[Study adapted from the video “The Error of Harvestable Fields“, from the series Establishing the Head of the Year.]
I would like to ask for your prayers for a lot of people who are presently misled by what may be called the “Error of Harvestable Fields” theory, with regard to the aviv barley.
I never thought I would see the day that we would have to get into copyright law and what is called fair use theory, but we need to talk about it. Fair use allows for “the limited use of copyrighted material without the permission from the copyright holder for purposes such as criticism, parity, news reporting, research, and scholarship and teaching”. All of which we are going to get into today. So, effectively, what this says is that you can talk about copyrighted material. You just cannot try to pass it off as your own, and there is absolutely no concern with this regard. There is no way I am going to try to pass off Harvestable Fields Theory as my own. I want to get as much distance as possible from Harvestable Field Theory! And I want to ask for your prayers for a lot of probably very sincere believers who are sincerely misled by Harvestable Field Theory.
We need to talk about another advisory also and that is that “truth is stranger than fiction”. So, hold on to your seats! Because fiction has got to make sense and Harvestable Field Theory does not make sense. We have a situation where we have someone boasting about starting the New Year (Rosh Hashana) based on shattered barley which makes absolutely no sense! When I first read this report, I went into deep prayer for two or three hours. It took me two or three hours just to come out of prayer to communicate about it. Then I went back into prayer later.
Now, we have been talking about a lot of things with regard to the calendar because it is a very important subject. And one of the things that we have seen is that there are patterns in Scripture. With regard to the aviv barley, and with regard to the Omer. There are true patterns and false patterns. The true patterns Scripture speaks of is this: Yeshua was first offered as the Wave Sheaf and then this cleared the way for the rest of the harvest. That is also what we see commanded in the Torah. First, we present the Wave Sheaf, then that clears the way for the harvest. Josephus says the same thing. Then we also have false patterns, and we have to talk about it today with regard to copyrighted material.
So, in specific, Devorah’s Date Tree emphasizes that it is not a Karaite organization. However, Ms. Gordon is a Karaite, and the organization is based around Karaite theology. This theology is that first they are going to bring in the harvest, then they are going to produce a sheaf of that harvest. Well, it has got a different symbolism, the symbolism is not of Yeshua. The symbolism here is more like that of: first our brothers in orthodox Judah will come back to the land (as they did in 1948), then they are going to present an anti-Messiah. In other words, first they expect to bring in the harvest, then they are going to bring an anti-sheaf.
However, we know that the Wave Sheaf comes first because we are told this. Not only will we see how this happens in the Torah, but there are also witnesses to it in the renewed covenant. In First Corinthians chapter 15 verses 20 and 23 we read:
Qorintim Aleph (1 Corinthians) 15:20, 23
20 “But now Messiah is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
23 “But each one in his own order: first Messiah the firstfruits, and afterwards those who are Messiahs at His coming.”
So, this is the pattern that we see. First, we bring the Wave Sheaf, then we can bring in the general harvest.
And as we saw in the study on “Josephus, the Talmud and the Omer”, Josephus says the exact same thing. In his book “Antiquities of the Jews; book 3; chapter 10:5. Josephus is talking about the Wave Sheaf offering. He says:
“…they offer their first-fruits of their barley, and that in the following manner: first they take a handful of the ears and dry them [this tells us that the ears were green, not dry ears but wet ears. This is what happened historically], then they beat them small, and purge the barley from the bran [they separate the grain from the chaff]; then they bring one tenth deal to the altar, to Elohim; and, casting one handful of upon the fire, they leave the rest for the use of the priest. And after this it is that they may publicly or privately reap their harvest.”
[Antiquities of the Jews; Book 3; chapter 10:5:]
We see it is not a lot of barley, but first we bring the Wave Sheaf and then that clears the way for the general harvest. Exactly the symbolism we apply with Yeshua.
Now there are alternate theories, and we have to ask for prayer for the Messianic and the believers in Messiah who are presently lost with this other theory. In Matthew 16:6 Yeshua warns us. He says:
Mattityahu (Matthew) 16: 6
6 “Take heed and beware of the leaven [or the false doctrine] of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.”
Meaning of the rabbis (our orthodox Jewish brothers), and of the Karaites (because the Karaites are descended from the Sadducees).
We know that the rabbinic doctrine is that you can harvest your fields early, we talked about this in Josephus the Talmud and the Omer. And we also know that the Karaites have a doctrine of what they call Harvestable Fields. Both of these deviate from the pattern we see in the Torah and they deviate from the pattern that we see with Yeshua. Once again, their theology is that first they want to bring in the harvest (they are going to bring the Jews back home to the land of Israel in the 1948 Zionist movement) and then they are going to bring an anti-sheaf which is symbolic of their anti-Messiah.
Again, this is limited use of copyrighted material. I am not attempting to pass this off as my own.
I was stunned with this report that came out.
This the following report is by Devorah Gordon, she is the leader of Devorah’s Date Tree. They build themselves as the “most reliable and respected new moon and aviv barley reports from the land of Israel”. I would like to clarify, we have absolutely no issue with Ms. Gordon’s or Devorah’s Date Tree’s new moon reports. They are excellent. For full disclosure we send them a small donation every month because we appreciate their quality new moon reporting. They do a quality job of what they report. The problem is that their theology with regard to the barley is misleading a lot of people. We are going to talk all about that in this study.
So, I was stunned because this report came out on the 5th of April. Devorah’s Date Tree claimed that they knew that “the barley fields near Jericho were harvestable because they had found shattered heads of barley.” In other words, the first fruits of the barley had already fallen to the ground! I was shocked, I was stunned! Because that is exactly what we want to avoid.
So, as we get into her report, Ms. Gordon is asked these rhetorical questions, kind of like a catechism. She asks:
“When and where did you go?” and she says well “we carried out this inspection on April the 5th 2021…”
[very interesting that is the day after their Wave Sheaf offering]. “…and examined the wild volunteer barley in the Jordan Valley. We like to check the development of the barley in this region, as the children of Israel celebrated their first Chag HaMatzot [or the Feast of Unleavened Bread] in Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, which is in the Jordan Valley”. – DDT; FAQ
That is a great reason, I agree completely. I wrote to her and asked her why they did not check them. So, they checked them, very good. We are very pleased about that. Now here is her assumption, this is where she starts to get off course. We are good up until this. She says:
“Since we know that there was plenty of barley ready for them to eat by Yom HaNafat HaOmer [or the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering] in this region [she gives a perfectly good reference of Joshua 5:10-12] we think it is important to check here.” – DDT; FAQ
And we agree, this should be an area that we can check. And next week when we talk about the Abib of God calendar, we will talk about why they do not inspect in the area of Jericho. That is a whole separate subject. We will have to discuss Abib of God next week because there are too many variables going on with them.
Now, coming back to this answer, notice they make several assumptions here. And these assumptions are very important to note. They are assuming that the barley that was eaten here in Joshua 5:10-12 was all of the new crop. In fact, we are going to see several reasons why it may not have been all of the new crop. And how it makes a huge difference in how we understand Scripture.
She continues, she asked the rhetorical question:
“Why did you want to inspect the fields again at this time the day after their omer offering?
As Yom HaNafat HaOmer [or the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering] celebrates the barley harvest,” – DDT; FAQ
Okay, now right there! Yom HaNafat HaOmer does not celebrate the barley harvest. Yom HaNafat HaOmer celebrates the first-fruits of barley. It celebrates the very first sheaf of barley as we are going to see in this study.
