(Menachot 10:3)Īfter the sun had set and the Sabbath was over, just hours before the Master rose from his tomb, the barley was reaped and collected in three baskets. On the, the apostles of the Sanhedrin bound up the standing barley into bundles while it was still attached to the ground so that it would be easier to reap. On the same day that the Master was tried before an assemblage of priests and judges from the Sanhedrin, apostles of the Sanhedrin were sent out to a barley field not far from Jerusalem. ![]() I don’t know who runs this (below) site, but here is something I hadn’t heard before today - the part in bold. The Sadducees no longer exist today, only a small sect … the Karaites follow this view. 23:15 referred to the Shabbat of the week when Pesach began, so counting would always begin on a Saturday night during Passover. The Tzedukim (Sadducees) … believed that the word “Shabbat” in Lev. 23:15 referred to the first day of Passover, which is a “Shabbat” in the sense that no work is permitted on the day … In this view, held by most Jews today, the counting begins on the second night of Passover, that is, the day after the non-working day of Passover. The Pharisees believed that G-d gave Moses an oral Torah along with the written Torah, and according to that oral Torah the word “Shabbat” in Lev. There was at one time a dispute as to when the counting should begin. Maybe someone would like to make something mystical or midrashic out of of *that* in connection with the ascension!įor the trivia of it, if that’s what it is, I’ll share this. In the case of the 42nd day that phrase is: “malchut sh’b’yesod”, which refers to a “kingdom that is in the foundation”. Now, each day of the omer count is associated with a Hebrew phrase. Both occur within the atzeret period between Passover and Shavuot while the first-fruits harvest is being gathered, so the simile of this event as a first fruit of the future resurrection (and even something akin to the “rapture” of which Rav Shaul wrote) is covered. There’s no need for either the resurrection or the ascension to align with the new moon of Sivan the third month of the biblical calendar, nor with Shavuot the first-fruits harvest celebration, nor with any other specific event. Does it evoke any obvious cutesy numerical gamesmanship? No! And I see no reason why it should. That leaves just over a week (a shavua) until Shavuot. Add 40 days, and we’re looking at the 42nd day of the count, not the 40th. The Omer count begins immediately after Passover (i.e., the next day), two days before the resurrection. Is that the answer? Was it just another part of the 40 day pattern we often find in the Bible? It makes sense if it is, but is there any more? God’s power came forth in full strength after the 40 days.During this timeframe the harvest was prepared – those who would receive God’s message.They were times of preparation for those doing God’s work.28:1-10), and ascended into heaven 40 days later (Acts 1:1-3), all of Yeshua’s post-resurrection appearances fall within the first 40 days of the Omer Count.Īs I thought about the theme of each of these 40-day (or 40-year) events, I found three commonalities that all of them share: Since Yeshua rose from the dead on the Feast of First Fruits (Matt. ![]() ![]() The first two seem to be merely daily commentaries, but the last entry said something interesting, though I don’t know how valid the information happens to be: Okay, my search wasn’t completely futile, but it wasn’t conclusive either. While we understand, from a Messianic point of view, that Shavuot or Pentecost was the day of the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles (see Acts 2), what, if anything, is significant about the 40th day of the Omer? Everything else in the Bible is so ordered, so I can’t believe the timing of the Ascension was random. Lag B’Omer occurs on the 33rd day, so no help there. His sermon got me to thinking about the Counting of the Omer, and since we are in the days of Shavuot, which concludes the 50 days of the counting, I started to wonder if there was some significance in Judaism to the 40th day of that counting.Ī quick Google search didn’t reveal anything very significant. He said he didn’t expect anyone in his audience to understand those terms, but then again, he didn’t anticipate me. He surprised me by bringing in a copy of the Tanakh and describing, in elementary terms, the Torah, Nevim, and Ketuvim. Last week when I took my Mom to church, the Pastor preached on the Ascension of Christ, which occurred 40 days after he rose.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |