Part 1:  The Historical Development of the Three Pilgrimage Feasts

Introduction

          The three main festivals of the Jewish Liturgical year were all originally related to the agricultural cycle of the land of Israel.  Walther Eichrodt states that they all emphasize the "involvement of human life with its basis in Nature, with the generation and abundance, the growth and maturation of plant and animal life." [1]  He also indicates that these connections were retained even after the development of their theological association with the events of Sacred History had been completed.  In addition to this he states that these agricultural ideas were probably of Canaanite origin, and were thus assimilated by Israel into its worship of the Lord during the time of the conquest of the promised land. [2]

          The three festivals, as indicated above, are celebrations of the natural cycle of life as it would be experienced by someone living in the land of Israel.  Each feast has a connection to a different part of the agricultural harvest:

Since the Israelites had been a nomadic people, it was only when they had settled down after the conquest that these agricultural festivals became so prominent.  This of course was spurred on by the assimilation of the native population and elements of their cultic system. [4]

          It is important to note that these three feast; Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, were pilgrimage festivals that all Israelite males were required to participate in at the Temple in Jerusalem.  The Biblical text states that Jewish males must appear before the Lord three times a year, "On the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the Feast of Weeks, and on the Feast of Booths. [5]  It further specifies that one must not "appear before the Lord empty-handed, but each with his own gift, according to the blessing that the Lord your God has bestowed upon you." [6]  The Israelites, by bringing their offerings to the Lord in Jerusalem, would effectively offer worship to Him and at the same time recognize Him as the source of all the blessings they had received.  In their celebration of the feasts they would also recognize the Lord as the source of all their future blessings and simultaneously they would plead with Him for His continued assistance.

          Once the assimilation of the native peoples and their culture had been completed, a process of theological reflection began in Israel, and the Jewish emphasis on the concept of history began to exert an influence on the ritual worship of the Lord.  The fact that the Lord had intervened in history at various times in order to create a people for Himself was a central tenet of Jewish belief.  Because of this a process of change began to occur in Jewish liturgical practices and beliefs.  This process influenced the three pilgrimage festivals by connecting certain events from Sacred History to each one of them.  In this way the character of their celebration was altered.  The original agricultural element was not suppressed, but the emphasis was shifted in favor of the remembrance (zikkaron) of the events which brought Israel into existence as a people.  In this way the liturgical festivals became commemorations of the salvation and liberation which the Lord achieved for His chosen people, and at the same time celebrated the establishment of a covenantal relationship between the Lord and Israel.

[A] The Feast of the Passover

          The springtime festival was connected with the Passover sacrifice and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.  Michael Strassfeld explains the importance of the connection between the season of spring and the Passover in his book on the Jewish holidays.  In it he says that, "The central meaning of Passover is liberation . . . [but it is also] the holiday of spring, [and] not simply by coincidence but by design." [7]  He explains that spring is a time of the rebirth of nature after the bleakness of winter, and is thus a perfect metaphor for the liberation experienced by Israel from the oppression of slavery in Egypt.  The liberation brought about by this one historical event was so fundamental to the People of Israel that it became "an ever-recurring theme in the Jewish liturgy," which "reaches its climax during the festival of Passover, especially during the elaborate home service known as the Seder," [8] a liturgical service that involves a type of symbolic re-enactment of the foundational events that made Israel a nation dedicated to the worship of the Lord alone.

          During the time of the Temple, the most important act to be performed during the celebration of the Passover "was the family offering of the paschal lamb and its festive consumption by the family group at the Temple site." [9]  It was also important during the week long festival to eat only unleavened bread.  As Abraham Millgram points out, "This dietary aspect of the Passover observance has been traced to the agricultural origin of the festival." [10]  But the historical connection to the events of Sacred History, related in the Book of Exodus, is made in Sacred Scripture itself; and thus must be a very early development in Jewish theological belief.  The unleavened bread, as the Bible indicates, is also known as the "bread of distress — for you departed from the land of Egypt hurriedly," [11] and the Lord tells the people of Israel that they must eat this unleavened bread in order to "remember the day of [their] departure from the land of Egypt as long as [they] live." [12]  The celebration of the Passover is thus a reliving of the Biblical events for those who participate in the ritual. [13]

