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Good morning, and welcome back to Mishkan Katan. We are going to take a break today from our psalms study. The past week and a half have been quite turbulent in my life. A couple of Sunday nights ago, I got a very sad and distressing phone call. The son of one of the ladies in my husband’s couples Bible study that meets each week had lost her son in a very tragic manner. He had been murdered in his own home. This young man was only 37 years old at his death. He had taken into his home some people who were down on their luck. These folks had nowhere to go, and out of the goodness of his heart, this young man, who lived alone with his two dogs, had said they could stay with him until they could get back on their feet. For reasons that still are unclear, the man who had been invited in to stay attacked the homeowner with his own butcher knife and stabbed him to death. Of course, the mother and father of the victim, as well as the victim’s daughter, the victim’s brother, and others who loved him have been extremely traumatized. Our Bible study group, which consists of about seven couples and five singles has sprung into action to support the family. The services for the young man were just yesterday.
This young man was practicing Tikkun Olam, a Jewish concept which translated means, “repairing the world”. In other words, he was attempting to do good for others who had “been through hell”, because he had had plenty of hell in his own young life, and he wanted to help others make it through theirs. Christians would call this, “being the hands and feet of Jesus”. Yet, despite his loving support of others suffering, his life was taken by someone completely controlled by the Evil One. I am grateful that Yeshua knew His heart and has welcomed his soul into His eternal embrace.
In the midst of all this, the same group of precious people that has been supporting the bereaved family gave the most incredibly beautiful, elegant bridal shower for our youngest son’s bride-to-be this past Saturday. Everything was just as perfect as you would want it to be. There were approximately 30 people present to celebrate this young couple, and to help them establish their home together. I had houseguests in conjunction with this event. That visit included lots of laughing, reminiscing, and staying up late talking into the wee hours of the morning.
So, as you can see, the last week and a half has for me been quite wonderful yet also challenging and mournful. Like many of you, over the past month and a half, I’ve been keeping in my heart and in my actions, the last festivals of the civil year. I decided that since I had never done a teaching on these mo’edim that I would do so before proceeding on in the psalms. I hope you’ll indulge me with that in our teaching this morning.
Some of you who listen each week are familiar with these holidays, but the majority of you are not. Most of my listeners are Christians, seeking to deepen their walk with the Lord by gaining a clearer understanding of the annual commemorations that were established in the Old Testament and continued in the New. These festivals that we are going to look at today have a bit of a rabbinical leaning. That is, the majority of them were not established by Moses, but have been put into place by Rabbi‘s over the centuries to commemorate historical events in the lives of the Jewish people. As a matter of fact, if you are watching this broadcast in real time, today is the very last of those commemorations. I will tell you more about it later on in the broadcast.
Allright, we are starting then, with the first commemoration after Shavuot, which many of you know as Pentecost. Same holiday. We are going on from there, not delving into Shavuot today.
The time to mark, then, would be these summer holidays which begin in the biblical month of Tammuz, and conclude in the biblical month of Av. Of course, one significant day during the biblical month of Tammuz is my birthday. But, since I am once again “55 and holding”, that’s enough said about that. And we will move on. You know I’m just messing with you. But seriously, and I mean, seriously… Beginning in the month of Tammuz there is a three-week period which is a period of severe mourning. And I don’t mean because Gena was born lol no; the rabbis established these holidays to mark several tragic occurrences that happened during this time. Ironically, for me and my birthday, there are supposed to be no joyful celebrations during this 3-week period. No birthdays (well, birthdays are downplayed in Jewish culture, generally, as it is believed that the day of one’s death is greater than the day of one’s birth), no weddings, no baby showers, etc.
For whatever Hashem’s reasons, the summertime has historically been a very challenging period for the Jewish people, a time of struggle, bitter losses, and woes. So, the three weeks are characterized by intense self-reflection, and returning to the Lord. As it says in Lamentations 5:21 - - ha·shi·vei'·nu · Adonai · ei·lei'·kha · ve·na·shu'·va
cha·desh · ya·mei'·noo · ke·ke'·dem
"Turn us back to yourself, O LORD, so that we may return to you;
renew our days as of old" (Lam. 5:21)
During this time, called the Three Weeks of Sorrow, or for short, The Three Weeks, all of the assigned Scripture readings warn the people of impending judgment. One of these is Isaiah 1:1-17. It is the prescribed Haftorah passage for the Shabbat that comes just before the first day of the 3-week Days of Mourning. In this passage for that Shabbat, often called Shabbat Chazon, in English “Black Sabbath”, the prophet Isaiah, who lived in the period of Nebuchadnezzar’s attack, is denouncing the Jews for their apostasy.
