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Making your voice heard on high
The next three appointed times on YHVH’s calendar is approaching, Yom T’ruah, Yom Kippurim, and Sukkot. It is always a good thing to “take stock” of our spiritual condition before we observe these days. Especially Yom Kippurim, a day of humbling ourselves before YHVH. It is part of Jewish tradition to do introspection for forty days before Yom kippurim, the month of Elul and the Ten days of Awe (the first ten days of Tishri.) The word “elul” means search, so this is very appropriate as we search our hearts during this time. People examine themselves and forgive and ask forgiveness of those they have wronged. Though we should be doing this all the time, I find it a good tradition. It’s like a spiritual house cleaning before the fall feasts. I am currently reading through the book of Isaiah, and Isaiah 58, struck a cord with me and it fits in very well with this context of searching our hearts. It showed me that only keeping YHVH’s commandments is not enough. If we only keep YHVH’s commandments, we are participating in false worship. This may seem like a harsh statement, but allow me to explain.
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Is the search for abib barley scriptural?
Every year during the start of the annual cycle of biblical feasts, as determined in Leviticus 23, there is a question that starts to show up in all the Messianic circles – “Will the barley be abib?” For people new to this walk it is at first a very strange way of determining the year. Once you get to know the agricultural base of the biblical calendar these do start to add up. However, where does this frantic barley search come from? Is it a biblical commandment for us to search for the barley or is it simply a traditions that we have seen from the Karaites and now we also decided to do it? This article will investigate if there is any biblical foundation for this search.
