POSTED 17 JANUARY, 2008

Sadducees, Pharisees,
and the Controversy of Counting the Omer

by J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net

The season between Passover and Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot, can be one of the most difficult times for various persons and assemblies within the Messianic community. While this is supposed to be a very special and sacred time, a great number of debates certainly rage over Passover. Some of the most obvious debates among Messianics occur over the differences between Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jewish halachah. Do we eat lamb or chicken during the sedar meal? What grains are “kosher for Passover”? Can egg matzos be eaten? What are we to have on our sedar plate? What traditions do we implement, and what traditions do we leave aside? And, what do we do with the uncircumcised in our midst?

Over the past several years, I have increasingly found myself taking the minority position on a number of issues. Ironically, that minority position is usually the traditional view of the majority mainline, American, Ashkenazic Conservative and/or Reform Judaism—the same halachah that I was originally presented with when my family entered into Messianic Judaism in 1995. I have usually found myself thrust among those who follow a style halachah that often deviates from this.

Certainly, I believe that our Heavenly Father does allow for creativity when it comes to human traditions. Tradition is intended to bind a religious and ethnic community together, giving it cohesion and a clear connection to the past. It is only natural for someone like myself, of Northern European ancestry, to more closely identify with a Northern and Central European style of Judaism, than one from the Mediterranean. Yet, even though I may frequently favor Ashkenazic halachah, I recognize the value of Sephardic halachah for those who identify with that specific religious community, and I wish Messianics who choose to follow such traditions only the best. But over the past number of years, every year when we have come to what is supposed to be a very special and sacred season for Believers in Yeshua—Passover to Shavuot—I hear a common whine among many Messianic Believers: “Everyone is wrong about this time of year except me.”

None of us can claim total objectivity when we enter into this season. Starting with the Passover sedar, at the very least each one of us is going to critique the meal that is set before us. We are going to scrutinize the liturgy, how people pronounce the Hebrew prayers, and how fast or how slow the sedar service is conducted. We will certainly critique how the Passover dinner has been cooked! Each of us may think that our homes and kitchens are more “kosher for Passover” than someone else’s. But how much of this is more preference and deference to tradition, than something that clearly relies on a detailed and thorough discussion of Biblical practices? Just consider that much of what is considered “kosher for Passover” is clearly a value judgment often made on very gray factors, and there are foods known today that were not known in the Biblical period.

There are issues in this season which we have significantly more information about both inside and outside of the Bible. During the week of Unleavened Bread, a fifty-day count to the festival of Shavuot, also commonly known as Pentecost, begins (Leviticus 23:15-16; Deuteronomy 16:9-10). In Judaism today, this time is commonly known as counting the omer, the omer (rm[) being a measurement of grain[1] that was to be offered before the Lord each day during this period. It was to be a time of focused dedication before God, where the priests would traditionally cite Scripture passages such as Psalm 67:1-7, thanking Him for His goodness toward Israel.[2]

However, even though the period of counting the omer was supposed to be one where all could focus on the work of God in anticipation of the Feast of Weeks, by the Second Temple era it became an issue of extreme division between the two major sects of Judaism as seen in the Apostolic Scriptures: the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Each had their own distinct ways of counting the omer from the Feast of Unleavened Bread to Shavuot, and there were frequent deviations between them on what day Shavuot was to be commemorated.

We should not be surprised that in today’s emerging Messianic movement, the same disagreement that existed between the Sadducees and the Pharisees has arisen. The Saddusaical point of view largely died out in the First Century with the destruction of the Second Temple and end of the priesthood (although today’s Karaite Jews do follow the Saddusical method). The Pharisaical view continues to be followed in mainline Judaism today among Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jews with Shavuot remembered on 06 Sivan on the traditional Hebrew calendar.

Whether you are aware of it or not, how one determines the day to observe Shavuot is a complex issue. It is not only a complex issue because of the competing ideologies involved, but also because of the complicated hermeneutical questions that are asked of the interpreter. While one may easily be led to say “The Scriptures actually say this…,” the same person is often unaware of the other interconnected issues that this debate actually involves concerning proper interpretation of the Bible in its full historical and cultural context.

End of sample excerpt.

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J.K. McKee (B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A., Asbury Theological Seminary) is the editor of TNN Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is a Messianic apologist. He is a 2009 recipient of the Zondervan Biblical Languages Award for Greek. He is author of numerous books, dealing with a wide range of topics that are important for today’s Messianic Believers. He has also written many articles on theological issues, and is presently focusing his attention on Messianic commentaries of various books of the Bible.

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