Shalom Mishpocha,
The month of April has arrived. April is commonly associated with the season of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, where it is the seasonal equivalent to October in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa. April, a transition month, brings us some unpredictable weather! April rains bring lush green pastures but also umbrellas and rain boots! April brings warmer temperatures! The month of April gets its name from the Latin word “aperio”, meaning “to open [bud],” because plants are really beginning to grow and bud now. April 1st is “April Fools’ Day”. The Julien Calendar marked the New Year April 1st. When Pope Gregory shifted to the Gregorian calendar in 1582, he moved the New Year to January 1st. Many continued to celebrate the New Year on April 1st and thus were referred to as “April Fools” because they weren’t celebrating the New Year on January 1st.
Yom HaSho’ah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) begins at sunset, Thursday April 24th through Friday April 25th at sunset. Yom HaShoa’ah is when Jews and Gentiles from all over the world stop to reflect on the afflictions our Jewish ancestors faced. Many of these Jews are direct descendants of Holocaust victims and survivors. Approximately 11 million people died at the hands of Hitler and his followers and out of these 11 million people, 6 million were Jewish. To not forget about this important, horrific part of history, in 1951, the Israeli parliament ruled that Yom HaShoah be held every year. This remembrance day’s motto is: “Never Again”.
The New Year is also upon us (5785)! We look forward with anticipation and expectation to restarting both the Biblical Calendar and the Annual Moedim (Feast Day) Cycle! Pesach (Passover) begins Friday, April 11th, 2025, at sunset! The Festival of Matza begins Saturday April 12th, 2025, at sunset. Sunday April 13th and Saturday April 19th (the first and last day of Matzah) are no workdays!
In preparation for celebrating Pesach (Passover) it’s time for spring cleaning to get rid of the Leaven. Leavening in Hebrew is Hametz. Leavening or Hametz is yeast. Contrary to Orthodox Judaism, Baking Soda and Baking Powder are not leavening agents! Yeast is alive, a fungi that is found in nature from spores and pollen. The Egyptians fermented beer, and we fermented wine in biblical times by pouring either the brew or pressed wine in outside vats where these spores, pollen, would fall or be blown into the liquid forming yeast. The cells (at the right temperature) begin to split leaving alcohol and carbon as a byproduct hence the tiny bubbles found in bread, and the fermentation and alcohol process in wine and beer. This is also how chesses (Swiss, Blue Cheese, etc…) are made. By fermentation through Hametz or leavening! One yeast cell is about the size of a human blood cell. Just a few thousand yeast cells, barely visible with the naked eye, will completely consume one pound of bread dough in about 2-3 hours. The process is absolutely miraculous but remember, once the dough has been exposed you cannot contain the yeast or hametz to a limited piece of the dough, the entire mixture is exposed and will be leavened-quickly and again, completely destroyed if the dough isn’t baked. For Pesach (Passover) we are commanded to eat Matzah and not have hametz (yeast) in our homes for seven days.
Exodus 12:15. "'For seven days you are to eat matzah - on the first day remove the leaven from your houses. For whoever eats hametz [leavened bread] from the first to the seventh day is to be cut off from Isra'el.
The punishment for eating yeast or Leavened bread during the Festival of Unleavened Bread is to be Cut off which is karet in Hebrew. Which means spiritual excision, cut off, cut down, eliminated from the greater house of Israel. God gives a severe punishment for not submitting too and following His feasts, which, by the way most here already know this God says is:
Exodus 12:17. You are to observe the festival of matzah, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, you are to observe this day from generation to generation by a perpetual regulation.
