1Corinthians and the Counting of the Omer

1Corinthians and the Counting of the Omer
Part 1: Introduction
By James Trimm

Last year while studying the book of 1stCorinthinans I saw something I had never seen before. The Book of 1stCorinthians was written shortly after Passover, as Paul criticizes the handling of a recent seder at Corinth (1Cor. 5) and looks forward to the coming Shavuot (1Cor. 16:8). This letter is written during the counting of the omer and that theme prevails throughout the letter.

The counting of the omer is described in the Torah as follows:

15: And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
16: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and you shall offer a new meat offering unto YHWH.
17: Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto YHWH.
(Lev. 23:15-17)

The counting of the omer begins at the firstfruits wave sheaf offering during Passover and ends with the firstfruits wave loaf offering at Shavuot.

The first counting of the omer marked the time from the exodus from Egypt and redemption of the firstborn to the receiving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai.

At the time of the death of Messiah the counting of the omer marked the time from the resurrection of Messiah to the outpouring of the Ruach HaKodesh in Acts chapter 2.

IT STARTS WITH PASSOVER

The counting of the omer begins with Passover and Paul begins 1st Corinthians with a discussion of the Yayin HaMeshumar, the wine that has been kept in its grapes since creation for the great Messianic Feast (see my recent blog on The Yayin HaMeshumar).

Paul again addresses the Passover in 1Cor. 5 even saying “our Pesach is the Messiah, who was slain instead of us, Because of this, let us observe the feast…” (1Cor. 5:7-8).

Again in 1Cor. 11 Paul addresses the Sader discussing Yeshua’s Sader at the time of his death and stressing that our hearts be right in receiving the elements of the sader (1Cor. 11:20-34)

In 1Corinthians 12:13 Paul alludes again to the Yayin HaMeshumar and the Passover wine when he says “And all of us drank of one spirit.”

Finally Paul alludes to the firstfruits offering of the counting of the omer when he says in 1Cor. 15:20 “Messiah has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep”.

TAKING STOCK

The counting of the omer is traditionally a time of taking stock of ourselves. It is a time of reckoning. It marks the time of preparing to receive the Torah, and of preparing to receive the outpouring of the Ruach HaKodesh. In fact the Hebrew word for “count” can also mean “reckon”.

It was during the time of the first counting of the omer that Moshe wrote Psalm 90 (and 91) in which he writes:

8 You have set our iniquities before You; our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.
9 For all our days are passed away in Your wrath: we bring our years to an end as a tale that is told.
10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten, or even by reason of strength, fourscore years. Yet is their pride, but travail and vanity: for it is speedily gone, and we fly away.
11 Who knows the power of Your anger and Your wrath, according to the fear that is due unto You?
12 So teach us to number our days: that we may get us a heart of wisdom.
(Ps. 90:8-12 HRV)

In the past I have spoken of the first three chapters of Revelation and their connection to the counting of the omer. According to the Aramaic text of Revelation the vision of Rev. 1 takes place on “the first day” (Rev. 1:10 HRV). In this vision Yochanan sees seven menorahs each of which would have seven branches totaling 49 branches. These represent seven assemblies and they represent a counting of the omer from the first day (the day of the firstfruits offering during Passover, i.e. the morrow after the Sabbath) to the day of Shavuot. In the following two chapters Yochanan writes seven letters to these seven assemblies giving them each a reckoning or accounting.

1Corinthians is very much about a reckoning of the of the assembly of Corinth in much the same way that the seven letters to seven assemblies in Rev. 2-3 are such a reckoning. One need only look over this letter to see that the entire letter is a reckoning and criticism of the assembly at Corinth. Note especially the criticism of the handling of the sader in 1Cor. 5 and the encouragement of self reckoning in taking the sader in 1Cor. 11.

