Spring Mo’adim (Appointed Times)
Leviticus 23
1. Passover ( Pesach )
TLV Lev 23:5 During the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, is Adonai’s Passover. Passover, or Pesach, begins during the full moon in the first month of the year, usually on the 14th day of Nisan. Pesach is called the “feast of freedom” because it celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and memorializes the night when the faithful were protected by the blood of the lamb.This is a clear picture of the sacrifice of Yeshua the Mashiach as Seh HaElohim – the Lamb of Elohim who takes away the sins of the world. Passover then, is on the fourteenth day from the commencement of the new year and is eaten after twilight on that day, which is then the start of the fifteenth day and the first High Sabbath of the week of Unleavened Bread. … For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast.
2. Unleavened Bread ( Chag Hamotzi )
Lev 23:6 On the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Matzot to Adonai. For seven days you are to eat matzah.
Lev 23:7 On the first day you are to have a holy convocation and you should do no regular work.
Lev 23:8 Instead you are to present an offering made by fire to Adonai for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation, when you are to do no regular work.
Unleavened Bread starts the day after Passover and lasts 7 days. The The festival in itself extends over seven days with the first and the last days being high holy day Sabbaths in which no regular work is done and it is commenced by the Passover memorial.
Eating unleavened bread commemorates the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. Since there wasn’t enough time for the dough to rise when Israel fled, Elohim memorialized the event with the commandment to eat only unleavened bread for seven days (Deut. 16:3).
3. First Fruits ( Yom habikkurim )
Marks the beginning of the counting of the Omer. Seven weeks until Shavu’ot (Feast of Weeks). Lev 23:9 Adonai spoke to Moses saying:
Lev 23:10 “Speak to Bnei-Yisrael and tell them: When you have come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you are to bring the omer of the firstfruits of your harvest to the kohen.
Lev 23:11 He is to wave the omer before Adonai, to be accepted for you. On the morrow after the Shabbat, the kohen is to wave it.
Lev 23:12 On the day when you wave the omer you are to offer a male lamb without blemish, one year old, as a burnt offering to Adonai.
(First Fruits and counting the Omer begins on the Weekly Sabbath)
From Scripture In Its Original Order, these verses read: “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest of it, then you shall bring the premier sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD to be accepted for you. On the next day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it…. And you shall count to you beginning with the next day after the Sabbath, beginning with the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete; even unto the day after the seventh Sabbath you shall number fifty days. And you shall proclaim on the same day that it may be a holy convocation’ ” (Lev. 23:10-11, 15-16).
Elohim’s instructions in Leviticus 23 make it clear that the weeks of counting must be seven full weeks, each ending with the weekly Sabbath day. The seventh weekly Sabbath will always be the forty-ninth day in the count. No other method of counting can fit the scriptural command to count exactly fifty days from the day after the first Sabbath to the day after the seventh Sabbath. The only day after the weekly Sabbath is the first day of the week: “Even unto the day after the seventh Sabbath you shall number fifty days.” This command shows that the count is not only seven complete weeks—49 days—but includes one additional day, making a total of fifty days. The fiftieth day is to be proclaimed as a holy convocation. In Old Testament times, this annual holy day was called the Feast of Weeks, or the Feast of Firstfruits. In New Testament times, the name was changed to the day of Pentecost. The English word Pentecost is transliterated from the Greek word penteekostee, which means “the fiftieth.”
The instructions in Leviticus 23 show that the count to Shavuot (Pentecost), or Firstfruits, begins with the day the sheaf is waved. On this day, the wave sheaf was reaped and offered to Elohim as the first of the firstfruits, marking the beginning of the spring barley harvest. Deuteronomy 16 confirms that the beginning of the harvest was also the beginning of the seven-week count to Pentecost: “You shall count seven weeks to yourselves. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time you first began to put the sickle to the grain. And you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God…” (Deut. 16:9-10).
During the Feast of Unleavened Bread there is always a Sabbath (7th day). The day after the Sabbath we are told to bring the “first fruits” of the harvest which is the first ripe barley in the field and raise it as a wave offering; this is the day of First Fruits.
First Fruits marks the beginning of the counting of the Omer. Think about it, think about how Messiah is connected with this. Messiah is the first fruit and takes us to Shavu’ot (Pentecost). This connection is important. Since Elohim does not do things sporadically. He does things by design and for a purpose.
Elohim wanted a special feast during which the Jews would acknowledge the fertility of the fine land He gave them. They were to bring the early crops of their spring planting (first fruits) to the priest at the Temple to be waved before the Lord on their behalf. This was to be done “the morrow after the Sabbath”.
4. Pentecost ( Shavu’ot )
When the Spirit of Elohim comes down as he did on Mt. Sinai with Moshe and in the upper room after Messiah ascended to the Father.. Fifty days from the morrow after the sabbath after Passover is Shavuot or the Day of Pentecost. It is believed that it was on this day that Elohim visited His people after their exodus from Egypt.
Fall Mo’adim
5. Trumpets ( Yom Teru’ah )
The Feast of Trumpets marked the beginning of ten days of consecration and repentance before Elohim. It is one of seven annual appointed times or festivals of the LORD and one of three feasts that occur in the autumn. The Feast of Trumpets begins on the first day (at the new moon) of the seventh month. Its name comes from the command to blow trumpets (Leviticus 23:24; Numbers 29:1-6).
6. Day of Atonement ( Yom Kippur )
Leviticus 16:29 mandates establishment of this holy day on the 10th day of the 7th month as the day of atonement for sins. It calls it the Sabbath of Sabbaths and a day upon which one must afflict one’s soul. Leviticus 23:27 decrees that Yom Kippur is a strict day of rest.
7. Tabernacles ( Sukkot )
Sukkot has a dual significance. The Book of Exodus mentions that it is an agricultural in nature—”Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end” (Exodus 34:22)—and marks the end of the harvest time and thus of the agricultural year in the Land of Israel. The more elaborate religious significance from the Book of Leviticus is that of commemorating the Exodus and the dependence of the People of Israel on the will of Elohim (Leviticus 23:42-43).