Parsha “Acharei Mot” (Leviticus chapters 16 through 18) is typically read in the timeframe of the Passover, and the week of the ‘Feast of Unleavened Bread,’ or Chag HaMaMatzot, but seems to have more to do with a major element of the Fall Feasts – the Day of Atonement.
The Moed of First Fruits is arguably the day when the Risen Yahushua, as The First Fruit of Adam-kind Himself, made the required offering of Himself for us to Himself, in the place where He has put His Name.
“When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the cohen:
And he shall wave the sheaf before Yahuah, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the cohen shall wave it.
And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he Lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto Yahuah….
And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.” (Leviticus 23:10-12;14)
While Rashi disagrees, and the rabbinic tradition thus ends up with a date which does NOT always fall of the First Day of the week, I contend that (as Yahushua obviously did) the ‘morrow after the WEEKLY Sabbath’ is what the verse means. Which is today (28 April). It is also the day which therefore begins the ‘counting of the Omer’ – seven Sabbaths plus one, or 50 days.
And, perhaps dramatically, if not also ironically, THIS year the ‘sighted new moon’ that marked a “beginning of months” for us (Exodus 12:2) was observed directly by literally millions of witnesses!
The Erev Shabbat reading:
This year there is quite a bit of variance between calendar understandings. Not to mention the fact that the ‘sighted’ new moon this year was a bit more spectacular than usual as well. So Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship has decided to depart from the ‘suggested’ annual Torah cycle reading schedule, and make some observations based on a confluence of events, and teachings.
By now, perhaps it should not surprise us that His Word, and His warnings, are ever-more-important.
Acharei Mot: Blood, Iniquity Complete, and Pervasive ‘Chametz’ “
The combined two-part teaching is here:
