Traditions and the Feasts of the Lord in Israel
This article talks about:
- Tashlikh and Kapparot
- Sukkot – Feast of Booths
- Restoration of Biblical Practices
-By Joseph Shulam-
Everything in Israel is unique when it comes to the celebration of the Jewish holidays. Religious traditions are mixed with the habits and traditions of each community according to the lifestyles formed through hundreds of years, each from its own diaspora experience. The vast immigration into this very small country created cohabitation of diverse populations and a mosaic of foods, prayer styles, and religious practices that are different and unique from the more monochromatic practices in each diaspora community.
Israel can be a fascinating place to visit throughout the year, but the Jewish High Holiday season provides a glance at the complex tapestry of life here. The holidays in Israel see religious traditions mix with habits and lifestyles formed through eight decades of cohabitation by the country’s secular majority, its devout communities of mostly religious Zionists and ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Jews, and its non-Jewish communities.
Below are five unique traditions you may witness while strolling the streets of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and other Israeli cities during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year celebration.
Tashlikh
On the first day of the Jewish New Year, after the big meals and rich food that people eat on every feast, but especially on Rosh-Hashanah, you will find Orthodox Jews walking with their bellies full of rich holiday delicacies to a place of water: a river, a natural pool, the beach, or a spring of water. These Jews are taking pieces of bread throwing them into the water mumbling prayers. If you don’t know what these Jewish people are doing, you might think that they are there with the bread pieces to feed the fish, but no, they are by these bodies of water to fulfill the following text from the prophet Micah (7:19-20), “He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which You have sworn to our fathers from days of old.”
The word Tashlikh in Hebrew means, “You will cast out!” The meaning is taken from the Hebrew Text of Micah 7:19, “You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea!” The idea is that we will start our New Year with God casting out our sins into the water, be it a river, an ocean, a well, or just a big puddle of water. This is a custom that is done by both Ashkenazi Jews and Sephardic Jews. The adaptation of the custom from the text of Micah the prophet, to be honest, is a little surrealistic, but very interesting. Here is my understanding of the reality and importance of this custom.
Jews lived in the diaspora, far from Jerusalem, and even if they lived in Jerusalem since the year 70 C.E. (A.D.), Jerusalem was not occupied or governed by Jews. The temple was destroyed, and there were periods when, in its place, pagan worship was established and even for a period, a temple to Greco-Roman gods was built on the temple platform. There were no sacrifices for the atonement of sins, there were no Levites or priests, and there was no tangible way to have even a statement of our sins being forgiven or atoned for. In this condition, the verse of Micah 7:19-20 opened a door for a service or a ceremony that has something to do with atonement of sins. The logic was, we will cast our sins into the water as Micah the prophet says, “You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea!”
In Europe, some of the Orthodox Jewish Rabbis didn’t approve of this practice and especially considered the casting of bread into the water as a symbol of casting out sins. Some of the Rabbis even considered the practice bordering on magic or witchcraft. In some circles of Orthodox Jewish communities, the practice is very popular even in Jerusalem where there are not many open sources of water. When I was a child and lived with my family on Bethlehem Road, we had a well under our house. The water of that well was not fit to drink, and sometimes we found dead cats that drowned in the well or dead birds that got trapped there when someone closed the metal door of the well. But some Orthodox Jews would come and open the metal doors of the well and stand in front of the well praying and casting the pieces of bread into the well. This is not based on exegesis, but rather eisegesis (to insert, draw into the text your own meaning), but as they say, “necessity is the mother of all inventions!”
The Tashlikh is not the only tradition that was developed in the diaspora for the so-called atonement of sins. Another one of these traditions in Orthodox Judaism is called Kapparot. It is the same root as in the Holiday “Yom Kippur.” Yom Kippur comes ten days after Rosh HaShanah, and it is the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) comes on the 10th day of Tishrei, the seventh month. Our Rosh Hashanah is actually dated on the first day of the seventh month. In the Old Testament, the new year was celebrated on the first of the month of Aviv/Nissan; that is called the first of the months. There are a few texts that state this as clear as in Esther 3:7, “In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, the lot), before Haman to determine the day and the month, until it fell on the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.” The order of the Hebrew months is Adar (the last month) which is followed by Nisan (the first month).
