Instruction – JS Articles

The Feast of Purim: Its meaning in Hebrew and Why it’s Relevant in 2024

Gabriele Monacis — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 07:37:56 +0000

The Feast of Purim: Its meaning in Hebrew and Why it’s Relevant in 2024

The Jewish feast of Purim is especially relevant in 2024. The book of Esther sheds light on the circumstances that brought the Jews to celebrate this feast in the Persian empire for the first time almost 2500 years ago. Today, when Purim comes, people of all ages don costumes and go out to the streets. Originally Purim costumes were characters from the Bible account, but today anything goes. The atmosphere is very joyful, sometimes even a bit extreme in its nonsensical celebrations reminiscent of Carnival. A long held tradition is reading the entire scroll of Esther while congregants make noises to drown out Haman’s, the villain’s, name.

The typical Purim treat is a cookie called “Haman’s ear,” from the name of the powerful man who served King Ahasuerus in the Persian empire. Dating back to an Italian Purim play in 1550, historians believe confusions between manna in the desert and the story from the book of Esther may have brought about this rather macabre cookie name.

Known as Haman the Agagite, he was most probably a descendent of Agag, king of the Amalekites. Though the spirit of Purim today is very joyful, it was not always so. It started when Haman, out of his hatred, decided to kill all the Jews living in the empire of Ahasuerus.

Haman came to this awful conclusion because a Jew – yes, just one – did not want to bow before him. Haman was promoted by King Ahasuerus to be above all the other officials (Esther 3:1). He was filled with fury when he found out that there was one man – the Jew Mordecai – who did not bow down and pay homage before him. He decided to kill not only Mordecai, but all of his people.

Haman ordered letters to be sent to all the provinces of Persia with instructions to kill and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, women and children, on one day: the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (3:13). This specific day was chosen by Haman by casting lots — in Hebrew pur. From this word comes the name of the feast “Purim,” the plural of pur. The complete destruction of the Jews was planned and the specific day of this genocide was designated by casting pur.

Thousands of years have passed after that day that threatened death for the Jews. In a few days this memory of what could have been the end of the Jewish nation will be revived with joy and celebration. Today, we can all see with our own eyes the evidence that no one in history who planned to kill all the Jews, like Haman, has succeeded in his purpose.

Even in 2024 the Jews, and all those who celebrate Purim, can testify that God has preserved the people of Israel through history. God turned the plans of her enemies upside-down. The circumstances also turned upside-down for Haman himself. The Persian king hanged him on the structure that Haman had prepared for Mordecai. His fate was sealed once King Ahasuerus found out that Haman’s plan to kill all the Jews implied also the death of his beloved Queen Esther (7:3,4).

With the feast of Purim near we dwell on God’s faithfulness to His promises and His ability to change the curse into a blessing. Purim 2024 renews the promise of the month that had been turned for the Jews from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; (9:22).

Haman met his death on the structure he himself prepared, but many proposed again and again throughout history his plan to kill all the Jews, even to this day. The hatred towards the Jews is getting stronger, as it was at that time, and it involves all Jews indiscriminately. This hatred can not be explained with human reasoning. But it has to be put under the light of the Bible and analyzed according to biblical reasoning. Even though the name of God never appears in the book of Esther, the readers of the Bible can explain this hatred as an action of God’s enemy against His faithfulness to His Word, His work behind the scenes, His rescue for those who call upon Him.

Counting the Omer: From Redemption to Revelation

Baruch Kvasnica — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 04:41:07 +0000

Counting the Omer: From Redemption to Revelation

The Omer is a daily counting starting from the day of the giving of the Omer (a first sickle cutting of barley that produces a grain offering), just after Passover. The counting continues until Shavuot, also known as Pentecost, fifty days later. This time takes us from Passover to Shavuot – from Redemption to Revelation.

