This is all quite visible of course but it pales in significance to the slaughter of the hundreds of millions of captive animals slaughtered daily, but behind closed doors, in our worldwide industrial animal killing operations, along with the daily direct slaughter that goes on in the second and third world societies on the planet.

The words of the Prophets come to mind, Hosea 6 of course but especially Amos 5:21-24–the last verse of which, along with Jeremiah 7:21-22, makes clear that Israel in the wilderness did not sacrifice at YHVH’s command for those 40 years of Sukkah living which was meat free–even though they at one point begged for meat and got it aplenty–till it nauseated them when they ate so much it came out their noses (see Numbers 11). Another ideal, worldwide, slaughter free time is coming according to Isaiah 11 & 65 for all humanity–and the covenant will be with the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and the land creatures of the earth (Hosea 2)–back to Eden it seems:

Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;
the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
and dust shall be the serpent’s food.
They shall not hurt or destroy (slaughter)
in all my holy mountain,” says YHVH.
For the earth be filled with the knowledge
of YHVH as the waters cover the sea…

As I have written before to this group I believe it can be shown that the “Millennium” of ancient Jewish and Christian hope has already arrived, strictly speaking, sometime around the Gregorian year 2000 as is obvious to all who have tallied up the Masoretic chronological tradition. Accordingly, now more than ever “Let us do the Millennial thing.” (see attached article) We can begin to model right now the peaceful kingdom of the Prophets in this small but significant way by living by the ideals of Eden, where every green seeing bearing plant and tree was given for food.

Peace upon all creatures great and small…

Two male goats were selected for Yom Kippur, one is “for YHVH” and the other “for Azazel.” Both are said to be “for a sin offering” (v. 5).

One is slain and the other is sent away into the wilderness. What has been confusing to many is that both goats are spoken of as somehow providing “atonement,” or better translated “covering.” So why the difference? Why two goats, essentially identical, rather than one?

One common interpretation makes the two goats positive and negative, and it is the case that Azazel in ancient Jewish texts (1 Enoch, etc.) is the name for an “angel” who opposes YHVH. But if one is negative and one positive, how can both provide “covering”?

In looking more closely at the text one notices that the first goat, the one that is “for YHVH,” that is slain, makes “covering for the Holy Place because of the uncleanness of the people and because of their transgressions, all their sins” (v. 16). In other word, the blood of that goat is to cleanse the Tabernacle that has become unclean because of the sins of the people, NOT to removed the sins of the people per se.

In contrast, the sins of the people themselves are put on the head of the live goat. That goat is not killed, yet that goat too is spoken as a “sin offering” (v.5), ,making atonement/covering (v. 10), and that goat “bears all their iniquities” into a remote area.

This distinction might be an important one in trying to understand the meanings intended in this ancient ceremony. Early Christians were able to find in the slain goat, given Paul’s interpretation of the death of Jesus by crucifixion, a symbol of “Christ” dying for the forgiveness of the sins of the people. The writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews elaborates this point in great detail (Hebrews 9). But there seems to be no reference in the text to the blood of the slain goat related to the forgiveness of the sins of the people. The second goat, the one sent away into the desert, is not dealt with at all in the interpretation given in Hebrews, and yet in the biblical text of Leviticus that goat is clearly the “sin bearer.”

The Christian overlay to this text is perhaps an obstacle to reading it with new eyes. One often hears a quotation from the New Testament book of Hebrews that asserts: “without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.” Clearly such is not the case as this example of the “live goat” makes clear.

The goat that really “bears the sins” is the one sent away, into the desert (v. 22). All the sins and iniquities and transgressions are put on the head of this live goat and he is send away to Azazel. The sending away of this living goat effects the removal of the sins of the people. What this implies then is that in this ancient ceremony the ultimate “covering” of sins that comes on Yom Kippur is not by shedding of blood but by casting far away, away from the camp of the living to the desert places where Azazel and the demons dwell.
This means that the main image of “atonement” or covering on this day is not that of an animal slain for the forgiveness of sins, but the removal of sins from the land of the living. The rabbis seem to pick up on this in arranging the Haftarah readings for Yom Kippur. There are the special supplementary readings from the Prophets. First, the story of Jonah is read, which is a story of an entire city being saved from destruction because of repentance from sin. Then Micah 7:18-20 is read, where sins are cast away into the depths of the sea.
Being “washed in the blood of the lamb” has become a more appealing cultural image to our minds than “washed in the blood of the hairy goat,” but it seems that neither image, in connection to the removal or “atonement” of sins, is related to the Day of Atonement or Covering.

