Talmidi Library
Festivals, Prayers & Services
Festivals, Prayers & Services
Please note that the full Calendar of Festivals is now at the end of this list of webpages.
Immediately below is a complete list of articles in this portion of the website. This portion is divided into 3 sections. First of all, articles about the individual religious festivals that we Talmidis celebrate (all the biblical holy days and festivals, plus Hanukkah; we don’t observe Purim). The second is about the Talmidi Israelite way of prayer; and the last section contains simple services for each festival and holy day, with links to purchase prayerbooks for them.
Section One: About the Festivals and Holy Days
The Calendar: The Biblical Israelite Dating System (including details about the biblical calendar we use)
The Biblical Holy Days and Religious Festivals
Why Talmidis don’t observe Purim
Things Enjoined on the Sabbath
Things Forbidden on the Sabbath
Biblical New Year (Rosh ha-Chadashim, in the First-Month)
Festival of Unleavened Bread (Matsot)
Bringing of the Wave-Offering (Yom ha-Tnufat ha-Omer)
Festival of First-Fruits / Weeks (Bikkurim / Shavuot)
Day of Shout & Trumpet (Yom Tru’ah – the 1st day of the Seventh Month)
Day of Expiations (Yom ha-Kippurim)
Festival of Lights / Rededication (Neirot / Hanukkah)
Section Two: The Talmidi Israelite Way of Prayer
The Israelite Practice of Saying Blessings
The Biblical Approach to Fasting
Section Three: Prayer Services
Shabbat Evening Service for the Home
The Ancient 3-Year Torah Reading Cycle
Shabbat Morning Service: Week 1
Shabbat Morning Service: Week 2
Shabbat Morning Service: Week 3
Shabbat Morning Service: Week 4
Shabbat Morning Service: Week 5
Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread
Festival of First Fruits / Weeks
Day of Expiations (Yom Kippur)
THE TALMIDI ISRAELITE CALENDAR: A COMPLETE LIST OF ALL THE RELIGIOUS HOLY DAYS FESTIVALS, AND SECULAR HOLIDAYS AND MEMORIAL DAYS
Here you will find articles on Talmidi tradition surrounding the biblical festivals; also the Talmidi way of prayer, and examples of daily prayers and services for festivals.
Please click on the menu to the left to navigate your way through the articles.
General note on Talmidi religious practice:
Followers of the Way do not follow the Rabbinic Oral Law (Talmud). Therefore, a few customs linked to the festivals are different to those of modern Rabbinical Judaism. Our community follows the commandments as written in Torah; where Torah is vague on how we are to do something, we then go to the accepted general customs of ordinary people in Galilee and Judea of the 1st century, as long as they are not in opposition to the letter or spirit of Torah.
Overview / Calendar of Religious Festivals
*** – obligatory / ordained by Torah
** – not ordained by Torah, but generally observed by Talmidis
* – non-obligatory religious day
{*} – non-obligatory secular day
festivals highighted in red – main observances
(the alternating green and white rows have no significance, they merely serve to delineate each row, and make them more distinct)
| *** | Rosh ha-chadashim | New Year | 1st day of the month of Aviv /First Month; day of the sighting of the first sliver of the New Moon after the finding of enough ripe barley to perform the ‘waving of the Omer’ | ||
| n/a | taking of a lamb for Pesach | 10th day of the First Month (any time) | |||
| * | Yom ha-Zikkaron li-Msirut nefesh Yeshua` ha-nevi | Memorial Day for the Martyrdom of the Prophet Yeshua` | latest full Friday before any part of the observance of Pesach (latest Friday before/including 13th Nisan) | ||
| * | Ta`anit ha-Bekhorim | Fast of the Firstborn | 13th Nisan, daylight hours only (or 12th, if 13th falls on a Sabbath) | ||
| *** | Seder le-Pesach | Passover Seder | 14th day of First Month, closing twilight hours | ||
| *** | Chag ha-Matsot | Festival of Unleavened Bread (1st night) | 15th day of First Month (sunset to sunset) | ||
