SHAVUOT - THE FEAST OF WEEKS

Shavuot- The Feast of Weeks

Daniel ben Ya’acov Ysrael

In this paper, I would like to approach the Feast of Shavuot and see what is the perception today in the Body of Mashiach.

I read today the Shavuot in Facebook, (Pentecost for some) or Feast of the Weeks is the remembrance of the giving of the Torah as I read following: “The feast is also called the “Feast of Weeks” in Leviticus 23:15 and it commemorates the first time that Mosheh (Moses) went up to Mount Sinai and received the marriage agreement aka “The Ten Commandments” for the bride of YaHuWaH”.

Let us see what the Torah tells us about Shavuot (Pentecost):

Lev 23:15  ‘And from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you shall count for yourselves: seven completed Sabbaths.

Lev 23:16  ‘Until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you count fifty days, then you shall bring a new grain offering to יהוה.

Do we need to count seven weeks plus one day, or fifty day waiting the giving of the Torah?

Does the Children of Ysrael waited this seven weeks plus one day or fifty days to receive the Torah at Mount Sinai?

Yes it is true that the Children of Ysrael received the Torah at Mount Sinai, but this is not what I am asking!

When did Yehowah commanded the Children of Ysrael to observe the Feast of Shavuot (Pentecost)?

During the forty years in the wilderness, the Children of Ysrael ate manna from heaven, they didn’t plow, nor sowed, or reaped. We understand from the context that this particular Feast was to be observed when the Children of Ysrael will be in the Land.

Deut.16: 9 Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.

 But where?

Deut.16 :11 And thou shalt rejoice before YHWH thy Elohim, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which YHWH thy Elohim hath chosen to place his name there.

Where is the place?

1Ki 11:36  ‘And to his son I give one tribe, so that My servant Dawiḏ shall always have a lamp before Me in Yerushalayim, the city which I have chosen for Myself, to put My Name there.

2Ki 21:4  And he built altars in the House of יהוה, of which יהוה had said, “In Yerushalayim I put My Name.”

We will have to wait that the Children of Ysrael enter the Promise Land to begin to celebrate the Feast of Shavuot, not to remember the giving of the Torah! But what is the Feast of Shavuot commanded for?

Ancient Ysrael was in majority a Land of Farmers and agricultural activities. Yehowah used the life condition to impart believers with fundamental spiritual realities.

I will limit this paper to Shavuot in order to develop a clear view on what I want to show.

Shavuot the Feast that mark the final grain harvest.

Sh’mmot/Ex.34: 22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.

Shavuot is directly connected to the wheat harvest !

Lev 23:16  ‘Until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you count fifty days, then you shall bring a new grain offering to יהוה.

Lev 23:17  ‘Bring from your dwellings for a wave offering two loaves of bread, of two-tenths of an ĕphah of fine flour they are, baked with leaven, first-fruits to יהוה.

Lev 23:9 And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying,

Lev 23:10 “Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, and you shall say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest to the priest.

The Barley is the first corn to be harvested in Israel, fifty days later it is the wheat, here also we see that the spring Harvest were made of “corn”. Corns are seed to produce more fruits! Can you see, if we compare with the harvest at the time of Succoth  in the seven month, the fruits are fully ripe fruits ready to be eaten, grapes, fruits like apple, and many others who were the result of good weather.

The wheat harvest represents the first believers at Yehoshua’s time. The Harvest on the seven month represent the last fruits before the coming of Messiah.

Lev 23:12 ‘And on that day when you wave the sheaf, you shall prepare a male lamb a year old, a perfect one, as a burnt offering to יהוה,

Lev 23:13 and its grain offering: two-tenths of an ĕphah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering maded by fire to יהוה, a sweet fragrance, and its drink offering: one-fourth of a hin of wine.

Barley  the grain that represent the carnal nature of man. Barley was an animal food and also for the poor.

1 King 4 :8 Barley also and straw for the horses and dromedaries brought they unto the place where [the officers] were, every man according to his charge.

Rth 1:22  Thus Naʽomi returned, and Ruth the Mo’aḇitess her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the fields of Mo’aḇ, and they came to Bĕyth Leḥem at the beginning of barley harvest.

Rth 2:23  And she stayed close by the young women of Boʽaz to glean, till the completion of barley harvest and wheat harvest, but she dwelt with her mother-in-law.

