Last week we looked at some of the festivals that make up the Jewish calendar. For those of you who have been looking at some of this material as a part of home group or for general interest, this coming Sunday we're going to very briefly mention the Festival of Tabernacles or Booths.
Tabernacles is the harvest celebration that comes at the end of the agricultural year - as opposed to Firstfruits that comes at the beginning of the barley harvest (March/April) or Weeks that comes at the beginning of the wheat harvest (May/June). [See Leviticus 23 for more detail.]
This year Tabernacles is being celebrated from 27 September - 5 October - remembering that the celebration begins at twilight. So our church harvest service falls within this week of celebration.
The Festival of Tabernacles is a joyous occasion.
In the OT the festival was accompanied with numerous animal sacrifices for each day of the festival - as you'll see from the detail below, which comes from Numbers 29.
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Burnt Offering
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Sin Offering
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Day
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OT Date
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2015
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Bulls
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Rams
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Lambs
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Goat
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1
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15 day of 7th month (Tisri)
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27-28 Sept**
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Sacred Assembly - do no work
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13*
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2*
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14*
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1
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2
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16 Tisri
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28-29 Sept
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12*
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2*
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14*
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1
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3
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17 Tisri
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29-30 Sept
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11*
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2*
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14*
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1
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4
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18 Tisri
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30-1 Sept/Oct
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10*
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2*
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14*
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1
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5
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19 Tisri
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1-2 Oct
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9*
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2*
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14*
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1
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6
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20 Tisri
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2-3 Oct
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8*
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2*
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14*
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1
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7
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21 Tisri
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3-4 Oct
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7*
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2*
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14*
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1
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8
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22 Tisri
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4-5 Oct
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Sacred Assembly - do no work
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1*
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1*
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7*
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1
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Totals
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71 bulls
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15 rams
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105 lambs
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8 goats
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225kg of flour***
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32kg of flour***
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111kg of flour***
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*With each of the burnt offerings the following grain offering is to be made:
With each bull - 3/10 of an ephah of fine flour mixed with olive oil
With each ram - 1/5 of an ephah of fine flour mixed with olive oil
With each lamb - 1/10 of an ephah of fine flour mixed with olive oil
These offerings are in addition to the normal daily regular burnt offering and any freewill offering the people wish to make.
** In 2015 the celebration starts at twilight on 27 September. Final day ends on 5 October.
*** These values are given purely to provide an indication of the quantities we are talking about. The calculation of the amount of flour is based on 1 ephah = 22 litres; 1 litre = 4 cups; 1 cup = 120g of flour. Depending on the type of flour, humidity etc etc there could be a wide margin of error with these values - they are simply an indication of the quantity spoken of.
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