[B]  The Feast of Pentecost

          The Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost as it was referred to in the Greek language, takes place seven complete weeks after the Israelites "bring the sheaf of elevation offering [before the Lord]." [14]  It is further specified that the weeks "must be complete:  you must count until the day after the seventh week — fifty days," [15] this explains the Greek name "Pentecost" which means fiftieth in that language.  This feast in Jewish tradition became "the anniversary of God's revelation to Israel at Mount Sinai, when Moses received the Ten Commandments in the midst of overwhelming supernatural events." [16]  As Millgram explains, there is no Biblical reason given for connecting this feast to the giving of the Torah, and in addition to this he also states that there is no connection between them in "any other of the early sources." [17]  It is only in the Talmud that you see a connection between the Feast of Weeks and the Sinai revelation, and there it is "already referred to as an established tradition, fully accepted and unchallenged." [18]

          It is possible that the connection between the Feast of Weeks and the Sacred Historical event of the giving of the Torah on Sinai may have come about because of the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in AD 70.  Michael Strassfeld says that, "Without the Temple, neither of the two agricultural rites of Shavout could be observed," and so, "at some point in the Rabbinic period, connections began to be made with the Revelation at Sinai." [19]  This would be the only way to save this festival from becoming completely obsolete, and it makes logical sense to connect it with the Sinai theophany because the Book of Exodus [20] indicates that the giving of the Torah occurred in the third month, "that is, during Sivan." [21]  From this it is clear that the Rabbis knew what they were doing, and were actually quite creative in giving a new meaning to the feast after the destruction of the Temple.  As the circumstances of Jewish life continued to change they were adept at finding ways of keeping Jewish faith and practice relevant as a living reality for the Jewish people.

          The Feast of Passover and the Feast of Weeks have an intimate connection with each other, because "the period called 'the omer' begins the second night of Passover and continues until Shavuot." [22]  The omer is the grain oblation that the Lord commands to be offered in the Book of Leviticus.  Once this offering is made the countdown begins for the celebration of Pentecost, so — in other words — the dating of Pentecost is dependent upon the grain offering that occurs on the second night of the celebration of Passover.  This intimacy can also be seen in the events of Sacred History which each feast commemorates, because each of celebration concerns a specific even unlike the Feast of Tabernacles, which commemorates a period of time (i.e., the Israelites' forty years of wandering in the wilderness).

[C]  The Feast of Tabernacles

          The Feast of Tabernacles ends the old year and at the same time begins the new year.  It is also known as the Feast of Ingathering, because at the end of the year the Israelites were to "gather in the results of [their] work from the field." [23]  Like the Feast of the Passover, the Feast of Tabernacles association with an event from Sacred History is made in the Bible itself.  The Lord commands the people of Israel to live in booths for seven days, "in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt." [24]  This feast thus becomes a commemoration of the wandering of the Israelites in the wilderness for forty years.  Like the Passover this feast lasts for seven days, and concludes with an eighth day of Solemn Assembly, "on which only one offering was brought." [25]  This one offering was made for Israel itself.  This feast's "ritual was elaborate:  seventy sacrifices were offered in the Temple." [26]  The reason for these sacrifices as far as the midrashic homilies were concerned was due to "Judaism's concern for welfare of the seventy heathen nations in whose behalf Israel offered sacrifices on the Feast of Tabernacles before offering a sacrifice in its own behalf." [27]  The ritual also included the use of a citron (a fruit similar to a lemon) and a lulav (a palm branch) which was carried by the worshippers, and was shaken by them "when the first and the twenty-fifth verses Psalm 118 were pronounced during the Temple service." [28]  Millgram points out that the shaking of the palm leaves originally may have been a ritual meant to bring rain, but that by the time of the Temple, "this ritual had long since lost its association with rain, and its symbolic meaning was one of thanksgiving to God for His bounty." [29]  After the sacrifices were completed the people would carry the citron and palm branches around the altar while singing Psalm 118.

