A poster from the 1940s depicting
the firstfruits pilgrimage. 

Growing up, there was never a question in my mind that every aspect of my Jewish faith was interconnected. 

People and places and feasts and songs are woven together in one magnificent tapestry, pulling all of Jewish Scripture and history together. It blankets us all with its warmth and promises. This tapestry is well-worn and familiar in the best of ways. 

In Judaism, we we read and study the Torah from beginning to end every single year.  All around the world, congregations all read the same scriptures - Torah portions - each week. It's a beautiful thing to study the same promises, the same sadnesses, and the same rescues year after year like a much-traveled footpath: every switchback and vista comfortingly familiar yet new in its own way.

Of course, this also means that bible "stories" aren't taught out of order, but as part of the single grand narrative from beginning to end. Each life and moment in scripture is connected in deeply meaningful ways.

Shavuot (a/k/a Pentecost) is a perfect example of this connectedness.

When I teach, Christians are often surprised to learn that Pentecost is a Jewish thing. They  don’t realize that the Pentecost in Acts 2 - when the Holy Spirit descended - was actually an annual Jewish feast. One of the three pilgrimage feasts, in fact. Which means that Pentecost was a big deal on the Jewish calendar.

And - from the very beginning - it was tethered to Passover. 

In Leviticus and Numbers, God told His people to start counting off forty-nine days, starting with the Passover Sabbath. Then, the fiftieth day, would be Pentecost. That’s actually why it’s called Pentecost in Greek: Pentecost means fiftieth. Shavuot - the feast's Hebrew name - means weeks, for the seven-week (forty-nine days) countdown.

There's so much that I love about this connection (which you can read all about in Jerusalem Calls, coming next year!). And every bit of it reveals God's incredible intentionality. 

Jesus' sacrifice took place during Passover, and we know from the gospel writers that the city was filled to overflowing with pilgrims. Which means that fifty days later, the city was filled with pilgrims who had witnessed the crucifixion and resurrection.

They'd witnessed it with their own eyes and ears, but then journeyed back home to their everyday lives. Can you imagine what those conversations were like on their journeys back home from Passover? Or what the dinner table discussions were like during those seven weeks before returning to Jerusalem for Pentecost? 

And, when they finally came back with their firstfruits for Pentecost, the pilgrims arrived to even more incredible news: Jesus had just ascended, through the clouds, into heaven, in front of everyone. 

But we know that more incredible things were coming. Because after all these God followers from different communities and countries caught up on the news of Jesus' ascension, they went about doing what they'd gathered in Jerusalem to do: offer the firstfruits of their harvest.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Acts 2:1-2

The whole reason there were countless foreign-speakers in Jerusalem at that moment is because Pentecost was a pilgrimage feast. And when the Holy Spirit came down, it was like a total reversal of Babel.  Different languages uniting people instead of scattering them. Uniting them with the gospel that they could then take back home. And share it with their neighbors in all their different nations.

God is so intentional. When He gave those pilgrimage commands way back in the desert, He knew exactly what would happen on this one, particular Passover and Pentecost.

God knew that if His people obeyed the pilgrimage command, they would come to Jerusalem one year and witness the Messiah’s death and His defeat of it. And, if the people obeyed the pilgrimage command again seven weeks later, they’d receive the Holy Spirit in most dramatic fashion - and then take the complete story of the Gospel  back home with them, where they would share their eyewitness accounts with their neighbors.

God's plan is so much bigger than we can possibly comprehend. 

I don’t know about you, but when I see how these feasts were woven so intentionally together, 1500 years after God commanded them, it reassures me that our God has a plan - a good, beautiful, powerful plan. Even if I can't see it in the moment.

It reassures me that He can be trusted to fulfill His promises in just the right way, at just the right time, as we continue to seek and follow Him and His ways. 

So, no matter where you are on your pilgrimage with God, I pray that you would find rest, and encouragement, in Him.

Covering the Bread of Life

Vintage challah cover on eBay

Almost every single Friday, I begin the day by baking four braids of challah - the bread of the Jewish sabbath. I keep one and give the other three away, which has been a delight.

I began this weekly ritual five years ago, in an effort to connect - in a very tangible way - with my history and my memories. Wearing Grandma Marion's apron and using her mom's flour scoop makes me happy.

After the four-hour process of mixing and waiting and braiding and waiting, the aroma of those warm, pillowy braids turning golden in the oven fills me with a sense of peace and grounding.

Once it's cooled a bit, I cover my challah with a rough-edged, white linen cloth. My grandparents' covers, on the other hand, were absolutely exquisite: blue velvet or cream silk, embroidered with rich colors that sang with the joy of Shabbat. 

I always assumed that covering the challah was to keep it warm and fresh until it was time to light the candles and pour the wine. But actually, the reason comes straight from the Torah, back in the Israelites’ time in the wilderness after the Egypt rescue. 

And the Lord spoke to Moshe, saying, 

I have heard the murmurings of the children of Yisra᾽el: speak to them, saying...in the morning you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. 

And it came to pass, that...in the morning the dew lay round about the camp. 

And when the layer of dew was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a fine flaky substance, as fine as the hoar frost on the ground. 

And when the children of Yisra᾽el saw it, they said one to another, Man-hu (what is it?): for they knew not what it was. And Moshe said to them, This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. 

And [Moses] said to them, This is that which the Lord has said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath to the Lord: bake that which you will bake today, and what you will boil, boil today; and that which remains over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

Exodus 16:12-15 Koren Jerusalem Bible

Rabbis explain that the reason we cover the challah on Shabbat, the Sabbath, is to remind us of the dew that covered the manna each and every morning of the Israelites' forty-year sojourn. It is a reminder of God’s provision, His faithfulness, and His grace to sustain them – and us – every day.

On Shabbat, the challah cover especially reminds us of the dew that covered the double portion of manna on the sixth day - that extra provision of God - so that His people would have enough to both eat and to rest on the Sabbath.

I love this. I love how a lot of the old traditions of my Jewish upbringing are actually rooted in Scripture, without me even realizing it.

When I stumbled upon the spiritual reason for covering the Sabbath challah, my thoughts eventually turned to something that Yeshua, Jesus, had said.

“I’m telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever believes in me hasreal life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self.”   John 6:47-51 The Message

In the wilderness, God had rained down manna from heaven, covering it with dew each morning. 

Then finally, when the time was full, God sent Jesus down from heaven. Deity covered with human flesh. 

He was ultimately covered – like my Sabbath bread – with a linen cloth. Shrouded for death. 

But, as John and Peter discovered on Resurrection morning, that burial cloth was a covering that Jesus left - neatly folded - behind Him. The Bread of Life rising from death.

And so we - who are nourished by the resurrected Bread of Life - and covered by His sacrifice, will one day leave our grave cloths behind, too. 

And rise to new life.