Rosh HaShanah

Due to a death in the family, I am not able to do research this enough and put it in my own words. So I give you a copy of the midrash I recd from First Fruits of Zion this week.

In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. (Leviticus 23:24)

On the first day of the seventh month is this festival the Torah simply calls a "reminder by blowing of trumpets." This is the festival we call the "Feast of Trumpets," the day of trumpet blowing. The Torah tells us to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets by blowing a ram's horn (shofar, שופר). The Feast of Trumpets is a festival that is meant to prepare us for the holy Day of Atonement that comes ten days later.

The festival is called Rosh HaShanah (the head of the year). This is the Hebrew way of saying New Year's Day. The Torah commands us to blow the shofar on the Rosh Hashanah as a memorial, but it does not tell us what the blowing of the shofar memorializes. The Sages offered various attempts to explain the festival. They searched through the Scriptures for references to shofars and trumpet blasts and derived a plethora of different remembrances. The early medieval sage Rav Saadiah Gaon codified these various explanations of the Feast of Trumpets and listed them. According to Rav Saadiah Gaon, there are ten primary remembrances for which the shofar is blown on the Festival of Trumpets. Each of these remembrances highlights a unique aspect of the festival:

1. The Coronation of the King
2. The Call to Repentance
3. The Giving of the Torah at Sinai
4. Warning of Impending Judgment
5. The Destruction and Future Rebuilding of the Temple
6. The Binding of Isaac
7. Fear of God
8. The Day of Judgment (Yom Kippur)
9. The Ingathering of Israel
10. The Resurrection of the Dead

Even as we wait to hear the trumpet blast of the king, the great shofar of our returning Redeemer, we celebrate the appointed time of the Rosh Hashanah. The annual blast of the shofar during the Feast of Trumpets foreshadows that day when the heavens will be rent by the blast of Messiah's trumpet. For disciples of the Messiah, Rosh Hashanah is a reminder of that appointed time yet to come when the Master "will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other." (Matthew 24:31) It is a day on which we anticipate the coming judgment, the trumpets of the book of Revelation, and the beginning of the end. It is a glimpse of the future, a shadow cast through time. As such, the Feast of Trumpets is relevant for everyone who believes in Messiah's return. It is an important festival for the disciples of Yeshua.