She is already making assumptions and you have to understand what her theology is. I want to say this respectfully, but when you are reading people’s things you have to understand what spirit motivates them. You have to understand what it is that they want. If they want to help establish Yeshua’s true Kingdom, then there is a possibility that you should be reading their studies. But if they do not want to establish Yeshua’s true Kingdom then you are going to find discrepancies cropping up in their doctrine. That is just how it works, there are a lot of people that do not understand that. It is very critical to pay attention to what people want because that tells you what spirit they are of. And that tells you whether it safe to read their studies and listen to their doctrine. We will talk more about that as we go on.
So, Ms. Gordon says:
“As we know that Yom HaNafat HaOmer [or the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering] celebrates the barley harvest.” – DDT; FAQ
However, you do not know any such thing, and it absolutely DOES NOT. We absolutely object, we absolutely disagree. Here is another assumption:
“Leviticus 23:10, Leviticus 23:14, Deuteronomy 16:9 and Joshua 5:10-12 indicate that we should have harvestable fields by Yom HaNafat HaOmer.” – DDT; FAQ
Once again, you do not know any such thing and those verses absolutely do not say that and we are going to look at all of these verses. That is what we are going to talk about in this study.
So, her assumption is that the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering celebrates the barley harvest, and that these four verses indicate that we should have harvestable fields by the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering. Based on those two assumptions which is essentially one thing in the same, she says the following:
“We wanted to inspect the fields just after Yom HaNafat HaOmer, [the day before, on April 4th] to see whether we have harvestable fields.” – DDT; FAQ
You are going to be shocked when you see what Scripture qualifies as a harvestable field versus what they qualify as a harvestable field.
In our study “Aviv Barley Simplified” we explain this verse in greater detail, if you have not read this study, I strongly recommend it. It will give you a good basis in what Scripture actually says these next four verses mean, and some other verses we are going to look at as well. So, if you want to know the correct interpretation of these verses, I encourage you to check out “Aviv Barley Simplified.”
In Vayiqra (Leviticus) 23:10 Yahweh says:
Vayiqra (Leviticus) 23:10-11
10 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: when you come into the land which I give you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.
11 And He shall wave the sheaf before Yahweh to be accepted on your behalf, on the day after the Sabbath (weekly Sabbath) the priest shall wave it.”
Now this is very easy to misunderstand. We can perfectly understand how it is that the Karaites, and many Messianic, and the Abib of God crew (or whoever else) is misunderstanding this. We can understand how they get this wrong. It is very easy to misunderstand that verse and the next verse coming up as saying; first you bring in the harvest then you produce the sheaf. But we have to take everything in the greater overall context of Scripture and that way we can see why that is a misunderstanding on the Karaites’ part.
So let us drive on. Continuing verse 14 Yahweh says:
Vayiqra (Leviticus) 23:14
14 “You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your Elohim; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generation in all your dwellings.
And upon that the Karaites say:
‘Aha! You see! Yahweh does not limit the harvesting; He only limits the eating.’
And they emphasize this several times. So, the Karaite doctrine is that you can harvest, you just cannot eat until you bring a first fruit offering of that harvest. That is part of their harvestable fields’ doctrine, and we are going to see many reasons why that is wrong, and this is a stumbling block that has been placed for the unwary. And sad to say, a lot of Messianic who need prayer are falling into exactly that same trap.
Part of the problem is that the Karaites are not bringing their first fruits. The Karaites, as we will see, are bringing their second fruits. And there is a qualification on the first fruits offering. We are supposed to bring first fruits that are truly first, and they also have to be tender, green, and young. As we take a look at the Karaite offering and some of the Messianic offerings, we are going to see that they are going to bring what is second. And it is not going to be tender, green, and young. It is going to be hard, and dry, and brown.
But it is very easy to misunderstand this. Now here is the counterbalance. Here is the verse that the Karaites cannot wait to throw out. They cannot deal with this verse and we are going to see them try to explain it away a number of times in this study. In Deuteronomy 16:9-10 Yahweh says:
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 16:9-10:
9 “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the [standing] grain.
10 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks [Shavuot or Pentecost] to Yahweh your Elohim.”
What He is saying here? is something very simple. He is saying when you begin to cut you should begin to count. you should begin your count when you begin to c?ut. And the Karaites say: ‘no, no, no, it does not say that it only says that you are not supposed to eat of it’.
And then again, and again, and again, you will see they try to explain away Deuteronomy 16:9 because it does not work with their theology. It does not work with what they want to see. It is not what they expect to see. They do not want Yeshua to be the Messiah. They do not want the Wave Sheaf offering to speak of Yeshua. Therefore, they have to say: ‘Leviticus 23:10, 11 and 14, those seem to work for us. But Deuteronomy 16: 9-10, we do not like those verses, so we are going to try and explain away Deuteronomy 16:9-10. Because here Yahweh is saying you should begin to count when you begin to cut, but we do not like that, so we are going to try and explain that away.’ That is exactly what is happening, you are going to see a whole bunch of justification.
If you do not know your Scripture and if you do not understand spirits, you need to understand spirits when you are listening to people and listening to theology. There is an old saying; “consider the source”, and when you are considering the source, you need to ask yourself:
1. What do they want?
2. What spirit they are of?
And if you do not ask yourself, what do they want? and what spirit they are of? then you can get talked into a whole lot of things you do not want to get talked into.
Yehoshua (Joshua) 5:10-11
10 “Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal [we do not know exactly when they encamped], then they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho.
11 And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched [kalui; parched aviv barley] on the very same day.”
There are a whole lot of assumptions going on in the Karaites theology. The rabbis go one way with this and the Karaites go another way with this. The rabbis are going to tell you that no matter what day of the week the Passover falls, the Wave Sheaf Offering is the very next day. That is obviously wrong. The Karaites happen to get correct the fact that no matter what day of the week the Passover falls, the Wave Sheaf Offering is going to be on the first day of the following week. (We talk about this in “Aviv Barley Simplified“). So, we agree with the Karaites in that regard.
But notice something very important. The Karaites are going to make the unfounded assumption that the main crop was ripe. It is very important to them; they use this almost as a proof text that the main crop was ripe. That is not proven, and it makes all the difference in the world.
You say, how could that possibly not be proven? Does not everyone know that you eat the Passover matzah with this year’s crop? But you do not eat the Passover matzah with this year’s crop. You eat the Passover matzah (or the Passover unleavened bread) with last year’s crop. Because we are not able to harvest or cook this year’s crop until the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering. It is very important to understand that. This is a key critical error that the Karaites make, and a lot of Messianic are making the exact same mistake right along with them.
Notice here on the top line that the Passover is on the 27th. This year the true Passover was the same pattern as we saw in Joshua 5. This happens approximately one year out of every seven. The Passover on average is going to fall at any given day of the week, but just like it was this year (2021), you had the Passover on the Sabbath and then the Wave Sheaf on the very next day. So, if this had been the plains of Gilgal and Jericho then we would have held the Passover on the Sabbath. Then we would have held the Wave Sheaf Offering on the very next day. Then you could harvest and partake of the new crop, no problem. But that does not necessarily mean that the main body of the harvest was ripe, that is an assumption on the Karaite’s part, and it is probably incorrect. Bear that thought in mind.
