1. MEANING:

BACKGROUND:

The name “ROSH HA SHANA” in Hebrew means: “The head of the year”, which implies: “The beginning of the year”.

However, the BIBLICAL beginning of the year according to the TORAH is a different day: Passover. God commanded us to start counting from a significant date: The Day of Redemption – The Day of Exodus from Egypt. (In Hebrew, Torah means “Teaching” or "Instruction", NOT Law).

Hebrew Calendar: Biblical vs. Current

In Leviticus, God instructs us: “The Lord said to Moses: ‘Say to the Children of Israel: ‘On the first day of the seventh month (TISHREY) you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with Trumpet Blasts…’” (Lev. 23:23-24).

From the above we can understand that this day is not at all a “New Year Day”, but “The Day of Trumpets”, or “The Day of Assembly”. No explanation whatsoever is given regarding the purpose of it! (One needs to go to the New Testament to see the “clues”…)

When the Israelis entered Canaan, settled in it, and started toiling in the land, the focus of the nation shifted to the immediate issues of daily life, mainly their agriculture. Therefore, the “Beginning-of-the-year” slowly shifted from the Passover period, which falls in the beginning of spring, to the beginning of the agricultural season, which is the beginning of autumn.

This “shift” is not altogether unbiblical: Exodus 23:16(b) states: “Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field”. In other words: this season, the season of ingathering, is the END of a previous year. Logic dictates that a beginning of something follows the end of something else. In this case it is the beginning of the new (agricultural/civil) year, which follows the end of the previous one.

TWO “NEW-YEAR” DAYS

However, by adding another “Head of Year” feast to the God given, Biblical New Year Day of Passover, they were not disobeying God.

o       This Day served as the beginning of the Spiritual, Religious, Priestly and Ritualistic year. They started counting the months from Aviv, in order to know when to celebrate God’s Festivals, and when to ascend to Jerusalem 3 times a year. This was the first and most important New Year.

Y      The SECOND in importance, is the “New Year” Festival, originally “Yom Teru’ah” (“Day of Blowing the Trumpet”). This is the New Year festival for the Civil, Agricultural issues, and counting the years for Jubilee etc.

THE RESULT: TWO New Year days – a Spiritual-ceremonial one, and a Civil one.

2. MOOD:

In Jewish Custom, the Day of Trumpet, Rosh Hashanah, is not like any of the other Festivals commanded by God. For example, the Three Pilgrimage Festivals are JOYOUS Festivals. The “Mood” of Rosh Hashanah, is one of Days of Awe. Not much celebration, and not much joy or singing.

“The Ministering Angels were standing before God, and asked Him: ‘Master of the Universe, how come the Children of Israel do not sing before You on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur?’.  God answered them: ‘Is it possible that a King sits to pass judgement, with the Books of Life and Death before Him, and the Children of Israel will be singing?’”

Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the “Ten Days of Awe”. It is a period when one is required to "take-stock" of his life, and REPENT. This is a period when one is usually anxious about his/her “entry” in God’s Books. At the same time, it also marks the beginning-of-the-end of a forty-day period of repentance.

During the preceding month, of Elul, Observing Jewish men get up every morning at about four o’clock and go to the Synagogue, for a service of “Selichot”. “Selicha” means “Forgiveness” in Hebrew. The “Selichot” are Jewish penitential poems and prayers, especially those said in the period leading up to the High Holidays, and on Fast Days. The Thirteen Attributes of God are a central theme throughout the prayers. (The Thirteen Attributes of God: see Exodus 34:6-7. These are the attributes with which, according to Jewish tradition, God governs the world).

In the older days, a special “wake-up-call” was given by one of the Synagogue’s Deacons. He would go and knock on peoples’ doors or windows, and would tell them: ‘wake up from your slumber, all you God’s people, and go and repent!’. 

 

For the entire preceding month of ELUL, the men go before God, and pray for God’s  gracious forgiveness, to Appeal to Him for His forgiveness! They stop only for the eve of Rosh Hashanah, which is the end of the month of Elul.

They continue appealing to God during the 10 Days of Awe, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement. These are days of fasting, awe, prayer and reverence, before God , as this is the time that He “inscribes” His People for Life or Death! In an analogy from schooldays we can say: in Jewish terms, the 40-day period is “preparing for year-end exams”, and the Day of Atonement, the day when judgement is given, is the “Exam Day”.

