בס״ד
Book Available for Purchase here
“[Yeshua] was deserving to be the Messiah son of Joseph… However, due to his own breakthroughs and the baseless hatred that was among the Israelites towards him, he became disfigured and turned into a foreigner. He became marred and fell from the Yesod of holiness to the Yesod of the kelipah… And also he himself [Yeshua] was certainly the secret (סוד) of Mashiach ben Yoseph… In the last generation, Mashiach ben Yoseph is not pushed away…”
-Rabbi Moshe David Valle, Sefer HaLekutim Vol. 1, p. 83-84, 242
“Because of this, since he [Adam] sinned with the Tree of Knowledge, death was decreed upon him to rectify the act of eating from the Tree of Knowledge. And just as death was decreed upon Adam to rectify the sin, so too was death decreed upon the generation of the Wilderness, as it is said, “In this Wilderness [they shall die]…,” to rectify the sin (Numbers 14:35). And it was also fitting for Mashiach ben Yosef to die like Adam HaRishon on the sixth day after midday (Friday afternoon), in order to rectify everything with complete rectification. And from there onward, the two trees [or ‘sticks’], the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, will be joined together to become one complete unity.”
-Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, Razin Genizin, p. 133
יום הששי = ישו הנצרי = 671
“The Sixth Day” = “Yeshu HaNotzri” (“Jesus of Nazareth”) = 671
-Rabbi Abraham Abulafia, Mafteach HaChochamot, Noach, p. 64
When was Yeshua crucified and resurrected?
We know that it cannot be the time that Christianity says, because they follow the Roman Gregorian/Julian (solar) calendar and not the Biblical (lunisolar) calendar, in fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy about the Beast (and Antichrist) changing “the Law and the times” (Daniel 7:25). The NT clearly says that Yeshua was crucified on Passover Eve, or the fourteenth of the month of Nissan. Jewish tradition also confirms this,
“The Gemara raises a difficulty: But isn’t it taught in a baraita: On Passover Eve they hung Yeshu the Nazarene…”
-Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin 43a:20b
Not only was Yeshua crucified (“hung”) on Passover Eve, when the Passover Lambs were sacrificed, but exactly that year, Passover corresponded with the weekly Shabbat (Sabbath).
“Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”
-John 19:31
If Yeshua was buried on Erev Pesach, ‘Good Friday’ afternoon, and he resurrected on the first day of the week (‘Easter Sunday’), that means he resurrected on the third day from his burial and also on the first day of the Omer (the sixteenth of Nissan).
“Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared… He is not here, but is risen! Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again…’ But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.”
-Luke 24:1, 6-7, 21
Resurrecting on the third day is a fulfillment of this prophecy,
“After two days he will revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in His presence.”
-Hosea 6:2
King Hezekiah, who was worthy to be Moshiach Ben Yosef, was healed from a sickness unto death on a third day (2 Kings 20:5). David hid in a field until the third day (1 Samuel 20:5). The spies sent to Jericho also hid for three days (Joshua 2:22). The Pharoah’s cup-bearer was restored to his position out of prison on the third day (Genesis 40:13). Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days (Jonah 1:17). Abraham recovered from his circumcision on the third day, which was also Passover (Rashi, Genesis 18).
“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
-Matthew 12:40
How do we reconcile a resurrection on the third day with the verses describing three full days of burial?
There is a rule within Jewish Torah Law which says that, “part of a day is like a whole day.”
“… He should shave on the thirty-first day, so that his Naziritism be thirty whole days; but if he shaved on the thirtieth day, he has satisfied his Naziritism for we say that “part of the day is like the whole day.””
-Mishnah, Eduyot 7:5
Biblical days begin with the evening (Genesis 1:5). If Yeshua was buried on the fourteenth, and resurrected on the morning of the sixteenth, then part of those two days is considered like two whole days in addition to the fifteenth, making three halachic days (which include nights). This is the only way that the resurrection can be both on/in the third day and also legitimately considered as a ‘full’ three-day burial.
What precedent do we have for the significance of a three day period from Erev Pesach? Rashi comments that the original three-day Fast of Esther was on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth of Nissan.
“Mordechai passed. [I.e., he transgressed] the law by fasting on the first festive day of Pesach, for he fasted on the fourteenth, the fifteenth, and the sixteenth, for the letters were written on the thirteenth day.”
-Rashi on Esther 4:17
Esther fasted for three days from the fourteenth to the sixteenth of Nissan before approaching the King and ultimately, saving all of the Jews. So too, Yeshua fasted on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth in the grave. ‘Easter’ (Sunday) has an obvious common origin as the name, ‘Esther.’ Esther’s final prayer before approaching the King quoted Psalm 22, just as Yeshua’s final words before his death on the cross (Mark 15:34).
