Feasts dates should never be a point of contention or division within the Body of Messiah. The point is to “Keep the Feasts”, for obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22). So whether you keep the Feasts according to the Aviv or the Rabbinical Calendar, go out and keep the Mitzvot/commandment to keep and celebrate the Feasts of Yehovah.

Why Yom Kippur is a Fast

 
Some ministries are promoting the idea that Yom Kippur is not a Day of Fasting.
Yet scripture gives us a clear picture of what was meant when the word “afflicted” was mentioned.
 
Leviticus 23:29
 
“For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people.”
 
In this verse, the word “humble or afflicted” here is תְעֻנֶּ֔ה (te·’un·neh), which comes from the root word 6031a. anah, which means “to be bowed down or afflicted”.
תְעֻנֶּ֔ה (te·’un·neh), from the root word ענה (anah) = to oppress, humiliate; to be afflicted
Strong’s, H6031a = to be bowed down or afflicted, to oppress; humiliate; to be afflicted.
 
Read all of Isaiah 58.
 
Isaiah 58:5, gives a further explanation into what it meant to humble one’s self.
Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?
 
This gives a clear picture of what fasting looked like in the Bible; To humble one’s self:
  • To be bowed down in prayer (humbling one’s self)
  • To wear sackcloth (to humble and humiliate one’s self; which was only done in fasting)
  • To be sitting on and be covered in ashes (to humble and humiliate one’s self; which was only done in fasting)
 
Yet there are some who use Isaiah 58:6 to try to explain that this is not the fast in which Yehovah wants, rather that verses 6-12 are an alternative to fasting.
 
Yet that is a misinterpretation. Verse six implies that fasting was to be accompanied also by the following, not the alternative to fasting.
 
According to Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers: Isaiah 58:6
(6) To loose the bands of wickedness.—The words do not exclude abstinence from food as an act of discipline and victory over self-indulgence, but declare its insufficiency by itself. So in the practice of the ancient Church fasting and almsgiving were closely connected, as indeed they are in Matthew 6:1; Matthew 6:16.
 
Many other Biblical scholars agree that this meant that fasting was right and pure, yet it done with the wrong intention, motives or heart, it was useless.
Acts 27:9, also mentions the fast of the Day of Atonement. Most Christian scholars agree, that the fast mentioned here is referring to Yom Kippur.
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FASTING TIPS