GETTING READY TO RECEIVE THE RUACH HAKODESH

Messiah tells his Talmidim during the counting of the omer:

For John truly immersed with water; but you shall be immerseded with the Ruach HaKodesh not many days hence…
But when the Ruach HaKodesh comes upon you, you will receive power (KHAILA)…
(Acts 1:5, 8)

The Aramaic word here is KHAILA, which means, “power, miracles, authority”. This is the very Aramaic word, which the Peshitta Tanak uses to translate Hebrew GEVURAH in 1Chron. 29:11 (the Tanak text from which the lower seven sefirot are derived) and is obviously associated with the sefirah called GEVURAH.

The gematria (numerical value) of KHAILA is 49 (7 x 7). This is the same as the gematria of the MAT ”the rod” of Aaron and Moses, which was so closely related to many of their “miracles”.

Khaila includes the power to perform “miracles”:

And Eloah was doing great miracles (KHAILA)
by the hand of Paul.
(Acts 19:11)

And the power to exercise authority over spirits and shedim (demons):

And Yeshua called his twelve and gave them power (KHAILA) and authority over all the spirits and shedim and to heal sickness.
(Luke 9:1)

The word Khaila in Aramaic can also denote “courage” and may therefore also indicate the strength to endure trials, tribulation and torture. Thus Khaila can also refer to a supernatural ability to endure these tortures, like the martyrs of 2nd and 4th Maccabees.. As such Khaila is especially associated with the Armor of Elohom.

Khaila is often exercised (like healing) through the evocation of the “Names of Power” which are discussed below. Khaila is associated with the left hand of Adam Kadmon and thus it is often exercised in connection with a ritual of laying on of hands, especially when exercising authority over shedim (demons).

Paul tells us that the effecting of Khaila comes from “the hearing of faith” (Gal. 3:5) because this gift flows from the gift of faith, a gift which itself manifests itself in Torah observance.

There is a good example in the Torah of this gift being expressed in the effecting of miracles when YHWH, through Moshe parts the red sea (Ex. 14:16-22). It was also manifest when David, through his Psalms, drove a shed out of Saul (1Sam. 16:14-23) and when Toviyah exercised Khaila over the shed Asmodeus (Tobit 6). Finally Khaila was exercised by Eleazar and Hanna and her seven sons, when they endured the tortures inflicted upon them by Antiochus Epiphanies (2Macc. 6:18-31; 7:1-42; 4Macc.).

The outpouring of the Ruach HaKodesh event of Acts chapter two was a repetition of an event that took place at the first Shavuot (Shavuot is the aniversary of the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai). According to the Midrashim when the Torah was given at Mount Sinai the Torah message was divided up into the seventy languages of the Gentiles:

“Elohim’s voice, as it was uttered, split into seventy voices, into seventy tongues [leshonoth], so that all the nations should understand.”
(Midrash from Exodus Rabbah 5:9)

The Talmud says:

“Every phrase which issued from the mouth of the All-powerful divided itself into the seventy languages.”
(b.Shabbat 88b)

The Midrash also describes this event in even more detail:

In the occasion of Matan Torah [the giving of the Torah], the Bnai Yisrael [children of Israel] not only heard Hashem’s Voice but actually saw the sound waves as they emerged from Hashem’s mouth. They visualized them as a fiery substance. Each commandment that left Hashem’s mouth traveled around the entire Camp and then to each Jew individually, asking him, “Do you accept upon yourself this Commandment with all the halochot [Jewish law] pertaining to it?” Every Jew answered “Yes” after each commandment. Finally, the fiery substance which they saw engraved itself on the luchot [tablets].
(The Midrash Says; Rabbi Moshe Weissman. Benei Yakov Publications (1980) p. 182)

Thus the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh and the manifestation of tongues in Acts chapter 2 was a repetition of the gift of Torah and the manifestation of tongues that took place then.

Paul speaks in 1Corinthians 12:13 of being immersed by the Ruach HaKoesh because this is what happens at the end of the first counting of the omer in Exodus and also at the time of Messiah’s death in Acts 2.