Leviticus 23: 15-16 “Then you are to count from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the omer (a sheaf of grain) of the wave offering, seven complete Sabbaths. 16 Until the morrow after the seventh Shabbat you are to count fifty days and then present a new grain offering to Adonai. (TLV, modified)

Deuteronomy 16:9-10 “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. 10 Then you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give just as the Lord your God blesses you. (NASB, modified)

These 49 days of counting climax on the 50th Day – Shavuot/Pentecost – traditionally the giving of the Torah (Exodus 19-20) and the giving of the Spirit (Acts 2)! Passover secured Israel’s physical freedom from Egypt, but they were still enslaved spiritually until God graciously gave Israel the Torah at Sinai in order for Israel to know how to live as a people and a nation.

Consider “making the Omer count,” by learning more about the Omer and by using these days to interact with the Creator of the Universe in this crescendoing count – filled with the anticipation of Shavuot/Pentecost and thankfulness for the giving of the Word and Spirit.

Further Explorations with the Omer:

It was during this season that Jesus (Yeshua) appeared for 40 days after his resurrection and before his ascension.

The Omer period reminds one of the need to be aware of the poor and outcast as well as a proactive giving, as found in Ruth 2:7,15 and alluded to in Job 24:10.

The Sadducees, Essenes, Samaritans, Karaites (and seemingly the early believers in Yeshua?) all counted the first day of the Omer to be the first day after a weekly Sabbath (the seventh day of the week) and not after the festal Sabbath as the Pharisees interpreted. The debate is based upon a close reading of Leviticus 23:15-16 and 23:11. ¹

Yeshua’s plucking (or rubbing, but not cutting) of the grain in the field on the Sabbath day (Lk. 6:1-5) is specified to have taken place on the second Sabbath in the cycle of the counting of the omer ². As Shmuel Safrai has pointed out, “Luke’s narrative clearly was composed within a society familiar with the counting of the omer.” ³ Shouldn’t we be more aware of the Biblical calendar that God set up? (See Leviticus 23, etc.)

In Leviticus 23:10 – the singular Hebrew word Reshit (rather than Bikurim) is used, meaning “Firstfruit” which can be paralleled heuristically with 1 Corinthians 15:20,23 where Yeshua is termed the firstfruit (ἀπαρχὴ), a singular form as well. Bikurim (plural) is used at the end of Leviticus 23 in regards to the firstfruits for Shavuot, and parallels us as believers as the firstfruits of the new creation in James 1:18.

¹ See J. van Goudoever, “The Significance of the Counting of the Omer.” In Studies on the Jewish Background of the New Testament, edited by S. Safrai O. Michel, R. le Déaut; pages 64-86, 1969. And a brief summary see Appendix B footnote 6 in David J. Rudolph (eds.), The Voice of the Lord: Messianic Jewish Daily Devotional (Baltimore: Lederer, 1998).
² This detail is in the vast majority of manuscripts. For an important consideration and introduction to the Byzantine text, see Maurice A. Robinson, “Appendix: The Case for Byzantine Priority.”
³ Shmuel Safrai, “Sabbath Breakers,” in Jerusalem Perspective No. 27 (Jul./Aug. 1990), pp. 3‐5.

Are God’s Instructions Necessary?

Ariel Rudolph — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 08:39:10 +0000

Are God's Instructions Necessary?

As a kid I remember building many plastic models ranging from Apollo rockets, planes to racing cars. One of the first things that came out of a package when opening a kit were the instructions.

In the excitement of getting down to the business of laying out the pieces in preparation to build the model, the order of which seemed pretty intuitive, the instructions were usually tossed to one side and ignored.

I wasn’t too far down the road of glueing pieces together that a mistake was made, like forgetting to place the pilot in the already assembled and glued cockpit. There was no going back to remedy the situation. This was the price paid for not following the instructions.

It is easy to think that we don’t have any need for God’s instructions in our lives but it will never be too far down life’s road to find out that we have messed things up to our own detriment!

It is for this very reason that God gave the Israelites the Torah to direct every little detail of life as instruction for everyday living.

Yeshua also taught his disciples and followers instructions for a successful life. In Matthew 7:24-29 He taught that those that heeded his words (instructions) and acts upon them would be likened to a wise man (vs 24) but those that heard His words and did not act upon them would be likened as foolish (vs 27).

These words of Yeshua came at the end of a teaching that contained some of the most unintuitive life lessons like loving one’s enemies, turning the other cheek or giving to the poor.