Tag: Feast of Trumpets

Podcast Episode: Understanding Rosh Hashanah: A Guide to Yom Teruah

Podcast Episode: Understanding Rosh Hashanah: A Guide to Yom Teruah

Pip: The Jewish new year falls in the seventh month. If that sounds like a scheduling conflict, you might be exactly the audience cj is writing for on The Way of the Rabbi.

Mara: This episode follows one extended meditation on Rosh Hashanah — what the Torah actually calls Yom Teruah, what that name means, and why the gap between biblical instruction and modern practice matters more than it might first appear.

Pip: Let’s start with the feast itself — the trumpets, the timing, and what gets lost when the calendar drifts.

Understanding Rosh Hashanah: Yom Teruah and the Call to Return

Mara: The post opens with a distinction that sets the whole argument in motion: Rosh Hashanah, as modern Judaism observes it, is not quite what the Torah prescribes. The biblical feast is Yom Teruah — placed in the seventh month, not the first.

Pip: And the name carries the weight. The post explains that “Teruah, in Hebrew means to cry-out, Shout loudly, and sound the trumpet. It is a call to attention!”

Mara: So the upshot is this: the feast isn’t primarily about a new year — it’s an alarm. Ten days before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the trumpet blast is meant to wake people up to the need for repentance. The calendar drift softens that urgency.

Pip: The post then takes a long step sideways into 1 Samuel 8, and it’s not actually a detour. The people demand a king; God tells Samuel they haven’t rejected Samuel — they’ve rejected God. It’s the same pattern being traced across millennia.

Mara: And the lesson doesn’t stop at the demand. A few chapters later, in 1 Samuel 10, the people receive exactly the king they asked for and are still dissatisfied. The post draws the parallel plainly: we pray for answers, get them, and remain unhappy.

Pip: Which is a fairly precise description of asking God to move the feast days to more convenient dates.

Mara: The post names that directly. Modern Judaism adjusted the timing. The modern church, the post argues, went further — replacing Passover with Easter, and celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles under the name Christmas, without recognizing what they’re doing.

Pip: The scriptural anchor for why this matters is Daniel 7:25 — the lawless one “intending to change the appointed times and laws.” Drifting calendars aren’t a minor administrative matter in this framework.

Mara: The post closes with the actual Torah instructions from Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29 — a sacred assembly, no regular work, trumpet blasts — and then pivots to the feast’s forward significance. The spring feasts were fulfilled through the death and resurrection of Messiah; the fall feasts, including this one, point to his return.

Pip: First Thessalonians 4 and First Corinthians 15 both land on the same image: a trumpet sounds, the dead rise, and everything changes in the twinkling of an eye.

Mara: The post’s final word is that these are not Jewish feasts or Christian feasts — they are Elohim’s feasts, for Israel and for the foreigner grafted in alike. The instruction is simple: take up the Word and keep them.

Pip: A trumpet as an alarm clock for the whole household — that’s the image the post leaves you with, and it’s hard to shake.

Mara: The thread running through all of this is the gap between what was given and what we’ve made of it — and the cost of not noticing.

Pip: The trumpet is still sounding. Next time, we’ll see what else the calendar has to say.

Read the entire post here: Understanding Rosh Hashanah: A Guide to Yom Teruah

Understanding Rosh Hashanah: A Guide to Yom Teruah

Understanding Rosh Hashanah: A Guide to Yom Teruah

Today on the modern Jewish calendar marks, Rosh Hashanah. The Jewish new year. They have incorporated it into Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets. It is the only Biblical Feast that does not have a known day or hour as it is marked by the sighting of the first sliver of the moon or the waxing crescent. Teruah, in Hebrew means to cry-out, Shout loudly, and sound the trumpet. It is a call to attention! The fall Feast days have arrived and it begins with a call to attention, and a focus on repentance until the day of atonement, Yom Kippur, now 10 days away. Modern Judaism has removed the waiting and marked a generally close proximity start to Rosh Hashanah.

Rosh Hashanah, or Head of the Year. They call it the new year even though quite clearly the Torah calls this Feast Yom Teruah, and places it in the seventh month. Pesach, or Passover, is in Nisan which is the first month of the year according to Torah. They still use it to call in a time of reflection to begin the (spiritual) new year with repentance but obedience is found in the little things. And it is easy, if one isn’t paying attention to lose sight of the little things and thereby missing the entire thing altogether.

In my daily reading of Scripture I am in 1 Samuel. In chapter eight verses six through nine the people ask for a king and Elohim responds to their request by telling Samuel, “But when they said, ‘Give us a king to judge us,’ their demand was displeasing in the sight of Samuel; so he prayed to YHWH. And YHWH said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their King. Just as they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking Me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to their voice; but you must solemnly warn them and show them the manner of the king who will reign over them.”