First the Barley harvest, second the wheat harvest. Here I want to post a diagram to show how we see the timing of the Harvests in Ysrael:

Let us compare with another source to see if we are accurate. This time with a modern day calendar:

We see that the Barley harvest start in the month of Aviv (literally “green ears”), the first month of the Hebrew calendar. In the secular Gregorian calendar it is around march/april.

The last source come from:

The Gezer calendar is a 10th century BCE inscribed limestone tablet discovered in excavations of the ancient Canaanite city of Gezer, 20 miles west of Jerusalem, Israel. Scholars are divided as to whether the script and language are Phoenician or paleo-Hebrew.
The calendar was discovered in 1908 by R.A.S. Macalister of the Palestine Exploration Fund while excavating the ancient Canaanite city of Gezer, 20 miles west of Jerusalem. The calendar inscribed on a limestone plaque describes monthly or bi-monthly periods and attributes to each a duty such as harvest, planting, or tending specific crops. It reads:
Two months gathering (September, October)
Two months planting (November, December)
Two months late sowing (January, February)
One month cutting flax (March)
One month reaping barley (April)
One month reaping and measuring grain* (May)
Two months pruning** (June, July)

      One month summer fruit (August) [6]

* The wheat harvest goes from may to june in the secular calendar.

**this is for the Vine (me add)

If we take 2013, it was april 11 in the secular calendar, 21 days after the vernal “tekufah” (Equinox), which mark the spring season.

If we count the wheat harvest from the Firstfruits this year we had april 26 2013 to start the wheat harvest which will culminate at Shavuot 7 weeks later or 50 days, june 17 2013 in the secular calendar.

2 Kings 4 :42 And there came a man from Baalshalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.

Which Firstfruits for the Feast of Weeks?

Num 28:25  ‘And on the seventh day you have a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work.

Num 28:26  ‘And on the day of the first-fruits, when you bring a new grain offering to יהוה at your Festival of Weeks, you have a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work.

Num 28:27  ‘And you shall bring near a burnt offering as a sweet fragrance to יהוה: two young bulls, one ram, and seven lambs a year old,

Num 28:28  with their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ĕphah for each bull, two-tenths for the one ram,

Why do we have nowadays people who claim Aviv in the winter season, when Pesach is called the Spring Feast?

Why do we have nowadays people well intentioned who look for the Barley Aviv before the spring season which start in the End of march in the secular calendar?

The seasons marked by the cycle of the sun:

Psa 19:1  The heavens declare the glory of El; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

Psa 19:2  Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.

Psa 19:3  There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

Psa 19:4  Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

Psa 19:5  Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.

Psa 19:6  His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit* unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

*Circuit:

Original: תּקפה תּקוּפה

- Transliteration: T’quwphah

- Phonetic: tek-oo-faw'

- Definition: 

1.  coming round, circuit of time or space, a turning, circuit

The End of the Year?

Ex.34 :22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's* end.

*Hebrew : revolution of year

1 king 20: 22 And the prophet came to the king of Israel, and said unto him, Go, strengthen thyself, and mark, and see what thou doest: for at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against thee.

2 Sam.11:1 And it cometh to pass, at the revolution of the year--at the time of the going out of the messengers--that David sendeth Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they destroy the Bene-Ammon, and lay siege against Rabbah. And David is dwelling in Jerusalem,

We all know, that the “end of the year” or “revolution of the year” is during Succoth in the 7^th month:

Lev 23:34  Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto YHWH.

Lev 23:35  On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.

Lev 23:36  Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto YHWH: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto YHWH: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein.

The return of the year is spring!

The sun run is race in an ellipse as we can see in the picture below

In this diagram, we can clearly see that the sun turn around the earth following a line called: Ecliptic plane, in which two times in the year it mark the beginning of the spring and the fall Feast of Yehowah.

The ecliptic is an imaginary line on the sky that marks the annual path of the sun.  It is the projection of Earth’s orbit onto the celestial sphere.

Now let us see what we can find concerning the timing:

This year 2013 in the secular calendar I was amazed to see that many celebrate Shavuot (Pentecost) was celebrated by:
 The Jews in Jerusalem: Wednesday, the 14th of May to May 15, 2013.

             Messianic: Sunday May 19, 2013

I will just focus on the messianic knowing that the difference between Judaism and messianic is the starting point to count the 50 days.

If we count 50 days back from May 19, we come to March 31, 2013. This bring us to Passover to be March 25, 2013 and the First of the month 14 days early March 11.

