Holidays Archives - Page 13 of 13

Happy Sukkot!

Today is the first day of Sukkot. In doing some research this afternoon, I stumbled across a page with photos that I created a few years ago after visiting the Western Wall during the celebration. I think it is still relevant and interesting.

As joyous as this festival is, I am more encouraged by knowing that one day the Messiah will not be forced to release terrorists in order to gain freedom for the captives but he will defeat those who fight against Jerusalem. Then, Zechariah says, “the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles” (Zech 14:16).

Hag Sukkot Sameah!

Sukkot prayers at the Western Wall

Tagged Holidays, Jerusalem

Transfiguration Celebrated on Mount Tabor

I am not very familiar with this annual observance. From the Jerusalem Post:

On August 18 and 19 the Greek Orthodox Church will celebrate the annual Feast of the Transfiguration, which celebrates the transfiguration of Jesus that is traditionally thought to have occurred at Mount Tabor in the Galilee. The Catholic Church celebrated the holiday earlier this month on August 6 with a festive mass at the Church of the Transfiguration at Mount Tabor.
[…]
During this feast a night vigil occurs in the Greek Orthodox Church, which is the most unique experience associated with the holiday. Arab Christians camp in the woods surrounding the church and spend the night there, during which time the Divine Liturgy is celebrated outside the church. The Divine Liturgy is celebrated inside the Church on the August 19.
To commemorate Jesus’s climb up the mountain, some pilgrims will ascend Mount Tabor by foot.

The full article gives some details about the Transfiguration from the New Testament. It does not mention that most scholars reject Mount Tabor as the location for this event or give any of the reasons why. Three reasons may be suggested:

1. The Gospels record that Jesus was in the vicinity of Caesarea Philippi before the Transfiguration (Matt 16:13). Nothing suggests that he traveled southward to Mount Tabor.

2. The event was intentionally private, and a setting on Mount Hermon or even in the mountains of Upper Galilee would be more suitable than a location on Mount Tabor. The international highway traveling through the Jezreel Valley passed next to the Mount Tabor and would have made privacy unlikely.

3. A military fort on the summit of Mount Tabor during Hasmonean and Roman times was probably in use during Jesus’ ministry and would have precluded the site as a get-away for Jesus.

Nevertheless, early Christian pilgrims were attracted to Mount Tabor as the location for this event. It is possible that its convenient location on the way to Capernaum was a factor. This would have eliminated the need for a multi-day trek up to the environs of Caesarea Philippi.

For more information (and links), see the Mount Tabor page at BiblePlaces.com (also in Spanish and French).

Summit of Mount Tabor. Nazareth is visible in the distance.

Tagged Galilee, Holidays, Jezreel Valley

Weekend Roundup

Leen Ritmeyer explains why he disagrees with Eilat Mazar’s claim that the Second Temple is “waiting to be unearthed.”

Shmuel Browns has a well-illustrated article on Popular Archaeology entitled “Netzer’s Legacy: The Wonders of Herodium.”

Wayne Stiles makes a connection between the feast of Shavuot (Weeks or Pentecost) and Beth Shemesh.

Al Arabiya News profiles the Nimrud ivories, and Ferrell Jenkins provides some additional commentary and photos.

Haaretz takes the occasion of the inauguration of Jerusalem’s Light Rail to reminisce about an earlier, short-lived rail project from Jerusalem to el-Bireh/Ramallah. The author describes it as an electric rail system, but the accompanying photo shows the train billowing smoke.

The Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem is almost entirely Ultra-Orthodox.

An article in the Telegraph lists the top five religious mysteries as the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy
Chalice, the True Cross, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Sudarium of Oviedo.

The New York Times celebrates the completion of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, ninety years after it was begun.

If you’re wondering what is brand new and most popular for the week, see the lists at bib-arch.org.

Tagged Holidays, Jerusalem, Museums, Shephelah, Temple Mount

Purim and the Book of Esther

The celebration of Purim begins tonight and commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people described in the book of Esther. If you have not read the book in a while, this might be a good occasion to do so with family and friends.

You might understand the book better if you recognize that there are three sections. The first two chapters introduce the main characters and put them in position for their timely action. The central section reveals the plot, beginning with Haman’s successful efforts to secure a degree ordering the slaughter of the Jews and concluding with Haman’s death and the issuing of a counter-edict (3:1–9:19). The third section concludes the book with the declaration of the annual celebration of Purim to remember the deliverance of the Jews (9:20-10:3).

If you are a more advanced reader, you might pay more attention in your next reading to the author’s use of the number two. There are two queens, two heroes, two decrees, two banquets hosted by Esther, and many other such examples.

In a recent study of the book, I appreciated this statement by Robert Gordis:

Anti-Semites have always hated the book, and the Nazis forbade its reading in the crematoria and the concentration camps. In the dark days before their deaths, Jewish inmates of Auschwitz, Dachau, Treblinka, and Bergen-Belsen wrote the Book of Esther from memory and read it in secret on Purim. Both they and their brutal foes understood its message. This unforgettable book teaches that Jewish resistance to annihilation, then as now, represents the service of God and devotion to His cause. In every age, martyrs and heroes, as well as ordinary men and women, have seen in it not merely a record of past deliverance but a prophecy of future salvation” (Megillat Esther. New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 1974, p. 14).

More about the modern celebration of the holiday is given in this article published yesterday by Arutz-7. A couple of years ago we posted a few photos of the holiday in connection with an article about “The Tomb of Mordechai and Esther.”

Tagged Holidays