Christians have used and transformed many Jewish festivals and practices.
Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar) has just been celebrated. And soon the days of Sukkot (Booths; evening September 18 – evening September 25) will be celebrated.
Are there connections with Christian concepts, practices, and celebrations? Are there connections with the traditional Christian lectionaries and festivals? Are there connections we can make (the importance of Holy Cross Day springs to mind, and in the Southern Hemisphere Spring springs to mind)?
I appreciated Meredith Gould pointing to the following Kol Nidre (Moroccan Version) for this Yom Kippur 5774:
There are some further helpful starting points on this facebook page:
Hebrew prayers include, on the Day of atonement the phrase “Forgive, absolve, atone all the Children of Israel and the foreigners who abide in their midst because all the people (this can be understood as “all nations, peoples) has erred in full confusion”. In Yiddish, “teshuvah/תשובה = answer, response, turning back, return, convert is similar to Hebrew. It also includes “renewal “shuv/שוב ” as also “sitting-shev/שב”. The whole context is to cope with “making all things new, not forget or wipe but let the Lord allow us to be opened to newness, reconciliation, hope, unity and thus, as English has it to be at One, together to get to unity and perceive the Oneness of the Most High. This is at the heart of Rav A.I. Kohen Kook’s Or Teshuvah/אור תשובה. Interestingly, Jesus wept over Jerusalem in this search of unity, divine and human oneness, gathering as the hens that want to gather the chickens. How many times should be BE FORGIVEN TO GET TO THIS ONENESS. Forgiveness implies that we all endeavour to some process of getting to one. An invisible event for all peoples of good will through the world.
And further, on the lack of immediate recognition of this tradition within Christianity:
This does not exist formally in Christianity. Jesus never determined two things that are “existant, evident, ‘eternal'” in Jewish life: marriage and priesthood. Kippur can be broken down into many layers/levels of understanding, from ransoming, to offering, sacrifice, pardon, absolving, wiping out, releasing or redeeming (as in the Banking “slang”). Maybe one thing: “kippur/kapara is a word and radical that would best define the “Eucharist” as the Sacrament of sharing the resurrected Body and Blood of the resurrected Lord. I have been lecturing on this for quite a long time now – this had been also considered by late cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar, but slow slow…. Words cannot be stiff and fossilized in dogmas.
Can you add anything to this, including, but not limited to my questions in bold above?
Howdy, Fr. Bosco,
Over the past five years, Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot have taken a prominent place in my life as a believer. We now celebrate these Holy Days in my household, and, for the second straight year, I am incorporating elements of the celebrations into the liturgy.
First, we use the dating method established in Leviticus and used by the Karites to get our date for these festivals, in which Yom Teruah starts on the first crescent moon (as observed from Jerusalem) of the seventh month. This puts us a few days off of the Rabinnic Calendar. As a result, Yom Kippur starts for us tonight at sunset.
For Yom Kippur, we have adapted the use of readings from the Feast of the Holy Cross – since the readings lead to consideration of Christ’s sacrifice, it’s value, and ultimately of him as the source of atonement (a restoration of unity) with the Father. In addition, we have adapted the 1926 Irish BCP Penitential Office to serve as a Yom Kippur repentance liturgy.
The past few years we have kept Sukkot with a homemade booth, but neither time has the booth really held up well. Since we aren’t bound by law, we bought a tent for our family to use with an open top (well, open if you omit the rain fly!) We keep the feast out of a desire to encounter God more deeply, not out of a legalistic one. We will pray, eat, and camp in our backyard for a week. Themewise, protection and provision seem to run the show for us. We think of his protection and provision in the desert, and how we are protected and provided for even now, and how in the coming Kingdom we will be protected and provided for for all eternity – all as a result of the immense grace of God made known to us in Christ Jesus.
Rob+
Brilliant, Fr Rob! Thank you so much. Blessings.
I have thought that the cardboard “temporary” cathedral for Christchurch has resonance with the feast of the booths.
Many of us Christians on the West Coast of the US have felt drawn to Jewish New Year and there are several conversations going on about it. I feel I should mention though that there are issues with Christians celebrating it amongst themselves for themselves, rather than participating with Jewish friends and/or a local Jewish community. There is a sense from many on the Jewish side of their holidays being colonized rather than respectfully visited when Christians do this. Christians usually think they are being respectful and friendly and don’t usually understand how it can come across in this way.
These comments relate to a US context; NZ context with this may be (probably is?) quite different.
Thanks for this very important point, Diane. This is a very complex issue – with different dynamics between Christians and Jews than, say, between Christians and Buddhists. Blessings.
The writings of Geza Vermes (esp Christian Beginnings) may provide some insights into these connections.