This is how this year many have counted the Feast of Shavuot. The question is: Is it possible to start to count before the vernal Equinox (Spring)?

NET Bible (©2006)
In the spring of the year, at the time when kings normally conduct wars, David sent out Joab with his officers and the entire Israelite army. They defeated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem.

American Standard Version
And it came to pass, at the return of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle , that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried at Jerusalem.

Young's Literal Translation
And it cometh to pass, at the revolution of the year -- at the time of the going out of the messengers -- that David sendeth Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they destroy the Bene-Ammon, and lay siege against Rabbah. And David is dwelling in Jerusalem,

English Standard Version (©2001)
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.

The Hebrew word used in this passage is :
H8666 תְּשׁוּבָה תֶּשׁוּבָה tshuwbah (tesh-oo-baw') (or tshubah {tesh-oo-baw'}) n-f.

1. a recurrence (of time or place)

2. a reply (as returned)

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 11

2Sa 11:1. Joab Besieges Rabbah.

1. at the time when kings go forth to battle—The return of spring was the usual time of commencing military operations. This expedition took place the year following the war against the Syrians; and it was entered upon because the disaster of the former campaign having fallen chiefly upon the Syrian mercenaries, the Ammonites had not been punished for their insult to the ambassadors.

David sent Joab and his servants … they destroyed the children of Ammon—The powerful army that Joab commanded ravaged the Ammonite country and committed great havoc both on the people and their property, until having reached the capital, they besieged Rabbah—Rabbah denotes a great city. This metropolis of the Ammonites was situated in the mountainous tract of Gilead, not far from the source of the Arnon. Extensive ruins are still found on its site.

This commentary from Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, and the quotations from different bibles tells us that spring season is sometime called “the revolution of the year”, “the return of the year”, “after the year was expired”, all this terms point to the spring season which start after the spring equinox.

But before I go further let read this statement from Jacob Neusner:

I am proud to publish his articles du fond in the Review of Rabbinic Judaism (Brill), where I serve as chairman of the editorial board.

Critical chapters of the story of Israel, commemorated as festivals, are timed to coincide with turnings in the year of nature. In Judaism, time is marked by the lunar months and the solar seasons and is endowed with sanctity when a turning in the heavens coincides with an episode in Israel’s story. Harmony thus characterizes Israel’s life on earth and God’s abode in heaven. In the words of the Qaddish, the prayer repeated in synagogue worship that sanctifies God’s name, “He who makes peace in the heights may make peace for us.”

The point is, the sacred calendar signaled by the sun (for seasons) and the moon (for months), coordinates Israel’s life here on earth with the movement of the heavenly bodies. The movement of the sun and moon around the earth1attests to critical episodes in the Torah’s narrative.

Thus, every year on the first full moon after the vernal equinox of March 21, the communities of Judaism commemorate the liberation of the Israelite slaves from Egyptian bondage and their escape into the wilderness of Sinai. So too on the first full moon after the autumnal equinox of September 21, Israel returns to dwell in the shacks that afforded shelter in the wilderness for forty years (this is Succoth*).

JACOB NEUSNER Bard College

TELLING TIME IN RABBINIC JUDAISM: CORRELATING THE

LUNAR-SOLAR CALENDAR WITH THE LECTIONARY CYCLE

*in () me add.

Shavuot (Pentecost) the season of the Wheat Harvest!

Shavuot mark the end of the grain season harvest and is in the third chodesh (month) of the biblical calendar, not before. At this time and only at this time we can have the first New Wine!
Act 2:12  And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?

Act 2:13  Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

Not wine, but “New Wine”. Somebody knowing about new wine ( I have more than 30 years in this area), will tell you that a wine begin to fermented as soon as its grapes are cut and put in a recipient over 28degrees Celsius. The Wine can be drink fully or partly fermented
The particularity of “new wine” fully fermented or not is that they have a short fermentation process and taste very fruity, thus can make somebody quickly drunk, because it look sometime like drinking grape juice. To assume that the disciples were drinking grape juice is not defendable for the above mentioned reason. You don’t get drunk from drinking the must (juice coming from crushed grapes).

A ripe grape which is cut and little crushed begin the process of fermentation very fast.

Wine is a product which is harvested in Israel from the beginning of summer  to the end of august in the secular calendar depending on the region (see the picture page 3).