Let us see some other things. In Shemote (Exodus) 12:16 we read about the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And Yahweh says:
Shemote (Exodus) 12:16
16 “On the first day there shall be a set-apart rehearsal [set-apart gathering], and on the seventh day there should be a set apart rehearsal [set apart gathering]. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat– only that may be prepared by you.”
Now think about this. What is Yahweh really saying? Is He saying that you cannot harvest barley and you cannot cook it on the set? No, that is not what He is saying. But we are going to see later in this study that the way this looks in later times, when the children of Israel went up to Jerusalem, is a very different situation. So, what He really wants is for us to spend the day with him. He wants us to spend the day with Him in prayer, and worship, and fellowship, and Scripture reading. These kinds of things. He does not want us out harvesting the fields and cooking and eating. He allows us to cook that which we need to eat. He says that. But the general rule is it is a rest day. “No manner of work shall be done on them, but only that which everyone must eat, that only may be prepared by you.” We are going to come back to this again, keep this thought in mind.
So, the Passover matzah, as we said, must be made of the old crop. Also consider that the Wave Sheaf offering must be brought of fresh, tender, young, and green aviv kalui to the priesthood on Yom HaNafat HaOmer [the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering]. Notice! That does not automatically mean that the main crop was ripe. Also, it does not automatically mean that the whole nation made their matzah [their unleavened bread] from the new crop.
Maybe if you were in ancient times, you may have had a lot more time to cook and these kinds of things (unless you are in Jerusalem as we are going to see later). But I believe a lot of people buy their matzah, or they cook their matzah before the feast, or they might cook once or twice more during the feast. Some people really love to cook, so they are going to cook fresh matzah every day during the feast except on Sabbath. But a lot of people do not do that. So, where do we get this Karaite assumption that all of the matzah that is eaten is made from the new crop?
We are going to see later in this study that is very difficult. What if the Passover does not happen on the Sabbath? What if the Passover happens on the first day of the week? Keep that thought in mind.
So, in “Aviv Barley Simplified” we talk about the true understanding of Leviticus (Vayiqra) 2:14. Yahweh specifically says:
Vayiqra (Leviticus) 2:14
14 “If you offer a grain offering of your firstfruits [בִּכּוּרִ֖ים , bik·kū·rîm] to Yahweh, you shall offer for the grain offering of your firstfruits green heads of grain [aviv kalui] roasted on the fire, and Karmel [distressed grain that has turned purple, the color of grapes].
So, we have learned some new things and when we learn new things, we like to change our works. It is not about us being right, it is not about us having the copyrighted answer to everything. We are trying to take the humble position; we are trying to learn, and we are trying to teach that which is right. It is not important that we are right, it is important that we teach what is right.
So, taking a look, Karmel barley is likely distressed grain that has turned purple. Carom refers to grapes, caramel probably refers to the color of grapes. And we will see that in difficult weather, or difficult years, (like this one, 2021), sometimes the barley gets under distress and the grain turns purple. But notice that it says that we have to offer the first fruits. The first fruits have to be tender, green, and young, and they truly have to be first. What we are going to see is that not only do the Karaites consistently offer the second fruits, but also their second fruits are hard, brown, and dry. Not the same thing at all.
Okay, let us drive forward. Let us look at the word bik·kū·rîm. It is going to be emphasized again and again, here it is the first fruits, it is the very first fruits. Think about these terms.
OT 1061: Bikkuwr (bik-koor’) (בִּכּוּרִ֖); the first-fruits of the crop:
KJV- first fruit (-ripe [figuratively]), hasty fruit.
OT 1069: Bakar (baw-kar’); a primitive root; properly, to burst the womb, i.e. (causatively) bear or make early fruit (of woman or tree); also (as denominative from OT: 1061) to give the birthright:
KJV- make firstborn, be firstling, bring forth first child (new fruit).
Now, when you burst the womb, that is the very first. It is not something you take from the middle and give something to someone else and call it the first. It is the very first. It says, in other words, causatively to bear or make early fruit of woman or tree meaning the earliest fruit the earliest offspring the one that opens the matrix the one that bursts the womb. The very first, just like Abel offered the first and finest of his flock. It has to be the first.
Also, as denominative from old testament 1061, “to give the birthright”. Now to whom do we give the birthright (the right of the first born)? You do not just take any one of your children and give them the birthright unless the firstborn is disqualified. Rather you give it to the very first. Karaites missed this completely. King James translates it as “make first born, or be the first-ling, or to bring forth the first child, new fruit.”
So, nothing about this definition says to bring in a general harvest and then pick some of the fruits and bring them to us as an offering. It does not say that. But that is the Karaite definition of first fruits. Just bring us some, just pick some, bring it. Because it is not going to be the first, because they do not offer the first fruits. They offer the second fruits. It is a very different thing that they are trying to say here.
Okay. Ms. Gordon continues:
“What did you find on this inspection?”
“We looked at three fields in the Jordan Valley, all of which had finished developing [meaning it is no longer aviv: tender, green, and young, it is finished developing and is now hard, brown, and dry], and the heads have since shattered.” – DDT; FAQ
When I read this, I had to stop, I had to put it down. Because this is like, forgive me for saying this, it is like la-la land. This is like, okay, your “first-fruits”, the very first of your crop, this is going to take place after your barley has shattered? Kind of like, what planet are we on? This is one of those, it is like, what… what… what? I could not believe my eyes on this thing. “…all of which had finished developing and the heads have since shattered” and they are boasting about it! She says:
“…this means [yay] the earliest fields were harvest ready by Yom HaNafat HaOmer (the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering).” – DDT; FAQ
And I am like, are you for real? Are you serious? Is this actually what you are saying? Okay, you are going to have to let your first fruits fall to the ground in order to harvest them? How is that going to work? How do you propose to let your first fruits fall to the ground before you can harvest your first fruits? Forgive me, I am not understanding.
She continues:
“What did you find on this inspection?”
“We looked at three fields in the Jordan Valley, all of which had finished developing, and the heads have since shattered. [I just cannot believe this. I am going to have to read it over several times, I am getting a headache right now just thinking about it]. This means that the earliest fields were harvest ready by Yom HaNafat HaOmer [the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering], and you should have started the new year on March 14th in the evening.” – DDT; FAQ
Absolutely false. There are all kinds of assumptions going on here and we are going to have to talk about them. We are going to have to deconstruct them. We are going to have to break them down for the few who are listening, and I pray that it will be you.
Now notice, the Karaite dogma of “harvestable fields”, one of the things that it means is that you have to redefine “aviv”.
As we already saw, the term aviv refers to barley that is “tender, green, and young, and it should be the first-fruits to be “bikkurim”. The Karaites are not looking for that at all. The Karaites are looking for something else completely. They are not looking to bring the very first sheaf of aviv so as to clear the way for the rest of the harvest. They are looking to bring in the harvest. So, it already has to be harvest ready. And then they are going to bring an anti-sheaf of that. Something completely different. But if it has got to be harvest ready then it is got to be hard, dry, and brown. And this is why she is rejoicing. She is saying: Well, see you have got shattered barley so therefore at least something must be ripe… because this is shattered. Therefore, there has got to be something out there somewhere that is ready to harvest!
Yay!? This is what they are looking for! I am just like; what does that have to do with tender, young, and green? What does that have to do with aviv barley? What does that have to do with the first fruits? The fruits that open the matrix, the fruits that open the womb. The first fruit of woman or tree. What does that have to do with this? So, yes, I went into prayer for three hours. I was, oh it is just unbelievable.