The book of the prophet Haggai comes to us from the 2nd year of the Persian King Darius, late summer, August, 520 BCE. It is one of the most precisely dated books in the Hebrew Bible, much like its sister Zechariah, and its twin Malachi. The three go together, like peas in the pod, both coming from that crucial time of the “restoration” of Judah to the Land following the Babylonian captivity. Collectively they are our LAST WORD from Yehovah in terms of how the redemption is to unfold. It is very likely, based on Haggai 1:12, where the Prophet is called the “messenger of Yehovah,” that Haggai is in fact the author of the book we call Malachi, as this book is just named “My Messenger,” and the name of the prophet who wrote it is not given. Both Haggai and Zechariah address their contemporary situation, as one would expect, and are concerned that the Temple be rebuilt and that the constitution of the new state of Judah be ordered according to the Torah. However, if read carefully, both clearly understand that this restoration of Judah is only a preliminary, even symbolic step, to a coming GREAT restoration of Judah and ALL Israel. Even though there is a Priest (Joshua), and a Governor (Zerubbabel) of the Davidic line, there is no anointing of the BRANCH figure of whom both Isaiah and Jeremiah had spoken. One way of putting this is to say that Haggai and Zechariah are working in the tall shadow of JEREMIAH (see especially chapters 30-31), and they know, from his clear and powerful prophecies, that the final days have not come with this tiny little beachhead return of a portion of Judah to the land. But they do believe that this return of Judah is a “sign” of things to come, and a guarantee that the Plan of Yehovah, to fill the earth with justice and righteousness, through Abraham’s seed, is not to fall to the ground.

And that leads us to the curious and fascinating references to the 24th day of the 9th month–Kislev 24 in modern Jewish parlance.

Notice, reading the book of Haggai is sequential, it takes you through the last months of the year. It begins with the Rosh Chodesh of the 6th month (August), takes you through the 21st day of the 7th month (2:1), which is the last day of Sukkoth (October), and then into December–with the 24th day of the 9th month. Haggai’s third and fourth messages come on this very day. It is a short book, and if you skim it through you will see the building sequence.

Kislev 24 is mentioned FOUR times in the second chapters, verses 10, 15, 18 and 20. Twice it is emphasized that “from THIS DAY FORWARD I will bless you,” and twice Haggai gets a special Word from Yehovah, on this very day. You have to read the whole chapter to get the context, but the message is basically that Yehovah will “SHAKE the heavens and the earth and ALL NATIONS,” overthrowing their power, anoint the chosen one (symbolized in that day by Zerubbabel), and essentially make Jerusalem the new world capital. For the DETAILS you need to go back, of course, to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah in particular, as they set forth the entire agenda to which Haggai only briefly alludes.

This message is addressed to the two “messiahs,” the Priest and the “King” or Governor, Joshua and Zerubbabel, respectively (2:4-5). They become “signifiers” of things to come. They are not the final anointed ones, and Zechariah picks this up in his visions, especially chapters 4 and 6. These symbolic figures, as well as the promised presence of the Holy Spirit (see 2:5 and Zech 4:6!), are the guarantee that Yehovah will bring about these promises.

Notice, Zechariah begins getting his visions and messages in the 8th month of that same year (Zech 1:1), or mid-November. He has EIGHT night visions, they are all quite difficult to follow, but prophetically important in forecasting the redemptive future. There is much more detail in Zechariah, but the two, Haggai and Zechariah, should be read in tandem, as one explains the other. Now, note carefully, Kislev 24 is not specifically mentioned in Zechariah, but it is alluded to in chapter 4:8-10. It is the famous “day of small things,” that one might be led to “despise,” because after all, this tiny little remnant of Judah, beginning to lay the foundation of a nondescript temple, under the mighty thumb of the Persian empire, was hardly even worthy of the name of a city-state, much less a world kingdom, and yet had HOPES and DREAMS and promises of world dominion!

Chapters 7-14 of Zechariah, which he gets two years later, are quite different. They are straightforward and fairly plain, laying out, likely in some sequential order, both the preliminary events, and the detailed climax, of the “time of the end.”