Kapparot
In the days before Yom Kippur, there is a tradition and custom called Kapparot, or atonements. This custom, as strange as it is, is also done totally outside of any scriptures in the Torah or anywhere in the Bible. This is what happens in the few days before Yom Kippur. A rabbi or any adult man, takes a live chicken and spins it over the heads of young children or even some adults. The chicken is killed with a sharp knife that cuts the throat of the chicken, and it is supposedly given to the poor people to eat. If this custom would be done in the marketplace in Jerusalem or anywhere else in Israel on any regular day, the police would give a ticket to the Rabbi who is swinging the chicken over the people’s heads and charging them money for doing it. Another strange custom connected to the above is that if it is a female that has the chicken swinging over her head or the head of her girl, it has to be a hen. If it is a male or a boy that wants the chicken to be swinging over his head, it has to be a rooster. Now, in our day, there could be a big problem because Israel has not a small number of men and women who don’t know what gender they are, and if they would come to the Machane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem and find a Rabbi that is practicing this custom of Kapparot, there could develop a legal (Halacha question) of when to use a rooster or a hen for the atonement of the sins of the customer who is not sure if he/she is a male or a female!
The most important point of these two customs is that Orthodox Jews are looking for something that can give them the feeling or the experience of receiving forgiveness of sins. The idea is clear, that we, as Jews, don’t have a temple, and don’t have an altar, and don’t have sacrifices for sins, and don’t have any clear Torah possibility or practice that can be practiced today that will give a person assurance that his sins are forgiven. Transgressions are atoned for by a visible and sensory ceremony or practice that is based on the Torah or the Prophets, and these practices are serving to give some kind of unsubstantiated “man-invented practices.” The only Biblical atonement that is post-sacrificial or uses blood is found in Isaiah chapter 53, and it is talking of a person, not the swinging of a chicken over your head.
“Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4–6)
Today, more modern religious Jews have developed a different way of performing the Kapparot custom. In place of having a chicken swinging over your head, you can give the Rabbi a wad of money and save the trauma of the poor chicken. This development is more humane to the chicken, but also much more lucrative for the Rabbi. The modern Jew, and especially the Orthodox Jew who is a vegan, will now have an alternative for the reported virtual atonement of his sins while also making the Rabbi happy!
The other unique practice during Yom Kippur is the bike riding during the time of the 25 hours of fasting. During Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, all businesses and services other than emergency medical and security services are stopped by law. There is no public transportation, not even private cars are on the roads and streets of Jerusalem. There is no television or radio available, and people walk in the middle of the streets with their children, and the little children often ride their small bicycles and tricycles in the middle of the streets.
The interesting part of Yom Kippur is that even the non-Jewish citizens of Israel honor the day and keep the law and abstain from driving their cars or motorbikes in the streets of the city. The only vehicle that you might see on rare occasions is an ambulance that is taking someone to the emergency room in the hospital or a woman who is giving birth to the hospital to deliver her baby.
Some people have called Yom Kippur in Israel as the bicycle feast of Jerusalem. The truth is that Jerusalem is more conservative and more respectful of the holiness of this very special feast of the Lord than other cities in Israel are. The other cities are also observant of the fast and of the no traffic and no transportation, but many places are more tolerant of those who decided to drive their cars or motorbikes on this solemn day.