Okay, here is the other situation we are talking about. Here below you have the Passover on the first day of the week (on the 28th of March for example). So, then you have the Feast of the Passover plus six days of the feast in which you are still eating of the old crop. That is not the case in Joshua 5:10. But in Joshua 5:10 they are assuming that you must absolutely have ripe barley, because you must have ripe barley in the new crop to make the unleavened bread for the people. Because their assumption is that the matzah (the unleavened bread) that you eat on Passover must be of the new crop. That is absolutely false. Take a look at this chart.
You have got the Passover plus six days that you are eating the old crop. Then you have got on the Seventh Day of Unleavened Bread and the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering. I suppose if you can go wandering out into the fields. If you go up to Jerusalem and you could happen to find barley fields, you could spend two or three hours walking to Bethlehem to harvest your barley, and then turn around and walk three hours back. So, you could spend the day walking and harvesting barley, but that is not the purpose of the feast. And Yahweh says on the first day and on the seventh day there shall be a set apart rehearsal. You are supposed to spend that time with Him.
So right away you start to look at this Karaite doctrine. It is just like there are too many things wrong with it. It is just really out there. It is like… who thought this up? And more importantly, why do not they think it through? Why do they not actually walk it through and go through the mental math? To do the mental gymnastics to think through; does this thing actually work, or does it not work? And that is the problem, it does not work.
Now, I want to say this in the right way. I mean, I do not know why we are copyrighting things like this. If you are a barley and new moon report service, what are we copywriting here? We are copywriting Elohim’s witness of the barley? His witness of when He wants the year started? Why are we putting copyright all over it? Are we copyrighting the Jordan River Valley? I do not understand.
One thing we will talk about this next week is notice how hilly the Jordan River Valley is. There are places that are flattened level, but in general there are a lot of hills. But look at the picture they posted (above). We are not pretending that this is our own, this is fair use of copyrighted material. We are talking about it; we are not passing it off as our own. Elohim forbid that we should pass this off as our own. This is Devorah’s Date Tree’s proof that this is the month that the tender, green, and young barley is going to be presented in the Wave Sheaf Offering. While the tender, green, and young firstlings of the barley are already on the ground.
Somebody needs prayer. Somebody’s grain elevator is not going all the way to the top and somebody needs prayer.
Let me just tell you. So, I have been attempting to write to Ms. Gordon for a long time. Trying to write to her gently and in a loving manner, trying to explain. Because really what we want is for everybody to be on the same page here. My dream and the thing I would love to see is for all of the barley groups, or at least all the believing, Hebrew Roots, Messianic, Nazarene barley groups to go out together. And you know, even if they have different qualifications for what constitutes aviv barley, or where they want to find it or whatever, at least they could go out together and not fight. And we could get away from these annual barley wars and these kinds of things.
It is much more difficult when you are dealing with Karaites because they do not believe in Yeshua. Because they want to find something else, they have a different doctrine, they have a different spirit. This different spirit leads them to have different theology. And Yeshua says to take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees [the orthodox rabbis and the Karaites] because they have a different spirit. Therefore, they want something else, and they are going to come up with different interpretations of the same thing you see. And sad to say, they are not always going to be straightforward and honest and helpful and try to do their Christian best, you might say. Forgive my use of the term.
But here Ms. Gordon continues.
“So, since you found shattered barley at Yom HaNafat HaOmer [the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering], does that mean the crop was lost?” – DDT; FAQ
First off what is really going on here is that I have been writing to Ms. Gordon trying to talk with her and with others behind the scenes. Because my heart and my prayer is that we would really like to see all of the barley search teams go out together. We would like to see the barley search teams or at least the believing barley search teams go out as a group. And even if people have different definitions of what aviv barley is or how to apply to apply it, how come the barley search teams cannot help each other? How come they cannot get along (at least the believing ones; the Messianic ones, or the Hebrew Roots, or the Nazarene, or the Ephraimite ones. Whatever you want to call it).
I understand with the Karaites it is a little bit more difficult because they have a different spirit, therefore they have a different theology. They have something different that they want. They have a different concept of what Elohim’s kingdom is and how are we to establish it. Their concept of how to establish the kingdom is a little more black horse than ours, you might say. Let us leave it there for now, we will talk about that at some other point in time.
But what has been happening is, I have been publishing things. There is also a sister Becca Biderman. She is a believer in Yeshua, and she has also been publishing things. And when you read Devorah’s reports, typically speaking, she responds to things that are in our reports. It is very interesting. Becca will go out and inspect the field and then Devorah comes in right after her. Becca says there is aviv barley in this field and aviv barley in that field. Devorah comes right in after her and says, oh no there is no aviv barley in this field, oh no there is no aviv barley in that field. Then Becca will publish a report and then Devorah will come out with something that ridicules it. I will publish a report or a study and then Devorah comes out with something that ridicules it, or countermands it, or something like this. And anyway, so this is what is really happening.
So, you are going to see a lot of these rhetorical catechistical questions that are basically a direct reflection of our study regarding Deuteronomy 16:9. Because they hate this verse, they cannot stand this verse, this verse does not work for them or for their theory. So, again, here is her next rhetorical catechistical question.
“So, since you found shattered barley at Yom HaNafat HaOmer [the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering], does that mean the crop was lost?” – DDT; FAQ
She basically answers: Oh no, no, no!! Oh no! Heaven forbid, oh no! Why would you think a silly thing like that? [Aside from Deuteronomy 16:9!!]. She says, “Oh no, there is no prohibition in the Torah [apart from Deuteronomy 16:9!!] from harvesting when needed. The only prohibition is from eating of the harvest before Yom HaNafat HaOmer.”
Then she cites Leviticus 23:14 because that is one of the verses that she thinks works for her. She likes Deuteronomy 23:10,11,14 as we saw earlier, because it says that the restriction is on eating. So, she likes those verses. But she does not like Deuteronomy 16:9. So, you are going to see repeated multiple attempts to explain it away. This is exactly what we were saying before.
So, the rabbis, they do not like the fact of the Wave Sheaf offering being offered on the first day of the week. They do not like that because there were three days in between Yeshua’s sacrifice and then the first day of the week. So, He was three days and three nights in the tomb, and He was raised on the first day (either as the Sabbath ended, or on the first day of the week, however you want to view it). He was raised as the Wave Sheaf Offering, so the Wave Sheaf Offering is symbolic of Him. The rabbis do not like that, so they have to change the doctrine. Again, this is why Yeshua says to “take heed and beware [be aware, be wary] of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”
Mattityahu (Matthew) 16:16
16 “Take heed and beware [be aware, be wary] of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”
That is why the rabbis say that no matter when the Passover falls during the week, the Wave Sheaf offering is the next day. Okay. Because they have to change the doctrine to make it look that the Scriptures do not speak of Yeshua. That is how they do it.
Okay, it is the same thing concerning the Karaites. They do not want to admit that the Omer has anything to do with Yeshua. So, they are going to change the interpretation. They are going to have to throw out any verses they do not like such as Deuteronomy 16:9. It is just the spirit on them. If we are Renewed Covenant believers, we need to be aware of the spirits and what people’s objectives are.
Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 4:1
1 “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of Elohim: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
Always ask yourself the questions: What do they want? What spirit is with them?