          While the Temple still existed additional rites were also performed during this feast, one of which was the libation of water.  In this rite a priest would lead a procession while carrying "a large golden ewer, in which he draws water [from the fountain of Siloam] to be poured on the altar." [30]  After drawing the water "he returns to the Temple an comes to the Water Gate which leads to the inner court," [31] the worshippers greet him with joy and several "priests carrying silver trumpets blow the ceremonial calls." [32]  After a few additional rites are performed the priest proceeds to the altar, where there are two containers with spouts aimed at the surface of the altar table; one container is for wine libations, while the other is for water.  Once the priest arrives at the altar he pours the water into the proper container and the water flow out of the spout onto the altar itself.  After the libation is complete, the trumpets are sounded again and the people circle the altar, while the Levites sing Psalms of praise.  When the words, "'We beseech Thee, O Lord, save now!  We beseech Thee, O Lord, make us prosper,'" [33] are chanted by the Levites, the people raise the palm branches they are carrying and shake them in the air.  According to Millgram, "this was the most joyous of the Temple ceremonies." [34]  Finally, there was the torch dance ceremony.  During this service the great golden menorahs in the Court of the Women were lighted, and they were so bright, "that all Jerusalem [was] lit up by them." [35]  As this was happening the male worshippers would gather in the court carrying torches, and they would proceed to dance ecstatically and wave their torches in the air.  As the service drew to a close the worshippers would ritually reject sun worship and reaffirm their worship of the Lord God alone.

Part 2:  Traditions Connected to the Pilgrimage Feasts in Judaism and Christianity

[A]  The Passover Seder and the Feasts of Pentecost and Tabernacles in Rabbinic Judaism

          The Passover Seder celebrated in the Jewish home is a ritualized reliving of the events recounted in the Book of Exodus.  Certain symbols are used in order to allow the participants to experience the historical saving events in the present moment.  An example of this is the Seder plate, which has various items of symbolic importance arranged upon it.  Michael Strassfeld in his book lists the items and gives their symbolic meaning as follows:

All of these items help to bring to mind the events recalled during the Seder service, and thus makes the Exodus events a living reality for the participants.

          With the destruction of the Temple the Feast of Pentecost no longer had any major ritual actions associated with it.  But over a period of time several traditions and customs arose in connection with this feast.  The oldest custom that developed in relation to this feast was "the decorating of the synagogue and home with green plants, branches, and even trees." [37]  The idea of Pentecost as the marriage of God and the people of Israel also developed early on; and in relation to this concept the Feast of Passover was seen as a period of courtship between God and His people, and the Feast of Tabernacles was viewed as the establishment of "a household faithful to Judaism." [38]  In the Feast of Pentecost God is thus seen as the bridegroom and Israel is seen as His beautiful bride.

          One of the ritual actions performed during the Feast of Tabernacles is the building of the sukkah (booth).  It is meant to be a temporary structure, and the roof of the sukkah should allow one to see the sky through it, as Strassfeld says, the roof should "ensure more shade than sun," but it should not "prevent [one] from seeing the stars at night." [39]  The sukkah is now usually used as a place to eat.  Earlier in this paper I described the other important customs performed during this feast; they included the use of the citron (etrog) and the lulav.  The etrog, the lulav (palm branches), the branches of willow, and the myrtle; are called the four species.  These natural elements continue to emphasize the agricultural origin of the Feast of Tabernacles.  The symbolism attached to these four items is multivalent, but the symbolic meaning I find most interesting is the one which views them as the image of a man:

The four species also mystically represent the name of God, and they can also be seen as fertility symbols.  The Feast of Tabernacles is generally looked upon as a festival of joy and thanksgiving.

[B]  The Influence of the Jewish Liturgical Cycle on the Worship of the Church

          The Catholic liturgical cycle is simply an adaptation of the Jewish liturgy to the worship of Christ.  This is obvious when one looks at the main feasts of the Christian year.  Easter (Pascha) is the Christian Passover and this can be seen when one looks at the liturgy for the Great Easter Vigil during which a prominent roll is given to the texts dealing with the Exodus of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt.  The events of the Jewish feast of Passover (Pesach) are typologically reinterpreted by the early Church Fathers in order to show how Christ saves the Christian people from their sins.  One of the events which is reinterpreted in this way is the anointing of the lintels and doorposts with the blood of the Paschal Lamb.  For the Church Fathers the "anointing with blood prefigures the sacramental saphragis," [41] and "what makes this figure especially striking is that the sphragis consists of the sign of the Cross marked on the forehead, and, as the Fathers have noted, the anointing of the lintels and doorposts formed a kind of cross." [42]  The blood of the Paschal Lamb was seen as an image of Christ's blood, for as Justin Martyr, a second century Christian apologist, wrote:  "The Pasch was Christ, Who was later immolated.  And, as the blood of the Pasch saved those who were in Egypt, so the blood of Christ was to preserve from death those who have believed in Him." [43]  So Easter is the Christian Passover because it corresponds with the Jewish Passover both as it concerns the agricultural cycle, and also as it concerns the events of Sacred History, which are reinterpreted in a Christological sense.  This typological connection is made all the more evident in the Roman Rite's prayer called "The Exultet," which is recited during the vigil service on the Saturday evening before Easter Sunday.