We need to take what looks like a side trail and look at the prophet Zechariah for a moment. Zechariah was born after Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and leveled the first Temple. Zech was born in Babylon, among the captives who were taken there by Neb. When he was a young man, the 70-year period of Babylonian exile was ended, and he returned, in the first wave of exiles. A contemporary of the prophet Haggai, Zech was a Levite, who served as both a prophet and priest. In his book, in Zechariah 8:19, he called for instituting four major fast days to be observed. Each of these four is connected to the loss of the first Jewish Temple. TWO of the four occur in the three-week period we are currently studying today, if you are reckoning the Jewish months according to the calendar shift the Lord God made in Exodus 12. This reckons the first month as starting from Nisan, with Nisan/Aviv being the first month. That would make Tammuz the fourth month.
The first day to note in this 3-week period is the 17th of Tammuz, a fast day which begins the period. The endpoint of this period is the Ninth of Av, the ninth day of the next month, the month of Av, which we’ll get to momentarily. The 9th of Av is the second of the two fast days that occur in this 3-week period. The two fast days are like calendar “bookends”. Back to the 17th of Tammuz - - - Several significant events are said to have occurred on this day.
First, it is said that Moses returned down Mt. Sinai, after having received the first set of tablets, on 17 Tammuz. When he arrived, he found a great number of the people “worshipping”, by feasting, dancing and doing other unmentionable things around an idol they had constructed during his 40-day absence, a golden calf. Later on, this horrific incident, which led to the punitive deaths of thousands of the Hebrews, was seen as an omen, seen as prophetic.
Secondly, the Judean king, Manasseh, considered wildly to have been the very worst of the kings of Judah, placed into the very holiest place of the Temple an idol. This is recorded in 2 King 21:7.
Thirdly, on this same date the the walls of Jerusalem were toppled by the invading Babylonian army of Nebuchadnezzar. This is recorded in 2 Kings 25:2-7. On this day the daily offerings in the Temple were discontinued, since no animals for the offerings could be obtained because of the siege.
Fourthly, It is also said that in 69 CE, the walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans, under the leadership of the Emperor’s son, Titus, on this inauspicious day. This breach enabled the thorough destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.
And, if that were not enough infamy, which it most certainly is, here are some additional horrific events that occurred on the 17th of Tammuz, on the rabbinical calendar.
1239 - - Pope Gregory ordered that all of the Talmud manuscripts be confiscated.
1391 - - over 4000 Spanish Jews were murdered. Spain has a long history of anti-Semitism.
1559 - - the Jewish quarter of Prague, Czechoslovakia, was looted and then burned to the ground.
1944 - - all Jews in the Kovno ghetto were rounded up and sent to the death camps
1970 - - in the country of Libya, all Jewish property was confiscated by the state.
Put that all together and there are many reasons to fast and mourn on the 17th of Tammuz. Yet, the Jews are still here and thriving! Amen.
The Torah reading for the 17th of Tammuz is Exodus 32:11-14 and 34:10. (This is the same scripture passage read on all Jewish fast days, actually.) In these passages, Moses appealed to Hashem for His forgiveness of the people after their egregious sin of the Golden Calf. And, because of His mercy granted, the covenant was renewed.) Among the more observant, there is a synagogue service on the morning of the 17th. This service features penitential prayers (selichot). These appeals for God’s compassion are traditionally followed by prayers that recall Jewish suffering through the centuries, even up to the present day.
Now then, let’s move ahead from the 17th of Tammuz. The last nine days of the Three Weeks of Sorrow lie in the next biblical month, the month of Av. During this period, the mourning intensifies. Beginning on the first day of the month, traditional Jewish mourning practices are employed. For example, observant men do not shave. Haircuts are postponed. Hygiene associated with bathing is restricted to the bare minimum. There are no pleasure baths or showers. No laundering is done, except for infants. Buying, sewing or wearing new garments is avoided. No joyful building or home improvement occurs. Meat (including chicken) is not eaten, unless it is for a celebratory meal like a bris. (This is the ritual circumcision which must come on the 8th day after a baby boy’s birth.)
