The Feasts of Yehovah

In the Messianic community there is a struggle as to which Holy Days to keep. The traditional Jewish Holidays? The Christian Holidays? Or the Biblical Holy Days? But as students of the Bible we want to look at what Yeshua and the apostles said and did, we want to follow their example. When we look at Yeshua’s life, we can definitely say that He did not start a new religion; Peter and Paul did not start a new religion either. They celebrated the Biblical Holy Days, maybe not as the rabbis at that time wanted. But today, knowing what Yeshua did for us, should we not celebrate these Biblical Holy Days in their fulfillment, since all are but shadows of the redemptive work of Yeshua, past, present, and future?

And, because we say that we want to present the Good News to the Jewish people, I will compare the Biblical Holy Days with what the traditional Talmudic Judaism developed, but not with what the Church does. The Church is celebrating new Holidays today because of ignorance and because of boasting about this faith which they received from the Jews – Romans 11:17-18 “But if some of the branches have been broken off, and you, being a wild olive, have been grafted among them and have become partaker in the richness of the olive tree's root, do not boast over the branches. But if you do boast, remember that it is not you who sustain the branches, but the branches sustains you.” This boasting started with eliminating everything Jewish from the “church” practices as stated in the 4th century at the council of Nicea. Therefore I will not talk about Easter, Christmas, Lent or Halloween.

However, if you have friends who celebrate the Christian Holidays there is a Biblical verse which says to you: “Preach the word, be ready in season (the Biblical Holy Days) and out of season (the other Holidays),reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction” 2 Timothy 4:2.

So let’s look at these Biblical Holy Days and decide for ourselves how we should celebrate them.

The Biblical Holy Days are basically divided into two categories: The Spring Holy Days and The Fall Holy Days, and are based on Leviticus Chapter 23. Hanukkah was a later addition based on the celebrating Sukkot a month later after the cleansing of the Temple during the Maccabean revolt, but validated by Yeshua as He was in Jerusalem at that time (John 10:22). Purim is a Biblical celebration based on the book of Esther.

— The Spring Holy Days

— The Fall Holy Days

— Hanukkah

— Purim

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