Few realize that the day they call Easter (or Resurrection Sunday) was actually an ancient Biblical holiday called HaOmer. The word “Ha: means ‘The’ and “Omer” (Ayin Mem Resh) means, “sheaf”, and it was an actual measure of about four pints or one tenth of an ephod (another Hebrew measure). It is the time given to the “morrow” after the first Shabbos following Pesach, because on this day (and every following day until Shavout/ Pentecost) the omer of barley was brought according to the Biblical commandment:
Lev.23.15-16: “And you shall count from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven full weeks shall they be, counting fifty days to the morrow after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a cereal offering of new grain to the L-rd.”This was the first of the three first fruit offerings as commanded by HaShem; and it was the second most important grain (wheat was greater and it was waved 50 days later at Shavout or Pentecost). Barley was chosen as the “new grain” because it would ripen by Pesach. After Pesach, the people would be called to cut the grain and bring it to the Temple:Deut.16.9: “You shall count seven weeks; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.”
“ . . . our people partake of the crops which they have reaped and which have not been touched until then, and esteeming it right first to do homage to the deity, to Whom they owe the abundance of these gifts, they offered to Him the first fruits of the barley in the following wise. After parching and crushing the little sheaf of ears and purifying the barley for grinding, they bring to the altar an omer for the deity, and having flung a handful thereof on the altar they leave the rest for the use of the priests. Thereafter all are permitted, publicly or individually, to begin to harvest.” Josephus, Antiq., 3.10.5
So what does this have to do with the Christian celebration of Easter? Maybe Saint Paul can explain this better:
“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ.” 1Cor.15.20-23But sometimes the first fruits were seen in a different light. In Romans 8.22-23, the first century Believers received the first fruits of the Ruach; while James (1.18) says these same Believers are first fruits of His creatures. And now to make things even more interesting, we have the 144,000 of the end times who are called first fruits as well (Rev.14.4). So how can Yeshua, the 1st century Talmudine, and the Talmudine of the last days all be first fruits? The answer is that there were three different first fruits offered, one for each of the three different seasons, which happen to coincide with the three ingathering festivals that HaShem commanded us to keep and observe (the festivals of ingathering required people to go up to Jerusalem to celebrate). In reverse order, we have the 144,000 who are the first fruits of Succos (this “first fruit” is mixed because it consists of Jews, E’phraimites, and the grafted-in). Next, we have the first century Talmudine who are the first fruits of Shavout when the Ruach HaKadosh descended upon them (this is why they are also the first fruits of the Ruach). And for the very first of all the first fruits, we have Yeshua. This is why He was resurrected on Omer, the day of the first fruits where there was a wave offering of praise to HaShem.
In our Christian calendar, we call this day Easter or Resurrection Sunday. If our calendar followed HaShem’s calendar, as prescribed in the Torah, then we would always see Resurrection Sunday during the week of Chag HaMotzi (Pesach is one day and Chag HaMotzi is the rest of the week that is observed- and it is also a Sabbath). However, depending upon the actual model followed (Pharisaical or Sadducean), the day of Yeshua’s resurrection would either always be on Sunday or it would vary. Because the Torah states “the morrow after the Sabbath” without defining which Sabbath- weekly or Chag HaMotzi, the Pharisees and the Sadducees each picked a different day. The rabbis of our modern time chose the Pharisaical model, which means they begin their count after Chag HaMotzi. Our church adopted a variance of the Sadducean model, which means the count begins after the weekly Sabbath, thus always falling on a Sunday.
Now, what’s so interesting is that this particular year of our Savior’s death and resurrection, Chag HaMotzi and the weekly Sabbath fell upon the same day, thus the count for Omer would also begin on the same day. So we find that our modern celebration of the resurrection of Yeshua, the first fruit of salvation, is actually on a holiday- the festival of Omer. But how was this day celebrated back in the time when Yeshua walked upon the earth?
