The feasts of the LORD
מוֹעֲדִים
Appointed times
The feasts of the Hebrew Bible — Shabbat, Passover, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and the rest — one page each, with this year's dates, what the text actually says, and how each is kept. Leviticus 23 gathers them into a single chapter and calls them appointed times.
The Hebrew word is מוֹעֲדִים, mo’adim, appointed times or fixed meetings. It is a calendar word before it is a religious one. What Leviticus 23 does is take the ordinary business of marking a year, new moons, harvests, the turn of the seasons, and give each marker an instruction and a meaning.
Three of them require a journey. Deuteronomy 16:16 names unleavened bread, weeks and tabernacles as the times all males were to appear before the LORD, and not empty handed. The rest are kept wherever people are.
Each page below sets out when the feast falls, what the text actually says about it, what marks it out, where else it appears, and the questions worth carrying away. Everything quoted is the 1917 Jewish Publication Society translation, with citations, so you can check it against your own Bible.
In the Hebrew Bible
- שַׁבָּתShabbat
The Sabbath
Every seventh day, from sunset to sunset
One day in seven when you are not allowed to be useful. Leviticus lists it before any of the annual feasts.
Read the page - רֹאשׁ חֹדֶשׁRosh Chodesh
The new moon
The first day of each month
The quietest appointed time, and the one every other date depends on.
Read the page - פֶּסַחPesach
Passover
Pilgrimage feastThe fourteenth day of the first month, at evening
A meal eaten in haste on the night before a departure, kept every year afterwards by people who were not there.
Read the page - חַג הַמַּצּוֹתChag HaMatzot
Unleavened bread
Pilgrimage feastThe fifteenth to the twenty first day of the first month
Seven days of bread made without leaven, beginning the day after Passover.
Read the page - עֹמֶרOmer
The wave sheaf
The morrow after the sabbath, during unleavened bread
One sheaf of the first barley cut, lifted before the harvest may be eaten. It also starts a count.
Read the page - שָׁבוּעוֹתShavuot
Weeks
Pilgrimage feastThe fiftieth day, counted from the wave sheaf
The only feast with no fixed calendar date. You arrive at it by counting.
Read the page - יוֹם תְּרוּעָהYom Teruah
The day of trumpets
also known as Rosh HashanahThe first day of the seventh month
A day of loud noise and rest, with no reason attached. The Torah does not say what it is for.
Read the page - יוֹם הַכִּפֻּרִיםYom HaKippurim
The day of atonement
also known as Yom KippurThe tenth day of the seventh month
The one day in the year the high priest goes behind the veil, and the only fast the Torah commands.
Read the page - סֻכּוֹתSukkot
Tabernacles
also known as SukkotPilgrimage feastThe fifteenth to the twenty second day of the seventh month
Seven days living in temporary shelters, five days after the day of atonement. The text calls it rejoicing, and means it as a command.
Read the page - פּוּרִיםPurim
Purim
The fourteenth and fifteenth days of the twelfth month
The one festival in the Hebrew Bible established by people rather than commanded at Sinai.
Read the page
Kept, but not commanded here
One festival people look for is not among the appointed times of the Hebrew Bible. It is included so the difference is clear rather than hidden.