Subject: The Feast of Shavuot - Part II
Date:    Wed, 3 Jun 1998 00:27:34 +0000
To:      "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>

From:     Uri Marcus
To:       heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject:  The Feast of Shavuot - Part II

PART 2

==========================
CELEBRATION OF THE WEDDING
==========================

Shavu'ot also serves as a culmination to Pesach which began 7 weeks
prior. The difference is between redemption promised and redemption
realized.

In other words, Pesach needs Shavu'ot. Pesach, you see, is not really a
festival celebrating freedom. The first seder took place in Mitzai'im
(Egypt), when we were still subjugated by the Egyptians and even before
the 10th plaque had occured. Pesach is merely the promise of freedom.
And even after the Jews left Mitzrai'im, it was only an exodus into the
desert, which in reality turned out to be jumping out of the frying pan
and into the fire.

The real festival of freedom did not come until Shavu'ot, when bnei
Israel would stand before God on their wedding day, complete with a
canopy (Har Sinai), a ketubah (marriage contract), i.e. the Torah, and
stipulations of the covenant which included a homeland and a Holy
Temple which would serve to maintain the covenant.

Pesach is when God promised to marry us; Shavu'ot is the marriage
itself. The seven weeks in between, are like the 7 crucial days that a
bride-to-be counts in preparation for her wedding, during which she
purifies and readies herself. There can be no achievement of a goal
without such preparation. It requires t'shuva or repentance -- a
willingness to turn to God, otherwise the redemption is but an elusive
dream. "Weeks" is a name that speaks of the road which must be traveled
which is the prerequisite for the accomplishment of our goal. The real
test lies in our willingness and ability to count and prepare for the
God of redemption, and to expect His power, as a gift in the form of
His Spirit, which will enable us to reach that goal.

The mutual themes hinted at in the previous discussions are that of
revival and redemption. Salvation, and at the same time, the working
out your salvation. Just as faith without works is dead, so is a
Redeemed community, who after being set free from Egypt, enters the
desert with a complaining, bitter spirit. And after a short time, they
gather against the Torah, saying that, "This is not what we want! We
want to be FREE without these silly laws. We want the golden calf
instead. We want what feels good, not just some old boring instructions
how how to do things right. We may be redeemed but don't need to hear
any more from God."

The only problem with the attutudes above is that eventually it leads
to the same sin of Navav & Avihu. The same sin is being committed by
the church today, on a global scale.

"...And they brought before Hashem a strange fire that He had not
commanded them..." (Viyikra [Lev] 10:1)

You see, the Torah is the instruction manual of the world written by
the Maker of world.

No one knows better how to operate a machine than its maker. Imagine
someone buying a new car. The salesman says to the proud new owner "Oh,
yes sir. One more thing -- your instruction manual." The driver says
"Oh, I don't need that. I instinctively feel what the tire pressures
should be, and I have a sixth sense when the car needs a major service.
I know intuitively what octane fuel the car needs."

Few people when faced with operating something as precise and
unforgiving as a car would leave these sorts of decisions to instinct
and feeling. Life is no less demanding nor complex than a car. Rather
more so!

And yet many people are happy to coast along, assuming that they are
not putting water in their spiritual gas tank.

The purpose of life is to become close to the Creator of the world, and
only the Creator of the world knows how the world can be utilized to
become close to Him.

We live in an era where people are more interested in feeling spiritual
than being spiritual. We are a TV generation taught to expect endless
effortless instant gratification, where this-week's-guru, or mail-order
offer tries to replace the hard work of real spiritual growth.

That is what the Torah is warning us against in the story of Nadav and
Avihu. The "strange fire" may feel spiritual, but it cannot connect
with the source. And the reason it cannot connect is the seemingly
redundant phrase "which He had not commanded them." If it was a strange
fire, then by definition it was not commanded by HaShem. Rather, the
reason it was strange is because it was not commanded.

Our connection with HaShem is through doing His will. Because the will
of a person and himself are indivisible -- the self expresses itself as
the will. Only when we do HaShem's will, do we bring ourselves close to
Him. The mitzvot (commandments) are the will of HaShem expressed in
concrete form.

Any other form of worship is merely feeling spiritual -- it's not being
spiritual. And for people on the level of Nadav and Avihu, that was a
failing of a very fundamental kind. Its like having Pesach without
Shavu'ot.


=========================
CELEBRATION OF THE SPIRIT
=========================

>From a Jewish point of view, which was the point of view most commonly
held in the days of the Talmidim (disciples), the events of Acts 2 echo
what occurred on Har (Mt.) Sinai, some 1400 years earlier. But, it
wasn't only a "repeat performance," it was a sequel -- "Mt. Sinai II,"
if you will, and for the Talmidim, the experience was far better than
watching a re-make of Star Wars!

Take a look at verse 3...

3 "And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing
themselves, and they rested on each one of them."

>From these two mountains, Har Sinai, and Har Tzion, the Lord of all the
earth played out, as if from two grand stages, Israel's greatest
revelations. From one mountain, the Law, our beloved Torah, the very
instruction of God was revealed in booming voices that made Israel
tremble. From the other mountain (Tzion), languages of every region
made Israel wonder, as the Spirit of the Holy One, blessed be He, was
given to enable us to keep those instructions.