On the 9th of Av, called in the Hebrew language Tisha B’Av, we have the second fast day “bookend” I mentioned earlier. Even though Tisha B’Av is a fast day, work is permitted. However, it is not advised. This is because the emphasis is on mourning and repentance. As on all Jewish fast days, the giving of additional charity is encouraged. The fast begins at sunset at the beginning of the ninth of Av, and continues until after sunset on the 10th. It is a 25 hour fast, as I recall.
On this day, the 12 spies sent to scope out the land of Canaan, returned with their evil report. Of the 12 spies, only 2, Joshua and Caleb, returned to the people with an opinion dissenting from the majority. The other 10 gave a faithless report, a report throughly couched in fear. Those 10 did not trust God to deliver the land into their hands. You probably recall the judgment of God fell on the Jewish people that day. They were sentenced to 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, until all of the faithless ones had died out.
It is furthermore said that both the first and second Temples were destroyed on that day. During the evening synagogue service, the entire book of Lamentations (Megillat Eichah) is read in a plaintive voice. This book was written by the prophet Jeremiah (Yeremiyahu), the so-called Weeping Prophet, who lived through Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem. The book of lamentations is a prophecy. It was not written in reaction to the events that resulted in the destruction of the first temple. Instead, it was written some believe as many as 17 years before that. Others believe it was even longer. Jeremiah wrote the book while he was imprisoned. King Jehoiakim had apparently found Jeremiah’s prophecies regarding the future destruction of Jerusalem tiresome. Chapters one, two, and four of this book contain 22 verses, and each of those 22 verses begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Chapter 3 departs from that pattern which I will explain in a moment. Chapter 5, the last chapter, is the only chapter of the book that, although it has 22 verses, does not begin each verse with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
In this sense, the book of Lamentations is a literary masterpiece. It is written in the past tense, which causes some not to believe that it is a prophecy, but that instead it was written after the fact. However, the book itself testifies that this is not true. Why then did Jeremiah choose to write it in the past tense? We don’t know. We do know it was written under the inspiration of the Ruach HaKodesh.
There’s an interesting story about this book of the Bible. Jeremiah dictated it to his trusted scribe, whose name was Baruch. When the scroll was completed, Baruch asked for an audience with the king so that he could read it to him. However, after hearing the first few verses, the king allegedly grabbed the scroll and tossed it into the fireplace.
After this travesty occurred, Jeremiah 36 tells us that God then instructed Jeremiah to rewrite the prophecies. So, Jeremiah again dictated the prophecies to Baruch; but, this time around he added an additional chapter—one that contained 66 verses, the first three starting with the letter aleph, the next three with a beit, and so on through the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
The first three chapters that Jeremiah wrote became chapters 1, 2 and 4 of the book of Lamentations. The 66-verse chapter he added is chapter 3. Chapter 5—the only chapter that isn’t an alphabetical acrostic, though it too contains 22 verses—was added by Jeremiah at a later time.
(It is said that Chapter 4 was originally composed as a eulogy for King Josiah (Yoshiyahu), Jehoiakim’s father.2 Unlike Jehoiakim, Josiah was a truly saintly individual, as the Torah testifies, according to (II Kings 23:25)Which says: “Before him there was no king like him who returned to G‑d with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to the entire Torah of Moses, and after him no one [of his stature] arose.”3)
About 40 years after the Messiah returned to Heaven, the clashes of the Jews against the Romans, reached a fever pitch. On this same infamous date, the Second Temple was burned down by the Romans. Yeshua foretold this event, and His words concerning this tragedy are recorded in Matthew 23:37 through 24:2. He lamented: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, Barukh Haba Ba'shem Adonai: 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' Yeshua then left the Temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the Temple. But he answered them, "You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down."
And, just as He prophesied, so it occurred, during the lifetime of some of His companions and followers.
The Bar Kochba revolt, another later significant uprising of the Jews against the Romans, ended in defeat after 10 years of war, whereupon the Jews of Betar, thousands of them, were butchered. This great slaughter also occurred on the ninth of Av, 133 CE. And one year later on this same date the remains of the Second Temple were plowed under by the Romans.