Okay, so her claim is that there is not a prohibition against cutting whenever you want. Let us see what Yahweh says.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 16:9:
9 “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the [standing] grain. [Start counting when you start cutting; when you start cutting that is when you start counting]
But Devorah’s Date Tree says “No, no, no. Heaven forbid, no. It has nothing to do with that, no. You can cut any time you want, you just cannot eat until you bring the Wave Sheaf offering”. You have to be smart enough to know what you are reading. You have to know when someone is encouraging you to break the commandments of Yahweh and to say, no, it is okay.
To paraphrase the serpent: “Did Elohim say you shall surely die? Did Elohim say you shall surely not partake of that tree, really? Oh, come on, just take a bite, it is okay. You can do what you want, it is okay.”
We need to be aware of spirits.
If you would like more study, we have a study called “Let’s Not Break Deuteronomy 16:9”, like how the Karaites are encouraging us to break Deuteronomy 16:9. And we talk all about it, we explain why it is so important to bring the very first sheaf of aviv (medium dough) barley as the Omer. And this is precisely so that the barley farmers with the earliest ripening crops are not going to lose their crops. We talk about it a lot more in that study. Father willing, we will also discuss this in the next study.
I just want to point out to those who are reading this in a future year that is not 2021, this is kind of a representation of what has happened this year so far.
Sister Becca Biderman found a Wave Sheaf of aviv barley in a field near her home where she and her husband live, near the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret). She found it on February the 6th. Then she found aviv barley in actually two more fields. And then Devorah came in after her and said: oh, no, no, no, there is no aviv here, no there is no aviv. We did not find harvestable fields so there is no aviv found. And we are going to leave it there. But I encourage you to read the open letter to Devorah’s Date Tree and ask yourself some basic questions. Becca Biderman also found barley on around the 22nd of February. She and her assistant Cindy found it in Re’im, near the Gaza Strip. And there was another field that they looked at that is close by. We posted a video about it, but they did not report it at the time, they reported later. Both of those fields, or you could say all three of those fields that were found from the 6th of February and the 22nd of February, those would have needed to be harvested very soon. That is why we had to go with the Wave Sheaf Offering on the 28th of February.
The field that was found near the 22nd, that was found to be shattered on the 19th of March, just a little bit less than a month later. Once barley is aviv it does not stay in the head that long. A month later and it is shattered and on the ground. This was the day before the equinox. But now here we have the Karaites boasting about finding shattered barley on the 5th of April. Just unbelievable stuff. It is like saying:
We know we are declaring the head of the new year correctly because we have shattered first-fruits on the ground. So, that means we are going to bring in a general harvest and bring you some of the second fruits in lieu of the first fruits. And we are just going to call them first-fruits.
I am just like, are you kidding me?! Alright, so in 2021 we had some extreme weather patterns that occurred in the land of Israel. We had approximately six weeks of sunny and unseasonably warm weather. December was just much warmer than usual.
But there were six weeks in there and what happens is that the barley starts to advance when the warm weather comes. The barley wants to get going on producing its seeds. So, the early barley flowered, and once it flowers and pollinates it has reached the point of no return. It is like if you and your spouse get pregnant you have committed. And even if, Father forbid, there is a famine that comes along, the wife’s body is still going to do its very best to push out seed, so to speak, to create a viable offspring. And this is what barley plants do. If you have ever seen in the spring, you can get a warm spell and the buds will start to push out. And then you get a cold snap again and the buds will actually pull back in. And you would not think they could do that, but they can do it, and they do it all the time. But once it flowers and once it pollinates it commits. It has reached the point of no return.
So, we had the six weeks of warm and then the early barley that had already committed began to become ripe in the early part of February. That was what you might call a first flush of barley. And then the other barley pulled back the barley that had not yet pollinated, it pulled back. Then as the normal spring weather came around you ended up with a second flush of barley. And here it is Devorah’s Date Tree boasting about the first fruits of the second flush being shattered, and that is how they think to begin the new year. I am like, you have got to be kidding me.
Some people need some prayer. We continue on. She continues with her rhetorical catechistical questions. Here she is headed straight for our study because she does not like Deuteronomy 16:9. She will tell you she likes it, she does not like what it says. She says:
“Does Deuteronomy 16:9 imply that we are not allowed to harvest before Yom HaNafat HaOmer [The Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering]?” – DDT; FAQ
Okay, here is the setup and here is the spike. Check this out, pay close attention. Because they are attempting to explain Deuteronomy 16:9 away. You have to be savvy; you have to be wise to what is going on here. She is attempting to explain away Deuteronomy 16:9 because it does not fit with the picture they want. Because they have a different spirit, that is why they have a different doctrine. She says:
Deuteronomy 16:9 states that we should “count seven weeks from when the sickle commences on the standing grain.” – DDT; FAQ
That part is fine, that is just Scripture. But get ready, here we go. She continues:
“As we know from other verses, that the count to Shavuot is supposed to start on Yom HaNafat HaOmer, that means that; ‘from when the sickle commences on the standing grain’ is being used interchangeably with “Yom HaNafat HaOmer”. – DDT; FAQ
No and no! The term “from when the sickle commences on the standing grain” is only used interchangeably with “the Day of Yom HaNafat Haomer” IF you begin to apply the sickle to the standing grain ON the Day of Yom HaNafat HaOmer.
I mean, come on! What Yahweh is saying is to start the cut when you start the count ON the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering. That is when you start the cut and that is also when you start the count.
What Ms. Gordon is trying to say is:
No, you can start cutting whenever you want. But no matter when you start cutting you are going to start counting on what we say is Yom HaNafat HaOmer, which pertains only to the main body of the harvest. We are not concerned with those first fruits; those belong to some of those peasant people. The Yossi Cohen and his 12 children can just starve to death, we do not care about him, we are not interested in him. We are only concerned with the main body of the harvest and if you want you can harvest those grains early. Deuteronomy 16:9 does not apply to you. No, it only applies to you if it is convenient. If it is not convenient then do not ask us to change our theology to acknowledge Yeshua. Because then you would be asking us to change our theology to acknowledge Yeshua. You would be asking us to change the way we are looking at things. To acknowledge first bring the Wave Sheaf and that clears the way for the harvest. We do not want to do that. We want to bring in the harvest and then we will bring you something that more or less, kind of sort of, resembles a Wave Sheaf. Even though it is no longer tender, young, and green but is hard, and dry, and brown.
It is just pure and simple justification, that is all it is. They are attempting to explain away Deuteronomy 16:9 because they do not like it. It does not fit with their other assumptions, that is all that is going on here. But there are all kinds of Messianic that are like: Oh wow, this is so great! I just really love this! Because, you know, they claim to be the most respected and reliable new moon and barley service, so they must be right. After all, the Karaites have been doing this since the 1980s. Therefore, this must be the original calendar that was used in the first century. The calendar that was handed down to Moshe in the days of the wilderness of Sinai because they have been doing this since the 1980s!
“…as we know from other verses that the count from Shavuot [she means the count to Pentecost] is supposed to start on Yom HaNafat HaOmer.” [That part is correct]. “That means that from when the sickle commences on the standing grain” is being used interchangeably with “Yom HaNafat HaOmer…” – DDT; FAQ
And that is absolutely false. It only means that if you do not start cutting before then. But if you start cutting before then, your count begins when you start to cut.They just they cannot handle Deuteronomy 16:9, they do not like it. And they get into a lot of justification here, because the rabbis have historically always permitted people to cut early.