So, what about Kislev 24? It seems to have a three-fold meaning. First, in the time of Haggai and Zechariah, it was the day MARKED for the promise that the redemption would ultimately come about, not by power, nor by might, but by the Spirit of Yehovah–but “in its time.” Second, subsequently though history, this day seems to be one upon which key events take place, perhaps only a few of which have been recognized down through history. And finally, it might well turn out that on some Kislev 24 in the future, that date will serve as a “countdown marker” for the unfolding of the mysterious 1260/1290/1335/2300 days of Daniel’s visions, which interested Sir Isaac Newton so much.

During the period of the Maccabees, when Syrian ruler Antiochus IV unleashed his great persecution against the Jews of Judea/Palestine, it was on Kislev 24 that the enemy was defeated and the Temple freed from its desecration. That is why the festival of Chanukah is celebrated beginning at sundown, at the end of Kislev 24. In other words, it is NOT so much Chanukah that is important, as its marker date: Kislev 24. It seems to become a kind of banner date in history that marks any kind of “signal” of future redemption.

Fast forward to December 9, 1917. General Allenby, leading the British forces (remember Lawrence of Arabia), liberates Jerusalem for the first time in centuries from Turkish/Muslim rule. The date on the Jewish calendar–you guessed it: Kislev 24! That evening the Jewish soldiers in the British army celebrated Chanukah and went to the Wall in openness and freedom. The Torah reading that week was Mikketz (Gen 41), where JOSEPH is raised to power and saves Judah. And the Haphtorah reading, for the special Sabbath of Chanukah, as it is today, is the fascinating Zechariah 2:14-4:7! Note how it begins: “I have returned to Zion,” which seems to be the essential meaning of THIS DAY.

It is doubtful that Allenby was aware, during the heat of the battle, of even Chanukah, but certainly he knew nothing of Kislev 24.

If we begin checking in history over the past 2520 years (remember that number), there have been numerous times when Kislev 24 has played a large part, and even a smaller more symbolic part, in the unfolding of redemptive history. For example, no matter what one’s view of Yeshua might be, it seems in all likelihood that Yeshua was conceived on this day, nine months before his birth in September 3 BCE.

Some UIWU officers also noticed some years ago that the encounter David Horowitz had at the cave with his teacher Moshe Guibbory, as recounted in his autobiography, Thirty-three Candles, was on Friday night, December 16/17, 1927–and again, you guessed it, this was Kislev 24th. The Torah reading was Vayeshev, which begins the Joseph cycle, and the Haphtorah was Amos 2:6-3:8, which seems quite appropriate. Horowitz had no idea of this until over 50 years later when it was pointed out to him by others.
Now, a tiny bit on the numbers. Note, these important visions came in the year 520 BCE. The year 2000/2001 marks 2520 years since that first Kislev 24 vision of Haggai. The number 2520 is interesting, it has several mystical mathematical properties, but one most obvious one is that it is 7 x 360, or seven “prophetic years.” A prophetic year in the Bible is 360 days, thus we get in the books of Daniel and Revelation the period of 1260 days for 3.5 years. There are a number of indications, both in the Torah and Prophets, especially Ezekiel, that a kind of “day for a year” principle applies in Prophecy, and accordingly, the official “Exile” of Joseph and Judah would last 2520 years. Perhaps this is the meaning of the phrase “after two days” and “on the third day” references in Hosea 6. Now Judah was essentially “restored” in type at least, in the year 520, but the full restoration, and the union of things between Judah and Joseph is yet to come, “after two days” according to Hosea (a day is a “thousand years” in these prophetic texts). The point is, based on this chronology, we are “in” the third day, as of the year 2000. And indeed, it does appear we have begun to experience a “shaking of all things.” Whether this is the ultimate upheaval to which Haggai refers remains to be seen.

