Probably one of the most individualized feasts is the feast of weeks and the command setting it apart "....count seven weeks for yourselves..." (Leviticus 23:15 -21). Specific days in a week or moon are given for all other feasts which is not the case with Shavuot. As much as the feast of weeks always seems to fall on the sixth of the third month, responsibility lies squarely on an individual to count and so actualize the feast.
If in spite of counting the days the day remains the same, the sixth of the third month, why could Elohim simply not say "....on the sixth day of the third month...."?
The reason for counting
The reasons for counting may be inexhaustible in this one script just as Torah is inexhaustible. It is true that some of the treasure mines of the mystery of HaShem might remain untouched well into the world to come, but let it suffice we state that Shavuot encapsulates the dimensions that operate in our sphere of life, namely: space and time.
How so?
To better understand we need to understand the fabric of time and space. This fabric is the very first creation of Elohim as revealed in the very first words of Torah in Genesis 1:1. It's written "....In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth..." It was in the beginning when the present was set in motion. In that beginning, was the first instance of time. Before that instance, there was naught. But from another viewpoint, we may say that the naught was the capacity to hold. So, before everything, Elohim had to create the capacity to contain, otherwise, how could the beginning be realized if there was no container to hold it. It's in relation to that beginning that we have them now. But probably the dimension of time is a bit more remote to relate with than the dimension of space.
To better understand naught and the instance of the beginning Torah illustrates the dimension of time with the dimension of space, which we humans are able to relate with more easily. It's written "...Elohim created the heavens and the earth..." The earth is our present space, with which we relate, for it's where our bodies are founded. The heavens are the containers that hold the earth or the space of here.
So what Torah endeavors to reveal to us is the fundamental truth of here and now. From the onset, Elohim revealed why every human being needs to be conscious of here and now. It is these two dimensions of here and now revealed in Genesis 1:1 that the enemy wants to rob humans.
A most relevant modern-day enslavement and robbing of time and space or our consciousness of now and here are the labour systems. The present structures dictate where you need to be so as to work and in addition dictate the time when your services are needed. The current setup demands an employee to be at a specific place or space at a given time. A teacher in school, a doctor in the hospital, a sales person at the sales point, a farm worker at the farm, et cetera. The setup is designed to pressure the masses and create a lot of anxiety of "...what if I get to work late and the master fires me or what if I get late and lose the business deal!". This is designed to ensure the masses are never masters of their space and time. We are admonished in this manner in James 4:13-15 "....Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow, let us go to such and such a city, spend a year there, and trade, and make a profit,” when you do not know of tomorrow. For what is your life? For it is a vapour that appears for a little, and then disappears – instead of your saying, “If the Master desires, we shall live and do this or that.”
It's for this very reason, to help us understand the importance of us being masters of our here and now or space and time, that the Sabbaths or rest days were given. A moment when we can say no to the demands of our slave masters in that we do not go to our usual workspaces for a set time. And to better actualize it Shavuot was gifted to humans. In Genesis 15 a snapshot of Shavuot is given. Elohim explains to Abram that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign land: this encapsulates space or here, for four hundred years: which encapsulates time or now.
And when the prophecy came to be, Israel was given the command to commemorate the instance they broke the yoke of enslavement to time and space in this manner in Deuteronomy 16:-3 "...Guard the new moon of Abib, and perform the Pĕsah to יהוה your Elohim, for in the new moon of Abiḇ יהוה your Elohim brought you out of Mitsrayim by night. ....For seven days you eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of affliction because you came out of the land of Mitsrayim in haste..."
In the land or space of slavery, there was no time to let the dough swell, since they left in haste for the masters strongly hastened them (Exodus 12:33). But during the time of count - up to Shavuot, when free, we have all the time and space in our land or space of freedom to gift Adonai with luxuriously leavened bread (Leviticus 23:17). So Elohim says all this is intended to remind us that there was a time when we had been robbed of our time and space while in slavery: "...And you shall remember that you were a slave in Mitsrayim.." (Deuteronomy 16:12).
In relation to this enslavement to space and time, Elohim gave Shavuot as follows in Deuteronomy 16:9-12 as follows "Count seven weeks for yourself....And you shall perform the Festival of Shabu’ot to יהוה your Elohim..."
While in slavery one cannot relish the beauty of time. 1 Peter 4:1-3 explains that while we were enslaved by sin we were never conscious of time. There was no now. But we are now called on to redeem the time (Colossians 4:3) and be very much aware of our position or space in relation to the world. It, therefore, follows that if an individual becomes conscious of his time and space or here and now, that person cannot be a slave to sin. This is taught through the practicability of Shavuot because while in sin every instance of our being belongs to the masters. But in Shavuot, the individual must be conscious of the now and reckon it in relation to a beginning: which is the morrow after the redemptive Pesach Shabbat (Leviticus 23:15). Each of us is provided with an opportunity to immerse in the now in the complete totality of seven sevens. Just imagine from slavery, where one had no say in regard to time, to be a master of one's each and every instance of eternity! What a richness to be realized in the count up to Shavuot.
Once we realize our mastery of the now, Leviticus 23:17 provides that we master our space or dwellings and from it bring forth minchah "sustenance or food gifts" to Elohim. Deuteronomy 16:11 states that these gifts are not just for Elohim but are to be enjoyed with our fellow human beings.
Why does Elohim provide for this, because a master needs to be responsible and bring forth. It's only when we become conscious of now and here, and take control of it that we are able to truly bring forth the Elohim in us who has no shadow of turning: to him, the past and the future are in the now (Isaiah 46:22).
So to what end should we count seven sevens?
First and foremost, no person can perceive or relate with time and space on behalf of a fellow human being. In other words, can person X and person Y occupy space A at the same time? Therefore Leviticus 23:16 explains that each of us should be conscious of our now and here to the end that we bring forth gifts from the mastery of our space and time. It should be understood that there is no better way we relate to space than through our bodies or being. It is therefore written, "...Until the morrow, after the seventh Sabbath you count fifty days, then you shall bring a new grain offering (minchah - gift) to יהוה...". And it is this trajectory that should guide every individual to the ascension of higher consciousness or attainment of the Elohim essence treasured in each of us.
And a bar of the standard to be met as to the gifts we bring forth is provided for: in Shavuot, as a human brings Elohim a gift, Elohim also brings a gift to the human: for on Shavuot, Elohim gifts us with Torah and the sealing of it in our hearts through the set-apart Spirit. Its therefore clear that Shavuot climaxes with Elohim and humans exchanging gifts.
Mystery: Shavuot is the platform where Elohim challenges us to be equal to him and gift him, from our most refined being, as much as he gifts us. What an honour!
Evangelist Boniface.
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