During this season, because the destruction of the first two temples figures so prominently, the next prophesied temple is studied in great detail. The observant Jews study what they call the third temple, patterned after the instructions given by the prophet Ezekiel in his book. This is studied in conjunction with the appearance of the Messiah.
Followers of Yeshua, of course, know that He was and is the promised Messiah. Accordingly, since we know the New Testament prophecies as well, we are not looking for the Ezekiel Temple as the third Temple. We believe the third Temple will be a hastily constructed temple on a much smaller scale, which will not last for very many years. It will be constructed just prior to the prophetic period known as The Time of Jacob’s Trouble, also known as the Tribulation Period. Followers of Yeshua believe that the Ezekiel Temple will be built, but that it will be the Fourth Temple. This massive structure will be built by Tzemach Tzaddik (צֶמַח צַדִּיק), namely, Yeshua the returning Messiah, the Son of David, after He has come again to establish the Kingdom of Zion upon the earth in fulfillment of God’s promises recorded in Zech. 6:12; Jer. 23:5. The verse I cited earlier, Zechariah 8:19, prophesies that at that glorious time of Messiah’s return and earthly reign the mourning of the Jewish people will forgotten. Here is that verse.
"Thus says Adonai Tzeva'ot (יהוה צְבָאוֹת): The fast of the fourth month (Tammuz), and the fast of the fifth month (Tishah B'Av), and the fast of the seventh month (Gedaliah), and the fast of the tenth month (Asarah b'Tevet), will be to the house of Judah for joy and rejoicing and for pleasant appointed seasons. Therefore love truth and peace" The prophet goes on to say in 8:19 that in that future day, "the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one" (Zech. 14:9).
Because of the many scriptures in the Tanakh, which speak of the echad, the oneness of God, the King Messiah, the rabbis following the lead of Maimonides, do not believe Messiah will be divine. They do view him as possessing some divine attributes, granted to him by Yahweh. By contrast, followers of Yeshua generally do believe him to be divine and part of the complex majestic mystery known as God. One can believe this, and not be a strict Trinitarian. In fact, God manifest himself in a variety of ways to mankind throughout the entire Bible. He is in fact in comprehensible and mysterious. There is plenty of room in his echad, in His oneness, in His unity, for a fully human and fully divine Mashiach.
We have now come to the last significant appointed time before the end of the civil year. Literally. The romantic holiday of Tu B’Av (which in English means “15th in Av”), this year began yesterday, Tuesday, July 28th at sunset and ends the following day (today, in real time) at sunset...So, guess what? If you are watching this broadcast live, in real time, today is what is called by some the Jewish Valentine’s Day!
Tu B'Av (ט"ו באב), or the "fifteenth [day] of [the month of] Av"), is a rabbinical holiday of love celebrated in modern Israel that has its origins long before “Valentine’s Day.” It is not a mo’ed commanded by the Lord in Scripture. However, according to the Jewish sages, and according to Scripture, the nation of Israel was reconciled to God after the sin of the 10 spies, on the 15th of Av. This is similar to how Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) originally celebrated the reconciliation of Israel to the LORD after the sin of the Golden Calf. Therefore, both the fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur became joyous times in Jewish culture, and practice, celebrating forgiveness and restoration to the LORD. Indeed, Shimon ben Gamliel is quoted as saying, (in the Babylonian Talmud’s Ta’anit 31a): "Israel had no holidays as joyous as the Fifteenth of Av and the Day of Atonement”. The Talmud even states that Tu B’Av is a greater celebration than Yom Kippur!
So, how was and is this holiday celebrated? According to the Talmud, the unmarried young maidens would go out into the vineyards and dance on this full moon festival. All the biblical months follow the track and phase of the moon. The full moon of a biblical, lunar month is usually at the 15th of the month. The 15th of the month of Av, that is 45 days before the civil year’s new year, Rosh Hashanah, and 15 days before the month of Elul begins, Elul being the last month of the civil year. So, we have the young maidens dancing in the vineyards. In response, the unmarried young men would go out to the vineyards as well, with the aim of each finding himself a bride. You can see why this is called The Jewish Valentine’s Day!