It is also worth noting, in terms of Kislev 24, that if you add 2300 days (the figure in Daniel 8) to that day, you always, on the Jewish calendar, come to the last day of Unleavened Bread, oddly something like 6.3 years later. In other words, it is sort of a strange figure. And there are then various interesting ways, too complicated to go into here, that the periods of Daniel (1260/1290/1335) fit in, taking one to Shavuot of any given sequence of years. We do know for certain that the 2300 “days” was fulfilled as a “day for a year” running from Alexander’s defeat of Darius in 334 BCE (June 7), to the day, to June 7, 1967–when Jerusalem was liberated by the Israelis in the Six Day War. The point seems to be that Alexander’s march to Jerusalem began a period of 2300 days/years of the trampling of Jerusalem. So what this seems to indicate is that there is a larger (day for a year) fulfillment of these periods, as well as a shorter “day for a day” fulfillment, once the “countdown” begins.

One might conclude then, from these indications, that on some Kislev 24, at some year “on our days and in our time” (whether past or future), people will come to recognize that Haggai’s “shaking” did indeed begin. It does not seem likely that time has quite yet come, but every year at this time one’s thoughts go to this date, given such an important designation by Haggai and Zechariah. On a personal level, it seems it can always be a date of “renewal” for any of us, and a time of new beginnings, looking to both the past and to the future.

What is all the more interesting about this day is that by some calculations (see Jack Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology) Jesus was born on or very near the 15th day of the 7th month–based on the chronology given in the book of Luke. The calculations are complex but have to do with the time in which Zechariah, father of John the Baptizer, served in the Temple (Luke 1:8), as the “section” of priests in which he was part went on duty at a specific time of year. From that window calculations can be made as to the birth of John, followed by the birth of Jesus six months later. My own calculations based on a computer program I use puts the birth of Jesus in 5 B.C. very close to Sukkoth, or September 22nd on the Gregorian Calendar, corresponding to the Autumnal Equinox. It just so happens that today, in 2010, the 15th day of the 7th month, beginning Sukkoth, also corresponds to the Equinox–that is today, September 22nd/23rd.

There is a fascinating Roman civic inscription dating to the year 9 B.C. that was passed by the cities of Asia to celebrate the birthday of the Emperor Augustus. It reads in part: “Whereas, finally, that the birthday of the god (i.e. Augustus) has been for the whole world the beginning of the gospel (euangelion) concerning him, therefore, let all reckon a new era beginning from the date of his birth, and let his birthday mark the beginning of the new year.”

It is surely more than ironic that the birth of Jesus, an insignificant Galilean peasant, living under the brutal boot of Roman occupation, just a few years later, did indeed lead to a new era, a kind of “birthday of the world,” that has paled into insignificance the birth of the celebrated Emperor Augustus.

So today in particular it seems has a double meaning, as the festival of Sukkoth for Jews and others who observe the Torah festivals, but for Christians, and really our entire society, the birthday of a new era, in that Jesus himself was born on or very near this day.

In Hebrew numbers are expressed by letters, Alef=1, Bet=2, Gimmel=3 and so forth. By such a system the number fifteen would be “ten & five” which is Yod Heh–however, since Yod Heh is an abbreviation for YHVH, the Divine and Holy Name of God, a substitute combination of Tet (nine) and Vav (six) are used–Thus the designation TU. The 15th of any lunar month is also the Full Moon and since Shevat, or the 11th month, often falls in late January/early February, it is the biggest and brightest moon of the year, sometimes called the “Wolf Moon,” see National Geographic story “Biggest Full Moon.”

In Jewish tradition this festival of the Full Moon of Shevat is also called the “festival of the Trees” and it marks a “new year” in terms of trees and their fruit, based on the Torah command in Leviticus 19:23-24: “When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall regard its fruit as “uncircumcised” (i.e., forbidden). Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it must not be eaten. And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Yehovah. But in the fifth year you may eat of its fruit, to increase its yield for you: I am the Yehovah your God.” This passage is viewed as having great significance, both practically and mystically, and it falls within the Holiness Code of the Torah (Lev 19), one of the more inspiring and universal collections of mitzvot or teachings.

In Israel and throughout the world it is a day of the planting of trees. It is also said that on the 15th of the 11th month the sap in the trees begins to rise signaling the end of winter, and the almond trees blossom by this day. I heard from a friend in Israel just this week that indeed the almond trees are out in full all over the Land. Since trees as so often used in the Hebrew Bible to represent human beings, their lifespan, and their potential to “bear fruit,” both the planting of a tree and its eventual growth and gifts are understood to represent symbolic meaning as well (see Psalm 1:3; 92:13; Eccl 12:1-7).

This day is also connected to the ma’aseror “tithe” of produce, as related to trees, fruit, and other produce.