Perpetual in the Hebrew is Olam which means forever, always, perpetual, everlasting, indefinite, and eternity! So regardless of religious theologies, all who worship the God of Israel and acknowledge Yeshua’s death and resurrection (which transpired during Pesach and Unleavened Bread) should be adhering too and following God’s commands and mitzvahs. Sorry, no Easter cake, breads, no Pulich, no paska, no Tsoureki (tsoo-REH-kee), or even braided bread! To do so is to cut (Kareth) yourself out of God’s presence. The Early Church celebrated Yeshua’s crucifixion and resurrection in Passover. By the 4th century it had become separated as a result of church doctrine that specifically, purposely separate the Church from her Jewish origins. Easter never falls on Pesach. The Council of Nicea requires the observance of Yeshua’s resurrection to be celebrated on a Sunday and never on the day of Passover.
Over the centuries, most of Israel stopped observing Pesach and the Feast of Matzah. We see a revival occur when King Hezekiah restores and restarts biblical worship in Solomons Temple! He sends couriers throughout the land inviting them to come to Jerusalem to observe and celebrate Pesach! The Pharisees (Todays Orthodox Judaism), still observe Passover, but they do not observe it according to the Adonai’s words and commands! Contrary to Leviticus 23, todays Orthodox Jewish Passover combines the Passover meal with the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and call the entire week Pesach! This deviation from Adonai’s instructions overlooks the separate meanings of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Orthodox in the 7th century started the Ta’anit Bechorot fast, the fast for the first born on the 14th of Nisan vice obeying scripture and beginning Pesach on the 14th as Adonai commands:
Human misinterpretations and alterations of God’s commands have significantly changed the observance of God’s original commands for the Old Testament Passover. Pesach and Matzah are Two Separate Feasts—Not One Combined Feast.
The commands of God in Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23 make it undeniably clear that the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were to be observed as two separate feasts, one following the other. But today the Jewish practice is to observe Passover on the 15th day of the first month, combined with the first night of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The modern Jewish calendar designates the 15th as the Passover day, and the Jewish Passover meal, called the Seder, is eaten on the 15th. This practice clearly rebels against Adonai’s command to observe the Passover on the 14th day of the month.
Leviticus 23:5-6. "'In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between sundown and complete darkness, comes Pesach for ADONAI. 6 On the fifteenth day of the same month is the festival of matzah; for seven days you are to eat matzah.
The Pharisees, now Orthodox Judaism admit that their practice of combining the Passover with the Feast of Unleavened Bread deviates from the original observance of the two feasts. The Jewish Encyclopedia states, “Comparison of the successive strata of the Pentateuchal laws bearing on the festival makes it plain that the institution, as developed, is really of composite character. TWO FESTIVALS ORIGINALLY DISTINCT HAVE BECOME MERGED...” (Vol. IX, “Passover,” emphasis added). Everything will be restored. The enemy has diligently worked to water down and alter Pesach and Matzah! This reveals the power and revelation of keeping the feast!
By redeeming Israel out Egypt, God now had a nation ready to receive His Torah with its commands, instructions, and mitzvot, which the keeping of has ensured our survival and our relationship with Adonai for millennia. These commands, instructions, and mitzvot are as pertinent and relevant now, as they were then; they are the blueprint and foundation of all righteous societies, establishing righteousness before Adonai! His Commands, Instructions, and Mitzvahs are not to be ignored, altered, or disobeyed.
Civilizations not founded on these laws, or those that once did and apostatized from them have all been eradicated. That would have been Israel’s lot. They were on the brink of assimilation to Egypt. God had to act, and act He did. Ten plagues later, Israel was released from Egypt and slavery. But, they were damaged goods! As the cliché goes, Adonai could take them out of Egypt, but He couldn’t get Egypt out of them. The entire generation maintained a victim mentality! They would all perish in the wilderness. Pesach, therefore, celebrates not just our physical redemption but also the spiritual — a historic, crucial, and vital event in our history and that of all humanity. How was God going to ensure that His glorious act of salvation would be memorialized for eternity? By commanding us to rid ourselves of chametz and eat matzah for seven days.