On the day of Omer, the priest brought the Pesach offering and the grain offering (as stipulated above). It wasn’t until this offering was brought that any grain throughout Yisrael could be used or consumed. For the Israelites, this was very important and so we find in the Mishnayot, in the tenth chapter of Menachot, that this harvest and presentation of the grain (only barley was allowed) must be done with great fan fare. They choose a field of ripe grain that was very close to Jerusalem so they could get the grain to the Temple as soon as possible. On the day before Pesach the sheaf would be bound at the tops to make the harvesting easier. Then on Chag HaMotzi, toward evening of the first day, the people would gather in the chosen field. Three men would be appointed to reap the harvest as soon the Sabbath was over (sundown). After reaping, the barley was dried, ground and made into cakes mixed with virgin olive oil and spices of frankincense and myrrh. These cakes were waved before HaShem then eaten by the Levitical priest that served on this day.
So what more can we learn from our fathers in the Jewish faith about this day of Omer?
The Midrash cites many reasons why the offering is brought on Omer. Two of the many reasons would include that on this day Av’raham received the land of Canaan as well as on this day the Jews were saved in the days of Gideon. The reasons seem to be of thanks and praise to HaShem for His provisions to save His people. This is significant considering that it was this time period that Yeshua, through His death and resurrection, saved us from our sins and delivered unto us the gift of salvation.
Also the Midrash says: "G-d said to Moshe, 'In the wilderness I provided a daily omer of manna for every Jew. As payment, let the Jews now bring for Me an omer offering every year on the 16th of Nissan.'" So the offering of Omer is connected to the giving of manna in the desert, and for us in our faith, this connects to the Eucharist (see John 6 for this connection to the Eucharist)!
So what does this mean to our modern celebration?
In our house, we employ barley in our celebration. We eat barley treats, which remind us of the cakes, which were waved long ago in the Temple, and we line our basket with barley grain. We include the herbs and the parsley from the Pesach Seder as well as the oil of frankincense and myrrh (which were part of the original cakes) because it also ties back to gifts of the Magi to HaMoshiach at His birth.
We also have a Seder, different than that of Pesach, but does have some elements of the Tu B’Shevat Seder. Our Haggadah is centered on the resurrection stories found in the four Gospels. We begin about a half hour before dawn with most of us still in bedclothes. Candles are lit as we gather together at the table, and the Passion is retold so we may begin on a somber tone, for that was the mood of the disciples and the women who would begin their day by going to anoint the body of Yeshua in the tomb. As dawn approaches, we reach the point where we play the Hunt for the Risen Christ Game, which the “women” and “disciples” (our children who usually like to dress the parts in simple costumes) leave the table to seek out the Savior in the tomb (a broken egg). When they reach the tomb, they find it empty with a message from an angel. Now the fun begins because we set up a scavenger hunt to find the risen L-rd and all the main characters from that early morning. As the children scurry throughout the house, we prepare a festive breakfast (we usually have fruit filled blintzes that represent the shroud, a flower salad representing the garden where Mary saw our L-rd, barley treats to remind us of the past history, and eggs which represent the tomb). If all goes well, we are nearly done in our preparations of the second half of the Seder as the children return with all the hidden pieces (chocolates such as a lamb, cross and egg can be hidden with the characters or used as prizes by redeeming the characters). We then continue the Seder with the foods we prepared as we tell the story of the resurrection and ending with the road to Emmaus. Afterwards, we get dressed and go to morning Easter service.
The Haggadah was created to help us observe and remember what happened by engaging all our senses (lights and the elements, flavors both sweet and bitter, and stories and songs). We included a copy of the Haggadah we do each year which is free to download for personal use.
The Hunt For the Risen Christ Game is in book form and is presently available through Amazon.com; or you can download a free copy from our website by clicking free copy (this may take some time to download- about 1.4MB). This can be done independently of the Haggadah (and vice-versa) and is an activity that is used to help the children visualize and understand more clearly what happened on that glorious morning and the weeks that follow by actively being involved in the story. It also helps children count the weeks of Omer until Pentecost, which has the last weekly activity, thus ending the game (well, sort of).
