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Years ago I heard about a custom that some Jewish families practiced. It involved the sacrificial lamb for Passover, and that families would keep the lamb around the house for a time - I can't remember how long - to the point where the family would form a bond, like a pet. Then when it came to sacrifice the lamb, the gravity of the sacrifice became more clear.

I refuse to tell "preacher stories." I must know if this (or anything close to it) is true in Jewish custom either past or present. I can't seem to find it anywhere and can't remember where I first heard it. For all I know, it was a "preacher story" that got stuck in my head.

So:

First, have any of you heard of this?

Secondly, if you have, could you point me toward a reliable source, preferably in Logos?

I really appreciate this. If it has a basis in truth, it is going to make an awesome sermon illustration (with a real lamb), but I won't sacrifice the poor thing! Smile

You might even be able to guess where I might go with it.

Help? Thanks!

Jerry

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Rich DeRuiter

First, have any of you heard of this?

Secondly, if you have, could you point me toward a reliable source, preferably in Logos?

I was just reading this today:

Further, the father of a home, after selecting a one-year-old male lamb without blemish from the flock four days before the feast, on the tenth day of Abib or Nisan, had to slaughter it on the fourteenth day of that month at twilight, and with a brush of hyssop dab the blood on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the house (Exod. 12:3ff.).

Herman Bavinck, John Bolt and John Vriend, Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 4: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 542.

EDIT: see additional quote below.

Rosie Perera

I don't know about that custom specifically, but it seems it can't be far from the truth.

When my mother was a girl, she used to love going to visit her cousins who had a pet lamb named Blackie. One time when she went there, the lamb was nowhere to be found. She asked them, "Where's Blackie?" Whereupon her young cousin told her cheerfully, "Oh, he's in the freezer!"

That is not the kind of gravity one would hope for when it comes to sacrificing a beloved animal, but I know that people do give "pet" names to animals that they intend to slaughter.

A couple of summers ago I had the opportunity to take a two week course called "Food: Creation, Community, and Communion" through the seminary I'm an alum of. It was held out on a farm on an island not far from here. The 22 or so students in the class lived together in community, worked in the garden together, cooked together, worshiped together, had lecture time together in the mornings, and ate together. At one point we slaughtered two lambs that had been raised on the farm from birth. I don't think they had names, but they were definitely familiar. We got to see the lambs alive just before they were killed. A licensed professional came in and did the actual killing (a painless quick method) but then we all participated in skinning and butchering the lamb, and we cooked parts of it for various meals over the next few days, including a seder supper. It was a profoundly moving experience and I've never looked at meat the same way since. I always have a sense of gratitude towards the animal that had to die so that I could eat. The experience also taught me a lot about the sacrifice of Jesus, and again I can never think of it abstractly again.

Rich DeRuiter

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/221579#Comment_221579

I was just reading this today:

And then in the next paragraph I read this:

The sacrificial character of the Passover is even more clearly evident from the manner in which it was later celebrated in Canaan. There the lamb was no longer slaughtered by the father of a family but by the Levites (2 Chron. 30:16; 35:11; Ezra 6:19).

Herman Bavinck, John Bolt and John Vriend, Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 4: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 542.

Praiser

I have heard this same thing, and rather recently, but cannot remember specifically where I read or heard it.

Here is something though that you might use along with what you are looking for:

According to the biblical practice, the lamb was to be set aside on the tenth day of the month. From the tenth until the fourteenth day of the month the lamb was to be tested to be sure it was “without spot and without blemish.” Yeshua was set aside on the tenth day of the month with the Triumphal Entry. The purpose of the Triumphal Entry was not so much to present Himself as King of the Jews, for He had already done that. The purpose was to set Himself aside as the Lamb of God. From the tenth day of the month until the fourteenth day of the month, He was tested by four groups: the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, and Herodians. After their testing showed Him to be “without spot and without blemish,” He was qualified to be the final Passover sacrifice.

Remember, the Jewish day begins at sundown so that the first night precedes the first day. On the first night of the Passover, the paschal lamb is eaten. On the first day of the Passover, there was a special Passover sacrifice at 9 o’clock in the morning. The paschal meal that Jesus ate with His disciples is often called the “Last Supper,” but it should be called the “Last Passover.” He ate the Passover on the night of the fourteenth, the same night Jewish people normally eat it. He died the next morning at 9 o’clock; the exact hour that the Passover sacrifice was being offered in the Temple Compound, He was nailed to the cross. Just as no bone was to be broken with the Passover lamb, so no bone of Jesus was broken (Jn. 19:36). Again, Passover was fulfilled by the death of the Messiah.