Matzah must be baked within 18 minutes or less. The dough comes out as matzah and is kosher for Passover. One minute later, it becomes chametz — and totally non-kosher. That razor thin margin between Kosher and not kosher reflects the precarious condition of Israel just before our redemption out of Egypt. One more week, month, or year in Egypt Israel might not have made it. This is why it’s so important to Adonai, this is why we are commanded:
Exodus 12:24. (TLV) Also, you are to observe (Shamar: watch, to keep, to preserve, to guard, to watch over, observe) this event as an eternal ordinance, for you and your children.
What is “this event”? The fact is that had Adonai not supernaturally acted, we would not have survived: “this event” was our redemption, our salvation. This is what Adonai meant when He said that the night of the Exodus is a night of guarding, preserving, and watching for all eternity! It was the night when Adonai guarded us, the Jewish People from total extinction. This is perhaps the reason why eating chametz in Pesach is such a serious kingdom matter. We had come very close to destruction and annihilation-Physically and Spiritually. In fact, He tells us incessantly throughout scripture not to learn the religions, practices, rituals, and behaviors of not just Egypt, but of all other nations around us as well! We are to be obedient too and follow God, and no other. Yet He knew we (Israel) would fall short (which we did), that He’d remove us from the land, place us in exile, then restore us:
Ezekiel 36:24-27. For I will take you from among the nations, gather you from all the countries, and return you to your own soil. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit inside you; I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my Spirit inside you and cause you to live by my laws, respect my rulings and obey them.
Filling us with the Holy Spirit allows us, it empowers us to live by, respect, and obey God’s laws and rulings! One doesn’t hear this taught about the Holy Spirit yet here it is in black and white! The Festival of Unleavened bread is not meant to be a random burden where we eat Chamtez any other time and have to suffer through these seven days of not eating leavened bread. The Passover and Unleavened bread feasts, through their celebrations as Holy Convocations, Holy rehearsals, are clear in their teaching that we MUST PURIFY OURSELVES of sin (leaven), we must clear away those things that separate us from God and prepare for the Kingdom to come. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is an exercise in self-control, purity, and righteousness. One must deny themselves of temptations! To be victorious in this we must practice, we must train in searching it out and getting rid of it, leaven, sin, chametz, idolatry, adultery, stealing, lying, occult, addictions, sexual sin etc…. They’re all like yeast or leavening, a little bit takes over the whole loaf. Yeshua spoke directly to this 2,00 years ago. Some teachings refer to individual purity and some to false doctrines.
Matthew 16:6-12.(TLV) "Watch out," Yeshua said to them, "and beware of the hametz of the Pharisees and Sadducees." 7 And they began to discuss among themselves, saying, "We didn't bring any bread." 8 But knowing this, Yeshua said, "O you of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread? 9 You still don't get it? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets of leftovers you gathered? 10 Or how about the seven loaves for the four thousand and all the baskets of leftovers you gathered? 11 How is it that you don't understand that I wasn't talking to you about bread? Now beware of the hametz of the Pharisees and Sadducees!" 12 Then they understood that He wasn't talking about the hametz in the bread, but about the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
The Greek word for yeast is zume {dzoo'-may} that also means habitual mental and moral corruption with its tendency to infect others. Anything we engage in that doesn’t reconcile directly to the Word of God is Zume that infects others and spreads like a bacterial infection. The Pharisees and Sadducees teachings were an infection! Demonic doctrines and deceiving spirits! Remember, the Pharisees are the ones who started celebrating Pesach a day late (Matthew 27:62)! Yeshua is making a profound connection between Himself and Chametz, sin! Chametz is an allegory for the sinful influence in us! A hidden, unseen uncleanness that manipulates purer elements. We cannot look at a person and say they are sinful. It’s people’s thoughts, behaviors, and hearts that are sinful. Like the influence of a lump of leaven in a batch of dough, "spiritual" leaven functions as evil thoughts and impulses within us that corrupt, darken our soul. Let’s enter the new year cleansed and free of all impurities!
May you have a blessed, prosperous, and supernatural New Year! May His glory and presence powerfully be with you as you celebrated and keep Pesach (Passover).
