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DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE... JEWISH and CHRISTIAN LITURGICAL CALENDARS FOR 2018–2019 5779–5780 ENGLISH VERSION CALENDÁRIO LITÚRGICO JUDAICO—CRISTÃO A VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS (DO BRASIL) Weekly Readings for Christians and Jews this 16 month interfaith calendar covers Jewish Year 5779 & Christian Cycle: Advent 2018–Advent 2019...

COUNTING THE OMER SEFIRAT HAOMER According to the Torah the days between Passover and Shavuot are to be counted (Lev. 23:15-16; Deut. 16:15-16). These 49 days of counting, which relate to the offering of an omer of barley, (called in Hebrew Sefirat Ha'Omer) are likened to a connecting thread between the Passover from Mitzrayim [Egypt] and the Giving of the Torah at Sinai. Read more about Sefirat HaOmer...

09 JUNE – 06 SIVAN SHAVUOT The days of Counting the Omer [Sefirat Ha'Omer] conclude with the celebration of the Jewish festival of Shavuot. Shavuot, falling on 6th Sivan is one of the three Jewish PILGRIMAGE feasts. Shavuot, also called Hag Hashavuot [שבועות חג] meaning “the Festival of Weeks,” has agricultural roots in the “first fruits” of the late harvest, and, in post Temple spirituality, spiritual links to the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. Shavuot is often called Hag Matan Torateinu (The Festival of the Giving of Our Torah). While Shavuot has harvest links it is, at the same time, a festival which has always incorporated an “encounter” spirituality. As with all three Pilgrim festivals this encounter was one in which all people who were able were required to participate. Practically, this encounter between the person [nefesh|soul] and God took place at the altar of the Temple in Jerusalem. The importance of the spiritual encounter with the LORD is only fully realized in the later transformation of Shavuot by the rabbis (after the loss of the Temple) into a festival which links the Exodus from Mitzrayim (The Passover) with the Gift of the Torah at Sinai. Read more about SHAVUOT...

PENTECOST 09 JUNE 2016 Pentecost remembers the manifestation of the Spirit in the community of his disciples, and celebrates the continued presence of the Spirit of God within the Church. The New Testament reading for Pentecost from Acts (2:1-11) relates that the Holy Spirit was experienced by the gathered community as “fire.” Luke's gospel also relates the physical experience of the divine presence when Jesus' exegesis of the scriptures “from the Pentateuch to the Prophets” was the means by which “their hearts burned within” (Lk. 24:27, 32).' At Pentecost they were gathered together "and suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each one of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit...." (Acts 2:22-4). Pentecost (Heb. Shavuot) arising as it does from its spiritual foundations in Judaism is rooted in the disciples’ understanding of their own tradition and scripture and the teachings of Jesus. Pentecost draws upon its roots in Judaism and Judaism's understanding of the Holy Spirit. Thus, in its early Pentecostal experience the Church experienced the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as “tongues of fire” (Acts 2:3) and at other times as “a burning within” (Lk. 24:27, 32).

YOM YERUSHALAYIM 2 JUNE 2019 - JERUSALEM DAY Celebrating the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967.