If we start from this point and go back we will see that it is not possible to start the counting of the First month before march 21^st in the secular calendar.

It is unfortunate to see today due to ignorance and lack of research that we found ourselves following man made doctrine like the seeking of the “Barley Aviv” as promoted by the Karaites, when the Torah tells us that it is in the month of Aviv that the people will go out from Egypt, and not when the Barley is Aviv!

The second problem in the error of counting the true timing for Shavuot is the false timing of Pesach which is almost every year counted from the  next New Moon after the collection of the first Aviv Barley, tradition from Karaites Jews.

Some year when they don’t find Barley in the state of Aviv in March, they postpone to the next month, thus come closer to the true calendar, which start with the first New Moon after the Equinox. (March 21 in the secular calendar).

Shavuot and the Believers

In the Brit Chadasha (N.T) we never find barley mentioned by Yehoshua or the Apsotles save in John chapter 6 and Revelation chapter 6.
Yehoshua and Yhochanan the immerser use “wheat” to refer to the good seed as a metaphor for believers.

Matt.3: 12 Whose fan [is] in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

The terminology of End time and Shavuot:

Yehoshua speak a parable to his talmidim (disciples):

Matt.13 :24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: 25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way……….

28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

Yehoshua give the literal meaning to his disciples, which by the way represent the many of us in need of p’shat (literal) explanation many times!!

Mat 13:36  Then Yehoshua sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.

Mat 13:37  He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed (the wheat) is the Son of man;

Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

Mat 13:39  The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels (Hebrew:malakim, messengers).

Mat 13:40  As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.

Mat 13:41  The Son of man shall send forth his angels (malakim), and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;

This parable bring us directly to the chapter 24 of the same gospel:

Mat 24:29  Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

Mat 24:30  And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Mat 24:31  And he shall send his angels (malakim/messengers*) with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

*The term “malakim” apply also to men send by Elohim.

Following this parables Yehoshua goes on and give more details on the end time:

Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:

Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Mat 24:36  But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

Mat 24:37  But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Mat 24:38  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,

The verse 36 is very well known among the “Torah keepers”, unfortunately the majority stop verse 39 to read and think it is finished.

Yehoshua says again:

Mat 24:42  Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your master doth come.

This verse is ignored, and majority says that the day and the hour than no man knows is Yom Teruah because no man knows which day the moon is sighted.
This is very unfortunate and sad, because it is build on the lack of knowledge of Yehowah’s calendar.

Every single chodesh is known to every good student and there is no mystery behind it. Only those (and don’t be upset, I was among this group for many years) who take hold of the pagan roman solar Gregorian calendar, cannot see the simplicity of the scriptures.

Yehoshua do not stop there, he goes on chapter 25 with another parable, and again we read:

Mat 25:1  Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

Mat 25:2  And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

Mat 25:3  They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:

Mat 25:4  But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

Mat 25:5  While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

Mat 25:6  And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

Mat 25:7  Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

Mat 25:8  And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.

Mat 25:9  But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

Mat 25:10  And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

Mat 25:11  Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, My master, my master, open to us.

Mat 25:12  But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

Mat 25:13  Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. (see chapter 24:36 and 42).

This parable is not based on “new revelation”. It is tradition among the Jews, the night leading to Shavuot to read the Torah without sleeping (watching), and if you ask them what they are doing, they will tell you: “we wait for the Mashiach”.

In another paper I have intensively demonstrate that the only calendar known in the first century was not the roman calendar but the Luni-solar calendar, based on the Chodesh (New Moon), existing from time of old long before Moshe, even from creation.

The unbroken cycle of seven since creation is build on misunderstanding, lack of knowledge and false teaching from very popular teachers in internet who boast themselves to be the teachers of the blind!

http://danielbenyaacovysrael.blogspot.fr/2014/04/calendar-according-to-moshe-vs.html

  

I am sure that anyone who is eager to discover the true calendar will come to the same conclusion and see that what the Prophet Daniel said is already in place since more than 2000 years.

Dan 7:24  And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.

Dan 7:25  And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think* to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. 

*The word “think” in Hebrew is:

H5452 סְבַר cbar (seb-ar') v.

1. to bear in mind,

This happened with Julius Ceasar in 64 BC, modified by Constantine in 325 AD,  and was inforced in the all world by the pope Gregoire, known today as the Gregorian calendar.