Chag Sameach and Blessings,
Rabbi and Rebbetzin Carlson
The month of April has arrived. April is commonly associated with the season of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, where it is the seasonal equivalent to October in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa. April, a transition month, brings us some unpredictable weather! April rains bring lush green pastures but also umbrellas and rain boots! April brings warmer temperatures! The month of April gets its name from the Latin word “aperio”, meaning “to open [bud],” because plants are really beginning to grow and bud now. April 1st is “April Fools’ Day”. The Julien Calendar marked the New Year April 1st. When Pope Gregory shifted to the Gregorian calendar in 1582, he moved the New Year to January 1st. Many continued to celebrate the New Year on April 1st and thus were referred to as “April Fools” because they weren’t celebrating the New Year on January 1st.
Yom HaSho’ah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) begins at sunset, Thursday April 24th through Friday April 25th at sunset. Yom HaShoa’ah is when Jews and Gentiles from all over the world stop to reflect on the afflictions our Jewish ancestors faced. Many of these Jews are direct descendants of Holocaust victims and survivors. Approximately 11 million people died at the hands of Hitler and his followers and out of these 11 million people, 6 million were Jewish. To not forget about this important, horrific part of history, in 1951, the Israeli parliament ruled that Yom HaShoah be held every year. This remembrance day’s motto is: “Never Again”.
The New Year is also upon us (5785)! We look forward with anticipation and expectation to restarting both the Biblical Calendar and the Annual Moedim (Feast Day) Cycle! Pesach (Passover) begins Friday, April 11th, 2025, at sunset! The Festival of Matza begins Saturday April 12th, 2025, at sunset. Sunday April 13th and Saturday April 19th (the first and last day of Matzah) are no workdays!
In preparation for celebrating Pesach (Passover) it’s time for spring cleaning to get rid of the Leaven. Leavening in Hebrew is Hametz. Leavening or Hametz is yeast. Contrary to Orthodox Judaism, Baking Soda and Baking Powder are not leavening agents! Yeast is alive, a fungi that is found in nature from spores and pollen. The Egyptians fermented beer, and we fermented wine in biblical times by pouring either the brew or pressed wine in outside vats where these spores, pollen, would fall or be blown into the liquid forming yeast. The cells (at the right temperature) begin to split leaving alcohol and carbon as a byproduct hence the tiny bubbles found in bread, and the fermentation and alcohol process in wine and beer. This is also how chesses (Swiss, Blue Cheese, etc…) are made. By fermentation through Hametz or leavening! One yeast cell is about the size of a human blood cell. Just a few thousand yeast cells, barely visible with the naked eye, will completely consume one pound of bread dough in about 2-3 hours. The process is absolutely miraculous but remember, once the dough has been exposed you cannot contain the yeast or hametz to a limited piece of the dough, the entire mixture is exposed and will be leavened-quickly and again, completely destroyed if the dough isn’t baked. For Pesach (Passover) we are commanded to eat Matzah and not have hametz (yeast) in our homes for seven days.
Exodus 12:15. "'For seven days you are to eat matzah - on the first day remove the leaven from your houses. For whoever eats hametz [leavened bread] from the first to the seventh day is to be cut off from Isra'el.
The punishment for eating yeast or Leavened bread during the Festival of Unleavened Bread is to be Cut off which is karet in Hebrew. Which means spiritual excision, cut off, cut down, eliminated from the greater house of Israel. God gives a severe punishment for not submitting too and following His feasts, which, by the way most here already know this God says is:
Exodus 12:17. You are to observe the festival of matzah, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, you are to observe this day from generation to generation by a perpetual regulation.
Perpetual in the Hebrew is Olam which means forever, always, perpetual, everlasting, indefinite, and eternity! So regardless of religious theologies, all who worship the God of Israel and acknowledge Yeshua’s death and resurrection (which transpired during Pesach and Unleavened Bread) should be adhering too and following God’s commands and mitzvahs. Sorry, no Easter cake, breads, no Pulich, no paska, no Tsoureki (tsoo-REH-kee), or even braided bread! To do so is to cut (Kareth) yourself out of God’s presence. The Early Church celebrated Yeshua’s crucifixion and resurrection in Passover. By the 4th century it had become separated as a result of church doctrine that specifically, purposely separate the Church from her Jewish origins. Easter never falls on Pesach. The Council of Nicea requires the observance of Yeshua’s resurrection to be celebrated on a Sunday and never on the day of Passover.