So, it is a very interesting situation here. You have Devorah’s Date Tree, which of course is not a Karaite organization but subscribes to Karaite theology. And now of course you have the Karaites which claim they do not believe in the Talmud, but they use the Talmud as a historic reference. They assume things from the Talmud that are based upon the mistaken assumptions of the Orthodox rabbis. So, effectively here, you have your Sadducees or your Karaites acting, in a sense you, might say they are sort of joined at the hip with the Pharisees (the Orthodox rabbis). That is what is really going on. And if you never stop to ask yourself the question: What do they want? And what spirit or spirits are they of? You might consider doing this. And we will talk about Abib of God in a next study. They have got a mix of spirits. It is very interesting, but let us leave it there.
So now, she says in one of her posts:
“It has always been fine to harvest whenever you want, there has never been any prohibition”. – DDT
What is she talking about? She is talking about the Talmud. In our study “Josephus the Talmud and the Omer” we talk more about the Talmud than you probably ever wanted to know. The Talmud gives me a headache just to read it, there is so much talking out of both sides of their mouth here, it is just absolutely amazing. And again, their purpose here is to break Deuteronomy 16:9 and this is what Devorah’s Date Tree is referring to. Let us look at the Babylonian Talmud. So, the MISHNAH is allegedly, at least parts of it, supposed to be dictated by Yahweh in the Sinai. We talk about why that is not the case. But when you see words in all caps in the Talmud, Soncino version, that is the Mishna. And that is supposed to be their authoritative document. Even though it has been edited, redacted, and censored. But if you are going to be an Orthodox Jew, you must believe this. Apparently if you are a Karaite Jew, you must make inferences from it. Because they consider it to be the “quote-unquote” historic record.
“AFTER THE OMER WAS OFFERED THEY [PRIESTS] USED TO GO OUT AND FIND THE MARKET OF JERUSALEM ALREADY FULL OF MEAL AND PARCHED CORN [OF THE NEW PRODUCE];
THIS, HOWEVER, DID NOT MEET WITH THE APPROVAL OF THE SAGES. SO, R. MEIR. R. JUDAH SAYS, THEY DID SO WITH THE APPROVAL OF THE SAGES.”
[Babylonian Talmud: Menachot 67B Soncino version: MISHNAH]
What are they talking about here? What they are really saying here is that the rabbis know that you are not supposed to cut prior to the Omer offering. But they let people do it. And that is why the rabbis would go on the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering to offer it first thing in the morning. Because they are just going to get her done. So, they go and offer the Wave Sheaf Offering first thing in the morning. And as soon as they emerge, they go out into the market square in Jerusalem, oh and it is already packed. It is already filled. You have already got all these barley products, and roasted barley products, and dried barley, and harvested barley. Where is this coming from? It is coming from places like Re’im down on the Gaza strip area. Down lower where it is warm. It is also coming from the Jordan River Valley where it is warmer.
So, they would allow these people to harvest their barley early, just so long as they did not eat of it until after the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering. But then as soon as that Wave Sheaf was offered, people are out in the market buying it up, eating it up, celebrating, because of the new harvest, you could eat it now. But Yahweh did not say you could cut it. And this is the problem. So how are you going to get the market full? If you have ever worked in market produce, you know, you have got to cut it ahead of time and the barley takes time to harvest. And it takes time if it is green, it is got to be dried and then it is got to be threshed and it is got to be sacked. Or if you are going to roast it, it takes time to roast it. And so here they come out from offering the Wave Sheaf offering, and it has already filled the marketplace. Stalls are filled with roasted barley, and dried barley, and parched barley, and all kinds of barley products.
Of course, the rabbis cannot say, well, we are fine with that. So, they have to disapprove, but they still allow it. That is why they are called the Sages. It is because they allow it.
“…THIS HOWEVER DID NOT MEET WITH THE APPROVAL OF THE SAGES. SO, R. MEIR. R.
JUDAH SAYS, THEY DID SO WITH THE APPROVAL OF THE SAGES.”
[Babylonian Talmud: Menachot 67B Soncino version: MISHNAH]
You know, the all Talmud is like that. Anyway, to go on. Now check this out. What is this but to say you can break Deuteronomy 16:9?
“ONE MAY REAP [BEFORE THE OMER OF THE CORN] [one may reap before the Omer offering of the barley] IN IRRIGATED FIELDS IN THE PLAIN, BUT ONE MAY NOT STACK IT. [You can cut whenever you want and the count does not begin, this is classic rabbinical thinking].
THE MEN OF JERICHO USED TO REAP [BEFORE THE OMER] WITH THE APPROVAL OF THE SAGES, AND USED TO STACK IT WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE SAGES, BUT THEY DID NOT FORBID THEM.”
[Babylonian Talmud: Menachot 71a Soncino version: MISHNA:]
So, what are we really talking about here? Same thing. The rabbis they have their ways, and they did it wrong historically in the past. It is contained in the Talmud, or at least in the edited, redacted, censored version of the Talmud which uh rabbi Judah HaNasi decided that we should have. And now the Karaites point to this as the historic record. See, they always did it wrong in the past, therefore we should be able to do it wrong today. That is really what is happening. If you never stop to ask yourself the question: What do they want? What spirit is with them? Are they seeking to establish Yeshua’s true kingdom? Then you can sure get talked into a whole lot of stuff.
So, Ms. Gordon says:
“This understanding that we can harvest before Yom HaNafat HaOmer also fits with what we see in the fields.” – DDT; FAQ
What she is saying here is that this understanding that we can break Deuteronomy 16:9 by harvesting whenever we want also fits with our doctrine that we must have harvestable fields by the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering.
That is what she is really saying. This understanding that we can harvest before the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering (which is prohibited by Deuteronomy 16:9) also fits with our interpretation of what we see in the fields. Which is to say that you have to be fine with having the first fruits of your barley scattered on the ground, so you can offer the second fruits of your barley and pretend that they are your first-fruits, which is, forgive me, rabbinic Judaism in a nutshell, taking one thing and passing it off as something else.
A lot of Messianic are like, Wow, this is like so great, you know. Because I am just so glad to have her telling me what to think. Because you know, uh soft dough, medium dough, hard dough, I do not know. So, I am so glad Ms. Gordon is telling us what to think and how to think it. Because we know that she is teaching the original calendar that was used in the first century and was taught back in the days of Moses. Because the Karaites have been doing this since 1985. They have been doing it wrong since 1985. (Remember, ask the questions).
So, she says:
“…Take for example this year, we did not have anything resembling harvest ready fields…” – DDT; FAQ
Again, she wants harvest ready fields, that is the first mistake. She is not seeking the Wave Sheaf offering. She is not judging by the Wave Sheaf offering. She is not looking for an opportunity to bring the first medium dough barley to the priest to clear the way for the rest of the harvest. She is looking for the first fruits of barley to already have dropped and fallen to the ground, so she can bring in the harvest, and then bring a little bit of that barley to the priest. And they accuse us of substitution theology!
