Of the traditional six foods on the Seder plate, plus the matzah, and wine at the Passover meal, do you know how many of them are dictated by Scripture? Answer: three or four. The unleavened bread, the Pesach lamb, and the bitter herbs, with the wine being debated (since Yahusha emphasized it). Of course the other items have significance, even if not Biblically required, like charoset to recall the mortar the Israelites made into brick during their Egyptian slavery. But the Seder element on my mind today is wine.
Traditional Seder meals involve four cups of wine. Each cup symbolizes a promise from YHWH. "I will take you out," the first. "I will deliver you," is the second. Third, "I will redeem you," and the fourth cup stands for, "I will take you." This is a really beautiful part of the Passover meal, a chance to look back on the work of YHWH personally as well as for corporate Israel as a whole throughout history. When you consider the traditional Hebrew feast of wine celebration as a betrothal the symbolism goes even deeper. I like this allegory a lot. It's very meaningful. But I think we need to consider another verse before we partake:
Ephesians 5:18 - "Do not get drunk with wine."
I think we need to examine the spirit behind the idea that it's okay to get drunk during a Festival of YHWH (or ever). Obviously there are many passages of Scripture that show us the drinking of wine is generally permissible, but Ephesians also makes it clear that we need to stop before getting drunk. Should we make an exception for drunkenness during the Feasts?
According to the writings of Plato, a popular social event in ancient Greece was a symposium. Unlike cocktail parties of today symposiums had minimums on the amount of alcohol guests would consume, so party goers didn't really have the option to forgo or limit their alcohol. Obviously, this must have made for some drunk parties. Symposiums could last all night, so wine was drank literally for hours straight (raise your hand if you've ever attended a five hour Seder meal). These were not casual affairs, but heavily ritualized with precise rules. While philosophy and politics were typical discussion topics oftentimes libations were poured to gods or other rituals done as an act of worship. Do we want our worship of YHWH to look like this?
As a side note, are you familiar with the many man-made rituals observed at traditional Passover Seders? There are so many the hosts thoughtfully provide a book so you can keep up. Like with the four cups of wine, there's nothing wrong with washing your hands, hiding the afikoman, reciting blessings, dipping parsley in salt water and so on but we shouldn't treat these as commands or emphasize them over YHWH's instructions.
Seders have looked too much like symposiums. Ministries working to teach the importance of obeying YHWH's commands send a mixed message when they tolerate drunkenness at Passover. People drink too much, behave obnoxiously, and distract from the worship of YHWH at a Feast. And if Seder is nothing more than drunk discussion with made up rituals to honor some sort of Deity, how is that different from a symposium? This should concern us for obvious reasons. Scripture tells us that we are not to copy the customs of pagan cultures. Nowhere in Scripture do we have an example of righteous people getting drunk to celebrate YHWH's Feasts. Yahusha used wine at his last supper, yes. But the lengthy accounts of this feast in the Besorahs give no indication of drunkenness on anyone's part. The fact Matthew and John each remembered the night well enough to write extensively on it suggests their sobriety.
We need to examine the way we keep this Feast. There is nothing wrong with celebrating over a meal - we are told to do this. Yahusha even mentioned specifically to have the unleavened bread and wine in remembrance of him at Passover. This is important to him. But he doesn't say, "go ahead and get drunk and act like an idiot." He says, "Do this to remember me," not, "Do this and wonder what you did last night." We need to look at what else is going on surrounding the most significant Passover celebrations in Scripture: the impending deliverance of Israel from slavery and the impending death of Yahusha for a broken covenant. We would be completely remiss to overlook that and place the emphasis of the meal on drinking. Yes, YHWH put emphasis on the food and so did Yahusha but neither commanded or condoned drunkenness.
