Lent (Adar for Messianic Hebrews)

Today is the 20th of Shevat and the fruits tied on the boughs of the trees before TU beShevat will be starting to deplete so it is time to start thinking about the Yashan diet if Lent. 

Here is a pleasant recipe idea. 

Lenten Beetroot Soup (oil free)

200 g Beetroot
500 g Black eyed beans
2 heads Broccoli
300 g Baby potatoes
15 g Soya mince meat (optional)
Black pepper (to taste)
Ground cumin (to taste)
Salt (to taste)
Vegan vegetable stock cube

Method

Take soaked overnight black eyed beans and add them to 1.5 liters of water. Boil on a low heat for about 20 minutes add baby potatoes and soya mince meat. Boil until potatoes nearly cooked. Add salt, pepper and ground cumin. When all ingredients are cooked add broccoli and grated beetroot, boil another 5 minutes and add your stock cube. All done!

Leviticus 23:10-14

"When you plough the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the Priest a Sheaf (Omer) of the new grain you produce. The Priest is to offer-up the Sheaf  (Omer) before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf. The Priest is to offer it up on the day after THE WEEK (of the Spring Moon Feast of Unleavened Bread).

At the time you offer-up the Sheaf (Omer), you must make an Oleh to the Lord -a lamb a year old without defect- and its baked offering of two-tenths of an ephaha of the finest flour with a spread of oil as an Eshah presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma, and its drink -a quarter of a hin of wine.

You must not eat your new produce neither cooked, nor dried, nor fresh, until the very day you bring the Qorban (חגיגה) to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live."

The Yashan diet restrictions on Reishith Katzir First Harvest observed by Christians as Lent is also known as Chodosh ve Yoshon or Chadash ve Yashan (New and Old). It comes from a rule of Kashrut whereby Spring Produce (from the First week of Adar which follows Maslenitsa the last week of Shevat) is not Kosher until one brings the Omer with 1) a Lamb 2) and Sweet Baking 3) with Oil 4) and Wine for Spring Pilgrimage from Lulav Sunday along with the Reshith Omer to the Priests during the Pascal Holy Week to be waved on Yom Ha-Bikkurim 7 weeks before Pentecost. As a symbol of abstinence, traditional Christians usually give up 1) meats 2) and egg 3) along with fats 4) and alcohol (traditionally, saxons also gave up flour) until they bring the Omers to Church on Palm Sunday then again (with not even Eucharistic Bread in the last days) until Yom Ha-Bikkurim when cakes, fats and yeast products can finally be eaten.

Only Yashan food is Kosher at this time. Anything which takes root after the week following the last preparation day in Shevat (the New Year For Trees, when Aviv restrictions on Chadash begin) is considered un-Kosher Chadash until Omer Sunday or Reishit Katzir. It is Shammuti Halakhah to consider anything which can be harvested after New Year for Trees (Shevat) Kosher as long as the Omer of Aviv was brought to the Priests during Holy Week in time for the Yom Ha-Bikkurim of that year.

Shammuti Halakhah observes Chadash restrictions after the last preparation day of Shevat -New Year for Trees (the Moons of Aquarius)- for 6 weeks until Aviv Aliyah (Pilgrimage) Week in order to fulfill the Mitzvah concerning Chadash. This Aviv period of Chadash restriction is called Lent (Adar).

Nisan, the primary month of the year, always begins during Aviv with the New Moon closest to the Spring Equinox. Yom Ha-Bikkurim is always the Sunday of or immediately after the Full Moon of Nisan.

Aliyah Aviv

These days Aliyah means emigrating to settle in Eretz HaKodesh and Arafat is the name of a mountain but originally both referred to going up to Jerusalem i.e. Pilgrimage.

Aliyah Aviv (Spring Pilgrimage) or Aliyah HaShana (New Year Pilgrimage) or Aliyah Reishith Katzir, or Aliyah Rosh Kodesh, was the most important pilgrimage. It marked the end of the Lenten Chadash restrictions on produce for the New Year making the crops Yashan Kosher for the rest of the year. Adar produce following Crop New Year would not become Kosher to eat before someone went up to Jerusalem with your Offerings. Christians know this as the Lenten Pilgrimage which took place with the arrival of pilgrims by Palm Sunday. The Torah simply calls it "Rosh Kodesh". The word חדש / חודש (Season) is related to חדשה (New) and is of particular importance to Christians. For the Spring Pilgrimage, Believers would bring the Korban Omer Reshith Tenufah to Jerusalem in good time for the Priests to offer it on Yom Ha-Bikkurim.