Chag Ha'Matzah - The Feast of Unleavened Bread

Chag Ha'Matzah —
The Festival of Unleavened Bread

Countdown to Chag Ha'Matzah
April 9, 2009

(Days : Hours : Minutes : Seconds)

Little known fact! Passover is only one night...Abib 14¹. For some reason, the Jewish people have been celebrating it on Abib 15, the first day of Chag Ha'Matzah, the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Let's look at our time line again....

Wednesday
Passover
Preparation Day Abib 14 Chametz is removed from the house this night in preparation for Passover.
Yeshua has Passover seder with Disciples — Yochanan 13:1
Yeshua predicts His Betrayal — Yochanan 12:21
Judas leaves to betray Yeshua — Yochanan 13:30
Yeshua goes to Gethsemane — Yochanan 18:1
Yeshua goes before Annas — Yochanan 18:13
Yeshua goes before Caiaphas — Yochanan 18:24
Yeshua in the Hall of Judgment before Pilate — Yochanan 18:28
Barabbas released — Yochanan 18:40

Fast-day of the first-born. Soferim 21
6 am — Yeshua declared King of the Jews by Pilate — Yochanan 19:14

9 am — Yeshua crucified — Mark 15:25
First Daily Sacrifice — Sh’mot 29:39

12 pm — Darkness over the earth until the 9th hour — Mark 15:33
Second Daily Sacrifice — Sh’mot 29:39

3 pm — Yeshua Dies — Yochanan 15:34
Passover sacrifices begin in the Temple — Sh’mot 12:1-6
Curtain of the Temple torn from top to bottom — Mattit'yahu 27:51
Holy dead are raised to life — Mattit'yahu 27:52-53
Bodies removed from the cross in preparation for the Sabbaton — Yochanan 19:31
Yeshua laid to rest in the tomb — Yochanan 19:32

Thursday
Chag Ha'Matzah Abib15 Evening 1
Passover eaten about midnight — Sh’mot 11:4
First Day of Unleavened Bread

Day 1
Chief Priests request tomb guarded — Mattit'yahu 27:62-66
They are in violation of the Law because this is a high Sabbath.

In the observant Jewish home, the search for the leaven is completed the night before the Seder meal. In our timeline, leaven was removed from the observant Jewish home on what we would call Tuesday night. That same night, Yeshua also removed the leaven in the person of Judas Iscariot from His house as He shared the Seder meal with His Talmid'im.

Erev Pesach, as can be seen here, is also celebrated with Matzah...

Sh’mot 12:6-8
⁶It shall be your for examination until the fourteenth day of this month; the entire congregation of the assembly of Israel shall slaughter it in the afternoon. ⁷They shall take some of its blood and place it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. ⁸They shall eat the flesh on that night — roasted over the fire — and matzos; with bitter herbs shall they eat it.

Chag Ha'Matzah is of course the seven day festival. Your preparations for Pesach have made you ready for Chag Ha'Matzah, and you need no further preparations. The First and last days of Chag Ha'Matzah are a Sabbath.

Sh’mot 12:14-20
¹⁴This day shall become a remembrance for you and you shall celebrate it as a festival for HASHEM; for your generations, as an eternal decree shall you celebrate it. ¹⁵For a seven day period shall you eat matzos; but on the previous day you shall nullify the leaven from your homes; for anyone who eats leavened food — that soul shall be cut off from Israel, from the first day to the seventh day.
¹⁶On the first day shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day shall be a holy convocation for you, no work may be done on them except for what must be eaten for any person — only that may be done for you.

¹⁷You shall safeguard the matzos, for on this very day I will have taken your legions out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day for your generations as an eternal decree. ¹⁸In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening shall you eat matzos, until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening. ¹⁹For seven days, leaven may not be found in your homes, for anyone who eats leavening — that soul shall be cut off from the assembly of Israel, whether a convert or a native of the land. ²⁰You shall not eat any leavening; in all your dwellings shall you eat matzos.”

Erev Pesach is the first night, then the seven days of Chag Ha'Matzah, concluded on the 21st of Abib.