The Book of 1Corinthians encourages us to spend the counting of the omer in self reflection of our worthiness to drink the Yayin HaMeshumar (1Cor. 11:27-28) for one is drinking in the Ruach (1Cor. 12:13).

THE IMMERSION OF THE RUACH HAKODESH

Paul writes of the immersion of the Ruach HaKodesh:

For as the body is one, and there are in it many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also the Messiah.
For all of us also are baptized by one spirit into one body, whether Jew or Aramaean, whether slave or son of freedom. And all of us drank of one spirit.
(1Cor. 12:12-13 HRV)

This seems to some to come into direct conflict with the immersion of the Ruach HaKodesh coming subsequent to salvation in several passages in Acts such as:

And they went down and prayed concerning them so that they might receive the Ruach HaKodesh.
For it was not yet upon a man from them, for they were only immersed in the name of our Adon Yeshua.
Then they placed a hand on them, and they received Ruach HaKodesh.
(Acts 8:15-17 HRV)

What is the resolution to this apparent conflict?

Now let us look at Exodus 12:43-49:

And YHWH said unto Moshe and Aharon: ‘This is the ordinance of the Pesach: there shall no alien eat thereof;
but every man’s servant that is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.
A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof.
In one house shall it be eaten; you shall not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall you break a bone thereof.
All the assembly of Yisra’el shall keep it.
And when a stranger shall sojourn with you, and will keep the Pesach to YHWH, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land; but no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.
One Torah shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourns among you.’
(Ex. 12:43-49 HRV)

Now there are a number of things we can learn from this passage:

  1. All the “Assembly” of Israel must eat the Passover.
  2. No uncircumcised male can eat the Passover.

From these two facts we may conclude that:

If all the Assembly eat the Passover,
and if no uncircumcised males eat the Passover,
then no uncircumcised males are part of the Assembly.

This is an inescapable categorical proposition drawn from the plain statements in Exodus 12:43-49.

Now from Acts 15 we also know that one does not have to be circumcised to be saved. Thus we can add another fact to our reasoning:

  1. Some uncircumcised males are saved.

Now if no uncircumcised males are part of the Assembly, and if some uncircumcised males are saved, Then some saved persons are not part of the Assembly.

Again this is an inescapable categorical proposition draws from the facts plainly laid out in Ex. 12:43-49 and Acts 15.

There are in fact some saved persons who are not part of the Body of Messiah, the Assembly of Israel.

Thus also Acts refers to “…the Ruach HaKodesh which Elohim has given to them which obey him.” (Acts 5:32).

It stands to reason that if one were to become conformed to the image of YHWH that one might manifest he Ruach HaKodesh in the world that we live in. In 1Corinthians 12 Paul lays out the nine manifestations of the Ruach HaKodesh. Paul describes the believers as an allegorical “Body of Messiah” made up of various body parts (1Cor. 12:12, 27). These nine manifestations are likened to the various body parts of the Body of Messiah (and as we learned in an earlier chapter that body is the Adam Kadmon—the Tree of Life). This is immediately made evident by the first three manifestations: The Word of Knowledge; the Word of Wisdom and Spiritual Discernment. Paul instructs us:

Pursue love and be zealous about the gifts of the spirit…
(1Cor. 14:1)

THE SEFIROT

There is also a parallel between the counting of the omer and the sefirot of the Tree of Life. Of course the root word for sefirot comes from the Hebrew verb “to count” and the sefirot are themselves the qualities and characteristics which we have as being made in the image of YHWH.

In the Siddur (traditional liturgy) during the counting of the omer on each of the 49 days a combination of each of the seven lower sefirot is recited and meditated upon. The first day is “CHESED that is in CHESED” the second day is “GEVURAH that is in CHESED” and so on until over 49 days all 49 (7×7) combinations have been recited.

In Part two of this blog (coming soon) I will discuss each of the nine manifestations of the Ruach HaKodesh as they parallel the upper nine of the ten sefirot.

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