Fruchtenbaum, A. G. (1983). Vol. 62: The Messianic Bible Study Collection (8). Tustin, Calif.: Ariel Ministries.

This study has much more information in it about Christ in the Passover.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/221613#Comment_221613

Oh, there's also the story that Nathan told to David in 2 Samuel 12:

¹The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. ²The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, ³but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/221619#Comment_221619

Also, Jeremiah 11:19 in The Complete Jewish Bible starts out "But I was like a tame lamb led to be slaughtered..."

There's also Isaiah 40:11 "He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young." Clearly shepherds kept sheep for a reason; and it wasn't just for companionship. So if the metaphor of "like a shepherd" connotes tenderness like this, then it must have been a well-known characteristic way of treating the lambs that were being raised for slaughter.

I also found this quote from Oehler's Theology of the Old Testament: "But what Philo points out (de vict. § 1) has also a place in these considerations, viz. that those animals are dedicated as sacrifices which are the most tame, the best accustomed to man’s hand, or, if you will, the most innocent—which surrender themselves most patiently to slaughter. Consider the passage concerning the patient sacrificial lamb in Isa. 53:7."

I figured out that "de vict." is an abbreviation of De Victimis which is translated "On Victims" or "A Treatise on Animals Fit for Sacrifice" in De Yonge's edition of Philo's works (that treatise is not included in our Works of Philo in Logos). Here's an excerpt from that (from Google Books):

[View:http://books.google.com/books?id=5MbWAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA211&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U09WN24JVAbwHJXoNrr8XbfbS2y4g&ci=72,896,804,580&edge=0:550:0]

[View:http://books.google.com/books?id=5MbWAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA212&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U3R_OXLhb_s1GYKQ0Lq4VU7G2dwXQ&ci=121,109,797,704&edge=0:550:0]

There's also this excerpt from the College Press NIV Commentary on
Deuteronomy: "4. An ancient Jewish view was that the underlying
principle for the laws was ethical. The laws expressed a moral point of
view and described a way of life designed to discipline the appetite and
prevent the human from being dehumanized through the violence involved
in killing animals (Philo, first century BC; Maimonides). This
inculcated reverence for life in imitation of God. It was also grounded
in the blood prohibition and the laws for ritual slaughter."

I am having no luck finding the Maimonides reference.

Fred Chapman

Years ago I heard about a custom that some Jewish families practiced. It involved the sacrificial lamb for Passover, and that families would keep the lamb around the house for a time - I can't remember how long - to the point where the family would form a bond, like a pet. Then when it came to sacrifice the lamb, the gravity of the sacrifice became more clear.

Jerry,

I came across something similar when I preached on the Parable of the Lost Son. It is not exactly what you are talking about but may be related. This is an excerpt from New Manners and Customs of Bible Times

Sheep and goats

A sheep in the Bible can be either a sheep or a goat; the same word is used for both on many occasions. Goat’s milk was not only important because of the quantity (some six pints per goat, per day) but also because it was used to make a type of yoghurt (leben) and cheese (Proverbs 27:27). One goat was therefore kept with the family even though others went with the shepherd, and it often became a family pet. The meat may not have been as good as lamb or veal (see Luke 15:29), but it was substantial and often used for a meal (Judges 6:19) and was therefore used for sacrificial purposes (Leviticus 1:10).

Jerry Bush

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/221683#Comment_221683

Thanks all. If you hear of a reliable source for the story/custom, I would sure like it. I think I can do this even without the story though, based on the things you have pointed me to.

My idea is to have the lamb around the church - maybe even 2 Sundays or the Weds before. Let kids pet it and so forth. Tell them I am going to show what people had to do before Jesus - really play it up. Right before I bring the knife down, I tell them we don't have to do this anymore because of Jesus. Then untie the lamb and let it go. A bit of theater involved, but it will make the point.

It will probably do its business on the carpet or something. [:)]

Thanks again!

Jerry

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/222011#Comment_222011

God required the Jews to bring the Passover lamb into their houses for 4 days, essentially making it a pet, before it was to be violently slain (Ex. 12:3,6). [source].

Wonder if the 'year' thing really matters all that much?