Sh’mot 13:6-10
⁶For a seven day period shall you eat matzos, and on the seventh day there shall be a festival to HASHEM. ⁷Matzos shall be eaten throughout the seven day period; no chametz may be seen in your possession, nor may leaven be seen in your possession in all your borders. ⁸And you shall tell your son on that day saying, ‘It is because of this that HASHEM acted on my behalf when I left Egypt.’ ⁹And it shall be for you a sign on your arm and a reminder between you eyes—so that HASHEM's Torah may be in your mouth—for with a strong hand HASHEM removed you from Egypt. ¹⁰You shall observe this decree at its designated time from year to year.
Sh’mot 23:15
¹⁵You shall observe the Festival of Matzos; seven days shall you matzos as I have commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of springtime, for in it you left Egypt; you shall not be seen before Me empty-handed.

Sh’mot 28:43
⁴³They shall be on Aaron and his sons when they enter the Tent of Meeting or when they approach the Altar to serve in holiness, and they should not bear sin and die; it is an eternal decree for him and his offspring after him.

Sh’mot 29:1-2
¹This is the matter that you shall do for them to sanctify them to minister for Me: Take one young bull and two rams, unblemished; ²with unleavened breads, unleavened loaves mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil; of fine wheat flour shall you make them.

Sh’mot 28:43-29:2
^28:43They shall be on Aaron and his sons when they enter the Tent of Meeting or when they approach the Altar to serve in holiness, and they should not bear sin and die; it is an eternal decree for him and his offspring after him.

^29:1And this is the manner that you shall do for them to sanctify them to minister for Me: take one young bull and two rams, unblemished; ²with unleavened breads, unleavened loaves mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil; of fine wheat flour shall you make them.

These passages of Scripture show that not only is Matzah a form of fast, but also a sacrifice of sorts. The Unleavened bread was an integral part of the sacrificial system, as well as the prime ingredient in the Passover week.

Sh’mot 29:23
²³one cake of bread, one oily loaf, and one wafer from the basket of unleavened loaves that is before HASHEM.
Sh’mot 34:18
¹⁸You shall observe the Festival of Matzos: For a seven-day period you shall eat matzos, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of spring, for in the month of spring you went forth from Egypt.

It is probable, as we see from B’midbar 9, that Passover was the season of the Ger's journey into Judaism. Whether it was the start, or rather the conclusion of the learning process, B’midbar 9 ties it into conversion. Chag Shavu'ot is also traditionally allied with conversion, the transition from ger to adoption. It might well be that the Pesach season was the time that the ger began a ritual that lasted 50 days, where a zur (who kept SOME of the Torah, see the Law concerning carrion) became a ger, and finally an Israelite. The ger was not yet full Israelite, as we see from (D’varim 14:21)

D’varim 14:21
²¹You shall not eat any carcass; to the stranger who is in your cities shall you give it that he may eat it, or sell it to gentile, for you are a holy people to HASHEM, your God; you shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk.

Why was the ger permitted to eat that which died normally, if fit to eat? Although Yisra'el was commanded to "Love the ger", and "Do not hinder the ger", Adonai knew that Children of Israel would treat them poorly, and often would pay them less. This allowed the ger to survive. It was a ruling of leniency.

B’midbar 28:17-25
¹⁷And on the fifteenth day of this month is a festival; for a seven-day period matzos shall be eaten. ¹⁸On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. ¹⁹You shall offer an Eshayah-Offering, a Olah-Offering to HASHEM: two young bulls, one ram, seven male lambs within their first year, unblemished shall they be for you. ²⁰And their Minchah-Offering: fine flour mixed with oil you shall make three tenth-ephah for each bull and two tenth-ephah for the ram. ²¹One tenth-ephah shall you make for each lamb of the seven lambs. ²²And one he-goat for a Chatat-Offering, to atone for you. ²³Aside from the Olah-Offering of the morning that is for the continual Olah-Offering shall you make these. ²⁴Like these shall you make each day of the seven-day period: food, an Eshayah-Offering, a satisfying aroma to HASHEM; in addition to the continual Olah-Offering shall it be made, and it libation. ²⁵The seventh day shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall not do any laborious work.
D’varim 16:3-8
³You shall not eat leavened bread with it, for seven days you shall eat matzos because of it, bread of affliction, for you departed from the land of Egypt in haste — so that you will remember the day of your departure from the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