In terms of the Torah text itself just as a tree is planted with future hope of fruit, but without any immediate result until at least three years of growth, plus a 4th year of dedication to YHVH, and then only in the 5th year the fruit is eaten–humans have similar experiences of new beginnings or “plantings” that do not yield immediate results but one must “wait” for the results to appear. Fruit trees continue to represent to most of us a picture of pardes or Paradise, as well as the original diet of human beings (Genesis 1:29; 2:9). Such a diet (called in Hebrew zeor’im or “seeds”) was seen as ideal and conducive to spiritual development. Daniel and his three companions in Babylon separate themselves from the food and wine of the king and for three years of “testing” eat “from the seeds,” experiencing health and spiritual insights and power far beyond their peers (Daniel 1:14-15).

Reuben was the firstborn but his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, “For Judah became strong among his brothers and a Nagid (chief, anointed one) was appointed from him, but the birthright belonged to Joseph” (1 Chron 5:1-2).

As such the there was, is, and will be a bit of “jealousy” and “hostility” between the two houses, as Isaiah 11:13 makes clear, particularly as the two houses are drawn back to the Land.

Hosea really tells it all, and as Zechariah is very much the Prophet focused on the return of Judah to the Land, Hosea is focused on Israel/Ephraim. Accordingly, their destinies are quite different as are their specific roles and experiences in final return to the Land. The Prophets of Isaiah and Jeremiah “broad brush” the overview but it is specifically in Hosea that the sharp detailed future of Israel/Ephraim is projected.

There is much to absorb in that regard, as Israel (not Judah) becomes “Not my People,” and “No Mercy,” her two new names, and thus loses its identity as Israel. The image Hosea is given is that of a formal divorce of a husband to sends away an adulterous wife, and based on Torah such a banning is to be permanent not temporary (Deut 24). This means that the northern kingdom, for all practical purposes “become Gentiles” to put it in plain English, or as Hosea puts it, “they shall be wanderers among the nations” and will number as the “sands of the sea.” They follow an “east wind” to the West. During their “many days” of separation they are essentially cut off from the access to and knowledge of YHVH, which Judah continues to experience through king and priest as well as the revelation of Torah and Prophets.

The way in which Israel/Ephraim finally is brought back is most interesting. The main passage in Hosea that sketches this out, also using a “marriage” image, is the following, and the details and language are most instructive and complex:

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. (15) And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. (16) And in that day, declares YHVH, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Lord” (Baal) (17) For I will remove the names of the Lord (Baalim) from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. (18) And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. (19) And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. (20) I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know YHVH. (21) “And in that day I will answer, declares YHVH, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, (22) and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, (23) and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People,‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’” (Hosea 2:15-23; but 2:14ff in Christian Bibles).

Both what proceeds and follows this key central passage on the “return” and re-marriage of Ephraim/Israel to YHVH is vital to follow but here I focus just on three key elements of this section. Notice:

How: The means of the regathering:YHVH will “allure” Ephraim. This is an most interesting and important one, the Hebrew word “patah” (different but related to patach “to open”). It is usually a negative term, for one who is so “open” as to be simple and thus easily fooled or enticed, but it can mean, in a certain context such as this, to draw one in, thus “allure” is a good translation. Some translations, picking up on the context of YHVH as lover, use the verb “to woo” her. What is implied is that an attachment to another/s, in this case “Lords” is dissolved and a renewal of vows toward YHVH takes place. Israel is actually “in love” and drawn to YHVH.

Where: The setting is “in the wilderness,” and specifically identified with the “door” of entry at Achor, down toward the Dead Sea in the Judean desert and southward to the Negev. It is the same “route” ancient Israel used in coming up out of Egypt in entering the Land across from Jericho. How literal one is to take this is an open question but the description is “alluring” to say the least.

When: It is a time of the bow, sword and war in the Land where there is no safety.

To understand how the “alluring” takes place, that is, its setting, one has to read carefully Hosea 2:1-13, where a rich, and prosperous Ephraim, tied to and happy with her lovers/Baalim, is stripped naked and loses everything, and thus ends up in the “desert” situation Hosea addresses, whether literally or figuratively.

Much to ponder here but if you have not read through Hosea lately it might prove quite instructive in evaluating the situation today of Judah in the Land.