Festival Observance: “a law forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings”? (Pt.1)
As time has progressed, I've grown more and more frustrated with the practice of observing the Festivals of יהוה (YHVH) outside His prescribed way, namely the commandment of observance IN the Land of Israel AT the Place of His Great Name. A more exhaustive (and exhausting) criticism can be found in the following article: Should we celebrate the Festivals of יהוה any where but Jerusalem? Of course, many of the Festival gatherings outside the Land of Israel are done so as educational tools for Christians and/or Messianics (pointing to the Messianic significance in each), but as a remnant of the Christian world becomes more aware of their Ephraimite and Torah-based heritage, they are embracing a "religious" lifestyle which centers around celebratory Festival gatherings in various places (outside the Land) which have very little regard for Israel and Jerusalem. In many cases, individuals in numerous communities are openly or secretly criticized for not observing something they are NOT even commanded to observe in the first place (at least not IN all the "places" the Festivals are currently being observed).
And hence the most common justification for observing the Festivals in the Diaspora are verses that "seem" to indicate "all places" are acceptable for observance, such as Leviticus 23:21 and 31:
21: On this same day you shall make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation You shall do no laborious work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.
31: You shall do no work at all. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.
Those verses are compelling until one has also considered verse 14 in the same passage:
14: Until this same day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.
Did you catch that? יהוה has written that we are to bring His offering to the Priests, but fast from various things until the offering is brought... and THIS also is to be done as a "perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places".
This of course begs the question, did יהוה expect us to bring this offering to the Altar even after it had been destroyed as we linger in exile in "all our dwelling places"? Obviously, He didn't expect such because it would be impossible, just as gathering to observe the Festivals in exile are impossible because "THE" place of His Name is not with us in the Diaspora to gather to (some will argue that when "two or more gather in His Name, He is in our midst", but that is Christian-think that negates the plain Torah instruction, at least in regards to Festival observance). Further confirmation of this reality can be found in Hosea 2:11 where יהוה said He would bring an end to the Festivals as PUNISHMENT for our ancestors' crookedness. How did He accomplish this cessation? It is simple. He eventually removed Israel and Judah from the Land of His Altar and He removed the Altar.
For more insight regarding the importance of Jerusalem and the Festivals, consider the following quotes from the Temple Institute:
“A vivid eye-witness description of the vast numbers of pilgrims making their way to Jerusalem from the far-flung corners of the Jewish exile is recorded by Philo of Alexandria (circa 20 b.c.e. - 50 c.e.), a leader of the great Jewish community of Alexandria, Egypt towards the end of the Second Temple era. He writes: "Multitudes of people from a multitude of cities flow in an endless stream to the Holy Temple for each festival... from the east and west, from the north and south" (On Laws 1:96).”
"The overwhelming sense of joy and elation in Jerusalem itself knew no bounds; it permeated every street, every courtyard, every house... the homes were filled to capacity with family and guests from far and wide. It was an unparalleled feeling of belonging and brotherhood that encompassed all the participants and their great sentiment of freedom and redemption was the unsurpassed height of true religious experience. Jerusalem veritably rang out with song and the holy, intense celebration of life lived in religious freedom and Divine purpose. Indeed, a popular expression in the Talmud coined by the rabbis recalls that the very walls of Jerusalem shook and "the roofs were shattered" from the sounds of joy as the Passover sacrifice was eaten and songs of Hallel thanksgiving burst forth from every house and courtyard at midnight." - Passover, Temple Institute
Another question: Why would Jews living in remote places throng to Jerusalem for the Festivals in antiquity if they could justifiably observe them in regions and cities afar off from Jerusalem? I would suggest that such a practice would be unthinkable in their time (and should be in our time), largely because the Torah specifically instructs where the observances were to be held (see the main article for more details)
Instead, what should we do during Festival time?
Instead of gathering for Festivals in spiritual Babylon, we should sit, remember, and weep for Zion the way Psalm 137 depicts:
1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps,
3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
4 How can we sing the songs of יהוה
while in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.
6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.
We should not gather in festive celebration, making one city or another, one synagogue or another, one man's ministry or another, wealthy with our wallets while Jerusalem remains humbled by Islam, Catholicism, and Secular/Marxist Zionism (all of which despise יהוה and the very thought of His Altar). My brothers, we should not neglect or despise Zion in our thoughts and actions like they!
Pray for the shalom of Zion. May the nakedness of Sodom depart from her (Jeremiah 23:14). May Elijah come and restore all things (Malachi 4:1-6; Matthew 17:10-14). And may the City of Shalom (Yeru-Shalayim), actually become Yeru-Shalayim again! Mashiach come!
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January 4th, 2009 - 12:25
What about the parts: Deut 4:2, 12:32; Prov 30: 5-6, that tell us to not add unto nor take away from HIS words, commands and Laws?
You have taken a nice step in the right direction, now it is time to throw off all the asherim and “return” to HIS LAW. The prophets tell us HE will give us a “renewed” covenant, not a new one. When we have studied the “Bible” for so many years under so many teachers who are without knowledge we become ignorant transgressors of the LAW. But, ignorance is no excuse, as we have so much wisdom available to us now to learn and live the TRUTH.
We must be willing to set aside everything we believe we have learned and go back to the beginning, that’s why it is called Bereshit. We must “return” to TORAH and not interject any beliefs outside TORAH and begin to “renew our covenant with the Most High. Then we will see HIS blessings, we will begin to weep for HIS Temple and cry out for HIS Name.
January 4th, 2009 - 20:02
I agree, we should NOT add to nor take away from the Torah, but there is one big element I missed for many years in the Hebraic-Roots Movement, and that is this: our roots are in Torah, but our roots were also IN the LAND of ISRAEL, but our people were a tree that was cut down… and that tree has yet to be truly re-planted in the Land as Hosea 2:23 foretells. What we can do of Torah in exile, we can do in exile. What we can not do in exile, we CAN NOT DO IN EXILE! For example, you may be a Levitical Priest, but you CAN NOT keep many of the commands applicable to you as a Priest. I could accuse you of being lukewarm and not a “true” follower of the WAY because you don’t guard the commands specific to you, but my accusing you doesn’t change a thing, does it? It would only prove that I can’t reason through the Scriptures with a paradigm that understands we are sheep in a time of transition where we are largely going to do “whatever is right in our own eyes” (Deuteronomy 12:8-9) until we actually enter the Land of our pasture, our Inheritance.
February 4th, 2009 - 14:18
How so very true. The answer then is from our own prophets: “Return”. Even as I cannot but argue from my own position in the diaspora, so to I must return. I shall in the very near future, within 5 years I will be in Yisrael. Will you join with those of us who are returning of our own free will? Or will you wait for the world to force us to return as I once thought of doing? Now I am saving for my return home, may it come about soon. Being a retired farmer, I have dreams of setting plow to the Holy Soil of our cherished Land, that given to us by The Most High G_D.