Why do people want to have Shavuot on “Sunday”, when this name is unknown to the Hebrew of the time of Yehoshua. The Torah is very clear concerning the counting of the omer:

Lev 23:10  Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, 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 priest:

Lev 23:11  And he shall wave the sheaf before YHWH, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it………………..

Lev 23:15  And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete:

Lev 23:16  Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto YHWH.

Lev 23:17  Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto YHWH.

Deu 16:9  Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.

The sickle can only be put to the grain when the Firstfruit has been brought to priest and waved before Yehowah.

Knowing the the moon determine the “chodesh” (New Moon or Month), we will have no problem to know which Shabbat it is said in verse 15. Shabbat occur in Yehowah’s calendar the 8^th, 15^th,22^nd,29^th of the Chodesh.

Knowing that the Feast of Unleavened bread start on the day after Pesach, means that it start on a Shabbat and finish on a Shabbat:

Lev 23:5  In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is YHWH's passover.

Lev 23:6  And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto YHWH: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.

Lev 23:7  In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.

Exo 12:15  Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

Exo 12:16  And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation*, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.

*Holy convocation:

H4744 מִקרָא miqra' (mik-raw') n-m.

1. something called out, i.e. a public meeting (the act, the persons, or the place)

2. also a rehearsal

From the root word:

H7121 קָרָא qara' (kaw-raw') v.

1. to call out to (i.e. properly, address by name, but used in a wide variety of applications)

[a primitive root (rather identical with H7122 through the idea of accosting a person met)]

KJV: bewray (self), that are bidden, call (for, forth, self, upon), cry (unto), (be) famous, guest, invite, mention, (give) name, preach, (make) proclaim(- ation), pronounce, publish, read, renowned, say.

Waiting for the Mashiach :

The practice of staying up all Shavuot night to study Torah – known as Tikkun Leil Shavuot(Hebrew: תקון ליל שבועות‎) – has its source in the Midrash, which relates that the night before the Torah was given, the Israelites retired early to be well-rested for the momentous day ahead. They overslept and Moses had to wake them up because God was already waiting on the mountaintop.^[19] To rectify this perceived flaw in the national character, many religious Jews stay up all night to learn Torah.^[20]

The custom of all-night Torah study goes back to 1533 when Rabbi Joseph Caro, author of theShulchan Aruch, then living in Ottoman Salonika, invited Rabbi Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz and otherKabbalistic colleagues to hold Shavuot-night study vigils for which they prepared for three days in advance, just as the Israelites had prepared for three days before the giving of the Torah. During one of those study sessions, an angel appeared and taught them Jewish law.^[21][22][23]

Any subject may be studied on Shavuot night, although Talmud, Mishnah, and Torah typically top the list. People may learn alone or with a chavruta (study partner), or attend late-night shiurim(lectures) and study groups.^[24] Both men and women participate in this tradition.

In Jerusalem, tens of thousands of people finish off the nighttime study session by walking to theWestern Wall before dawn and joining the sunrise minyan there.^{[24][25][26][27]} This practice began in 1967. One week before Shavuot of that year, the Israeli army recaptured the Old City in the Six-Day War, and on Shavuot day, the army opened the Western Wall to visitors. Over 200,000 Jews came to see and pray at the site that had been off-limits to them since 1948. The custom of walking to the Western Wall on Shavuot has continued every year since.^{[24][25][26][28]}(source Wikipedia).

The Harvest and the wheat :

1Co 15:35  But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

1Co 15:36  Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:

1Co 15:37  And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other (grain):

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Yehoshua connect the good seed (Matt 13:25,38) with the death in a metaphor to explain, that the true life comes after the death.

Where does Shavuot and the giving of the Torah comes from?

Tradion in Judaism:

While most of the Talmudic Sages concur that the Torah was given on the sixth of Sivan; R. Jose holds that it was given on the seventh of that month. According to the classical timeline, the Israelites arrived at the wilderness of Sinai on the new moon (Ex. 19:1) and the Ten Commandments were given on the following Shabbat (i.e., Saturday). The question of whether the new moon fell on Sunday or Monday is undecided (Talmud, tractate Shabbat 86b). In practice, Shavuot is observed on the sixth day of Sivan in Israel and a second day is added in the Jewish diaspora (in keeping with a separate rabbinical ruling that applies to all biblical holidays, calledYom tov sheni shel galuyot, Second-Dayj Yom Tov in the Diaspora).

