Shalom dear friends in the Messiah,
Maybe for you, September means the start of the school year — or the return to a busy schedule after a restful summer.
For Jewish people, the fall season usually means preparing for the High Holidays:
- The New Year (Rosh Hashanah), Sunday, Oct. 2nd – Tuesday, Oct. 4th — In general, even the most secular Jewish people will celebrate Rosh Hashanah (literally— the head of the year).
- The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), Tuesday, Oct. 11th – Wednesday, Oct. 12th — This is considered the holiest day of the Jewish calendar and will be observed in some way by nearly every Jewish person.
- The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), Sunday, Oct. 16th – Sunday, Oct. 23rd — Fewer Jewish people celebrate this feast, although after the seriousness of the first two, the Feast of Tabernacles is a lot of fun and known as a time of great rejoicing!
Understanding the Jewish High Holidays can be a great blessing for followers of Jesus!This is why Chosen People Ministries offers you some wonderful resources to help you better understand the holidays.
I encourage you to investigate these resources to help you better understand your Jewish heritage in the Messiah!
Another important aspect of your heritage as a follower of Messiah is the Temple of Jerusalem. You may recall from the Book of Ezekiel references to “the Shekinah glory” in the Temple.
The Temple was the heart and soul of the Jewish faith in biblical times — the place where sacrifices were made for the forgiveness of sin. Since the Temple’s destruction over 2,000 years ago, Jewish people have told many well-known stories of great rabbis who went to their deathbeds wondering whether or not their sins were forgiven.
This is the problem, of course, when there is no recognizable means or moment when one knows that their sins are forgiven. Jewish people live with ambiguity, not knowing if our good works and repentance are enough for God to forgive us of our sins.
Shalom!
Dr. Mitch Glaser 