          The idea that Christ was the Paschal Lamb was not the only typological connection made between Him and the events commemorated in the Passover festival by the Fathers of the Church.  The Paschal Candle is lit at the liturgy for the Great Vigil of Easter begins, and then the ancient prayer called "The Exultet" is changed by the Deacon.  The order of the deaconate in ecclesiastical tradition is equated with the order of the Levites in the Old Testament.  The prayer of "The Exultet" proclamed by the Deacon forcefully states that, "This is the night when the Pillar of Fire destroyed the darkness of sin!  This is the night when Christians everywhere, washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement, are restored to grace and grow together in holiness." [44]  In addition to the mention of the Pillar of Fire, which is understood in Christian tradition to be a theophany of the pre-incarnate Logos, the ancient Fathers also saw the crossing of the Red Sea as an image of Christian baptism, so just as the Israelites of old went through the Red Sea, so now Christians go through the waters of holy baptism.  The army of Pharaoh was seen as an image of sin, and its destruction in the waters of the Red Sea was viewed as a type for the washing away of the Catechumen's sins in the sacrament of baptism.  The wandering of the Israelites in the wilderness for forty years is an image of the Christian's life after baptism, and just as God fed the Israelites manna during their wanderings, so now in the Church He feeds His people with the bread of heaven, the Holy Eucharist.  Thus, the Paschal Vigil recapitulates the events of the Exodus, while it simultaneously commemorates the resurrection of Christ.

          The Christian Passover and the Christian Pentecost are connected in the same way as the Jewish versions of these feasts, so the dating of Pentecost is dependent on the date of the celebration of Easter.  Forty days after Easter is the Feast of the Ascension, which has no corresponding liturgical equivalent in the Jewish system of worship.  The source for the Feast of the Ascension is the Book of Acts in the New Testament.  But the Feast of Pentecost in the Christian liturgical year is based on the Jewish Feast of Weeks.  The Christian typology for this feast reinterprets it in relation to the resurrection of Christ, who is seen as the first-fruits of those raised from the dead.  As St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote, "We say that it is the mystery of the Resurrection of the Lord which is signified by the feast of the first-fruits." [45]  But the resurrection is normally connected to the Feast of Easter, while the Feast of Pentecost is usually associated with the giving of the Holy Spirit.  The descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and upon the whole Church is the Christian equivalent of the giving of the Torah on Sinai.  The Church Fathers connect these two events of Sacred History, for as St. Augustin says, "the law was written with the finger of God . . . [and] it is very clearly stated in the books of the Gospels that the finger of God is the Holy Spirit." [46]

          The only one of the three feasts that was not taken directly over into the Catholic liturgical cycle was the Feast of Tabernacles.  But this feast is not missing entirely because many of its ideas have been transferred to the Feast of Christmas.  John, in his gospel, says that, "The Word was became flesh and dwelt among us," [47] but the word normally translated as "dwelt," is the Greek term eskenosen, which is literally translated into English as the word tabernacled.  So the verse can be literally translated as, "The Word became flesh and tabernacled (i.e., pitched His tent) among us."  In this way Christmas, the Feast of the Incarnation of God the Son, becomes the Christian version of the Feast of Tabernacles.

          All of these connections made by the ancient Church Fathers between Jewish and Christian liturgical cycles are found within the New Testament books themselves, especially in the Gospel of John.  Aileen Guilding, in her study of the relationship between the Gospel of John and the Jewish lectionary system and liturgical cycle, has shown that the fourth gospel is permeated with the idea that Jesus is the fulfillment of the ancient liturgy of the Temple.  By looking at the second cycle of the three lection cycles found within John's Gospel (chapters 6-12) she shows how:

From this it is clear that the teaching of the Church Fathers has its origin in the New Testament itself.  The connections between Judaism and Christianity are extensive, especially in the field of liturgy, and the faith of Christians in particular would be enriched by a deeper knowledge of the Jewish basis for their own beliefs and practices.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jean Cardinal Danielou.  The Bible and the Liturgy.  (Notre Dame:  University of Notre Dame Press, 1956).