The four cups of wine are meaningful. But that's not an excuse to ignore the instruction to not get drunk. If having four cups of wine is important to you, make them small glasses. You could also water down the alcohol content by making a sangria with fruit. Alternatively you could serve grape juice throughout the evening or switch to grape juice after the first glass or two. Let's make all aspects of Seder honoring to YHWH. Let's celebrate the Feast without the old hametz of ancient Greece. Here's to a sober Seder!
I'm excited to share with you a new way to count the omer...with scratch offs!
Why count the omer? This is actually something we are instructed to do in Leviticus 23:15-16. The fifty days we are to count link the Feast of Unleavened Bread to Shavuot or Pentecost. This is the time period that the Messiah spent still on earth after being resurrected from the dead. What is an omer? Omer is the Hebrew word for sheaf - which is a bundle of grain. First Fruits during Matzah Week is when part of the barley harvest would be waved to YHWH, and then at Shavuot the same would be done with sheaves of wheat.
This is an easy DIY to put together since it's really just two things, a print and stickers. There is also some flexibility with how you use it. I liked the large size of this, but there's no reason you couldn't print this as an 8" x 11" in a normal printer if you would prefer. If you don't have time to order the scratch off stickers, using regular stickers to cover up the days as they go by would work. Or even just cross them off with a pen. It's up to you!
You will need:
Printable omer calendar
One inch scratch off stickers (I used gold ones from here)
Directions:
Print off the omer calendar. I got an 18" x 24" engineer print at Staples, which at $2.99 was the most cost effective option I found. The paper is thin, so it's not ideal for photographs, but works just fine for our purposes.
I used scotch tape to place my counter on the wall. You could also glue it to a foam board or attach to canvas if you prefer.
Then place your scratch off stickers above the numbers and you are set to go! Each day scratch off another sticker until we get to Shavuot.
Update: A friend told me she is going to take hers to an office supply store to get it laminated. Her plan is to mark the days with dry erase markers and use it each year!
The past couple of years of counting have brought me more than a few days where I'm not sure if I already did my omer count or not. I remember doing it, but maybe that was yesterday? Anyone else with me? So I decided to put seven days in each row to make it easier to double check. Just make note of what day you started counting on and things will add up. You could also make a habit of counting at a certain time each day or even saying the traditional blessing of, "Blessed are You, YHWH Eloheinu, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with your commandments, and commanded us concerning the counting of the omer."
If you look closely in the photos you may notice something is amiss. Funny story about assembling my counter: I expected to be left with one of my fifty stickers when I got done, but there were strangely two left. How could this be? Every row has seven numbers...with the exception of the second row which somehow has only six. Upon closer inspection of the photos I discovered that I had inadvertently left off day 13! I have no idea how that happened, but it is corrected in the downloadable version. Ha!
Other ideas for counting the omer:
DIY Flair Calendar
Making a paper chain
Printable Cards from Torah Sisters Magazine
Kids Counter
Kosher on A Budget's Omer Counter
Writing the count in your planner
1. Bake matzah bread. I know the rabbinical rules to 'unleavened' can be a little intimidating but really what YHWH says is just to not let your bread rise or ferment. Making your own matzah is not difficult and it's SO MUCH BETTER than the boxed kind. Here's my recipe for matzah made with einkorn flour.
2. Read Scripture. This is something we desperately need to reclaim as a joy instead of drudgery. Read appropriate passages out loud, ask children to act them out, memorize a verse this week, or art journal. Our lives and special times will be so much better if YHWH's word is the cornerstone.
3. Make a matzah pinata. Isn't little Lior who made his own mini matzah pinata the cutest? Here are my directions for this super fun Unleavened Bread Week decoration and tradition. Maybe the kids could smash it and get out the goodies at the end of the week?
4. Wear something festive. This Yeshua is the afikomen tee is on sale, or you could wear this shirt! Grab a matzah tie, or even get your dog involved in the festivities with a bandana or collar. Matzah socks, anyone?
6. Make a matzo house. Definitely the answer to the traditional gingerbread house. Decorate with fruit, nuts, or candy. Use frosting or peanut butter for the glue. Martha Stewart shows us how.
