High Sabbaths
{{Short description|Seven annual biblical festivals and rest days}}
{{About|a group of seven biblical festivals|Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur specifically|High Holy Days|Sabbath before Pesach|Shabbat haGadol}}
High Sabbaths, in most Christian and Messianic Jewish usage, are seven annual biblical festivals and rest days, recorded in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.{{cite web|url=http://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/crux.cfm|publisher=Blue Letter Bible|work=Theological FAQs|title=After the Crucifixion: The Three Days and the Three Nights}}{{cite web|url=http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Spring_Holidays/First_Fruits/first_fruits.html|title=Reshit Katzir: Messiah as the Beginning of the Harvest|author=Parsons, John J.|publisher=Hebrew for Christians}}{{cite web|title=FAQ: Is a 'high day' a weekly Sabbath?|work=Sabbath.org|url=http://www.sabbath.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Basics.FAQ/ID/169/Is-high-day-weekly-Sabbath.htm|publisher=Church of the Great God}} This is an extension of the term "high day" found in the King James Version at {{Bibleverse||John|19:31|KJV}}.
Biblical rest days
The seven festivals do not necessarily occur on weekly Shabbat (seventh-day Sabbath) and are called by the name miqra ("called assembly") in Hebrew ({{Bibleverse||Lev.|23}}). They are observed by Jews and a minority of Christians. Two of the shabbath (holy assemblies) occur in spring on the first and last day of the Feast of unleavened bread (Matzot). One occurs in the summer, this is the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot). And four occur in the fall in the seventh month. Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teru'ah) on the first day of the seventh month; the second is the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur); and two during the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) on the first and last day. Sometimes the word shabbaton is extended to mean all seven festivals.{{cite web|url=http://www.feastsofthelord.com/ss/live/index.php?action=getpage&sid=204&pid=2189|publisher=Feasts of the Lord|title=The Festival of Unleavened Bread (Hag HaMatzah)|work=The Seven Festivals of the Messiah|author=Chumney, Eddie}}
The Gospel of John says of the day beginning following Christ's death, "that sabbath day was a high day" ({{Bibleverse-nb||John|19:31–42|KJV}}). That night was Nisan 15, just after the first day of Passover week (Unleavened Bread) and an annual miqra and rest day, in most chronologies. (In other systems, it was Nisan 13 or 14, i.e., weekly but not annual Sabbath.) The King James Version may thus be the origin of naming the annual rest days "High Sabbaths" in English.
=As coincidental with weekly Sabbaths=
High Sabbaths are considered by Seventh-day Adventists to be a subset of the feast sabbaths. In their view, only those feast sabbaths that coincide with the weekly Sabbath are regarded as High Sabbaths.{{cite book|url=http://sdanet.org/atissue/books/27/27-19.htm |title=Seventh-day Adventists Believe...|publisher=Review & Herald Publishing Assn.|date=1988}}{{rp|253}} Many other Sabbath-keeping Christian groups keep the High Sabbaths, and rules for the High Sabbath supersede the rules for the weekly Sabbath, should that high day fall on a weekly sabbath day. These are not considered "Jewish days", but are recognized as "God's Holy Days", according to Leviticus 23.
High Holy Days
The ten-day period between the High Sabbaths of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur inclusive is commonly referred to as the High Holy Days.
References
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