Walther Eichrodt.  Theology of the Old Testament.  (Philadelphia:  The Westminster Press, 1961).  2 Volumes.

Aileen Guilding.  The Fourth Gospel and Jewish Worship.  (Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1960).

Abraham Millgram.  Jewish Worship.  (Philadelphia:  The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1971).

Hayyim Schauss.  The Jewish Festivals.  (New York:  Schocken Books, re-printed 1996).

Michael Strassfeld.  The Jewish Holidays:  A Guide and Commentary.  (New York:  Harper and Row Publishers, 1985).

Gerhard Von Rad.  Old Testament Theology.  (San Francisco:  Harper Collins, 1962).  2 Volumes

The Mishnah.  (New York:  Oxford University Press, Inc., 1933).  Translated by Herbert Danby.  

The Sacramentary.  (New York:  Catholic Book Publishing Company, 1985).

The Tanakh:  The Jewish Bible.  (Philadelphia:  The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1985).

The Jewish Pilgrimage Festivals

by Steven Todd Kaster

Jewish Studies 410:  Jewish Spirituality and Tradition (Phil-514)

Mid-Term Paper

Professor Ron Feldman

14 October 1998

_____________________________________

End Notes:

[1]  Walther Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament, (Philadelphia:  The Westminster Press, 1961), volume 1, page 120.

[2]  See Eichrodt, volume 1, page 119.

[3]  Abraham Millgram, Jewish Worship, (Philadelphia:  The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1971), page 199.

[4]  See Gerhard Von Rad, Old Testament Theology, (San Francisco:  Harper Collins, 1962), volume 1, page 24.

[5]  Deuteronomy 16:16.

[6]  Deuteronomy 16:16b-17.

[7]  Michael Strassfeld, The Jewish Holidays:  A Guide and Commentary, (New York:  Harper and Row Publishers, 1985), page 5.

[8]  Millgram, page 200.

[9]  Millgram, page 200.

[10]  Millgram, page 201.

[11]  Deuteronomy 16:3a.

[12]  Deuteronomy 16:3b.

[13]  See The Mishnah, page 151.  As it is recounted in The Mishnah:  "In every generation a man must so regard himself as if he himself came out of Egypt, for it is written, 'And thou shalt tell thy son in that day saying, it is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt (Exodus 13:8).'"

[14]  Leviticus 23:15.

[15]  Leviticus 23:16.

[16]  Millgram, page 201.

[17]  Millgram, page 201.

[18]  Millgram, page 201.

[19]  Strassfeld, page 71.

[20]  See Exodus 19:1.

[21]  Strassfeld, page 71.

[22]  Strassfeld, page 47.

[23]  Exodus 23:16b.

[24]  Leviticus 23:43.

[25]  Millgram, page 203.

[26]  Millgram, page 203.

[27]  Millgram, page 203.

[28]  Millgram, page 203.

[29]  Millgram, pages 203-204.

[30]  Hayyim Schauss, The Jewish Festivals, (New York:  Schocken Books, re-printed 1996), page 181.

[31]  Schauss, page 181.

[32]  Schauss, page 181.

[33]  Schauss, page 182.

[34]  Millgram, page 204.

[35]  Schauss, page 183.

[36]  Strassfeld, pages 17-18.

[37]  Strassfeld, page 72.

[38]  Strassfeld, page 75.

[39]  Strassfeld, page 127.

[40]  Strassfeld, page 131.

[41]  Jean Cardinal Danielou, The Bible and the Liturgy, (Notre Dame:  University of Notre Dame Press, 1956), page 164.

[42]  Danielou, page 164.

[43]  Danielou, page 164.

[44]  The Sacramentary, (New York:  Catholic Book Publishing Company, 1985), page 183.

[45]  Danielou, page 322.

[46]  Danielou, page 331.

[47]  John 1:14.

[48]  Aileen Guilding, The Fourth Gospel and Jewish Worship, (Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1960), page 51.

Copyright © 1998-2025 Steven Todd Kaster