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And from the day after the sabbath, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the elevation offering, you shall count off seven weeks; they shall be complete. You shall count until the day after the seventh sabbath, fifty days; then you shall present an offering of new grain to the Lord. Leviticus 23:15-16
The count of days between Passover and Shavuot, the Days of Ascent that many of us are completing this week together, is designed by Jewish tradition to create a sense of spiritual expectancy. Rather than experiencing a letdown and a return to normal routine after the intensity of Passover, we turn Passover into the starting-point for another holy festival, Shavuot, which marks the giving of Torah from Sinai seven weeks after our departure from Egypt.
For the Messianic Jewish community, of course, Shavuot also marks the outpouring of the Spirit seven weeks after Messiah's resurrection, as recorded in Acts 2. I believe we need to renew our sense of expectancy toward the Ruach, the Holy Spirit, during this season, and keep that expectancy alive throughout the year. Just as the story of the Exodus is incomplete without the Mount Sinai encounter, so our Messianic Jewish story is incomplete without the Ruach encounter, both past and future.
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Parashat Behar-Bechukotai, Leviticus 25:1-27:34
by Dr. David Friedman
UMJC rabbi; Jerusalem, Israel
While walking home from teaching school in 1986, I was surprised to encounter two neighbors in a heated argument. One had been working hard in his yard and garden. “What are you doing? You can’t do that! Halakha doesn’t permit uprooting trees!” yelled the elderly of the two gentlemen, as he approached the working neighbor, his hands waving in the air. “Stop it!”
“What are you talking about? It’s perfectly according to the Torah!” answered the second man. “It’s permitted to do what is necessary to save the life of my trees and plants!” “Well, I’m going to tell my rabbi!” the elderly gentleman continued, “You are totally wrong!” Because I knew both neighbors, I stepped in for a minute and tried to pacify the argument, to no avail. I had never seen such passion displayed about the instructions given in this week’s parasha. The elderly gentleman saw it as incumbent upon us to strictly observe the Shmitta instructions given in the Torah. And the gardener also had some familiarity with what was required to work in his garden during the Shmitta (Sabbatical) year.
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Years ago, on one of my first visits to Israel, I took a shortcut from the grocery store back to my friend’s apartment. As I walked across a bare hillside, I noticed the remains of several bonfires, with charred boards and piles of ashes. When I asked my friend about it, he reminded me that a couple of weeks earlier had been Lag B’omer, the thirty-third day of counting the omer (Lev. 23:15-16), which is a minor holiday in its own right. One of the traditions connected with Lag B’omer is lighting a bonfire in the evening—a custom which Israeli children are glad to keep alive.
The period of counting the omer is one of spiritual eagerness and anticipation. This year we’re praying together through this period as the Days of Ascent, leading us up from bondage in Egypt to the revelation of God at Mount Sinai, as the Lord promised Moses: “And when you have freed the people from Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain” (Ex. 3:12). These days also mark the seven weeks from Messiah’s resurrection during Passover to the outpouring of the Spirit on Shavuot. But over the long centuries of Jewish history, this period has taken on an aspect of mourning because of a number of tragedies associated with it.
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