You may have seen “Rosh Hashanah” blessings with apples and honey and wishes for a “Sweet New Year”. You also may have seen those with a picture of a man in a prayer shawl, blowing the shofar (the traditional ram’s horn trumpet), or maybe even all of the above: honey, apples and shofars.

The honey, apples and new years blessings are a later addition. God commanded the children of Israel to observe this holy day this way:

“‘On the first day of the seventh month hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. It is a day for you to sound the trumpets.” ~Numbers 29:1

“‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.” ~Leviticus 23:24

Most likely the rabbis added the later, unrelated meaning to this holiday because the Bible simply does not give a lot of information about it beyond describing it as a day of “trumpeting and a memorial of trumpeting.” Because this is the information we are given, let’s try to understand the meaning of “trumpeting” and “a memorial of trumpeting”

Insights into Trumpeting:  

“The Lord said to Moses: ^‘Make two trumpets of hammered silver, and use them for calling the community together and for having the camps set out.’”

~Numbers 10:1-2

This passage lays out that there are two different kinds of trumpeting:

• (T’KIAH) were trumpet calls to gather the camp together at the entrance of the Tabernacle
• (TRUAH) were trumpeting blasts that were to send out the camps on their way

Another Meaning of Trumpeting:  

“When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the trumpets (TRUAH). Then you will be remembered by the Lord your God and rescued from your enemies.”

~Numbers 10:9

In this passage, God tells us that when the enemy comes against our land, we should sound the trumpet to be remembered before the LORD our God, and He will send us rescue and salvation. This brings us back to how the bible originally describes this holiday: Trumpeting (TRUAH ) and a memorial of trumpeting (ZIKARON TRUAH).

Together, these definitions of “trumpeting” that the Bible gives us informs us that this day of trumpeting is meant to:

• call us together before God’s presence
• instruct us which way to go
• and finally, reminds us to cry out to God to rescue us from our enemies

We know that all the biblical holidays point to the Messiah Yeshua. The spring biblical holidays are connected to the events surrounding His first coming, and the fall feasts point to His second coming, first and foremost of which is the Day of Trumpeting.

The end times which culminate in the “great and terrible Day of the Lord” and the triumphant return of Yeshua will be a period of unprecedented darkness, confusion, and suffering. It is amazing then to realize that God, in His great mercy, gave us a yearly “prophetic dress rehearsal” to prepare us by getting our hearts and priorities right before Him.

The times we are living in, particularly here in Israel, are increasingly dark and confusing, and it is easy to allow our hearts to be filled with what the world wants to pour into us through our non-stop media feeds: hatred, lies, dissention, scoffing and ever increasing realms of sin. In the noise of all that, this holiday comes to remind us to be vigilant, to seek His presence, to give heed to His instructions on how to live our lives, and to call out to Him in intercession.

BACK TO APPLES, HONEY AND NEW BEGINNINGS

We will be observing this Rosh HaShanah in the traditional “New Year” way, with a special meal of symbolic foods (in addition to the blessings, there are request to God to defeat our enemies!). But for the most part, this is a special, sweet time with family and friends.

In a way, I think the rabbis were onto something: it is never too late for new beginnings. A biblical passage the rabbis most likely drew from to find “new beginning” references for this holiday is Nehemiah chapter 8 when Ezra the priest reads the Torah (the scroll of the law) to the returned exiles from Babylon who were assembled in the newly restored Jerusalem on “the first day of the seventh month”. Upon hearing the words of the law read to them, all the assembled began weeping because of how far they had fallen from keeping God’s laws. Nehemiah’s response to the people’s heart-felt sorrow and repentance on that holy day:

“Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

-Nehemiah 8:10

This Rosh HaShanah, God is inviting us to come before Him. For those who have have been living in or felt “exiled” from Him for a long time, He is calling us to sit at His feet and hear His word. When we desire to return to Him and keep His ways, He delights in us. And His joy in us is the strength we need to carry on the right path, and that is sweet indeed!

Happy Rosh HaShanah