When I began waking up to Torah and to Faith in Yahoshua as well as obedience to the commandments of Elohim. As Revelation 14:12 says: “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Yahoshua (Jesus).” I started by reading and reading and reading the Torah. What is the history being told. When you understand its history and the arch of faith the people of Israel were on you can better understand that the modern church is essentially on this same arch. We have brushed aside the commands of God for the traditions of men. We have demanded our own way and by so doing have rejected God, the one who has brought us out of spiritual bondage.

And even still we are unhappy. Look at the rest of the lesson found in 1 Samuel. Just a few chapters later, ten verse twenty-seven we read: “But some worthless men said, ‘How can this man save us?’ So they despised him and brought him no gifts; but Saul remained silent about it.” God gave them the king they demanded and still they were not happy. Are we not often of the same mind. We pray and pray for answers, and when the answer is given we are still unhappy with the answer.

God has told us in His Word when the Feasts are and what they are meant to accomplish. Yet, modern Judaism has changed their meanings and essentially the timing. The modern church has thrown them out entirely for man made traditions of Christmas, the celebration of Jesus’ birth and coming to dwell with us. Which is the very celebration of the Feast of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles, the last of the Fall Feasts. They have chosen Easter over Passover discarding the very meal they claim to take in remembrance of Him.

Both of these are marks of a rebellious spirit of which we are warned of in Scripture multiple times. Daniel 7:25 says; “He will speak out against the Most High and oppress the saints of the Most High, intending to change the appointed times and laws; and the saints will be given into his hand for a time, and times, and half a time.” ‘He’ who Daniel is referring to is the lawless one, the Anti-Messiah or Anti-Christ. The coming of the lawless one, as we read in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 is marked by, well lawlessness, which is to say without Torah.

“The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie, in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness.” What is the TRUTH, God’s Word is Truth. John 17:17 – “Set them apart for holiness by means of the truth – Your Word is TRUTH.” These are the words Yahoshua prayed before being hung on a tree. And wickedness which they delight are the very acts committed outside of Torah.

Here is the stated instruction for the Feast of Trumpets or Yom Teruah in Leviticus 23:23-25 – “YHWH Adonai also said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly announced by trumpet blasts. You must not do any regular work, but you are to present a food offering to YHWH.’” Later in Numbers 29:1-6 we read:

“On the first day of the seventh month, you are to hold a sacred assembly, and you must not do any regular work. This will be a day for you to sound the trumpets. As a pleasing aroma to YHWH, you are to present a burnt offering of one young bull, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old, all unblemished, together with their grain offerings of fine flour mixed with oil—three-tenths of an ephah with the bull, two-tenths of an ephah with the ram, and a tenth of an ephah with each of the seven male lambs. Include one male goat as a sin offering to make atonement for you. These are in addition to the monthly and daily burnt offerings with their prescribed grain offerings and drink offerings. They are a pleasing aroma, a food offering to YHWH.”

There are other references throughout the Tenakh of Yom Teruah or the Feast of Trumpets as well. Ezra 3:1-6 and Nehemiah 8:1-12 and a poetic reference in Psalm 81:3. There is also a coming significance to the Feast of Trumpets. Just as Adonai fulfilled the Spring Feasts through the Death and Resurrection of our Messiah Yahoshua, so the Fall Feasts will mark His coming again. This time not as suffering servant but as Adonai and King!

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
“For Adonai Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Messiah will be the first to rise. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Adonai in the air. And so we will always be with Adonai.”

1 Corinthians 15:51-53
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in an instant, 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. For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.“

These are not Jewish Feasts, these are Biblical Feasts, they are indeed Elohim’s Feasts and they are for both the Israelite and the foreigner who dwells among them. Those who call on the name of Yahoshua are grafted into the root and that roots foundation is Elohim’s Word which taken in its entirety is not an unbearable yoke but freedom from sin and death.

Take up the Word of Truth and discover all that it has for you in keeping the Feasts of Elohim.

You are loved,
cj

i am becoming one of “those” . . .

i am becoming one of “those” . . .

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24

This passage from Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well is highly regarded as justification for Christians to say, “I am doing this in worship of the Father, the other things don’t mean anything. I love God.” or some variation of the same. But, i ask you what Jesus was referring too here? It was customary for Jews to travel to Jerusalem to worship on particular feasts, Passover, Weeks, and Tabernacles. There are seven Hebraic Feasts; i say Hebraic lightly i will get to that in a bit.

Jesus, in His referring to worshiping in spirit and truth, was prophetic, in that He was the Messiah, and therefore He is the feasts. Thus, the location of worship was shifting from a physical place to a spiritual place . . . One primary reason is that Jerusalem was in the hands of the Romans and would soon destroy the Temple, the reason for the pilgrimage. He, in no way, was saying, anything goes, instead expressing a more personal focus because the relationship was about to become intimate.