“…Take for example this year, we did not have anything resembling harvest ready fields [which is what we want she would say] by Yom HaNafat HaOmer last month [she puts February 28th] and this Yom HaNafat HaOmer (April the 4th) we found fields that had already shattered. [Yay! I am thinking what planet are you on] As we know [you do not know any such thing] the year begins when we have harvestable by Yom HaNafat HaOmer.” [You do not know any such thing]. [Then she quotes the four verses we have already looked at]. They would have obviously needed to harvest before Yom HaNafat HaOmer.” – DDT; FAQ
And I am thinking, yes absolutely, you would have needed to harvest like a month before your Yom HaNafat HaOmer. And we have sent her I do not know how many emails and videos. We make them for her because we know she watches our stuff, but there are no changes. The barley that was found on February the 6th, she is fine with that being on the ground. The barley that was found on February 21st and 22nd, she is fine with that being on the ground. She is fine with the barley she found in the Jordan River Valley on April 5th being on the ground. Because she has a different spirit. She wants something else; she does not want a witness of Yeshua. So, I mean, what do you want? It is the question; Jews ask it all the time. What do you want?
So, there was an old saying. I am probably dating myself, but it is okay. When I was a child the Vietnam War was going on and there was some American Major. He said some famous quote, He was actually misquoting an earlier quote by a Frenchman. And He said:
“It was necessary to destroy the village in order to save it”.
It was a big thing in the media, it is necessary to destroy the village in order to save it. Well, it is like she is saying:
“It is necessary to let the first-fruits, the firstlings, the barley that bursts the womb, it is necessary to let that fall to the ground in order to harvest it”.
Here is the problem. I think we already talked about this but just to say it again, you know they are not presenting the first fruits, they are presenting second-fruits. And they are not presenting barley that is tender, young, and green. They are presenting barley that is hard, and dry, and brown. Because they want the fields to be harvest ready. That is why they are looking for harvestable fields. That is why she is saying it is the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering which celebrates the fields being ready to harvest. No. The Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering celebrates the Wave Sheaf. If Yahweh had wanted it to celebrate the day of the harvestable fields, He would have called it the Day of Harvestable Fields. He did not call it that, He calls it the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering, because its purpose is to celebrate the Wave Sheaf.
Just unbelievable. It is just unbelievable. We are going to let the tender, green, young firstlings fall to the ground and that is when we are going to celebrate. Some people need prayer, forgive me. I am just like some people need prayer and the Messianic need prayer.
Let us review. So, Bikkuwr from Old Testament 1069; the “first” fruits of the crop, the “first” fruit, the “first” ripe, the “hasty” fruit. It is the barley that bursts the womb, it is the “early” fruit of a woman or tree, it is the “early” fruit of the barley field. We talk about the birthright; it goes to the very “first”. To be a “firstling”, of “first” child. Nothing about this says first bring in the harvest and then take a handful of it and bring it to the priest. Unbelievable.
Here you have got on the left immature aviv barley, that is what it is supposed to look like. And on the right is what you had been declared as aviv in 2017 and then compare that to her picture of the Jordan River Valley (center). How are you going to bring your first fruits? You get tweezers and some spray paint, paint it back green? What are you going to do here? How is this tender, young, and green? What are we copyrighting anyway, the Jordan River Valley? Someone’s grain elevator is not going all the way to the top.
Let us ask ourselves another question. Here is a very important question. How come we never see any of this being dealt with in Ruth? You never see the males go up to Jerusalem in Ruth. Here we have the Karaite doctrine is first you are going to bring in the harvest, then you are going to bring an anti-sheaf, and they base this on Joshua 5:10-12. It kind of works in Joshua, not really but I suppose you could say that it works, if you are willing to sacrifice on the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering which is also the First Day of Unleavened Bread, Yahweh says only do what you need to cook. If you are going to spend the whole day going out and foraging for barley and this kind of a thing, I suppose you could make that work, when the entire nation of Israel was there concentrated in Jericho or in Gilgal. But it does not work in Jerusalem, it does not work after you receive your inheritance. Let us take a look, there is some really important stuff here. Let us take a look in Root (Ruth) 1:22. It says:
Root (Ruth) 1:22
22 “So, Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned from the country of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.”
Now some very important things. According to this doctrine of harvestable fields and the way some other Messianic groups are also playing it, this is the beginning of the barley harvest, right? So, what we should see is them bringing in the harvest, and then they take a harvest of the sheaf and go up to Jerusalem. But you never see a record of Boaz or any of the other males going up to Jerusalem. They never leave, why is that? We will answer that in just a second.
Root (Ruth) 2:4
4 “Now Boaz came from [oh?] Bethlehem. [oh, I thought it was going to say Boaz came from Jerusalem. But no] and said to the reapers, Yahweh be with you and I answered him Yahweh bless you”.
According to the Karaite theology you would expect to see them bring in the harvest and then the males would take the first fruits up to Jerusalem. But they never do that. Boaz does not come back from Jerusalem, Boaz comes from Bethlehem, and the males never leave. Why do the males never go up? You do not see them juggling this in Ruth. So now, in Ruth 2:14, Ruth is feeling like an outsider. So:
Root (Ruth) 2:14
14 “Now Boaz said to her at mealtime, Come here and eat of the bread, and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar. So, she sat beside the reapers, and he passed the parched grain to her; and she ate and was satisfied, and kept some back.”
Now notice, you have got reapers, and this is a several week process. This is another thing, the Karaites, they act like everybody had mechanical combines, gasoline combines. You know, even with a gasoline combine, if you have got barley fields, it still takes you several days, if not several weeks, to bring in your harvest. Back then in ancient times it took weeks to bring in your harvest. How can you do this? I mean the time frames just do not work. It is mathematically impossible. We showed this back in the “Aviv Barley Simplified” study and this is unbelievable, we are going to see it again here.
So, Boaz said to Root (Ruth) at mealtime, “Come here and eat of the bread and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar. So, she sat beside the reapers”. Because they are actively reaping. They have already gone up to Jerusalem, they have already presented the Wave Sheaf. Now they have come back from Jerusalem because now the way is cleared for the barley harvest.
So, now they are reaping, and he passed the parched grain to her. Because why? Because the barley is still green, it is not like that barley in Jericho. It is still green. And so, she ate and was satisfied and kept some back. Again, you never see the males going up to Jerusalem. Let us continue, verse 23 says:
Root (Ruth) 2:23
23 “So, she stayed close by the young women of Boaz, to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest; and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.”
So, what happened? They took the Wave Sheaf up to Jerusalem. I do not know if it came from Bethlehem, but they used to harvest it in the area of Jerusalem when they could. Bethlehem is about a two- or three-hour walk, depending on how fast you walk, and whether you are able-bodied or whether you are elderly, or whatever. But Bethlehem is close. But there are other places that are not close, that it takes a much longer time.
We do not see them juggling this in Ruth. Did they just conveniently leave it out? No, it is because they already presented the Wave Sheaf offering, now it is time for the barley harvest until Pentecost. So first they harvest the barley and then they harvest the wheat, because the two grow together. But the barley comes ripe sooner, and then the wheat comes ripe shortly after that. And then you know that the wheat is going to be ready by the time of Shavuot. And again, we see that exactly this year. Those of us who celebrated the Wave Sheaf Offering on the 28th of February, we are in sync with this other pattern. Those people who just offered their Wave Sheaf Offering on the 4th of April, they are way out of sync. Way, way out of sync. They will not admit it, but we will show you proof as we go along.
Okay, so the logistics here are impossible. Here we have Google Maps. You can see Bethlehem just a little bit south of Jerusalem. It is only about a two- or three-hour walk. But if you are going to come from someplace like Re’im, down near the Gaza strip, that is like a 20 or a 21-hour walk. That is like two long days if you are hoofing it, or maybe it is three days if you have got an elderly male, because all males are going to go up. So, even if you are older man, maybe you do not have donkeys to ride, maybe you have to walk, that is two or three days.