3. “MINHAGIM” (CUSTOMS):

Y      Blowing the Shofar. This is based on the commandment in Numbers 10:10: "Also at your times of rejoicing--your appointed feasts and New Moon festivals--you are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your God. I am the LORD your God.". The Shofar is a type of trumpet, made out of a Ram’s Horn, all bent and curled. The significance of the Shofar being BENT is two fold: 1) To remind us to come before our King in reverence and awe, BENDING our knees and bowing down, and 2) "to remind God of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, and symbolize by this our BINDING OURSELVES UP to God ("AKEIDA")".

o        The reason for a Ram’s horn rather than a Bull's horn is because the BULL reminds us of the sin of the Golden Calf, whereas the Ram reminds us of God's substitute for Isaac on the altar.

o        Until the destruction of the SecondTemple (70 AD), blowing of the Shofar was accompanied by blowing of the Silver Trumpets simultaneously.

o        The Shofar was blown for many functions, or reasons and these were determined by a “Code” represented in the blow. Just like in today's “bar-code” labels, so it is in the blowing of the Shofar: different combinations of sounds and patterns mean different reasons for blowing it. Some of the reasons are:

·        A symbol for a "Royal Trumpet Blast": a declaration of the King sitting on His Throne of Judgement. Several Psalms support this: Ps. 24:7-10; Ps. 81:1-3; Ps. 89:12-15. In these Psalms all of creation proclaims the Kingship of God. This is a proclamation for the whole wide world; a proclamation for all nations!

·        A signal for spiritual awakening, mainly a call for repentance!

·        A means to convey information between congregations.

·        A signal to warn people to revere God completely, with fear and trembling (see Amos 3:6: “When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble?”).

·        A signal to take heed of God’s instructions, given through His prophets (see Ezekiel 33:4-5: “then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head… If he had taken warning, he would have saved himself”).

·        A signal to remind us of the Great Day of the Lord, and to revere it (see Zephaniah 1:14,16: “The great day of the Lord is near – near and coming quickly…a day of trumpet and battle cry…”).

·        A signal to remind us to do everything to bring about the return of the Jews back to the Land (see Isaiah 27:13: “And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the HolyMountain in Jerusalem”).

Y     “Tashlich” (“You will cast”). This is a ritual based on Micah 7:19: “Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depth of the sea”. People go to places that symbolize the sea, and empty their pockets from breadcrumbs ("yeast"), sand and stones ("heaviness of sin").    The stones and pebbles symbolize the burden of sins, which can be forgiven after repentance, when God decides to cast them into the depth of the sea. The breadcrumbs symbolize the "Yeast which spoils the Batch".

Y     Eating apples dipped in honey. To symbolize the desire to have a sweet and prosperous year.

Y     Having the head of a fish on the dinner table. According to the scripture in Deuteronomy 28: “… you shall be the head and not the tail”.

Y     Eating fish. This is a symbol taken from the fish’s fertility. The desire is that “our rights and favour before you, oh Lord, will be as numerous as the fish produces”.

Y     Having a round plaited-bread (called round “Chala” bread). A symbol of the desire to have a “complete” year. “Complete” here has a double meaning: “Complete” as in perfect, and “complete” as in “may we live this year to its completion”.

Y     Eating honey-cakes. Self-explanatory….  

4. POSSIBLE NEW TESTAMENT PERSPECTIVE:

The Day of Trumpet. The first three parts of this document were all based on purely Old Testament, Jewish perspectives and customs. Most of the pointers there related to the feast as “New Year”, which is a secondary aspect, rather than as “Day of Trumpet” – its Biblical, primary Aspect! 

As noted at the beginning of Part 1 (“Meaning”), God does not give us too much clarification as to the Spiritual or Prophetic purposes or functions of this 1-day Festival. It is an Enigma! 

Is it indeed an Enigma??

I would like to suggest that as New Testament Believers, we can find plenty of “clues” to the “Mystery of the Day of Trumpet”. The New Testament, especially in its prophetic approach to End Times and Apocalyptic subjects, is full of both “Shofars”, and clarifications in-context, for the true, spiritual meaning of “The Day of Trumpet”. 


Following is a very narrow and partial list of New Testament Scriptures, which I believe are directly related to The Day of Trumpet. Since I do not wish to influence anybody’s opinion – I will refrain from giving my own.

⁵² in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed."

*        1 Thes. 4:16-17: "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever"

*        Rev. 1:10-11: "On the Lord's Day (the Sabbath U.L) I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, ¹¹ which said: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea."

*        In Revelation chapters 8 & 9 – the Six Angels (out of 7) use trumpets to declare their missions!

*        Rev. 10:7: "But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets". This is a forewarning, before the mystery is actually solved…

*        …and then, the “mystery” is finally solved in Rev. 11:15: "The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever’"

All I can say is another Hebrew word: Hallelujah!!