How to celebrate Shavuot

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Torah

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What is the Story of Shavuot?
Shavuot. The names of this holiday are:
1 "Chag Shavuot" - The Feast of Weeks
2 "Z'man Matan Torateinu" - The Time of the Giving of Our Torah
3 "Chag HaBikkurim" - The Holiday of the First Fruits
4 "Chag HaKatzir" - The Holiday of the Cutting of the Crop

"Chag Shavuot" - The Feast of Weeks
The holiday is given this name because it is the climax of the Counting of Days and Weeks which make up the Sefirat HaOmer. Sefirat HaOmer connects Passover and Shavuot. Passover is the holiday on which we commemorate our redemption from slavery in Egypt. That was our "physical redemption." But physical redemption is not enough. It would have left us "free" people, but with no purpose to our lives. The purpose of G-ds’ people is to serve G-d. The way we serve G-d is by studying and practicing his Torah. On Shavuot, G-d Himself appeared to us on Mt.Sinai to give us the Torah. By accepting it, we earned the title of "A Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation." Thus, Shavuot is the purpose of the Exodus from Egypt. Seven weeks had to pass before we were able to shake off the feeling of being subject to our Egyptian taskmasters. The Jewish religion believes that there is no legitimate master for a human being other than G-d. This is probably the most important lesson of Shavuot.

"Z'man Matan Torateinu" - The Time of the Giving of Our Torah
The Jewish people arrived in the vicinity of Har Sinai (Mt.Sinai) on Rosh Chodesh Sivan. The purpose of their assembling there was to receive the Torah from Hashem. Three days passed before the Jewish people recovered from their six week sojourn in the desert. Moshe was instructed by Hashem that the Jewish people would have to prepare themselves for another three days before they would be ready to receive the Torah.

"Chag HaBikkurim" - The Holiday of the First Fruits
This name commemorates the New Grain Offering, which was brought at this time; its offering made it permissible to bring Grain Offerings from the "Chadash," the New Grain. This was also the time that the first fruits of all the Seven Types of Produce with which the Land of Israel is Blessed (wheat, barley, wine, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates) were brought to the Temple. This procedure is described in the Talmud in Masechet Bikkurim.

"Chag HaKatzir" - The Holiday of the Cutting of the Crop
This refers to the wheat crop, which is the latest of the crops to be harvested, which took place at this time. There is also a reference here to Megillat Ruth, which places the time of the events described in the Megillah as "at the beginning of the cutting of the barley crop."
 
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Torah

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How to celebrate Shavuot at your congregation or home
What you will need;
1) A canopy / Huppah on four poles

2) [In Congregation setting] A large basket

3) [In Home setting] small basket

4) In a Congregation setting each family brings in a loaf of un-sliced bread. In a Home setting use only one loaf of un-sliced bread. (Leviticus) 23:17

5) Bible

6) Two Candles & candle holders

7) Scarf for the woman to light the candles

8) Soft music [3 or 4 CD’s] someone should keep the music playing all night.

9) Tissues


At your congregation or at home;
In the center of the congregation or a dinning room adjoined to your living room or in the corner of the living room, set up a canopy / Huppah.
[Congregation setting] place on one side of the Huppah the large basket, At home a the smaller basket.

At sundown lights are turned down low and or other candles may be lit around the congregation or home. A woman covers her head with scarf and lights the two candles, [Because our Salvation (Yeshua) comes from a woman]
she then waves her hands over the flame as if she is pulling the warmth of the flame [Holy day] into herself. [She then covers her eyes and says the blessing for Shavuot. {Looking down at the paper to read} and says,


“These candles represents Creation and Redemption.

Blessed are you, Lord, our God, sovereign of the universe
Who has sanctified us with His commandments and allowed us
To light the candles of the holiday (Amen)”


At the end of the candle lilting, soft music is turned on.
[Explanation for Congregation setting] At this time either as a family and or as individuals you come up to the canopy / Huppah with your loaf of bread. Each member of the family starting with Father / leader waves their bread offering to the East, North, West, & South, The bread is placed in the basket. At this point it is up to the Holy Spirit to move.

Some families may want to read some scripture together, some don’t. Some Fathers will lay his hand on the head of each family member and pray for his family some may not. The point is there is no set order of what each family does under the Huppah and there is no time limit.

At this time I will share what my family does and how God has worked in my family on Shavuot. Each member of my family will wave the loaf of bread, we will read part of the Torah, I will pray over each member of my family and as I pray for them I do so in their ear, and will tell that family member what I admire about him or her and what I want God to do in their life. Such as, bring a godly mate; do well in school, not to be tempted by evil, And more personal things that I know that they struggle with or are weak in. I will ask each person to forgive me for my shortcomings and what they would like me to change in my life. This has led to some powerful move of God in my family.