Over the centuries, most of Israel stopped observing Pesach and the Feast of Matzah. We see a revival occur when King Hezekiah restores and restarts biblical worship in Solomons Temple! He sends couriers throughout the land inviting them to come to Jerusalem to observe and celebrate Pesach! The Pharisees (Todays Orthodox Judaism), still observe Passover, but they do not observe it according to the Adonai’s words and commands! Contrary to Leviticus 23, todays Orthodox Jewish Passover combines the Passover meal with the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and call the entire week Pesach! This deviation from Adonai’s instructions overlooks the separate meanings of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Orthodox in the 7th century started the Ta’anit Bechorot fast, the fast for the first born on the 14th of Nisan vice obeying scripture and beginning Pesach on the 14th as Adonai commands:
Human misinterpretations and alterations of God’s commands have significantly changed the observance of God’s original commands for the Old Testament Passover. Pesach and Matzah are Two Separate Feasts—Not One Combined Feast.
The commands of God in Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23 make it undeniably clear that the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were to be observed as two separate feasts, one following the other. But today the Jewish practice is to observe Passover on the 15th day of the first month, combined with the first night of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The modern Jewish calendar designates the 15th as the Passover day, and the Jewish Passover meal, called the Seder, is eaten on the 15th. This practice clearly rebels against Adonai’s command to observe the Passover on the 14th day of the month.
Leviticus 23:5-6. "'In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between sundown and complete darkness, comes Pesach for ADONAI. 6 On the fifteenth day of the same month is the festival of matzah; for seven days you are to eat matzah.
The Pharisees, now Orthodox Judaism admit that their practice of combining the Passover with the Feast of Unleavened Bread deviates from the original observance of the two feasts. The Jewish Encyclopedia states, “Comparison of the successive strata of the Pentateuchal laws bearing on the festival makes it plain that the institution, as developed, is really of composite character. TWO FESTIVALS ORIGINALLY DISTINCT HAVE BECOME MERGED...” (Vol. IX, “Passover,” emphasis added). Everything will be restored. The enemy has diligently worked to water down and alter Pesach and Matzah! This reveals the power and revelation of keeping the feast!
By redeeming Israel out Egypt, God now had a nation ready to receive His Torah with its commands, instructions, and mitzvot, which the keeping of has ensured our survival and our relationship with Adonai for millennia. These commands, instructions, and mitzvot are as pertinent and relevant now, as they were then; they are the blueprint and foundation of all righteous societies, establishing righteousness before Adonai! His Commands, Instructions, and Mitzvahs are not to be ignored, altered, or disobeyed.
Civilizations not founded on these laws, or those that once did and apostatized from them have all been eradicated. That would have been Israel’s lot. They were on the brink of assimilation to Egypt. God had to act, and act He did. Ten plagues later, Israel was released from Egypt and slavery. But, they were damaged goods! As the cliché goes, Adonai could take them out of Egypt, but He couldn’t get Egypt out of them. The entire generation maintained a victim mentality! They would all perish in the wilderness. Pesach, therefore, celebrates not just our physical redemption but also the spiritual — a historic, crucial, and vital event in our history and that of all humanity. How was God going to ensure that His glorious act of salvation would be memorialized for eternity? By commanding us to rid ourselves of chametz and eat matzah for seven days.
Matzah must be baked within 18 minutes or less. The dough comes out as matzah and is kosher for Passover. One minute later, it becomes chametz — and totally non-kosher. That razor thin margin between Kosher and not kosher reflects the precarious condition of Israel just before our redemption out of Egypt. One more week, month, or year in Egypt Israel might not have made it. This is why it’s so important to Adonai, this is why we are commanded:
Exodus 12:24. (TLV) Also, you are to observe (Shamar: watch, to keep, to preserve, to guard, to watch over, observe) this event as an eternal ordinance, for you and your children.