Shavu'ot was orginally marked as one of the feasts in which Jews were
commanded to come up to Yerushali'im and worship in the Temple, but, as
mentioned before, the most significant element was the commemoration of
the giving of Torah on Har Sinai. The dates mentioned in Shm'ot
(Exodus) reveal that Torah was given on Har Sinai fifty days after
Israel had left Egypt. The instructions, therefore, that Yeshua left
for the Apostles to wait at Har Tzion for the Spirit were not
arbitrary, but part of God's larger plan to fulfill prophecy. It was
designed so that the Apostles and all those who were present in the
Temple Court that day would recognize this magnificent re-enactment of
the giving of Torah on Har Sinai.

"When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet
and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear." (Shm'ot
20:18).

In Hebrew, the "thunder and lightning" in this passage literally reads
"voices and torches." But when the Greek translation of the Torah was
completed in the 3rd century BCE (Septuagent), "voices" was translated
"thunders", because voices are normally heard rather than seen. But the
text proclaims that they "saw" the voices. How can this be?

Only when you combine the voices with "torches" which was erroneously
translated "lightnings" does it make more sense. In addition, it
provides the missing link to our sequel -- "Mt. Sinai II," and reveals
why the 120 worshipping on the Temple Mount would connect the event to
the giving of the Torah on Har Sinai.

The other thing that is interesting to note in the text is that in
Hebrew, the word "voices" is plural. "God is one", the Rabbis
contended. "How then can He have more than one voice?" One rabbinical
source describes their understanding of the event -- "They (the voices)
were heard by each man according to his capacity, as it it said, 'The
voice of the Lord was heard according to strength.' (Ps 29:4)". What
the people heard was one God, but many voices. This means that everyone
heard the Torah in a way that they could understand it, even though
they were a "mixed multitude" (Shm'ot 12:38). Contrast this to when men
gathered to build the tower of Bavel, without a word from the Lord.
Then, they also heard many voices, but they did not understand, because
the voices were their own, and were brought forth in confused
languages.

Now, back in Acts 2, we have:

"And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves,
and they rested on each one of them."

The term "tongues as of fire" is very similar to the "torches" that the
people saw at Har Sinai. What does this show us? Well, for one thing,
it shows us the marvelous way in which God repeated the phenomena of
Har Sinai in such a way that the people who looked upon it, would
immediately make a connection to their past and to all that their
ancestors saw (voices and torches) when the Torah was given, even as we
were commanded and accustomed to personalizing the story of our
rememption. "On that day tell your son, `I do this because of what the
LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.' (Shm'ot 8:13).

In other words, the events in Acts were not just some unassociated
miracles without rhyme or reason. When you put all of this together,
you come to an very exciting conclusion, and its the very same
conclusion that Peter arrived at. "These men are not drunk, as you
suppose.... No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Yo'el." (Acts
2:15ff). What did Yo'el prophesy about?

Amongst other things, Yo'el said that that the Lord is going to do
something very special in one location -- Har Tzion. "And everyone who
calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Har Tzion and in
Yerushali'im there will be deliverance..." (Yo'el 2:32). So we know
that the pouring out of the Spirit is related to Har Tzion. But if we
can connect Har Tzion to Har Sinai, we will have come full circle. And
the key to this is found in Yishaiyahu (Isaiah) 2:2-3:

"In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established
as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and
all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, "Come,
let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of
Ya'acov. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths."
The Law will go out from Tzion, the word of the LORD from
Yerushali'im."

So Har Tzion would become the spiritual capital and center of knowledge
where the Remnant would gather for two reasons:

1. It would be the place where the Spirit would be poured out.
2. It would be the place from which the Torah would go forth.

This embodies the Messianic Vision. In place of Har Sinai, the Torah
now comes forth from Tzion. And in this second giving of the Torah of
God, this time, its written upon the hearts of men, instead of upon
tablets of stone, by means of the Spirit of the Holy One, blessed be
He. Yehezk'el (Ezekiel) 39:29 further implies that this New Covenant
will be a revelation of the face of God.

Acts 2 then, is a neon sign, announcing the beginning of the Messianic
Age. All of the markers that were present at the giving of the Torah,
are present at the giving of the Spirit, by whose power we are able to
appropriate the Torah:

* A "mixed multitude" who came to worship the G-d of Israel

* Voices and torches that were seen (and heard)

* A sign of 3000. 3000 died when they rejected the Torah at Har Sinai.
3000 lived when they accepted the Torah through the Spirit on Har
Tzion.

* Everyone heard in their own language, "speaking of the mighty deeds
of God." in a way which he could understand.

Is it, therefore, any wonder why God choose Shavu'ot as an everlasting
feast to the people of God, attesting to His faithfulness to call out
and redeem a people to Himself, and to do so twice, so that there would
be no mistake in the interpretation?

Enjoy your Feast. Enjoy your food. Enjoy your Torah.


Shabbat Shalom & Hag Samayach,

Uri Marcus

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