Hoshana Rabbah Biblical Discipleship Resources of Portland and Tigard, Oregon. Offering biblical teachings on lifestyle, eating kosher, the biblical feasts, and a torah study guide for both adult and youth. Come celebrate Sukkot NW with Hoshana Rabbah in Oregon.
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Pesach v'Hag haMatzot

Pesach & Chag HaMatzot

(Passover & The Feast of Unleavened Bread)

“Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to YHVH;
throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.”
—Sh’mot /Exodus 12:14

Hoshana Rabbah invites you to use these free Passover Resources that we created for our congregation.

The seder is at the end of the 14th day of the month of the Abiv and goes into the 15th day, the First Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a high day sabbath. It was proceeded by mikvah in the river for those desiring it. This Messianic Seder fulfills the mitzvot (commandments) of eating lamb, bitter herbs and matzah (unleavened bread), remembering and celebrating what YHVH has done for us, telling the Passover story to our children, and assembling on the 1st Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, as well as eating the bread and drinking the wine in remembrance of Yeshua and his instructions to wash one another’s feet (men and women are separate for this).

This Seder was open to those who were active participants of Congregation Elim and those sojourning with us. We do not hold community seders open to the public for Passover in accordance with Exodus 12. It is a special family meal where we teach our children about the meaning of Passover. If you are not part of this congregation and are planning your own seder, we invite you to use the free Passover Resources below as you keep this important appointment.

Passover Resources:
Directory

  • Teachings
    • Link to our Feast Days/Appointed Times Articles
    • Passover Week Timeline
  • Preparation for Passover
    • Search for Leaven—Removing the leaven
    • Seder planning and preparation checklist
    • Printable Haggadah for your Seder (free to download)
    • Recipes for The Days of Unleavened Bread
  • Dates and Reports from Israel
    • Rosh Chodesh and Abiv Reports
    • Dates to arrange time off work (sabbaths)
    • Dates to take note of during this season
    • Calendars
  • Counting the Omer

Teachings

Quick link to our articles on the Feast Days (Moedim)

Graphics showing the Passover Week Timeline:

  • Torah timeline fulfilled by Yeshua at Passover
  • Is Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday really 3 days and 3 nights?

Preparation for Passover:
Resources for Your Pesach and Hag HaMatzot Celebration

  • Search for Leavening Checklist
    As the Passover season nears, we are busy cleaning the leavening out of our homes. This printable checklist is what we've put together over the years to assist us in finding all the places leaven may be “hidden” throughout our homes. We suggest that you begin the cleaning process no later than when the barley in the land of Israel has been declared “aviv” and the first sliver of the crescent new moon has been sighted there. This will give you two weeks. Many will start a month before Pesach, typically right after Purim.

    If you’re new to this, may we suggest that you begin by going through your cupboards, your pantry, your freezer and your refrigerator. Check ALL labels (you will be surprised where you will find leavening) and move these items to the front/top so that you can use them up. The last couple of days, move the remaining leavening to your countertops so you can clean out the cupboards/pantry. Consider donating any unused foods that are unopened to a local food bank. Begin your cleaning in the rooms least likely to have any food in them, and once clean, declare them off limits to all food. As the week of Pesach arrives, you will find most of your leavened food has been eaten (those last menus can be rather "creative") and only the kitchen, dining room, and refrigerator/freezer areas are left to scrub clean.

    As you clean and remove leaven from your home, ask that the Ruach HaKodesh (Set-Apart Spirit) also show you areas of your life where leaven may be hidden.

    We're often asked for guidelines to define what is leaven and what needs to be removed from our homes. There are so many traditions that this can be confusing. Click here for our halakha and why we choose to do what we do (hopefully coming soon; we need to convert it from a digital presentation to a webpage).
  • Photo of Prepared Seder TableSeder Preparation Checklist
    Whether you are hosting a large group seder or a small seder in your home, we hope this printable checklist will be helpful to you. It is what we have developed for use in planning our seder. This checklist includes recipes for the ceremonial foods including lamb roast, charoset and homemade horseradish. Be sure to see the supplemental information and photos page for ideas and clarification.