“The Gemara returns to its explanation of the verses of the Megilla. The verse states with regard to Esther: “And she stood in the inner court of the king’s house” (Esther 5:1). Rabbi Levi said: Once she reached the chamber of the idols, which was in the inner court, the Divine Presence left her. She immediately said: “My G-d, my G-d, why have You forsaken me?”“
-Megillah 15b:7
“And about the ninth hour Yeshua cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama azavtani?” that is, “My G-d, My G-d, why have You forsaken me?” … And Yeshua cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit.”
-Matthew 27:46, 50
“… But when he will see that the Messiah the son of Joseph is slain, he will say to Him, ‘Lord of the Universe, I ask from You only the gift of life [for Messiah son of Joseph].” He will answer him: By your life, before you even asked, your father David has already prophesied this concerning you’, as it is said, “He asked life of You, You gave it him, [even length of days for ever and ever]” (Psalms 21:5).”
-Talmud (Bavli), Sukkah 52a:6
Dew of Resurrection
“And Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: From each and every utterance that emerged from the mouth of the Holy One, Blessed be He [at Sinai], the souls of the Jewish people left their bodies, as it is stated: “My soul departed when he spoke” (Song of Songs 5:6). And since their souls left their bodies from the first utterance, how did they receive the second utterance? Rather, G-d rained the dew upon them that, in the future, will revive the dead, and He revived them, as it is stated: “You, God, poured down a bountiful rain; when Your inheritance was weary You sustained it” (Psalms 68:10).”
-Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin 88b:6
In Judaism, Dew is considered as the medium by which G-d resurrects the dead. Jews say a special Prayer for Dew specifically on the first day of Passover (the fifteenth). Not only that, but we change our daily liturgy precisely on this day.
Exactly in the evening of Pesach, we stop praying for dew in the Amidah (Birkas HaShanim, Maariv). We only continue daily prayers for dew (in Gevuros) until after the special Prayer for Dew in the late morning (Musaf) prayers of Pesach day. We temporarily cease praying for the Dew of Resurrection from exactly the same time that Yeshua was crucified into the only full day that he remained in the grave. The first morning (Shacharit) that we continue praying for dew is the exact time that he was resurrected.
What is the connection between dew and the morning in the Bible?
“… In the morning there was a fall of dew about the camp. When the fall of dew lifted, there, over the surface of the wilderness, lay a fine and flaky substance [the Manna], as fine as frost on the ground.”
-Exodus 16:13-14
Besides the fact that Dew naturally comes towards the morning, the Dew which covered the Manna came in the morning. Interestingly, the day that the Manna ceased is also the same day that Yeshua resurrected (the sixteenth of Nissan). The measurement used for both the Manna and the firstfruits offering in the Temple is what’s called an, ‘Omer.’
עומר = ישו = 316
What is some other significance of Yeshua resurrecting on the sixteenth of Nissan?
The sixteenth of Nissan is the day on which the firstfruits offering was brought to the Temple, marking the beginning of the year’s harvests. This is called the first day of the Omer count.
״Speak to the children of Yisra᾽el, and say to them, When you are come to the Land which I give to you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring an omer of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest: and he shall wave the omer before the L-rd, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.״
-Leviticus 23:10-11
There was a tremendous dispute between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, especially during the days of Yeshua, about how to interpret, “on the morrow after the sabbath.” The Sadducees interpreted it literally to mean the day after a weekly, seventh day Sabbath. The Pharisees interpreted it to be referring to the day after the sabbatical rest (“you shall not do any work of labor,” Leviticus 23:7) of the first day of Pesach (i.e. the sixteenth of Nissan).
Yeshua taught us to follow the Pharisees (Matthew 23:1-3). However, so as to silence all doubt, it’s apparent that in the year Yeshua was crucified, both opinions converged. Exactly that year, the day after the weekly Sabbath (Sunday) was also the day after the first day of Pesach (the sixteenth).
No matter whose opinion would’ve led the Temple service at that time, Yeshua was resurrected on the day of the firstfruits offering in the Temple, the first day of the Omer.
These were the firstfruits of the first (barley) harvest in the Spring, a perfect picture in nature of the resurrection of life out of the ground and upwards.
This is why Yeshua is called, “the firstfruits” of the resurrection, or, “the firstborn from the dead,”
“But now the Messiah is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in the Messiah all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Messiah the firstfruits, afterward those who are Messiah’s at his coming.”
-Shaul, 1 Corinthians 15:20-23
Just as the burying of the seed represents burial and the growth of the plant represents resurrection, so does the offering of the firstfruits in G-d’s House represent ascension.
Ascension of the Messiah
“There were nine who entered the Garden of Eden [Heaven] alive, viz.: Enoch the son of Yered, Elijah, the Messiah, Eliezer the servant of Abraham, Hiram, king of Tyre, Ebed-melech the Cushite, Jabeẓ the son of R. Judah the Prince, Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, and Seraḥ the daughter of Asher. Some say: Also R. Joshua b. Levi.”
