Passover Feast 2011

Since the first Feasts of the new year are approaching I thought it would be good to write this post as a reminder.

The feast of Easter held in Christian churches is a far cry from the commandment in the Bible to keep Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Yahshua kept the Biblical Feasts, His disciples kept the Feasts, the early believers kept the Feasts, but somehow over the course of centuries the Bible commandments were thrown in the trashcan, and man-made commandments were issued which resulted in the feast of Easter today as it is held in Christians churches.

Why should you keep the Biblical commandment of keeping the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread?

Because you love and respect your Creator YHWH who commanded His people to keep these Feasts.
YHWH's commandment to keep His appointed Feasts is an everlasting commandment for His people, just read Leviticus 23.

Who are YHWH's people?
The people of Israel.

If you believe in YHWH and in Yahshua you are grafted into Israel, and you become part of His people.
There is NO separate church as a provision for a second class of YHWH's people, just read the Bible.

I know some church authorities believe they have the authority to cut and paste in the Bible at will, but that is just a form of self-deception.
Because you will end up with a reflection of your own ego and your own spiritual concepts, not YHWH's truth.

So, for those of you who love your Creator and seek to follow His commandments: Sunday evening April 17th after sunset (tonight) until sunset on Monday April 18th will be the 14th day of the first Biblical month Aviv.
This means that the Passover sacrifice is to take place in the evening of next Monday.

Since there is no temple at the moment we are not able to fully comply with YHWH's commandment on how to keep the Passover, but we can do our best with the means we have at our disposal.
Although we are to eat lamb's meat in the evening of the 14th day of the first month, I have not been able to find any lamb's meat, so I guess I will have to use a substitute.
This is not out of disrespect towards my Creator, it's simply born out of necessity.
Our Creator is not a very stern taskmaster Whose aim it is to strike you down the moment you do something wrong, so don't worry about that; YHWH understands and He will honor your celebration if it comes from your heart.
That's the most important thing: it must be done out of love for YHWH, and that is the thing He will honor.

The meal in the evening of the 14th day of the first month (next Monday) is the meat of a roasted lamb, together with bitter herbs. You can eat for instance radish and chicory garnished with curcuma or something like that.
We are to eat our meal with with matzah, unleavened bread, and drink red wine to go with the meal (in rememberance of the commandment Yahshua gave us before He was crucified, to eat the unleavened bread in rememberance of His body which was crucified for us, and to drink the wine in rememberance of the blood Yahshua spilled for us).

This meal in the evening of the 14th day of the first month goes straight into the 15th day of the first month, which is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
We are to avoid eating anything which is leavened during these days and eat our meals with matzah.

The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (the 15th day of the first month which is from sunset Monday to sunset Tuesday) is a day of rest. You are not to buy or sell on that day, or to do any work like for instance cleaning your car, your house, or work in your garden.
The last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (the 22nd day of the first month which is from sunset Sunday april 24th to sunset Monday april 25th) also is a day of rest.

In the week of Unleavened Bread we have yet another Feast which is tied in with the Temple, which unfortunately is still absent from Jerusalem: the First Fruits offering, which takes place on the 'morrow after the Shabbat'. Yahshua was the very first of the First Fruits offering, presenting Himself before YHWH after His resurrection.
Rabbis of today's Judaism claim this 'Shabbat' is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Karaite Jews claim that the 'Shabbat' is the Shabbat day in the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
I believe the Karaite Jews are correct in this matter, so the morrow after the Shabbat will be next Sunday april 24th when the priest is supposed to wave the offering of the First Fruits before YHWH in the temple.
It is not a day of rest, but the day is important because it starts the countdown to the next Feast, Shavuot. We are to count 7 weeks from the morrow after the Shabbat, and the day after the 49th day, the 50th day after the morrow after the Shabbat in the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, is the day of Shavuot.

Back to the Feasts which are at hand: Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the First Fruits offering.
I have discussed the reason for the Feasts in earlier posts, so rather than write it down again it's better to refer to what I wrote previously (this one and this one) about the Feasts.

Whether you keep it together with others or whether you are alone: if you keep it out of love for your Creator, He will take notice and accept your love offering and bless you for it.
After the Passover meal make sure that you do not eat anything leavened during the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

This means NO bread, NO cookies, NO cakes, NO pie.
Eat your meals with matzah for an entire week, and aside from the spiritual aspects you will find that if you also abstain from grains you will have the benefit of losing weight (nice for the ladies who feel they want to improve their looks), and because your body is not burdoned with having to burn up carbohydrates it can do some Spring cleaning.
Make it an enjoyable and healthy week for yourself, and eat fresh vegetables, minimize coffee and tea intake (green tea is OK), avoid candy, and drink some more mineral water.

Yes, you probably are going to experience a craving for a cookie or leavened bread, just as you experience a craving for sin in your life.

Believing in Yahshua (expressed in the Passover meal) means you may experience the craving, but you should take a stance and get rid of all the leaven of sin in your life.

That is the symbolic meaning of the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The spiritual aspect of the week is that once you partake of the Lamb (believe in Yahshua), the conditioning to sin has to leave your life (the unleavened bread), but I think I am writing nothing here that you did not know already.

So, remember:
Sunset Sunday April 17th - Sunset Monday April 18th: 14th day of the first month; Passover meal in the evening of the 14th day, which goes into:
Sunset Monday April 18th - Sunset Monday April 25th: week of Unleavened Bread, and in that week we start counting the weeks leading to Shavuot on:
Morrow after Shabbat on Saturday April 23rd = Sunday April24th

The days for this year's Feasts you can find here.