Biblical Feasts

Thousands Attend Sukkot’s Priestly Blessing at Western Wall

Crowds at the Kotel to receive the priestly blessing Thursday, 1 October 2015 | About 50,000 people attended the biennial priestly blessing at Jerusalem’s Western Wall on Wednesday, despite mounting tensions in the Old City over the past few weeks. The blessing, Birkat HaCohanim in Hebrew, takes place during Sukkot and Passover holidays, on one

Sukkot: The Womb of Our Rebirth

Sukkah Tuesday, 29 September 2015 | For the Yom Kippur afternoon Mincha prayer and the closing Neila prayer this year I walked over to the Western Wall. At first it was very hot outside, and few people were there. But by the time Neila started, the Kotel was packed and all the variations of Jewish

Yom Kippur: When a Nation Repents

Synagogue in Jerusalem Tuesday, 22 September 2015 | Today is no ordinary day for the people of Israel. The frantic hubbub on city streets as a country goes about its morning routine is somehow more subdued. The nation prepares… Offices and schools will send their staff and pupils home early today. Shops, markets and restaurants

Simchat Torah – Rejoicing with the Beloved

ChameleonsEye/shutterstock.com Thousands of years ago, King David poured out his passion for the Word of God in a skillful song. “Oh how I love Your Torah!” he sang, “It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97). Today, some three millennia later, the same heart of love still beats within the descendants of Israel’s famous

Yom Kippur, Starting Tonight, Is the Holiest Day of the Jewish Year

Prayer service with shofar during the Days of Repentance preceding Yom Kippur at the Western Wall Yom Kippur, this year from Friday evening to Saturday evening (October 3–4), is the most holy day of the year in Israel. In English Bibles, it is called the Day of Atonement. It is sometimes called the Shabbat of

Defense Minister: Lessons of Yom Kippur War Relevant Today

The Minister of Defense addressed the relatives of the fallen, saying, “The entire people of Israel today bows its head and identifies with your pain, family members, and warmly adopts you into its heart, with a sense of brotherly unity and shared fate—and, most of all, remembers, aches, and appreciates the heavy price.” “The Yom

The Biblical Feasts

{image_1}The Bible talks about a number of special holidays called ”feasts.” Today, these biblical feasts continue to be celebrated in Israel and around the world by Jewish people and an increasing number of Christians as well. Christians often refer to them as “Jewish” feasts, but what does the Bible say? “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “The feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts”’” (Lev. 23:1–2).

An Appointed Time—Moed

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A moed is an appointed time when God asks His people to meet with Him. Moed is found 223 times in Scripture. It can be translated “set time, a specific appointment with God, appointed time, or solemn times, or congregation.” If you ask your Jewish friends what a moed is, most likely they will tell you that it is the feasts, referring to the biblical feasts listed in Leviticus 23. Type the word in Google, and you will quickly find links informing readers that moed is the name of the second Order of the Mishnah, the first written recording of the oral Torah (laws given to Moses not included in Scripture and not written down until AD 220). The twelve tractates (essays) of moed in the Mishnah relate to the Sabbath and the feasts, among other related topics.

61% of Israeli Jews to Fast on Yom Kippur

According to a religious segmentation, 100% of haredim, 100% of religious and 85% of traditional Jews will abstain from eating and drinking for an entire day. Among seculars, about half of respondents will fast (most of them all day) and half won't fast at all. Among those who fast, 82% will do it for religious

Why was this night different from other nights?

By Marnus Schoeman, BFP Group & Guest Relations Manager

{image_1}This has been a question asked for centuries from generation to generation among the Jewish people during the Pesach (Passover) seder meal. You might wonder, why ask this question so long after Passover, which is celebrated in March–April? In August, The Land of the Bible Experience—an educational ministry of Bridges for Peace that provides Hebraic teaching through dramatic presentations—seized a wonderful opportunity to enact our Passover play to a  tour group of 585 Nigerian Christians!