| n/a | Yom ha-Tnufat ha-Omer | Waving of the Omer | day after first Sabbath after Pesach (this Sabbath can include the 15th of Nisan, if the 14th of Nisan ends on a Friday) | ||
| *** | Chag ha-Matsot | Festival of Unleavened Bread (7th night) | 21st day of First Month (sunset to sunset) | ||
| {*} | Yom ha-Shoah | Holocaust Memorial Day | 27th day of First Month, daylight hrs only (in the Land, this date will be whatever it is according to the calendar of the majority, since it is a secular day) | ||
| *** | Rosh Chodesh Iyar | New Moon of Iyar | 1st day of Second Month | ||
| {*} | Yom ha-Zikkaron |
Memorial Day (for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism) |
4th day of Second Month (1 minute silence at 8pm at the beginning of the evening; in the Land, this date will be whatever it is according to the calendar of the majority, since it is a secular day) | ||
| {*} | Yom ha-Atsma`ut | Israeli Independence Day | 5th day of Second Month (in the Land, this date will be whatever it is according to the calendar of the majority, since it is a secular day) | ||
| {*} | Yom Yerushalayim | Jerusalem Day | 28th day of Second Month (in the Land, this date will be whatever it is according to the calendar of the majority, since it is a secular day) | ||
| *** | Rosh Chodesh Sivan | New Moon of Sivan | 1st day of Third Month | ||
| *** | Shavu`ot / Chag ha-Bikkurim | Festival of Weeks / First Fruits | seven weeks after the waving of the omer (always on a Sunday) | ||
| *** | Rosh Chodesh Tammuz | New Moon of Tammuz: Arrival of the Israelites at Mt Horev (Ex 19:1); | 1st day of Fourth Month | ||
| * | Ha-Mar’eih Kavodh Elohim ba-Har Sinay | Theophany on Mt Sinai; Giving of the Ten Commandments & the Book of the Covenant (Ex 19:1 to 24:18 is read) | 3rd day of Fourth Month (calculated from Ex 19:1 & 19:11) | ||
| *** | Rosh Chodesh Av | New Moon of Av | 1st day of Fifth Month | ||
| * | Ta`anit Chodesh ha-Chamishi | Fast of the Fifth Month (Tisha be’Av) | 9th day of Fifth Month (or 10th, if 9th falls on a Sabbath) | ||
| * | Minchat Tirosh | New Wine Offering (beginning of Grape Harvest – cf Num 18:12; biblical equivalent of Rabbinic Tu b’Av) | 3rd Sunday of Av (usually between 15th-21st of Fifth-Month, about 10 weeks after Shavu`ot), when there are enough ripe grapes to make a new-wine offering | ||
| *** | Rosh Chodesh Elul | New Moon of Elul | 1st day of Sixth Month | ||
| * | Minchat Yitzhar | New Oil Offering (beginning of olive harvest – cf Num 18:12) | 14 weeks after Shavu`ot (but main Olive Harvest party for children is 1st Sunday after New Moon Day of Cheshvan) | ||
| *** | Yom Tru`ah | Day of Shout & Trumpet | 1st day of Seventh Month | ||
| *** | Yom ha-Kippurim | Day of the Expiations | 10th day of Seventh Month | ||
| *** | Chag Sukkot | Festival of Booths (1st day) | 15th day of Seventh Month | ||
| *** | Chag Sukkot | Festival of Booths (7th day) | 21st day of Seventh Month | ||
| *** | Yom Shmini ha-‘Atzéret | Eighth Day of Closed Assembly | 22nd day of Seventh Month | ||
| *** | Rosh Chodesh Chesvan | New Moon of Cheshvan | 1st day of Eighth Month | ||
| *** | Rosh Chodesh Kislev | New Moon of Kislev | 1st day of Ninth Month | ||
| {*} | Yom l’tsiyon ha-Gerush ha-Gadol | Day Marking the Great Expulsion | 17th of Ninth-Month (observed in Israel) | ||
| ** | Chanukkah / Chag Neirot | Festival of Rededication / Lights (1st day) | 25th day of Ninth-Month | ||
| *** | Rosh Chodesh Tevet | New Moon of Tevet | 1st day of Tevet | ||
| ** | Chanukkah / Chag Neirot | Festival of Rededication / Lights (8th day) | count 8th day from 25th of Ninth-Month | ||
| *** | Rosh Chodesh Shvat | New Moon of Shvat | 1st day of Eleventh Month | ||
| *** | Rosh Chodesh Adar | New Moon of Adar | 1st day of Twelfth Month | ||
| *** | Cheitsi Sheqel | Giving of the Holy Half-Sheqel | 15th – 25th Adar / Adar Bet | ||
| *** | Rosh Chodesh Adar Bet | New Moon of Adar Bet (in a leap year) | 1st day of Thirteenth Month |