“Thou shalt Party:” Deuteronomy’s Command to Feast
by John W. Herbst
Feasting is fun. Human beings eagerly anticipate elaborate planned meals as an essential element of celebration. We design these events to help ourselves enjoy ourselves, spending some time pushing aside cares of life. For most of us, feasting is a pleasure.
In contrast, most human beings do not think of “law” as incorporating anything that can be described as “fun.” “Law” can be necessary and good, but “law” tends to invoke obligation, impressing upon us behavioral norms that we might otherwise avoid or ignore.
The dichotomy between “feast” and “law” makes Deut 14:22–29 a challenging passage to interpret. Very plainly, this passage commands the Israelites to regularly hold a celebratory feast! For twenty-first century Americans, parties tend to be optional; the feast in Deuteronomy 14 is required. What are the implications of this unusual-sounding requirement?
To interpret this passage, we first need to think a little about Old Testament law. Today’s readers tend to question the practicality of Pentateuchal legislation, perhaps pushing aside the implications of legal passages on the grounds that the laws themselves are not relevant to twenty-first century American society. But attempts to apply biblical “law” directly into modern rules tend to miss the point. We must reach behind the words of Deuteronomy to get to the author’s underlying ideas about God and humankind.
The central part of Deuteronomy was probably composed in the seventh century BCE, when citizens of the southern kingdom of Judah felt secure. When he references Israel, the author is not quite envisioning the nation as it stood in his day; parts of Deuteronomy indicate that he thinks of the “true” Israel as closer to our familiar maps of the ancient borders. Most Israelites then were involved in agriculture, producing food. The author’s audience therefore was literate small farmers who did not have much technology.
This passage begins in verse 22 with a command to set apart a tenth of one’s crop yield. The yield is different from profit; it represents the total harvest, before the farmer pays expenses (including government taxes and wages to workers). Farmers also had to set aside a third of an average yield for seed to plant the following spring. This makes the tithe a major chunk of a farmer’s income.
Even more striking, however, is the directed use of this tithe. The author does not want the tithe to be used to support the religious establishment (wages of priests or prophets, or funds to support the construction and upkeep of buildings and shrines) or the government. Instead, the author wants farmers to use this grain to create a celebratory feast designed to help people to honor and worship Yahweh.
This feast cannot take place just anywhere. In Deuteronomy “the place that he will choose as a dwelling for his name” is code language for Jerusalem. (Keep in mind that the author sets Deuteronomy at the end of the life of Moses, before David conquers Jerusalem and makes it Israel’s capital.) Deut 14 follows the pattern of the entire book in insisting that Israelites must travel to Jerusalem to perform ritual functions. (This requirement was not as hard for the Israelites to obey as it might seem. The “idealized” size of Israel is about the same as modern New Jersey, so that no matter where in Israel one lived, a trip to Jerusalem likely took no more than two or three days.)
The feast must include members of the religious hierarchy who might not otherwise have the means to participate. Deuteronomy tries to centralize things, yet it recognizes that some functions are best performed locally. (We do not know exactly which functions the author has in mind, but we might imagine occasions upon which Israelites would want human beings to perform ritual acts symbolizing God’s presence. These occasions probably included life-stage events, blessings at points of the agriculture cycle, and occasional blessings in times of sickness and famine.) Deuteronomy therefore recognizes that the Levites scattered around Israel may need funds to join everyone else in Jerusalem.
And of course all others without means must be able to join in – aliens, orphans, widows. No one can be excluded for lack of funds.
A remarkable feature of Deut 14 is that the author never stipulates an agenda or program for the celebration. Instead, the author focuses on the financial aspects, describing the tithe and its use – food and drink for everyone! But exactly what is supposed to happen at this event in addition to feasting is left undefined. The most we can say is that verses 23 and 28 point to a harvest festival, similar to our modern Thanksgiving, at which people celebrate Yahweh’s generosity. Deut 14 reinforces a picture of Israel imagined in Deuteronomy as a whole: Yahweh has been generous to Israel, and in return Israel should give Yahweh the credit.
The celebration therefore helps people to connect Yahweh to the material success of Israel. Everyone travels to Jerusalem for the party, so that all Israelites can hear about how Yahweh has blessed the entire nation. And no one is left out of this celebration: not the poor, not even the foreigners. Yahweh has been generous to the community; therefore, the entire community must get to enjoy the party.
With the above reading in mind, we can start to realize a few practical teachings offered by this passage. Here are three. First, the author of Deuteronomy believes that celebration for its own sake is a good thing. While some are tempted to believe that the idea that biblical law tries to get people to focus their energy and resources solely on work and worship, this passage commands the Israelites to spend ten percent of their means on celebration. The once-every-three-years-party is not an option; it is a mandate! And by stressing the existence of the feast itself ahead of its reason for being (which is, at most, vaguely described) and its structure (not mentioned at all), the author clearly tells us that feasting itself is crucial, certainly worthy of human commitment.
Second, this party stresses inclusivity. It does not take place in the home, or even in the center of town, but in the nation’s capital. This means that the feast does not take place on anyone’s “home turf,” and that it does encourage all Israelites from different regions to join together. The feast is not just for the local community, but for the entire nation.
Third, no matter what structure the people develop to make the feast happen, the point must be to “learn to fear the LORD your God always” (v.23). The Israelites need to recognize that Yahweh is in attendance (v.26). The Israelites can eat and drink whatever they like, even to the point of intoxication (“strong drink” of verse 26). But Yahweh must be present, so that the feast works to help the Israelites gain and strengthen reverence for Yahweh. We need to take measures to invite God to join our celebrations. A feast is successful only if people leave with the sense that their good time is a result of God’s interaction with the community.
Deuteronomy most certainly is about law. But in Deut 14 the law says to God’s people, “feast!” So let’s feast heartily, recognizing God as the one who makes our celebration possible.