⁴No leaven of yours shall be seen throughout your boundary for seven days, nor shall any of the flesh that you slaughter on the afternoon before the first day remain overnight until morning. ⁵You may not slaughter the Pesach-offering in one of your cities that HASHEM, your God, gives you; ⁶except at the place that HASHEM, your God, will choose to rest His Name, there shall you slaughter the Pesach-offering in the afternoon, when the sun descends, the appointed time of your departure from Egypt. ⁷You shall roast it and eat it in the place that HASHEM, your God, will choose, and in the morning you may turn back and to your tents. ⁸For a six-day period² you shall eat matzos and on the seventh day shall an assembly to HASHEM, your God; you shall not perform any labor on it.

D’varim 16:16
¹⁶Three times a year³ all your males should appear before HASHEM, your God, in the place that He will choose: on the Festival of Matzos, the Festival of Shavu'ot, and the Festival of Sukkot; and he shall not appear before HASHEM empty handed.

The importance and significance of unleavened bread in Israel may be seen in the various occasions when HASHEM commanded it to be used. The spiritual truth becomes more evident as these Scriptures are considered.

Unleavened Bread was used in the consecration of the Priests to their office and ministry (Vayikra 8:2, 26; Sh’mot 29:2, 23).

Unleavened Bread was also used in the vow of separation of the Nazir unto HASHEM (B’midbar 6:1-22).

Unleavened Bread was also used in the food of the Priests, especially the Minchah-Offering as well as the Shelem-Offering (Sh’mot 2:4-5; 6:14-18; 7:11-13).

Unleavened Bread was used in all the Feasts of HASHEM, except that in Pentecost leavened bread was offered (Sh’mot 34:18; Vayikra 23:5-8).

Unleavened Bread was used when the Angel of HASHEM appeared to Gideon in his call to service (Shof’tim 6:11-24).

Unleavened Bread was to be used in the Passover Feast as Israel was about to be separated for Egypt's life of slavery and bondage (Sh’mot 12:17; 31-34).

Thus the symbolic truths in unleavened bread are "consecration and "separation" unto HASHEM. These speak of the doctrine of sanctification where the believer is separated from all that would corrupt, and consecrated unto the service of HASHEM. Every house must put away all leaven. It was a time of great cleansing, of separation from the leavening influences.

We consider the symbol of the leaven as to the natural and the spiritual significance. (Read also Sh’mot 23:18; 34:25; Vayikra 2:11; 6:17; 10:12).

Natural Leaven
Leaven ( or yeast) is little bit of sour dough, and when placed in a batch of dough has the action of fermentation. Leaven puffs up. It generally works silently, secretly, and gradually, until the whole is leavened. Its mysterious operation and fermentation affect all the dough. It causes the dough to rise. It's influence permeates the whole until all is leavened, until all becomes like itself.

Spiritual Leaven
Almost without exception leaven in scripture is used to symbolize that which is evil, either in doctrine or practice. Both Old and New Testaments set this forth. The Old Testament use of leaven is evidently symbolic of that which must be put away. The New Testament, however, clearly interprets the symbol for us. Thus the literal leaven pointed to the spiritual leaven.

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¹ The month "Nisan" appears nowhere in Scripture. The appropriate name for the month is Abib. It denotes the growth state of the barley so that it will be just ripened for the Feast of First Fruits.

² D’varim 16:8. For a six day period, i.e., since the new grain crop may not be eaten until the Omer-offering is brought on the second day of Pesach, matzos from the new crop may be eaten for only six days (Rashi).

³ D’varim 16:16. Jews must come to celebrate the pilgrimage festivals with offerings in honor of the occasion, commensurate with the prosperity with which God has blessed them.