Sunday Sermonette: Turning of the months

Leviticus 23 remains essential to Jewish life and religious practice, though in ways that have changed considerably over the centuries. It outlines the important points in the liturgical calendar. Some new ones have been added since, and the nature of observance has changed with the abandonment of ritual sacrifice, but these major observances are still honored. A confusing point is that the liturgical and civil calendars have different starting points. The Festival of Trumpets is placed here at the beginning of the seventh month. It is now called Rosh hashana, marking the new year. So the liturgical year begins with Passover, but the civil year begins 7 months later with the blowing of the ram's horn. As far as I can tell the "offering of first fruits" does not correspond to an existing scheduled event -- it seems to have been absorbed into the Festival of Weeks -- today called Shavuot. Please correct me if I'm missing something. The Festival of Booths is now called Sukkot.

23 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ² Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: These are the appointed festivals of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations, my appointed festivals.

³ Six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work: it is a sabbath to the Lord throughout your settlements.

Of course we have heard this many times already.

⁴ These are the appointed festivals of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall celebrate at the time appointed for them. ⁵ In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight,^[a] there shall be a passover offering to the Lord, ⁶ and on the fifteenth day of the same month is the festival of unleavened bread to the Lord; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. ⁷ On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations. ⁸ For seven days you shall present the Lord’s offerings by fire; on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation: you shall not work at your occupations.

The tradition of the Seder -- a ceremonial meal eaten at home -- obviously arose later. However, the requirement of eating unleavened bread for seven days remains.

⁹ The Lord spoke to Moses: ¹⁰ Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. ¹¹ He shall raise the sheaf before the Lord, that you may find acceptance; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall raise it. ¹² On the day when you raise the sheaf, you shall offer a lamb a year old, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹³ And the grain offering with it shall be two-tenths of an ephah of choice flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the Lord; and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. ¹⁴ You shall eat no bread or parched grain or fresh ears until that very day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your settlements.

Again, since the only content of this command is sacrifice, and sacrifice is no longer performed, the First Fruits seems to have disappeared from the calendar. It has no specified date anyway.

¹⁵ And from the day after the sabbath, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the elevation offering, you shall count off seven weeks; they shall be complete. ¹⁶ You shall count until the day after the seventh sabbath, fifty days; then you shall present an offering of new grain to the Lord. ¹⁷ You shall bring from your settlements two loaves of bread as an elevation offering, each made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of choice flour, baked with leaven, as first fruits to the Lord. ¹⁸ You shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, one young bull, and two rams; they shall be a burnt offering to the Lord, along with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the Lord. ¹⁹ You shall also offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of well-being. ²⁰ The priest shall raise them with the bread of the first fruits as an elevation offering before the Lord, together with the two lambs; they shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. ²¹ On that same day you shall make proclamation; you shall hold a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations. This is a statute forever in all your settlements throughout your generations.

Although the sacrifice is no longer a part of Shavuot, the proclamation, convocation and day of rest are observed although there are no specific laws concerning the nature of the observance and customs vary. 

²² When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the Lord your God.

This is an interesting passage. It is not applicable to modern life, and I'm not sure how religious farmers interpret this today. I would imagine that rather than leaving the edges of the field unharvested, they make a charitable donation of some sort. Maybe someone can tell us.

²³ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁴ Speak to the people of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of complete rest, a holy convocation commemorated with trumpet blasts. ²⁵ You shall not work at your occupations; and you shall present the Lord’s offering by fire.

Again, today this is Rosh Hashana, the first day of the civil year.

²⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁷ Now, the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you: you shall deny yourselves^[b] and present the Lord’s offering by fire; ²⁸ and you shall do no work during that entire day; for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the Lord your God. ²⁹ For anyone who does not practice self-denial^[c] during that entire day shall be cut off from the people. ³⁰ And anyone who does any work during that entire day, such a one I will destroy from the midst of the people. ³¹ You shall do no work: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your settlements. ³² It shall be to you a sabbath of complete rest, and you shall deny yourselves;^[d] on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening you shall keep your sabbath.

This observance - Yom Kippur -- is the most important in the Jewish religion, probably more solemn than Passover. Many additional traditions have grown up around Yom Kippur, as you can see the only specification here is refraining from work and dedication to prayer. Earlier, we were given an elaborate schedule of sacrifices on that day including the scapegoat, but all of that has been abandoned.

Some people still practice Kapporat on the eve of Yom Kippur, which involves the killing of a chicken which is then donated to charity. The practice was controversial from the beginning and remains highly controversial today. It is not evidently based on or derived from the sacrificial rituals of Leviticus since it is not performed by a priest. Nevertheless it seems to me reminiscent of the scapegoat since the idea is that the chicken symbolically absorbs the penitent's since.

³³ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ³⁴ Speak to the people of Israel, saying: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month, and lasting seven days, there shall be the festival of booths^[e] to the Lord. ³⁵ The first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations. ³⁶ Seven days you shall present the Lord’s offerings by fire; on the eighth day you shall observe a holy convocation and present the Lord’s offerings by fire; it is a solemn assembly; you shall not work at your occupations.

³⁷ These are the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you shall celebrate as times of holy convocation, for presenting to the Lord offerings by fire—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day— ³⁸ apart from the sabbaths of the Lord, and apart from your gifts, and apart from all your votive offerings, and apart from all your freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord.
³⁹ Now, the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall keep the festival of the Lord, lasting seven days; a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day. ⁴⁰ On the first day you shall take the fruit of majestic^[f] trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. ⁴¹ You shall keep it as a festival to the Lord seven days in the year; you shall keep it in the seventh month as a statute forever throughout your generations. ⁴² You shall live in booths for seven days; all that are citizens in Israel shall live in booths, ⁴³ so that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

This is called Sukkot. Observant Jews still make actual booths and eat in them during the festival.  The plant materials used today to represent the ones specified in verse 40 are the Etrog (citron fruit), Lulav (frond of date palm) Hadass (myrtle bough) and Aravah (willow branch).

⁴⁴ Thus Moses declared to the people of Israel the appointed festivals of the Lord.

Footnotes:

1. Leviticus 23:5 Heb between the two evenings
2. Leviticus 23:27 Or shall fast
3. Leviticus 23:29 Or does not fast
4. Leviticus 23:32 Or shall fast
5. Leviticus 23:34 Or tabernacles: Heb succoth
6. Leviticus 23:40 Meaning of Heb uncertain