processions in the Temple.  The pilgrims held the lulav and esrog in their hands and sang Psalms of praise to God.

 

41 you are to celebrate-it-as pilgrimage, a pilgrimage-festival to YHVH, for seven days a year- 

a law for the ages, throughout your generations:

in the seventh New-moon you are to celebrate-it-as-pilgrimage
42 -in huts you are to stay for seven days, 

every native in Israel is to stay in huts-

booths. The Heb. sukkah represents a hastily-constructed and unsubstantial edifice, such as the Israelites must have set up during the wanderings in the Wilderness.  In addition to its historical associations, reminding the Israelite of the Divine protection during the desert-journey, the command to dwell in booths has also a religious signification.  ‘Man ought to remember his evil days in his days of prosperity.  He will there by be induced to thank God repeatedly, to lead a modest and humble life.  We, therefore, on Tabernacles leave our houses in order to dwell in booths.  We shall thereby remember that this has once been our condition’ (Maimonides).  The Book of Ecclesiastes is aptly set aside for special reading during Tabernacles of Atzeres.

 

43 in order that your generations may know that in huts I had the Children of Israel stay 

 when I brought them out of the land of Egypt,

 I am YHVH your God!

44 So Moshe declared the appointed-times of YHVH to the Children of Israel.

 Moses declared.  Cf. XXI,24.  Not only did he communicate the contents of the chapter to the people, but, as each Festival occurred, he took the opportunity of repeating the commands so that they were properly observed (Sifra).