Existing rabbinic traditions for Rosh Hodesh Nisan



Meditations for

Rosh Ha-Hodashim, the New Year

6: The Resurrection (revised 10/apr/12)

In our last Meditation, we saw that Akedat Yitzhak (the Binding of Isaac) was originally recorded as taking place on Nisan 14, the day that the Pesach sacrifices would later be offered – and still later, Yeshua as the ultimate Passover Lamb. The rabbinic decision to transfer the Akedah to the Feast of Trumpets (the second day of the rabbinic Rosh Hashana, Tishrei 2) was likely an attempt to hide the startling similarities between Isaac and Yeshua from later generations. The prayers appealing to G-d to count Isaac’s (near) sacrifice as an atonement for the Jewish people is likewise viewed by some scholars as an attempt to escape Yeshua’s atoning work by fielding a “more acceptable” candidate.

We also saw a minority tradition that Abraham had actually sacrificed Isaac, and that G-d raised him from the dead. There is no clue as to why this rabbinic tradition developed in clear contradiction to the account in the written Torah, unless it was to again make the son of Abraham equal to the other Son who gave up His life and was raised from the dead.

We can assume that none of this competition would have been necessary if the New Testament testimony had been delusional or alien to Jewish teaching. If creating an “alternate redeemer” was the only way to challenge Messianic faith, this was itself a confirmation that Yeshua’s atoning death and resurrection were historical facts, amply foreshadowed in Tanach (Torah, Prophets and Writings) and supported by teaching from earlier sages.

Seeing is Believing?

When the risen Yeshua walked along the Emmaus road with two of His own disciples, they saw Him… and yet they didn’t know Him: “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?” (Luke 24:18)

We have to assume that the Lord had the ability to reveal or disguise Himself, since later we are told “their eyes were opened and they knew Him” (v.31). So why did He let them mistake Him for a stranger at first? Maybe it was because He wanted them to openly express their doubts about His resurrection:

But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.

But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see. (Luke 24:21-24)

Our modern scientific minds accept the wisdom of doubting second-hand testimony. And yet the very evidence they thought was lacking in that testimony – “Him they did not see” – was being given to them… literally staring them in the face… and it did them no good.

Yeshua confirmed this by pointing out what was lacking in themselves:

And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”

Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” (v.25-27)

We see this phenomenon reported elsewhere.

John (chapter 20) records doubts and confusion among those who saw Him, and says it was because “as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead” (v.9) Luke said of the eleven disciples that they were unable to believe He was risen until “He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). Matthew tells us that even after their understanding was opened, some worshiped while others doubted (Matt.28:17).

This teaches us that we will not accept even what our own eyes are telling us, unless we have first accepted the testimony of the Scriptures about spiritual realities.

The Resurrection of Messiah in Tanach

Following are just a few of the outstanding examples found in “Moses and all the Prophets”.

Psalm 16

Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will dwell securely. For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. You will make known to me the path of life. (v.9-11)

This was the “sermon passage” for Peter’s declaration to the Jews who had crowded into Jerusalem on Shavuot (Pentecost). In Acts 2:25-33, he reasons with them that David could not have been speaking of himself: “Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.”

The clear testimony of the apostles caused thousands to repent and become Yeshua’s disciples, not because they were gifted speakers, but because their words were backed by this and other prophecies, which their audience knew well.

The “Third Day”

Come, let us return to the L-RD. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him. (Hos.6:1-3, NASB)

This follows an equally powerful statement (5:15) from G-d; “I will return again to My place, until they become [aware of] guilt and seek My face.” In the people’s reply, the words “us” are inserted by the translators, which tells us that the one being torn and wounded isn’t necessarily the same as the ones being healed and bandaged. This goes well with Isaiah 53:5: “He was wounded for our iniquities… by His stripes we were healed.”

But why is the prophecy talking about Him raising us “on the third day” when He was the one being raised? Paul embraced the seeming contradiction in typical rabbinic fashion; they are both true:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Messiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures….

But now Messiah has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Messiah all will be made alive. (1 Cor.15:3-4, 20-22)

The Sign of Jonah

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”

But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt.12:38-40)

This sign was also recorded by Luke (11:29-30) and repeated by Matthew (16:4). It was quite specific: three days and three nights, just as happened to Jonah (see 1:17, 2:1 in Hebrew).

The Zohar (Vayakhel) records a tradition that Jonah literally died in the sea before being rescued by the fish, and that he was resurrected inside the fish. He was presented as a symbol for Moshiach ben Yosef, the suffering Messiah. (The Jewish Encyclopedia reports all this, implying that the Zohar was corrupted by “Christian influences” in that aspect, but the suffering Messiah is widely discussed in rabbinic literature. See our collection at )

Yeshua’s opponents remembered His sign, and they did all they could to prevent it being fulfilled even by fraud (Matt.27:62-66). If Yeshua died on “Good Friday” as conventional church tradition has it, then He was in the grave only two days and two nights, and Jonah was irrelevant.