Now, what if you live in Dan, in the north? That is 44 hours you have to walk. Is that four days, five days? Maybe longer, if you have got elderly, depending. Maybe the time you have to arrive is break over Sabbath. So, you are talking almost a week, four or five, maybe six days.
Okay what if you live in Eilat? 62 hours it says, if you take the most direct route. What is that six days? Seven if you have got elderly. And if you do seven you have got to do eight, because you have to rest on the Sabbath. You are not going to walk on your way to Jerusalem on the Sabbath. So, you are talking a week there, and a week back, and then a week there. That is three weeks. Let us see how this fits. Now here is this year, which again, this year matches the pattern as was seen in Joshua 5.
You had the Day of the New Moon on a Sabbath. Two weeks later, on the 14th of Aviv (the 14th day of the first month), you had the Passover. And once Israel received its inheritance, all the males had to be in Jerusalem.
So, let’s look at distances. If you are in Re’im you had to leave on the 23rd. You had to leave four days in advance. If you are in Eilat, you maybe had to leave the week before and then rest on the Sabbath. So, you are going to spend a whole week, if not longer, on your way up to Jerusalem. You are going to get to Jerusalem, you cannot harvest, and then the very next day is the Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering. and the First Day of Unleavened Bread. Now you hypothetically can harvest, but what are you going to do? You are going to go search for some field to go? You are going to walk two or three hours to Bethlehem, to go visit Boaz and see if he will let you harvest some of his barley? And then you are going to bring it back and you are going to cook it? No. You are going to spend your time there in Jerusalem because it is a Feast. It is not the Feast of Walking To and Fro.
You are definitely not going to go back to Eilat. You would not even get there by the Seventh Day of Unleavened Bread, and then you would have to turn around and come right back. I mean, the Karaite theology is impossible.
Again, the second day of Unleavened Bread, yes you can harvest. But the men are all in Jerusalem. So, who is harvesting the fields back home? The women? How gallant, how noble, how chivalrous of you. Yeah! Yay! All the men are going to go to Jerusalem have a big party! Woohoo, yeah, yeah! Hey, let the women do all the work! That is Karaite theology for you.
Third day of Unleavened Bread, same thing. You can harvest but where are you going to get your grain? You are not back home on the farm; you will have the women and children and the elderly to harvest! Fourth day, same. Fifth day, same. Sixth day, same. Seventh day is a day of rest, do not be harvesting on that day!
You technically can harvest but it is a set apart rehearsal. And all the males are supposed to be in Jerusalem. If you live in Re’im, let us even take a mid-range or in Dan, you could not even get home between the first day and get back. Maybe if you had a horse, but horses were expensive. People did not have a lot, horses were expensive back in ancient time, they eat a lot.
Okay, Feast is over. Now that men can travel home, how far away do you live? Bethlehem, no problem. It is a snap two or three hours unless you are elderly or disabled or something. But if you are going to live in Re’im, it is going to take you a couple days. You live in Dan it is going to take you four days. You live in Eilat it is going to take you seven or eight days to get home.
Now let me see your barley according to the Karaites. You could harvest the barley, but the men are not around to help with the job. So, you are going to leave that to the women and children and the elderly, bringing in the harvest? Really? You are going to leave that to the women and children and elderly, that is what you are going to do? What happened to one flesh? What happened to love your wife as you love yourself? It does not work; it does not work.
Okay, now let us take a look. The Karaites are going to say, oh well, that is your calendar. Let us look at our calendar. Here is how you would do it if you were Karaite or Abib of God or the other people that follow Abib of God. We will focus on the Abib of God in the next study because they have too many factors going on.
So, Devorah said you should have started your new month on the 14th of March, that is your Chodesh typo there, okay. But then you have got Passover two weeks later on the 28th. Passover in Jerusalem, the men have got to be in Jerusalem. How many days away do you live? You got to start walking, you got to start hoofing it. Must be in Dan because we are leaving four days before. If it is Eilat you are going to leave seven or eight days before. You give yourself time to travel up to Jerusalem.
Well, you can’t harvest for the whole week of travel because you’re not even home. So, how can you harvest? Even if you leave your women and children to do the harvest, how are they going to get it up to Jerusalem for the Wave Sheaf offering? It does not work! It is mathematically impossible; it does not work. Someone’s grain elevator is not going all the way to the top. Someone’s pack of French fries is a few short, as our sister Becca would say.
Then you have got the Wave Sheaf Offering and the Seventh Day of Unleavened Bread. Again, the men have to be in Jerusalem. You can harvest but you are in Jerusalem, you are not home on the farm. What are you going to do? You know? You… call the Starship Enterprise to beam you home so you can harvest the barley? Well, you cannot even do that because it takes several weeks to bring in the harvest. As we saw in Ruth, it takes several weeks to bring in the harvest of barley and the harvest of wheat. That is what you would normally do. The Wave Sheaf offering is presented, now the barley harvest can begin. So, you harvest your barley and then your wheat and then it is time for Pentecost. Then the males go back up. But we did not see them doing that in Ruth and they should not be doing it here either.
So then on the fourth they offer their Wave Sheaf offering. Notice where they had in Jericho the shattered barley heads. Devorah is like Yay! The barley is shattered and on the ground! Again, that is a Talmud like scenario. That is why in the Talmud it says that they would harvest early in Jericho and in the Jordan River Valley. Because the barley ripened sooner.
So, they have been breaking Deuteronomy 16:9 historically and they should not be doing that. So, what a mess!
Okay, now you have your Wave Sheaf offering. Now you can harvest, but how you going to do that? Well, you do not actually have barley down in Eilat, but you do have it in Re’im. So, you have the Wave Sheaf Offering, and then you walk for about two days home in Re’im or maybe three days depending. And then you can harvest. And you have got a day or two and then you have got the Sabbath. Again, who is bringing in the harvest, is it the women?
Okay, so this is the kind of problems we get into with this false Karaite theology. That is why Yeshua said in Matthew 16:6 to “take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees”. Ask yourself. What do they want? Do they want to establish Yeshua’s kingdom, or do they not want to establish Yeshua’s kingdom? Once again, the true pattern is Yeshua was offered as the Wave Sheaf to clear the way for the harvest of believers. That is the true pattern. First present the Wave Sheaf, then comes the harvest. And that is the opposite of what Devorah’s Date Tree is teaching: first you bring in the harvest then you bring an anti-sheaf symbolic of Judah coming back to the land of Israel in 1948. And someday we will see their anti-Messiah.
What we should do is we should be careful not to let Devorah, or Abib of God, or anyone talk us out of the true face value meaning of Deuteronomy 16:9-10. Because Yahweh Elohim says:
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 16:9-10
9 “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the [standing] grain.
10 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to Yahweh your Elohim…” [Just like they did in Ruth]
Start the count when you start the cut, and when you start the cut that is when you start to count. And the Karaites may say no, but who are we listening to? Are we listening to Yahweh or are we listening to the Karaites? Our Jewish brothers have an ancient maxim: “Whoever’s Calendar you keep, that is who you worship.”
So, we need to ask ourselves: Why are we doing what we are doing? Are we doing things because Yahweh Elohim said so? Or do we only think that Yahweh said to do that, but really there is another hidden occult, hidden reason for doing so.
