Day of the Blast!
This evening at sundown is called more popularly, Rosh HaShanah, that is “head of the year.” Yet, it is the 1st day of the SEVENTH month, not the first day of the first month. Judaism really has two “years.” The seasonal New Year is, of course, the first day of the first month, as Exodus 12: 1 plainly says: This Moon/month shall be to you the beginning of months.” That day is very significant in biblical and Jewish history and many things have taken place on Nisan 1st–the biblical New Year. It signals “new beginnings.”
But the 7th month/moon is also the first of a kind of “civil year,” that had to do in ancient times with certain calculations regarding the Jubilee, the redemption of bond-servants, and so forth. It is kind of an “legal” New Year, much like our July and Oct “fiscal years” in our society today. It has to do with “accounting.
In the Torah itself, this holy day is never called Rosh HaShanah. Rather it gets a different name–Yom Teru’ah, that is “day of the blast.” Teru’ah in Hebrew refers to raising up a loud noise, whether a shout or the blast of the trumpet or Shofar. Thus some Christian groups that keep this day refer to it as the “feast of Trumpets.” This is also a name that is nowhere found in the Bible. There is, however, an association of this day with a “trumpet,” or more properly, a “shofar,” in Psalm 81. But notice carefully, our word TERU’AH also occurs, in the very first verse, here translated “shout.” It really means to raise up a noise, and it can be voices, instruments, and of course the piercing sound of the Shofar. I guess it would be highly appropriate to actually SHOUT on this day, as well as SING and blow the Shofar!
1 Cry aloud to God our strength, raise a SHOUT (verb rua’) to the God of Jacob.
2 Lift up a song, and give out a timbrel, A pleasant harp with psaltery.
3 Blow in the month a SHOFAR, In the new moon, at the day of our festival,
4 For a statute to Israel it is, An ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 A testimony on Joseph He hath placed it, In his going forth over the land of Egypt. A lip, I have not known — I hear.
But what does it mean? The instructions in Lev 23 are amazingly sparse and seem to give no reason or meaning to the day. It simply says it will be a Sabbath, no work to be done, people are to gather on this day, and there will be a “memorial SHOUT/BLAST.”
The best clues to the Biblical meaning of this day are found in Psalm 80 & 81. The connection here to the tribe of Joseph is quite interesting. Judaism is surely right to connect the sound of the Shofar as a call to the Tribes, and a call to all humanity to awaken, a call of judgment and preparation…as it falls ten days before Yom Kippur, the Day of Covering, and then leads into Sukkoth, which seems to be a picture of the Kingdom of God with Israel once more dwelling in “booths” or “huts,” that is temporary shelters, as in the days when they were led out of Egypt and had that intimate, “face to face” relationship with YHVH.
Each year this sequence is pictured…this is the “LAST” month of the holy calendar, the SEVENTH month (no festivals really in months 8-12), so it seems to picture somehow the “end of history,” but in a mini-form, year by year….
The Jewish Prayer book contains many wonderful things in the liturgy that will connect back with the biblical meaning of this solemn day…
May all have a meaningful “mo’ed,” that is “appointment” with YHVH…and Shabbat Shalom this evening and tomorrow until sunset.
JDT