This is a traditional blessing to end your time under the Huppah.
May the Lord bless you and keep you;The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you Shalom. Numbers 6:24-26


When the Huppah is empty it may be occupied by whoever wants to move into it next. It could be another Family, a group of friends, just two friends, one family going with another family. I have seen all the signals adults go together, one may want to be alone; Issues with other people may be worked out at this time under the Huppah.
The rest of the families and or individuals in the congregation should be quiet and praying.
When people leave the next morning each family takes a different loaf of bread home with them.
----
In a home setting [smaller setting] it is the same as the congregation setting but there would be one loaf of un-sliced bread.
After everyone who wants to, has spent time under the Huppah the reading of scriptures and study begins till the sun comes up.


A NIGHT OF WATCHING
On the eve before the day of Shavuot it is customary to remain awake the entire night of Shavuot and to engage in Torah study.

Shavuot reading
Exodus19:1–20:23;
Num 28:19-25;
Deuteronomy 15:19–16:17; 2
Sam 22:1-51; Ezekiel 1:1–28; 3:12;
Habakkuk 2:20–3:19;
Acts 1:1-2:47

Compare; Acts 2:38 with Acts 10:45 with Isa 2:3;
and Micah 4:2 Acts 2:39 with Joel 2:28-32

The book of Ruth is read
 
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Torah

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The Day of Shavuot

In the afternoon after everyone has had some sleep go to a body of water and have a picnic and a Mikveh service.

[After everyone has eaten; everyone goes to the water and Leader reads the Below about Mikveh / Baptizer]

The concept of ceremo­nial washings (Hebrew word t'vilah "to totally immerse"). is as old as the Torah itself. God commanded the Hebrew people to wash their clothing before he gave them the Law at Mt.Sinai (Exodus 19:10).

When God performed the miraculous, and a leper was healed, the described ceremony took place. Desig­nated sacrifices were brought to the Tabernacle or Temple, after it was confirmed by the priest that a true healing had taken place. The person was immersed in water after the healing was validated. This was not meant for physical cleansing. Since this immersion took place after the healing, it clearly signifies a spiritual cleansing.

A special pool constructed, called a mikveh. The name is derived from the Hebrew word for "collection or gathering" and speaks of a place where the waters of the immersion are gathered. The earliest biblical usage for the specific word mikveh is found in Genesis 1:9, where G-d called for the collection of the waters during the creation week.

The practice of mikveh was quite common in the second Temple period, as shown by the large number of references to this custom in the Talmud. The ritual immersions for healings and service continued as prescribed by the Torah. Especially interesting is the practice of t'vilah for Gentile converts to Judaism. According to the discussions of the Talmud, this custom had been instituted some time before the first century.
The main school of rabbinic thought, (beyt Hillel "house of Hillel"), and requirements for non-Jews to join Israel was to be Mikvehed.
Hillel argued that mikveh symbolized repentance and spiritual cleansing. Built upon this analogy of the mikveh by applying it to the verse in Ezekiel that speaks of new spiritual life:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols (Ezekiel 36:25).

Indeed, the waters of the mikveh still hold rich spiritual lessons for those who would take a closer look at this custom appointed by God.
The mikveh's meaning: The Bible draws a distinction be­tween the holy and the profane, between the clean and unclean. The waters of the mikveh, according to the rabbis, teach the Jewish people a great deal concerning these truths. The waters symbolize spiritual cleansing, as seen in the mikveh for Gentile converts to Rabbinic Judaism. For traditional Jews, the ritual immersion is also a graphic reminder of their need for God's cleansing and new life. As one source notes: (Buxbaum, Jewish Spiritual Practices, p. 569).

“The mikveh relates to an experience of death and resurrection, and also to the reentry into the womb and reemergence. Immersing fully, you are like the fetus in the womb, and when you come up out of the mikveh you are as reborn. The individual who has sinned and become impure is transformed; he dies and is resurrected and becomes a new creation, like a newborn child.”

These thoughts may sound familiar to those who remem­ber Yeshua's dialogue with a certain rabbi (John 3), as well as Saul's description of the Messianic mikveh. Saul of Tarsus drew strongly on these lessons as he taught the Messianic believers in Rome about their faith-walk with Yeshua. In describing the reality of their salvation, he wrote:
Don't you know that those of us who have been immersed into the Messiah Yeshua have been immersed into his death? Through immersion into his death we were buried with him; so that just as, through the glory of the Father, the Messiah was raised from the dead, likewise we too might live a new life (Romans 6:3-4).

With this understanding of the mikveh, it should become more meaningful. The mikveh can be appreciated as a beautiful custom appointed by God to remind all of the need for new spiritual life and a pure walk in this world.

The most prominent example of t'vilah in the New Testa­ment is found in the early chapters of the Gospels. There was a prophet in that generation who practiced t'vilah as an integral part of his ministry, and was therefore known as Yokhanan the Immerser ("John the Baptizer").

It was during those days that Yochanan the Immerser arrived in the desert of Y'hudah and began proclaim­ing the message, "Turn from your sins to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!" This is the man Yesha'yahu (Isaiah] was talking about when he said, The voice of someone crying out;


'In the desert prepare the way of Adonai! Make straight paths for him!
Yochanan wore clothes of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and ;!" wild honey. People went out to him from Yerushalayim, from all Y'hudah, and from the whole region around the Yarden [Jordan]. Confessing their sins, they were immersed by him in the YardenRiver (Matthew 3:1-6).