Inside the synagogues, including in our synagogue, the prayers follow the traditional prayer book. We use the normal Israeli prayer books for both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. These prayer books, or I should call these books prayer guides, have rich traditions that could be as old as the time of the Temple in Jerusalem or as old as the Jewish citizens of Moorish Spain in the 12th to 15th centuries. Both in the prayer book of Rosh Hashanah and in the Yom Kippur prayer book, there are rich allusions to the Messiah and wonderful, rich traditional prayers. As disciples of Yeshua, we feel enriched by the celebration of these ancient Biblical holidays and also inspired by the prayers and the Messianic allusions. The most significant prayers to recite in the Yom Kippur service are the four readings of the big confession during the evening and the daytime of this holy day. The big confession is a list of nearly 150 sins that are read in public. Second, there is not a single human being that this list is not going to remind and encourage to recognize his sinful deeds and actions. Third, the list is so powerful that it reminds us that we truly need God’s grace and forgiveness. It is and ought to be a total encouragement to confess our sins and also a clear indication to everyone who participates and prays or thinks about the content of this list to repent and do his best to change and next year not to repeat the same confession of the same sins that you confessed last year. This is something that I personally read with great emotional concentration and deep feeling for the need to do better, and the confession leads to repentance and to a sincere desire to correct and abstain from repeating last year's mistakes and sins. I wish my Christian brothers and sisters would have at least one time per year with such a concentrated consideration of the private and public sins that we could have and might have consciously or unconsciously committed and repent of our sins.
Sukkoth – Feast of Booths
The feast of Sukkot starts four days after Yom Kippur. The dates are from the Torah—from Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. We don’t invent our own holidays. All these holidays are right from the Bible. Sukkoth – or as it is called in English the ‘Feast of Booths’—is one of the more colorful and interesting feasts in the Bible, and it is clear that Yeshua and His disciples considered it a very important feast. In the Gospel of John, chapter 7, the whole chapter starts and ends with the events that are connected with this feast of seven days and a special one on the eight day. So, here is the big thing that is commanded for us to do on this great feast, and the last of the pilgrimage holidays. The Pilgrimage holidays are Passover, Pentecost, and Sukkoth. There is a Torah obligation for all Jews to come to Jerusalem for these three feasts or, as they are called in the Hebrew Bible, “The Seasons of the Lord!”
Sukkoth starts four days after Yom Kippur. Driving through the religious neighborhoods of Jerusalem, you can see on balconies, in parking lots, by restaurants, in front yards and in back yards, like mushrooms popping up, temporary structures made from plywood or cloth and metal poles, with rooves made from palm branches or thatched bamboo. Inside there are paper decorations of all colors and pomegranates hanging from the roof. Inside, there are also usually a table and chairs. It looks shabby, but it is a happy place. It is a tabernacle, a sukkah in Hebrew, a structure that from inside when you look up at night you will see the stars. If there is rain (and normally during the feast of Sukkot there could be rain), the rain will come inside and get you wet. If there is wind you will feel it just about like you would if you were outside the Sukkah. The feast is seven nights, and each night you invite other honored guests: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, King David, and the Messiah. You could rightfully ask how you could invite these honored guests into your temporary shaky structure called in Hebrew Sukkah. The answer is rather simple: every evening with the fine food on the table and a definite holiday atmosphere, your honored guest sets the tone of your conversation around the table.
On the first evening you talk to your family and your guests about Abraham. You describe the character, you mention his hospitality, you speak about his faith and patience. You ask your family members and your guests to add their ideas and impressions of Abraham. The next evening you talk about Isaac, and in this way, every evening you have an honored guest that inspires you and your guests with his life and his contribution to the formation of the nation of Israel and the spiritual fiber that holds us together in difficult times and challenging situations. In the daytime, you unite in your hands the four elements—the palm branch, willow branches, the myrtle branches, and the citron (ancient father of the lemon and orange and other citrus fruit).
