The Bible

 

Exodus 23:14-19 : The Three Annual Festivals

Study

14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.

15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)

16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

17 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

18 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.

19 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

Commentary

 

Month

  

A 'month,' as in Genesis 29, signifies the end of an earlier state and the beginning of a following state, thus a new state. 'A month' signifies a full state.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 3814)


Commentary

 

Unleavened

  

For something to be "unleavened" means that it's been made without yeast. Since yeast is what makes bread rise and take on its airy texture, unleavened bread is relatively flat, dense and hard. The idea that unleavened bread is holy appears in both the Old and New Testaments and is still part of both Jewish and Christian traditions.

In the Word, bread represents the desire for what is good -- which gives us spiritual energy, just as bread gives us natural energy. Yeast, meanwhile, represents falsity -- so that bread made without yeast is a pure desire for good, free of falsity. This also makes sense because air represents our capacity to understand what's true -- which is the same capacity we use to embrace ideas that are false. Yeast causes bread to rise by producing gases as it ferments, thus adding "bad" air to the bread.