What is “this event”? The fact is that had Adonai not supernaturally acted, we would not have survived: “this event” was our redemption, our salvation. This is what Adonai meant when He said that the night of the Exodus is a night of guarding, preserving, and watching for all eternity! It was the night when Adonai guarded us, the Jewish People from total extinction. This is perhaps the reason why eating chametz in Pesach is such a serious kingdom matter. We had come very close to destruction and annihilation-Physically and Spiritually. In fact, He tells us incessantly throughout scripture not to learn the religions, practices, rituals, and behaviors of not just Egypt, but of all other nations around us as well! We are to be obedient too and follow God, and no other. Yet He knew we (Israel) would fall short (which we did), that He’d remove us from the land, place us in exile, then restore us:
Ezekiel 36:24-27. For I will take you from among the nations, gather you from all the countries, and return you to your own soil. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit inside you; I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my Spirit inside you and cause you to live by my laws, respect my rulings and obey them.
Filling us with the Holy Spirit allows us, it empowers us to live by, respect, and obey God’s laws and rulings! One doesn’t hear this taught about the Holy Spirit yet here it is in black and white! The Festival of Unleavened bread is not meant to be a random burden where we eat Chamtez any other time and have to suffer through these seven days of not eating leavened bread. The Passover and Unleavened bread feasts, through their celebrations as Holy Convocations, Holy rehearsals, are clear in their teaching that we MUST PURIFY OURSELVES of sin (leaven), we must clear away those things that separate us from God and prepare for the Kingdom to come. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is an exercise in self-control, purity, and righteousness. One must deny themselves of temptations! To be victorious in this we must practice, we must train in searching it out and getting rid of it, leaven, sin, chametz, idolatry, adultery, stealing, lying, occult, addictions, sexual sin etc…. They’re all like yeast or leavening, a little bit takes over the whole loaf. Yeshua spoke directly to this 2,00 years ago. Some teachings refer to individual purity and some to false doctrines.
Matthew 16:6-12.(TLV) "Watch out," Yeshua said to them, "and beware of the hametz of the Pharisees and Sadducees." 7 And they began to discuss among themselves, saying, "We didn't bring any bread." 8 But knowing this, Yeshua said, "O you of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread? 9 You still don't get it? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets of leftovers you gathered? 10 Or how about the seven loaves for the four thousand and all the baskets of leftovers you gathered? 11 How is it that you don't understand that I wasn't talking to you about bread? Now beware of the hametz of the Pharisees and Sadducees!" 12 Then they understood that He wasn't talking about the hametz in the bread, but about the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
The Greek word for yeast is zume {dzoo'-may} that also means habitual mental and moral corruption with its tendency to infect others. Anything we engage in that doesn’t reconcile directly to the Word of God is Zume that infects others and spreads like a bacterial infection. The Pharisees and Sadducees teachings were an infection! Demonic doctrines and deceiving spirits! Remember, the Pharisees are the ones who started celebrating Pesach a day late (Matthew 27:62)! Yeshua is making a profound connection between Himself and Chametz, sin! Chametz is an allegory for the sinful influence in us! A hidden, unseen uncleanness that manipulates purer elements. We cannot look at a person and say they are sinful. It’s people’s thoughts, behaviors, and hearts that are sinful. Like the influence of a lump of leaven in a batch of dough, "spiritual" leaven functions as evil thoughts and impulses within us that corrupt, darken our soul. Let’s enter the new year cleansed and free of all impurities!
May you have a blessed, prosperous, and supernatural New Year! May His glory and presence powerfully be with you as you celebrated and keep Pesach (Passover).
Chag Sameach and Blessings,
Rabbi and Rebbetzin Carlson
Posted in Rabbi & Rebbetzin\'s Corner