These four elements each have a different characteristic. The Palm has a sweet taste but no smell. The Myrtle has a smell and no taste. The willow has no taste and no smell. The Citron has both taste and smell. When you bind these four elements together and hold them in your hands and shake them together and pray and thank the Lord for all four together, you are uniting the name of God. You are uniting the name that is made from four Hebrew letters and you unite yourself and the family with all the different types of people, like the four sons that start the Passover Seder (meal and ceremony) and like the four soils in Yeshua’s parable. These four elements teach the same, but uniting them in your hands and blessing the Lord for all four of these elements is the greatest lesson of our unity and of our oneness as a nation, as a community, as a people.
Yes, in every community you will find those that have everything good in their life and character. You will also find that the majority of the people might have one of the good elements and not the other. You will also find people that don’t have any of the good and desirable elements. The feast of Sukkoth is a feast that equalizes the community. It is a feast where the rich and the poor are in a tabernacle that is open to the rain and the wind. During the year, each is different, and one might live in a palace and the other might be homeless. During the feast of Sukkot, everyone is equal, and everyone is vulnerable to the elements of nature, and everyone needs his human neighbor and brother in the faith. The feast of Sukkot is actually celebrated just as the rainy season starts, and the weather changes. It is also a time when your harvest is finished, and your store houses are full of grain, wine, oil, and the wealth of your harvest of fruit and bread. It is exactly this which Sukkot celebrates, and it teaches us the most important lesson in life. We need our brothers and sisters. We cannot ever be fulfilled alone and by ourselves. We are a community that is united, and that one brother fulfills the shortcomings of his fellow brother and neighbor.
Yes, the feasts of the Lord are even more important today than they were in the time when we did have, in Jerusalem, a temple, priests, and sacrifices, and we could come from the Galilee and from the Negev Desert to Jerusalem and join the crowded streets with the hundreds of pilgrims from all around the country and also from Syria, Egypt, the Transjordan, and even from Arabia, Greece, and Rome. As you read in Acts chapter 2, there were pilgrims that came to celebrate the feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem from 18 different countries and speaking 18 different languages.
Today, dear brothers and sisters, the majority of our brothers and sisters prefer celebrating the pagan holidays that are not in the Bible and are not commanded upon us like those that Yeshua, the Apostles, and the early disciples of Yeshua celebrated—even the feasts and holidays that are commanded for the churches, like the Passover that was commanded to be celebrated to the church in Corinth (in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
My formula is simple. If you want to see the same results, you have to use the same ingredients when you bake your cake. You can’t have the power, the gifts, and the success of the early church without faithfully doing what they did and following Yeshua’s instructions and celebrating the same thing that He and his disciples celebrated. Yes, it is this simple! If you want to see the same deeds and power demonstrated in your life and in your community (church), then you have to have the same ingredients. The Christianity that you see today is no more than 30% from the Bible and 70% from the Church fathers in the second through sixth centuries after Christ. This includes the Christian holidays and the replacement theology that rejected Israel and the Jewish people. It includes the Christmas Tree that was a part of the pagan worship as Jeremiah had already pointed out in chapter 10:1-4. I will bring this text here now as a conclusion, enlightenment, and inspiration to work harder on the restoration of the New Testament Church, in order to see and have the same message and the same power of the Holy Spirit and the same success in bringing the pagans to the knowledge of God and to Yeshua the Messiah!
“Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the LORD: ‘Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are futile; For one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple. They are upright, like a palm tree, and they cannot speak; they must be carried, because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor can they do any good.’” (Jeremiah 10:1–5 NKJV)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joseph Shulam was born in Sofia, Bulgaria on March 24, 1946 to a Sephardic Jewish Family. In 1948, his family immigrated to Israel just before the establishment of the State. While in high school, he was introduced to the New Testament and immediately identified with the person of Yeshua. In 1981, Joseph and the small fellowship that was started in his house established one of the first official non-profit organizations of Jewish Disciples of Yeshua in Israel – Netivyah Bible Instruction Ministry. Joseph has lectured extensively and has assisted in encouraging disciples around the world. He and his wife Marcia have two children and two grandchildren.