The three major festivals were of course intimately connected with agriculture (Passover, with barley harvest; Pentecost, with wheat harvest and the bringing of first-fruits to the Temple;72 Tabernacles, with the grape harvest). They thus symbolically celebrated the blessing of Israel’s god upon his Land and his people, and thereby drew together the two major covenantal themes of Temple and Land. In addition, Passover celebrated the exodus from Egypt; Pentecost, the giving of Torah on Sinai;73 Tabernacles, the wilderness wandering on the way to the promised land. All three therefore focused
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