The Jewish oral law tells us that it was on the 15th of Av that the last of the Exodus generation had died, except for 2 of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, who we learn in Numbers 32 were spared because of their faithful report. Now, the Scriptures of the Torah do not give us this information, this exact date of when the last survivor, so to speak, passed away. But, the Talmud tells us this: Each year of the 40 years of wilderness wandering, on the 9th of Av, any of that generation who had just turned 60 would die on that night. However, when that period was over, on the 9th of Av, no one died that night. The people thought they had miscalculated the date. But, no! They hadn’t! The period of dying was over. Accordingly, at the full moon on the 15th of Av, it was a time of great celebration. We can read in Joshua 5 that, right after the nation crossed over the Jordan, Joshua circumcised the entire male population, because none of them had been circumcised previously. Their forefathers who had died in the wilderness had been circumcised, but that all the male children born after the Exodus had not. Then, we read that while they were healing they observed the Passover. Well, Passover occurs in the spring, on the 15th of Nisan, not in late summer, when we find the date the 15th of Av. So, you can take this as you like. If there is other “proof” that the last surviving, unbelieving Hebrew died on the 15th of Av, I don’t know what that information is.
The Oral Law also tells us that it was on the 15th of Av during the rule of the first of the Judges, Othniel, that the 12 tribes were given permission to intermarry. When the nation first began to enter the Promised Land, people could only marry within their tribe. This was done to facilitate the orderly distribution and establishment of the land among the 12 tribes. It was believed that if a woman from one tribe married a man from another tribe in those early days, the woman’s tribe’s lands would become part of the husband’s tribe, thereby muddying the waters. After a few generations, this restriction was lifted, supposedly on the 15th of Av.
There is one final interesting story that is said to be associated with the 15th of Av. In the days of the holy temple in Jerusalem, firewood was needed for the altar on a regular basis. Firewood was cut during an annual period of the year, a time that ended on the 15th of Av. On that day, there was much feasting and celebrating. There was also a custom that as part of the celebration all of the axes were broken. Accordingly, the day was sometimes referred to as “the day of the breaking of the axe.”
Does this celebration, the 15th of Av tell us anything prophetically? Well, yes, it does. As the last festival of the civil calendar year, Tu B’Av foretells the marriage of the Lamb of God, Yeshua, our Messiah, to his body of believers. Currently, the Body of Yeshua, the ecclesia, is in the betrothal phase of marriage to our Mashiach.
However, according to the words of the Brit Chadasha, the New Testament, we know that He will return, on a soon-to-come day, to gather His own and take them to the actual wedding. Revelation 19:6-9 speaks of how the Bride and the Bridegroom will dwell together forever. We will be His beloved, dwelling in the presence of LORD. This will be the pinnacle of Heaven itself.
This is reminiscent of the beautiful phrase, ani l'dodi ve'dodi li (אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְדוֹדִי לִי), "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine" from the Song of Songs 6:3). Indeed, we will be here for all eternity. The sages say that the name for the last month of the civil year, Elul (אלול), is an acronym taken from this verse. How prophetic! Elul begins on August 23rd this year, if you are watching me in real time, live, today. The month of Elul is set apart as a time to search our souls and focus on returning our hearts to God, turning from false paths of error and foolish ways. We can be comforted in the knowledge that God is welcoming, forgiving and loving when we sincerely repent and return to Him.
The very same author of Lamentations, Jeremiah, wrote in Jeremiah 31:3 - - “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” The Hebrew verb translated as “I have drawn” is mashakh, which means to grab and drag away. Makes me think of hooking a fish and reeling it in. The equivalent verb in the Greek is used in John chapter 6 verse 44, where Yeshua said “no one is able to come to me unless he is dragged away by the Father.”
As John J Parsons said on his Hebrew4Christians Facebook page yesterday: “God’s chesed seizes us, takes us captive, and leads us to the Savior… Spiritual rebirth is a divine act of creation, ‘not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God’”. (John 1:13)
How is Tu B’Av celebrated today? In Israel, there are concerts, dance parties, wine-tasting events and other joyous celebrations. Many couple choose this date to either get engaged or to get married. And, much like on Valentine’s Day, people exchange gifts, flowers, cards, tokens of affection. Basically, to emphasize turning sorrow into joy, people do acts of kindness, emphasizing unity and love for fellow human beings. There are no halachic requirements for this day, but the daily religious services omit the prayers of confession and petition, because it is a happy and joyous day. And, some study the Torah more than usual that night because the summer nights are growing longer now.
So, there you have it - - the last festivals of the civil calendar year.
Next week, we will return to our study of the Psalms.
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