Shavuot commemorates the anniversary of the dayGod gave the Torah to the entire nation of Israel assembled at Mount Sinai, although the association between the giving of the Torah (Matan Torah) and Shavuot is not explicit in the Biblical text. The holiday is one of the Shalosh Regalim, the three Biblical pilgrimage festivals. It marks the conclusion of theCounting of the Omer.

Everyone will agree that Yehoshua is the Firstfruits of the WHEAT harvest, called in Matthew the “good seed” and many time used in the Brit Chadasha (N.T) in relation with believers.

Now my question is: If like it was this year 2013, the Barley was found in the stage of “Aviv” in the beginning of the month of march (march 12 see picture below) in the secular calendar, during the winter period, is it the barley that will be brought to the priest in the “Chodesh” calendar more than 6 weeks later? 

The Torah teach us that first the sheaf of the grain must be brought to the Priest before anyone can eat of the grain!!!

Vayiqra/Lev.23: 9 And YHWH spake unto Moses, saying, 10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, 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 priest

Here verse 10, we should read « first cutting of your harvest » “raisheet k’tzir ». Firstfruit is brought at Shavuot.

 Sh’mot/Ex.24: 26 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of YHWH thy Elohim.

Now according to Yehowah’s calendar the First “chodesh” (New Monn/Month) was in the secular calendar april 11, 2013, when the sun enter “aries”. This is already 30 days later. Now we add the regular time for the Firstfruits which is after the Shabbat.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread be the 15 of the “chodesh” and the Firstfruits the day after the Shabbat, we add 16 days more, and we have a difference from 30 + 16 days = 46 days, which is more than 6 weeks and 4 days later!!!!!

We know that the wheat is Aviv around 4-6 weeks later than Barley. My question is following:

Yehoshua presented himself as the Firstfruits, which grain, Barley or Wheat?

Let us look what Josephus Flavius has to say on the matter:

Antiquities of the Jews, book 3 chapter 10, section 5, following:

" In the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries, (for in this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians,) the law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover; and so we do celebrate this passover in companies, leaving nothing of what we sacrifice till the day following. The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month, and continues seven days, wherein they feed on unleavened bread; on every one of which days two bulls are killed, and one ram, and seven lambs. Now these lambs are entirely burnt, besides the kid of the goats which is added to all the rest, for sins; for it is intended as a feast for the priest on every one of those days. But on the second day of unleavened bread, which is the sixteenth day of the month, they first partake of the fruits of the earth, for before that day they do not touch them.

Now when does the sun enter into “aries”?

Aries (♈) /ˈɛəriːz/ (meaning "ram") is the first astrological sign in the Zodiac, spanning the first 30 degrees of celestial longitude (0°≤ λ <30º), which area the Sun transits, on average, between March 21 to April 20 each year.

In Sidereal astrology, the sun currently transits the constellation of Aries from 15 April to 15 May (approximately).

This bring a lot of questions and everyone of us will have to decide which Firstfruits: Barley or Wheat?

Babylonian Talmud sotah 14a  s'horah (Barley) was considered animal food and food for the poor people.

Another question from the rabbis:

Talmud - Mas. Menachoth 84a

Rabbah raised the following objection: The verse, And if thou bring a meal-offering of

first-fruits. refers to the meal-offering of the ‘Omer. Of what was it offered? Of barley. You say ‘of barley’; but perhaps it is not so but rather of wheat! Said R. Eliezer, The expression ‘in the ear’is stated in regard to the incidents in Egypt, and the expression ‘in the ear’is also stated as an ordinance for generations: just as ‘in the ear’ stated in regard to the incidents in Egypt referred to the barley, so ‘in the ear’ stated as an ordinance for generations refers to barley only. R. Akiba said, We find that an individual must offer wheat as an obligation and also barley as an obligation; likewise we find that the community must offer wheat as  an obligation and also barley as an obligation.

Should you say, then, that the ‘Omer was offered  of wheat, we would not find a case when the community must offer barley as an obligation! Another explanation: Should you say that the ‘Omer was offered of wheat, then the Two Loaves would not be first-fruits! Hence the reason for it is that it must be first-fruits. This is indeed a refutation.

For more details read my paper: Counting the Omer and the Wave Offering

http://danielbenyaacovysrael.blogspot.fr/2012/04/counting-omer-part-one.html

May Yehowah bless you abundantly and give you wisdom in your path.