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Note: The Jewish calendar is lunisolar, meaning it's based on the cycles of both the moon and the sun, so the Gregorian dates for these holidays vary each year. However, their seasonal timing within the Jewish calendar remains consistent.
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The Levitical Mo’adim – God’s Appointed Times (Leviticus 23)
Weekly Mo’ed (Observed Every Week of the Year)
- Shabbat – The seventh-day holy convocation and complete rest (Leviticus 23:3), ceasing from all creative work to honor the Creator who rested on the seventh day and sanctified it at creation (Leviticus 23:3).
Spring Mo’adim (First Biblical Month + the Counting of the Omer)
- Pesach (Passover) – 14th of the first month at twilight; the sacrifice of the unblemished lamb and the application of its blood to the doorposts, commemorating Israel’s deliverance from the angel of death and slavery in Egypt (Leviticus 23:5).
- Chag HaMatzot (Feast of Unleavened Bread) – Seven days beginning the 15th of the first month (15th–21st); all leaven is removed from homes and only matzah is eaten, remembering the haste of the Exodus and symbolizing a life separated from sin (Leviticus 23:6-8).
- Yom HaBikkurim (Day of Firstfruits) – The day after the Sabbath during Unleavened Bread; the priest waves the first sheaf of the barley harvest before the Lord, marking the beginning of the count to Shavuot and acknowledging God as the source of every harvest (Leviticus 23:9-14).
- Shavuot (Feast of Weeks / Pentecost) – 50 days from Firstfruits; a holy convocation with two leavened wave loaves, celebrating both the completion of the wheat harvest and the giving of the Torah at Sinai (Leviticus 23:15-22).
Spring Mo’adim (Pesach through Shavuot) All fall in the spring harvest season:
- Barley ripens first → Firstfruits offering during Unleavened Bread
- Wheat ripens seven weeks later → the two wheat loaves of Shavuot These feasts celebrate redemption (leaving Egypt) and firstfruits (the beginning of the harvest and the giving of the Torah), perfectly timed with the early rains and the first ripening in Israel.
- The Spring Mo’adim proclaim redemption and the firstfruits of the Kingdom.
Fall Mo’adim (Seventh Biblical Month)
- Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets) – The 1st of the seventh month; a day of joyful shouting and trumpet (shofar) blasts, calling the people to awaken spiritually and prepare for the solemn days ahead (Leviticus 23:23-25).
- Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) – The 10th of the seventh month; a complete fast and day of humbling the soul, when the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies to make atonement for all Israel (Leviticus 23:26-32).
- Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) – 15th–21st of the seventh month; seven days of dwelling in temporary booths (sukkot) to remember the wilderness journey and rejoice in God’s provision during the final ingathering of the harvest (Leviticus 23:33-36, 39-43).
- Shemini Atzeret (Eighth Day Assembly) – The 22nd of the seventh month; a sacred closing assembly distinct from Sukkot, a final intimate gathering with the Lord before returning to regular life (Leviticus 23:36).
Fall Mo’adim (Yom Teruah through Shemini Atzeret)