7. Get your omer counter ready to go. You can make your own or print one of, but either way counting fifty days to get to Shavuot is a commandment of YHWH. Last year I did a DIY flair one that was such fun to put together. Torah Sisters Magazine also has the prettiest printable cards to use and a kids counter, and both are free!
8. Watch a movie. From The Prince of Egypt to Exodus: Gods and Kings to The Ten Commandments to shorter kids movies there is a fair amount of media that portrays the Exodus story, albeit not usually in a 100% Scripturally accurate way. I find visual aids very helpful, but of course use discernment about what media you consume and be ready to fact check and discuss discrepancies with your fellow movie goers. Here is a children's cartoon on the Israelites leaving Egypt that you can watch for free.
9. Decorate with a printable. 1 Corinthians 5:8 should be central to our focus during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so print it off as a reminder. Lots of other Feast appropriate printables can be found here.
10. Clay matzos. I showed you how to make these last week. Use them for jewelry, barettes, doll houses, as flair for your omer calendar, magnets, or to decorate an inexpensive picture frame with.
11. Send a card. Receiving cards in the mail was always a marker of a special time to me as a child. Use this chag sameach card from The Climbing Tree or make your own. Sending to friends and family who also celebrate the Feast is fun for all, and sending to those who don't celebrate can be a thoughtful gesture that you're thinking of them.
12. Invite someone to dinner. This is special and memorable. Serve unleavened bread and maybe one or two of these recipes. This simple brunch is a huge crowd pleaser with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and cucumbers on fresh matzah. Discuss the meaning of the Feast and how it pertains to Yahusha to introduce your guests to this aspect of the kingdom.
How will you be celebrating Matzah week?
Here's an easy craft you can make to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
You will need:
air dry clay
paint - I used brown, white, and yellow acrylic
rolling pin
knife
fork
hot glue gun
plain pin back, barrettes, and ring
Step one: roll out your clay. How much depends on how many matzah pieces you'd like to end up with. I used about a golf ball sized piece of clay and wound up with 15 matzos. Roll to about quarter-inch thickness.
Step two: decide what size you'd like to your matzahs to be. I cut mine into roughly one inch squares, with a few bigger ones for pins. Use your knife to cut out squares. A pizza cutter might also work well. You can be as perfectionist or not as you'd like.
Step three: this is a fun part! Lightly press your fork onto each piece several times to give it that matzah texture. The holes need not go all the way through the clay and the end product will be sturdier if they don't.
If you'd like to use your matzahs to make a necklace with, now would be a good time to poke a hole so you can string it up later.
Step four: let your matzah squares dry out. Mine were good to go the next day, but yours may vary depending on thickness and the type of clay you use. Just wait for them to be completely dry before the next step. It shouldn't take more than a few days!
Step five: when your squares are dry, it's time to paint. I mixed brown and white paint to make a shade of tan, and then used yellow and more of the dark brown, going for the golden brown look of matzah.
I started off with painting the squares tan, then adding small specks of the dark brown and splotches of yellow. This helps to mimic the speckled look of traditional matzah. If you're not happy with how one looks, just paint over it and try again!
Step six: I'm sorry but you'll have to wait one more time for these to dry. Mine were okay after a couple hours.
Once they are dry, congratulate yourself. You just made clay matzahs!
Step seven: grab your jewelry backs and hot glue gun. I painted the barrettes cream before hot gluing on the matzah, but other than that, just decide which direction you'd like your pieces to go and hot glue them into place.
Now you have matzah jewelry! Pretty easy, wasn't it?
There are many other things you can do with with these matzah pieces too. Instead of gluing to a ring or barrette you could attach them to magnets. Leave them as is for Lego sized matzah. Put pushpins on the back for your Count the Omer Flair Calendar. I'm planning on getting a picture frame and gluing these matzos around the edges for a cute decoration for the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
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