Dear Rabbi, I am very confused as to which holidays to celebrate and how to celebrate them. Many of the holidays seem to be of the old covenent and yet the Torah says that the Holydays (the seven feasts) MUST be celebrated though all generations. Did Messiah end these?
Dear Mikaela,
May this e-mail find you blessed.
Answering your question. Believers must be grafted into Israel and being grafted in they become partakers of the Covenants of Israel.
Rom 11:17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
Sha’ul is here speaking of B’nai Israel (the children of Israel-Jew or non-Jew) and if we are to be truly children of Israel, we become betrothed to G-d through the Torah, a ketubah (marriage contract), subject to the conditions of that contract that includes G-d’s instructions regarding His Festivals.
You already have the spirit of truth in you for you say the Torah (G-d’s instructions) states that B’nai Yisrael (All the Children of Israel) shall celebrate G-d’s (note that it is not man’s or even Jewish festivals, but G-d’s) festivals for all their generations. If that premise is true and you are a true believer then you are a recipient and partaker of the covenants of Israel making it incumbent upon you to obey YHVH Elohim.
I am always uncomfortable with the term “old covenant” for it suggests that the “new” has done away with G-d’s Torah. The word Torah is mistranslated in our English bibles. It should have been translated as “instructions.” This would have a different connotation for us if when misinformed Christians say, “G-d’s Law has been done away with.” Instead of correctly stating, “G-d’s instructions have been done away with.” We all know it would be lubricious to say, “G-d’s instructions have been done away with.” Furthermore, Yahshua was the living manifested Torah and if the Torah is dead so then would be Yahshua for He is the Torah manifested.
Messiah came to show us how to live the Torah and not to do away with it. Much of what Christianity interprets as “doing away with Torah and under a new covenant” is misunderstood by them having misinterpreted Paul (Sha’ul). Peter, said in 2 Pet 3:16 “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” G-d told us He changes not, and Yahshua told us that not one jot or tittle shall be removed from the Torah until there is a new heaven and earth.
I have many articles on the web site related to this subject. In addition, it may benefit you to read, “There is No Covenant for the Gentile Church” also found on the site.
G-d also says we are not to change His Holy days, and Christianity by and large has changed the Sabbath from G-d’s Sabbath to man’s Sunday. They have added Easter and Christmas, both pagan holidays and mixed Christian beliefs with pagan beliefs solely to syncretize pagan worship with true worship to make it more palatable to unbelievers. Christians have substituted Passover with the “L-rd’s supper.” Yahshua was celebrating Passover and He said remember me when you partake of Passover and not when you partake of the Eucharist. Most of these replacements were to dejudaize the church and make it a Hellenistic religion more to the liking of the populace.
I have served you more than you have asked, and maybe much of what you already know, but since I so not know the beliefs of those that write I sometimes cover more than is necessary. If you are confused about how to celebrate and when to celebrate G-d’s festivals, associate yourself with a good Messianic Synagogue, one that worships as Yahshua did. Make sure it has a rabbi who is fully conversant with Judaism and not one where the congregation merely wants to have a flavor of Judaism, but essentially is Christianity and non-Torah observant.
Also, the Festivals are prophetic providing us with G-d’s timetable in mankind’s affairs. Remember, that in the millennium Temple, and during that time, we will be celebrating three of G-d’s Festivals while Yahshua rules.
If you respond, I will be out of town for about 10 days. In the meantime please read the articles on the site and they will give you a very good understanding about how G-d’s “instructions-laws,” holy days, covenants, all fit into our time.