The Hunt for the Risen Christ Game is designed with families in mind. We wanted to keep it affordable to all families as well as teachers. We wrote within the book permission to reproduce the activities so you would only need one book for your family, whether it’s a family of three, five, ten (whew- G-d bless you!) or that classroom of fifteen. Just show any printing shop the written permission on the back of the title page and tell them the number of copies you need (one per child or one per student) and they should copy it without any trouble at all. There are special readings and activities not only for the first day, but also for each week (eight Sundays) to help the children count the weeks of Ha-Omer while learning the reason they are celebrating.
If you don’t have The Hunt for the Risen Christ Game these are some other ideas for the first day:
1. Resurrection Eggs, The Easter Story by Family Life:
This uses plastic colored eggs to retell the Resurrection story. Each egg contains an object that represents some aspect of what happened from Yeshua’s ride into Jerusalem to His resurrection into glory. This can be used as part of an egg hunt or be extended over two weeks time ending in Easter.2. The Easter Celebration Kit:We, ourselves, have not had an opportunity to use this tool, but we welcome anyone who has, to post their impressions on our message board and we’ll include them here in the future.
This is available through Family Life.
This kit uses 10 colored eggs to retell the story of the resurrection. Each egg is dressed up as the main characters of the original event (Peter, James, John, Yeshua etc. . .). Then the parents retell the story for the children while the children act out the story using these ten characters they have created.3. A twist on the Easter Egg Hunt:As with “Resurrection Eggs”, we have not used this, but we welcome anyone who has to post their comments on Yeshua’s Light Forum and we’ll include them here in the future.
This is available through Chariot Victor Publishing, a division of Cook Communications, Colorado Springs, Clolrado 80918. (We could not find a web addy for them).
Each of these three ideas above do not count the weeks of Omer (whereas The Hunt for the Risen Christ Game does). Here are some ideas below that can be used for counting the days (and adapted to count the weeks):Because the egg is suppose to represent the tomb (and not new life), we hollow out one egg (it was found empty after all) for this hunt. You can do this by drilling holes in both ends and blowing the contents out, then washing and letting it dry. Then draw a small butterfly (a good symbol of the ressurection because Yeshua was not reborn, but resurrected in great power and glory) on a sheet of paper. Cut it out, roll it up and push it into the hollowed out egg. The remaining eggs are colored green for ordinary or grey for death (green blends into grass better). All eggs are now hidden in the grass while the hollow one is left white (for victory).
On Easter morning the Passion is retold (such as is done in the Easter Haggadah). When this is done the disciples are sent out to “find” the risen Christ. The child who finds the resurrectiion egg and who turns in the symbol of the resurrection gets a prize (chocolate lamb or other appropriate gift), all others get to keep their eggs. The remaining story is retold (or the seder is completed).
The value in this game is it’s highly affordable (the cost of a dozen eggs) and it does a fair job of teaching the “hunting” aspects of the resurrection. We personally believe that this activity does leave gaps in a child’s understanding, therefore we sought to find, in our creativity, a method that would fill those gaps- and that is The Hunt for the Risen Christ Game. In our game, there is an option to use an egg, but the real hunt is to find the characters of that glorious morning.
1. We can create our own Omer calendar by gluing a picture of Pentecost behind tag board then cut out forty- nine “doors” and glue this to another tag board piece. Just make sure you don’t glue shut the doors. Now either paste in or draw pictures, scripture quotes, etc . . . and write the numbers 1- 49 on each box.Hopefully these ideas will spark your creativity and help you to celebrate fully the entire season of our L-rd’s resurrection. If you do happen to come across any great ideas that you wish to share, please email us or post on “The Spirit of Light”.2. Place 49 sweet treats in a bowl where only one can be taken each day. Children can take turns removing the treats.
3. Place 49 folded papers in a bowl where only one can be taken at a time. Most of these papers can be blank (or have a picture) with a few (or as many you choose) that have special gifts or treats on them.
4. You can collect 49 special quotes from scripture or from your Church leader(s). These can be numbered 1- 49 and stapled together. Kids read one per day.
5. You can write special puzzles and/or challenges. These in turn can be based on Scripture.
6. You can combine any number of these ideas to create a new one.
Shalom and may you have a very blessed Yom Tov.