    Messianic Passover Haggadah
  • Messianic Passover Haggadah
    This is the booklet we use at our Seder. This Messianic Passover Haggadah can be used for a large Seder or small home Seder. The parts to be read by three “appointed readers” can be read by the leader or one appointed reader in a smaller Seder. We are providing a pdf copy free of charge that is laid out to print 2 pages at a time for yourself or a small number of guests on a home printer: 2-up pdf file (spreads). Here are links to the Seder Music Resource List and supplemental information and photos for this Messianic Passover Haggadah. We recommend making or purchasing bags of the ten plagues for the children (or the children at heart) at the seder to accompany this Haggadah.
     
     
Aviv and Rosh Chodesh
See our calendars page for date details.)

The barley in the state of "aviv" plus the sighting of the new moon in Israel are the indicators of the new year. This is important as it determines the dates for the first month and specific dates for the spring moedim (appointed times) of Pesach (Passover), Chag HaMatzot (Feast of Unleavened Bread), and Chag Shavuot (Feast of Weeks/Pentecost).

When the barley is found to be aviv in sufficient quantities and the first visible sliver of the New Moon of the month of the aviv, marking the beginning of the year and setting the dates for the Spring Moedim (Appointed Times), we will report it on our blog.

In 2008, Natan and Sandi Lawrence from Hoshana Rabbah Messianic Discipleship Resources joined the Karaites in Jerusalem, who are the recognized leaders of the Aviv Barley search in Israel, and other Messianic believers as we searched over the land of Israel checking the stages of development of the barley. We did not realize how much barley grows wild there!! Wild two-row (ancient) and cultivated six-row barley is everywhere! We learned to distinguish barley from wheat, oats, and tares that had formed heads. The tares are indistinguishable until they mature and produce their heads without fruit.

We were presented with a good field study on the stages of barley and grain crop development from RuthAnne Koch, an agronomist and a Messianic believer from Colorado and Nehemia Gordon, a Karaite Jew. RuthAnne is a trained observer and certified agronomist, and she is a very good teacher. RuthAnne's husband, Bernie, who was also part of the search team, owns and operates a crop dusting business in the United States, so they are experts in their respective fields.

In 2008, we searched field after field, eventually breaking up into 3 teams to cover more ground. There were eight Messianic believers on our team, which included RuthAnne and her husband. We mostly found barley that had just flowered, some had not yet formed heads, some just in the pollination stage, some in the watery stage, some in the milk stage, and two or three stalks in all in a soft dough-like stage, which is still too moist to be aviv. Aviv fields are a golden yellow color and what we saw was barley in the green or white stage (flowering or just flowered). The second day of the search in the Negev we found barley plants that were even less mature.

This experience showed us how dilligently the search is done and that there are knowledgeable experts on the team. It was a good opportunity to see the land as well as learn about the stages of developments of the barley crop. We encourage others to go and join the search and experience this for yourselves!
Calendars of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Months

These calendars reflect the Spring Feast Days for 2021 and are based on the barley found to be aviv in Israel and the sighting of the crescent new moon.

Go to our calendars page for printer-friendly pdf versions of these calendars.


Messianic Aviv Calendar for March 2021 showing the dates for Passover and Unleavened Bread


Messianic Aviv Calendar for April 2021 showing the dates for Passover, Unleavned Bread, and counting the omer


Messianic Aviv Calendar for May 2021 showing the dates for Shavuot - Passover - Feast of Weeks

Counting the Omer“Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, 'When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before YHVH for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect for a burnt offering to YHVH. Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to YHVH for a soothing aroma, with its libation, a fourth of a hin of wine. Until this same day, until you have brought in the offering of your Elohim, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.”

“You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to YHVH.”
—Vayikra /Lev 23:10-16


This is the overhead (printer version) we use for counting of the omer on each Shabbat during this season. The lighter shaded areas are meant to be changed verbally each week as the blessing and count are spoken. This may also be used to make an 8.5 x 11" sign printed on nice paper. Office Depot carries inexpensive plastic sign holders for standing this up on a table.