-Talmud Bavli, Tractate Derekh Eretz Zuta 1:18
“At the entrance of Rome and so on.” See Rashi, and based on what is explained in the Midrash Rabba, for the Messiah was born already during the time of the destruction of the Temple and was taken from among men to the Garden of Eden.”
–Maharsha, Chidushei Aggados, Sanhedrin 98a
The Talmud tells us that the Messiah was one of only nine to ever ascend to Heaven alive and that this happened during the “time of the destruction of the Temple.” If Yeshua resurrected on the sixteenth of Nissan, on which day did Yeshua ascend alive to Heaven?
Although we aren’t told explicitly on which day of the week or month this occurred, we are told how many days transpired between his resurrection and his ascension.
“to whom he [Yeshua] also presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom (Malchut) of G-d.”
-Acts 1:3
Christianity uses inclusive counting of forty days from Easter to mark the Feast of Ascension, but this is yet another one of its innumerable mistakes. This is the same mistake, lehavdil, that Bnei Yisrael made in the sin of the Golden Calf. The ascent of the Moshiach after forty days must be understood in the same manner as the descent of Moshe after forty days.
“For when Moses ascended the mountain he said to them (to the Israelites): at the end of a period of forty days (i. e. on the fortieth day) I shall return during the first six hours of the day (before noon). They thought that the day on which he ascended the mountain (the seventh of Sivan) was to be included in this number (thus — Sivan having 30 days — he was expected back before noon on the sixteenth of Tammuz). In fact, however, he had said to them “after forty days” meaning complete days — forty days, each day together with its night that precedes it — (as is the customary Jewish reckoning; cf. Genesis 1:5: ויהי ערב ויהי בקר). Now, as regards the day of this ascent, its night was not part of it that it can be reckoned as a complete day, for he ascended on the seventh of Sivan early in the morning (cf. Rashi on Exodus 19:3); it follows therefore that the fortieth day really fell on the seventeenth of Tammuz and not as the people had believed on the sixteenth. On the sixteenth of Tammuz Satan came and threw the world into confusion, giving it the appearance of darkness, gloom and disorder that people should say: “Surely Moses is dead, and that is why confusion has come into the world!””
-Rashi on Exodus 32:1
Counting forty full days from the morning of the Sixteenth of Nissan (resurrection) brings us to the Twenty-Sixth of Iyar (just as there were forty full days from the morning of the Seventh of Sivan to the Seventeenth of Tammuz). What is some significance of this day? In Kabbalah, it represents a perfection of the Sefirah of Yesod (‘Yesod SheBeYesod’).
When the Omer count begins on a Sunday, then the days of the week line up perfectly with the Sefirot, as it did in the year of Yeshua’s ascent. The twenty-sixth would have landed on a Friday, the sixth day which also represents Yesod (Yesod is generally represented by the number six).
“‘In any tree’ [Deuteronomy 22:6] refers to Mashiach ben Yosef, because Yosef signifies Yesod (‘Foundation’), and Yesod is called ‘All’ and it is the ‘All’ of the Tree, which means Tiferet (‘Beauty’). ‘Or on the ground’ refers to Mashiach ben David, who is rooted in Malchut (Kingship), which is called ‘Earth.'”
-Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, Razin Genizin, p.43
“… the ‘visitation‘ was in the nature of a ‘first coming in [biah]’ from the left, the attribute of Din (Judgement), and in the ‘remembrance‘ there would be a ‘second coming in’ from the right, the attributes of Hesed and Rahamim (Mercy and Compassion), and then the Messiah ben David would emerge from the husks [kelipot]… The source of the expressions ‘first coming in’ and ‘second coming in’ is a rabbinic saying in Sanhedrin 98b.”
-Isaiah Tishby, Messianic Mysticism, p.275
Yesod is the Sefirah of Messiah Ben Joseph, which is the first coming. The second coming is associated with Messiah Ben David, who is the Sefirah of Malchut (‘Kingdom’). The day after Friday is Shabbat, which also represents Malchut and therefore, the Final Redemption. All of the remaining days after the twenty-sixth until Shavuot are explicitly associated with Malchut (‘Kingdom’).
“Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him [Yeshua], saying, “Lord, will you at this time restore the Kingdom (Malchut) to Israel?” And he said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.”
-Acts 1:6-7
Now we know why Yeshua was teaching them about the ‘Kingdom’ (‘Malchut’) yet to come and why they asked him about ‘Malchut,’ since in his first coming as Messiah Ben Joseph, he did not yet restore the ‘Kingdom’ as Messiah Ben David (MB”D). Only in the second coming of MB”D, may there be realized the “day which will be entirely Shabbat (Malchut) and rest for everlasting life.” May it be immediately! Amen.
Eye To Zion 