This account matches many of the details already known about mikveh and its significance in the Jewish culture. Yokhanan was sent to prepare the way for Messiah. In so doing, he preached the message: turn and repent.

From the chronologi­cal studies of the Gospels, it is believed by many that this event took place in the fall of the year. This message (Tshuvahl "Repent!") is a familiar one for Jewish people during that time of year (the High Holy Days).

The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) It is the most focused time of year, where Israel assesses her spiritual condition and turns back to God .
Yokhanan [John the immerser] was preaching at the time of Rosh Hashanah, it is consistent to think that the Jewish men would naturally consider taking a mikveh. This is a sign of inward cleansing to be spiritually prepare for the. Holy Days. This was even more true for those traditional Jews who were receiving Yokhanan's exhortation to be ready for the coming Messiah. They identified with his message and took the sign of cleans­ing through the mikveh in the Jordan River.

The spiritual lessons of the Jewish mikveh perfectly picture what God has done for the believer in the Messiah. Believers have been buried, as it were, with Yeshua and raised up by his resurrection power.

What better way to show that believers have been buried with Messiah than to actually go under the water. In addition, the coming up out of the water provides a graphic representation of being raised up with Yeshua.Not surprisingly, the mikveh continued to be very significant throughout the Gospel accounts, even to the last message ofYeshua. As he was commissioning his disciples to their new work, he said:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make people from all nations; into talmidim, immersing them into the reality of the b'shem Ha'Av, Yeshua HaMashiakh v'Ruakh RaKodesh [Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit], and teach­ing them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember! I will be with you always, yes, even until the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20).

Shortly after the resurrection of Yeshua, mention is made of what might be called the "Messianic mikveh." On the day of Shavuot (Pentecost), as recorded in Acts 2, thousands of Jewish people had gathered to celebrate the feast. After the outpouring of the Ruakh HaKodesh on the Messianic remnant, Shim'on Kefa gave his powerful message about the messiahship of Yeshua. The wonderful results were the salvation of three thousand Jewish people at one time. These new disciples now had a logistical problem. In obedience to the command of Yeshua, these new believers were ex­horted to receive the mikveh as a sign of their faith commit­ment.

---
Mikveh service

[Leader reads]

The Messianic mikveh, a sign of what G-d has done for believers, is an important testimony of one's faith. One should not overlook the fact that a Messianic mikveh will often serve as a public testimony to the world that there is a growing remnant of Jews and Gentiles who call on Messiah's name.

The New Testament confirms virtually all the customs of the Hebrew Scriptures, including the spiritual importance of the waters of the mikveh. It does not confer salvation but, as with the example of the healed person in Leviticus, it is a wonderful symbol of a healing that has already taken place. Shim'on, in his letter to some Jewish believers, summarized the significance of this Messianic under­standing of the mikveh:
This also prefigures what delivers us now, the water of immersion, which is not the removal of dirt from the body, but one's pledge to keep a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah (1 Peter 3:21).

[Leader reads]

Every person needs to ask if he or she has found the new life illustrated in the waters of the mikveh. Every believer needs to take the sign (immersion in a mikveh) of their salvation in Yeshua the Messiah. May this God-appointed custom be a source of great joy for those who have been touched by the power of the living God.

[After the person to be mikveh wades into water the Leader ask; “Do you turn and repent from all your sin, and accept Yeshua as your mediator to G-d?”

Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe who has sanctified us by his commandments and commanded us concerning the immersion (in the name of the Father, Yeshua the Messiah and the Holy Spirit). Amen.

Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe who has given us life, sustained us and brought us to this time. Amen.

[The person now dunks into the water]
 
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zaksmummy

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A NIGHT OF WATCHING
On the eve before the day of Shavuot it is customary to remain awake the entire night of Shavuot and to engage in Torah study.


Im sure I'll be up all night, Im just sure it wont be to study Torah - I think my baby is determined to be born at the Feast:)
 
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cyberlizard

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Bring it on....

what I find infuriating is that so many people define themselves as 'pentecostal' or 'charismatic', and yet do not have the faintest idea (apart from a brief chapter at the beginning of Acts) as to what Shavu'ot (weeks) (or the feast of fifty) or pentecost is all about.

Without understanding the background to the feast, it all just seems quite shallow to me. Experience without knowledge causes us to blow up... knowledge without experience cause us to dry up... we need both.
 
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Floatingaxe

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Bring it on....

what I find infuriating is that so many people define themselves as 'pentecostal' or 'charismatic', and yet do not have the faintest idea (apart from a brief chapter at the beginning of Acts) as to what Shavu'ot (weeks) (or the feast of fifty) or pentecost is all about.

Without understanding the background to the feast, it all just seems quite shallow to me. Experience without knowledge causes us to blow up... knowledge without experience cause us to dry up... we need both.


You are so right! Understanding the feasts is important for us to un derstand the Bible and more of Jesus and what he did and why. It brings the gospel message home to us in a much deeper way, IMO.
 
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SpiritPsalmist

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icon06778.gif

pentecost.jpg

 
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nephilimiyr

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