Ken Brown

Hi Stephan, Lev 23:5-8 speaks about the Feast of Unleavened Bread which has the Sabbath (Nissan 15) in which the counting for Shavuot and the waving of the firstfruits on the morrow after, occur. So it has a strong connection that you and Spin are blind towards. Why is that? KB

stephan huller

But if what Jews call 'the Passover' has seven days it would have to a Sabbath. If I have a week long sale of bagels at my store one of those days is going to fall on Shabbat. I don't understand what you are trying to get at?

stephan huller

You do realize that there were - and are - a great many ways to determine when to start counting the omer? Even within 'Judaism' - right?

stephan huller

I am still in the dark about what you are saying. You write:

Do you think that Nisan 15 always falls on a Sabbath?

Ken Brown

Hi Stephan, OK, let me explain. Within Judaism, Shavuot ALWAYS falls 49 days AFTER the Shabbat of Nissan 15 (1st Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread). Here is a excerpt from Wikipedia (and I really don't endorse Wikipedia):

Stephan, the FIRST day of Passover is the 15th of Nissan, the 1st Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Does this help you to see that the 1st Day of Unleavened Bread is a Shabbat? KB

stephan huller

That's crazy.

Ken Brown

Hi Stephan, why is it crazy? Are you in opposition to the Talmudic Sages? KB

stephan huller

How can there be two seventh days in the same week?

stephan huller

The Samaritan chronology understands that the first of the seven Sabbaths of Pentecost is the Sabbath of the Sea. The six Sabbaths are regarded as following the course of the journey in the wilderness, and are called by the names of the several events which marked it. Thus, No. 1 is היס שבת, the Sabbath of the sea (Exod. 14); No. 2, מרה (Exod. 15, 23); No. 3, אילים (ib. 27); No- 4, המן (Exod. 16, 15); No. 5, הצור (Exod. 17, 6); No. 6, עמלק (ib. 8). The seventh Sabbath commemorates the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, as with the modern Jews, but the idea of a feast of harvest is also comprised in it.

stephan huller

The original understanding (= the archetype) was that the 21st was the Sabbath from which the omer was counted. I had lunch with my Samaritan friend Benny sometime back and he noted that it wasn't just on the seventh day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread that Samaritans sang about the crossing of the sea BUT EVERY SABBATH EVENING. The Samaritan's Benny noted didn't just think that the crossing of the sea occurred on the seventh day of a seventh day period but specifically - on a Sabbath. In other words, like the story of Creation 'the seventh day' was specifically the SEVENTH DAY OF THE WEEK. As such EVERY SEVENTH DAY OF THE WEEK became a remembrance of the Sabbath upon which the kingdom of Israel was established (Marqe's words).