The Omer of the Barley First-Fruits

This obscure offering is relevant for our Meditation, because it was commanded during Passover week. It was not activated until the Israelites arrived in the Land; but from then on, it was to be “a statute forever in all your dwellings” (Lev.23:10,14).

Commonly translated as “the sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest” (Lev.23:10), the Hebrew word for “sheaf” is actually “omer” (a measurement equal to 3.64 liters). This word was used exclusively in gathering a harvest, with the grain either left on the stalk or piled into a container.

Besides the first of the barley, there was similar offering from the first of the wheat, to be given at Shavuot (or Pentecost). G-d links the two offerings by commanding us to count the seven weeks that separates them (Lev.23:15-16). The custom of counting these 50 days became known in the Jewish calendar as “counting the omer”, even though the second offering is not called an “omer” but simply two bread loaves (v.17).

The rabbis discussed the difference between these two First-Fruit offerings, drawing various parallels. They agreed that in any case, barley was inferior to wheat. Barley was for animal feed, or for poor people who couldn’t afford better. However, the Barley First-Fruits were required to be offered on the altar before any “hadash”, or new grain of five different species, could be eaten.

The only other time barley was commanded for an offering was as “a reminder of iniquity” from a jealous husband (Num.5:15-16). Interestingly, the amount was also an omer, but here it was disguised as “a tenth of an ephah” (compare with Exod.16:6).

We can see Yeshua as the fulfillment of the Barley Omer. Although He was the Source of Life, He went to His death alone, rejected, and despised as bread not fit for our consumption. His treatment at our hands was a reminder of our iniquity in the presence of our jealous Husband. And yet the New Covenant could not be activated until He offered Himself for us.

We can likewise see the Holy Spirit as the fulfillment of the wheat offering at Shavuot. We have the “first-fruits of the Spirit” within us, which includes a promise that our bodies will eventually be redeemed (Rom.8:23). Yet we can recognize that having a resurrected body is inferior to living in the Spirit united with G-d. Before His sacrifice, Yeshua told His disciples (Jn.16:7): “It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.” This Helper would be able to teach us things that Yeshua in physical proximity could not (v.12-15).

There are several other spiritual lessons here. We remember the manna which was measured by the “omer”; no matter how much or little was gathered, it was just enough for each person’s daily need (Exod.16:18). We know that the manna testified of Yeshua as the Bread which came down from heaven (Jn.6:32-33). We also remember that on Shavuot, the day when the first-fruits of the wheat harvest were being offered in the Temple, the Holy Spirit was poured out and appeared like tongues of fire on the disciples (Acts 2:1-3). This testified of them as “a first-fruit offering” of the harvest among the people of Israel (James 1:18).

The Omer and the Resurrection

The most important note about the Omer of the Barley First-Fruits is that it occurred either the day before Yeshua’s Resurrection, or on the very same day.

According to the Talmud (Menachot 65 and 66), there was a sharp clash in the second Temple service concerning the proper time for this offering. Leviticus says it was to be offered immediately after the “Shabbat” of Passover. The Talmudic sages (Pharisees) said that the Barley Omer should be reaped on the night ending the Passover festival day of Nisan 15 (a holiday Sabbath); thus the Omer should be reaped and offered on Nisan 16, even if it meant violating the seventh-day Shabbat (Menachot 64a).

However, the Boethusians (a clan of Sadducees favored by Herod) argued that the reapers should go out at the close of the regular Sabbath which fell during the 7-day festival, with the result that the Barley Omer would always be offered on a Sunday.

In the year of Yeshua’s crucifixion, this controversy would have taken center stage, due to a double Sabbath. His death took place on Passover Eve (Nisan 14, a Thursday), with Friday, Nisan 15 being the Pesach holiday rest, followed by Saturday, Nisan 16, the regular day of rest.

If the priests under Caiaphas followed the Boethusians rather than the Pharisees, which is more likely than not, they would have been offering the Omer on the very day that Yeshua was resurrected.

This timing was not coincidence but a fulfillment of this Temple service. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

But now Messiah has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep…. so also in Messiah all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Messiah the first fruits, after that those who are Messiah’s at His coming. (1 Cor.15:20-23)

Celebrating the Resurrection in a Jewish Way

It is appropriate for Yeshua’s disciples to celebrate His Resurrection either on Nisan 17, in memory of that singular event; or on Nisan 16, the day designated for the Barley First-Fruits offering.

The offering itself was suspended after the Temple’s destruction, with no substitute customs ordained by the rabbinic community. All halachic discussion over the generations has focused on who should avoid eating newly sprouted grain before Nisan 16 every year.

Therefore, Yeshua’s followers have an open area on which to build a distinctly Messianic custom to celebrate the connection of His Resurrection with the Barley First-Fruits offering.

Feedback and questions are welcome. Write to Hannah Weiss at Restorers of Zion:

hannah@ .

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