A few comments from an Episcopalian who was an observant Jew before changing “tribes”…smile
I begin by noting an excellent resource for finding traditional rural Anglican customs at Full Homely Divinity – http://fullhomelydivinity.org/ – many of which have ties to rural religious life which is the setting for much of Jewish religious tradition as well, albeit in a bit of a different setting! 🙂
There are a great many liturgical as well as communal and personal customs associated with the key days in the Jewish calendar: writing a dissertation is a bit beyond my available time now, but I would like to offer a few words to “Google” which may prove to be enlightening:
Tashlich (casting one sins on the waters in the run up to Yom Kippur)
Al Chet (The Litany of Sins recited 10 times during the Yom Kippur Fast)
Reading the biblical book of Jonah on Yom Kippur afternoon (As a reminder God may change His mind as we should change ours)
Hoshanah Rabbah (from whence we get the Hosana and Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord)
Hoshanot (a procession invoking God’s mercy carrying four species of fruit and vegetation from the Holy Land and engaging in a ritual reminiscent of beating the bounds)
Simchat Torah (rejoicing in the Torah – the last portion of Deuteronomy is read followed immediately by the reading of the first portion of Genesis – imagine on Christ the King reading the closing of Revelation for the Epistle and the First Chapter of Genesis for the OT lesson with the first lines of the coming Lectionary Year Gospel – this year it would be Matthew)
For somewhat more detail, with hotlinks, might I also suggest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_holidays
In some cases the Jewish liturgy and customs would need thoughtful reworking and an appropriate time and usage found in our Kalendar. In other instances we might ask would some of these treasures be better suited for personal or home use….
Thoughts?
Thanks, Marc. Much appreciated. Blessings.
This, btw, is one version of the Al Chet (Jewish Litany used on Yom Kippur)from http://www.chabad.org/holidays/JewishNewYear/template_cdo/aid/6577/jewish/Text-of-Al-Chet.htm
Traditionally as one recites each verse one strikes his chest over the heart with his right hand as a sign of contrition….I believe this is a rather thorough form of self-examination…
For the sin which we have committed before You under duress or willingly.
And for the sin which we have committed before You by hard-heartedness.
For the sin which we have committed before You inadvertently.
And for the sin which we have committed before You with an utterance of the lips.
For the sin which we have committed before You with immorality.
And for the sin which we have committed before You openly or secretly.
For the sin which we have committed before You with knowledge and with deceit.
And for the sin which we have committed before You through speech.
For the sin which we have committed before You by deceiving a fellowman.
And for the sin which we have committed before You by improper thoughts.
For the sin which we have committed before You by a gathering of lewdness.
And for the sin which we have committed before You by verbal [insincere] confession.
For the sin which we have committed before You by disrespect for parents and teachers.
And for the sin which we have committed before You intentionally or unintentionally.
For the sin which we have committed before You by using coercion.
And for the sin which we have committed before You by desecrating the Divine Name.
For the sin which we have committed before You by impurity of speech.
And for the sin which we have committed before You by foolish talk.
For the sin which we have committed before You with the evil inclination.
And for the sin which we have committed before You knowingly or unknowingly.
FOR ALL THESE, GOD OF PARDON, PARDON US, FORGIVE US, ATONE FOR US.
For the sin which we have committed before You by false denial and lying.
And for the sin which we have committed before You by a bribe-taking or a bribe-giving hand.
For the sin which we have committed before You by scoffing.
And for the sin which we have committed before You by evil talk [about another].
For the sin which we have committed before You in business dealings.
And for the sin which we have committed before You by eating and drinking.
For the sin which we have committed before You by [taking or giving] interest and by usury.
And for the sin which we have committed before You by a haughty demeanor.
For the sin which we have committed before You by the prattle of our lips.
And for the sin which we have committed before You by a glance of the eye.
For the sin which we have committed before You with proud looks.
And for the sin which we have committed before You with impudence.
FOR ALL THESE, GOD OF PARDON, PARDON US, FORGIVE US, ATONE FOR US.
For the sin which we have committed before You by casting off the yoke [of Heaven].
And for the sin which we have committed before You in passing judgment.
For the sin which we have committed before You by scheming against a fellowman.
And for the sin which we have committed before You by a begrudging eye.
For the sin which we have committed before You by frivolity.
And for the sin which we have committed before You by obduracy.
For the sin which we have committed before You by running to do evil.
And for the sin which we have committed before You by tale-bearing.
For the sin which we have committed before You by swearing in vain.
And for the sin which we have committed before You by causeless hatred.
For the sin which we have committed before You by embezzlement.
And for the sin which we have committed before You by a confused heart.
FOR ALL THESE, GOD OF PARDON, PARDON US, FORGIVE US, ATONE FOR US.
There is a further section and what we would refer to as a Collect but I have left them out as they are not obligatory on Christians given Our Lord’s sacrifice.
Thanks very much. Blessings.
We have inherited the Ember Days of September from the Yom Kippur. The Bible readings thereof are explicit.
Thanks, Georges, that’s certainly something for me (us) to explore more. Blessings.
The Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite perscribes the following readings for the September Ember Days:
Wednesday:
Amos 9: 13-15
Nehemiah 8: 1-10 (References month 7, day 1 – Yom Teruah)
Mark 9: 16-28
Friday:
Hosea 14: 2-10
Luke 7: 36-50
Saturday:
Leviticus 23: 26-32 (References Yom Kippur)
Leviticus 23: 39-43 (References Sukkot)
Micah 7: 14, 16, 18-20
Zechariah 8: 14-19 (Oblique reference to fasting days, including the seventh month)
Daniel 3: 47-51
Hebrews 9: 2-12 (Discussion on the Tabernacle and Sanctuary)
Luke 13: 6-17 (Fruitless fig tree, healing of a woman on the sabbath)
(Note: The first Leviticus reading, the Hebrews Reading, and the Luke Gospel are provided for the short form of Mass on Ember Saturday)