Let’s take a look at each of the three pilgrimage feasts. First, Passover, they would come to present their sacrifice to the priests, and the Passover lamb would be sacrificed. It was to commemorate or remember the Exodus from Egypt, where those who had the blood on the doorpost were passed over by the angel of death. The final plague before Pharoah would let the people go. John the Baptist proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” This was Jesus, the Lamb of God. In observing Passover in real-time, in that year, Jesus, as the Lamb, fulfilled the Feast. We should honor it today as a remembrance of our Passover Lamb, who takes away our sin.

Second, The Feast of Weeks occurs seven weeks or 50 days after the Sabbath of Passover. The interesting thing about this feast, it is a remembrance of the receiving of the law, and with the law comes the knowledge of sin. Its institution was to celebrate the ripening of the wheat harvest. Which is even more interesting! Think of it, Jesus said, “the harvest is plentiful, the workers are few, pray that the Lord of the harvest would send workers.” (Luke 10:2) Here is the cool thing, just as they received the law on Mt Sinai accompanied by smoke, fire, and clouds; so on the day of Pentecost 50 days from the Sabbath of Passover the disciples were gathered, and tongues of fire with a rushing wind came as they received the law written on their hearts as the Holy Spirit was given. We are the workers in the field that God has given.

Third, Tabernacles, this feast was in remembrance of the Hebrew nations wandering in the desert living in temporary shelters. They would again make their pilgrimage to Jerusalem and worship there. Looking to the future, it is symbolic of the return of the King and Jesus ruling and reigning among His people as we tabernacle together with the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Here’s a cool fact, the Feast of Tabernacles was open to all people and nations to come and be with the Lord. Reminds me of the Sabbath day and the Day of Atonement, another feast in which it is stated that even the foreigner within your gates should do no work. As Jesus declared, “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” so we should consider the Sabbath God made for us, to rest and reflect on the goodness of our Lord.

Each of the other feasts is equally significant, and in Leviticus, we read that they are not Hebraic but rather God’s feasts.

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are My appointed feasts.‘” Leviticus 23:1-2

But we don’t really celebrate these feasts, we pass them off as being strictly Hebraic. However, that isn’t even implied in Scripture, for it is Israel who was to be God’s mouthpiece to the world. And as the writer of Hebrews tells us, we are all grafted in together as one people before God. Again here in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The intention of the feasts, most certainly the final one known as the Feast of Tabernacles, is to unify us in the worship of God. To draw our attention to the Most High.

If God, so intently, marked out His desired Feasts, for His people to honor Him. He was even reminding them that these were forever feasts, being both remembrance and prophetic. If Jesus observed the Feasts and the early church followed the Feasts, i feel it right to do so now.

Now let me ask you; if you were one of the first century Christians, and as such, you, as they did, observe the Feasts with both the remembrance factor and the prophetic one in mind. Looking back and looking ahead, would you allow for a mingling of pagan cultural practices to interfere with those feasts? Would you desire to take on the worship of pagan gods to enhance the worship of God? i hope that your answer is NO WAY! It certainly is God’s answer:

“You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughter in the fire to their gods. Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.” Deuteronomy 12:31-32

“Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:14-15

(Note, read all of 1 Corinthians 10) “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” . . . “Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?” 1 Corinthians 10:14 & 22

We are to flee anything evil. We are not to intermingle pagan worship with the worship of God. These things have not changed, and yet we do. The majority of Christians in the west and some beyond do. Christmas and Easter both have their origins in paganism. These have been central holidays within the church for centuries. Why did the church allow this to happen? How did they not see? Why am i just now waking up to the truth? This isn’t an undue hardship or yoke, this is central to the Worship of God. i am not talking diets or fabrics or circumcision, i am speaking to what the Lord desires and what we were ultimately created for . . . Worship. If you think it is evil to worship the Lord, then don’t, as Joshua said.

Now to Halloween, i once thought it was actually the one rooted most in the faith with All Saints Day, but i was wrong there too. It is ripe with its roots in paganism, and there is no redeeming it, nor should we try. There is no need for an alternative either, for we have seven feasts to the Lord, and each one is a party, a grand celebration! We are called to be different, to come out of the culture and be the Kingdom here and now. When Jesus said we were to Worship in Spirit and in Truth, i am certain He didn’t include pagan rituals in there regardless of your “intent.”

In my next few postings, i will be touching on Halloween and its true origins and then Christmas in the same way. i hope to show why i am choosing to walk away from these traditions. i will also write again about Easter, although i have already done that if you go back in my history of posts. This is a massive step for me, it hasn’t been easy, but it is right. i am becoming one of “those” Christians, and it is not a burden placed on me . . . It is actually a point of self-denial to put away the ways of the world that i might honor the Lord. To love Him with my whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. Yes, i am becoming one of those Christians, the one i should have been from the beginning. And you should too!

You are loved,

cj