Rosh HaShanah or Yom Teruah? Torah or Talmud? Tradition or Truth? Feast of New Year or Feast Of Trumpets? First Month or Seventh Month? Rams-horn Shofars or Silver Trumpets? Rabbinical or Biblical?

These are the questions that many real students of Prophecy and Scripture are asking on this HolyLand Holiday. Why isn’t this Holiday even mentioned in the Scripture? And, is it a New Year at all?

The Karaite, the Samaritan and the Messianic Jews see it only as a Biblical Holyday. They consider Rosh HaShanah, a Babylonian Pagan Festival...From the Captivity! They will ONLY call it by it’s Biblical name, “Yom Teruah”.

Such Extra-Biblical interpretations have often plagued not just the Orthodox Jews but also, Christian Prophecy Teachers who accept Jewish Traditions as Biblical Truth without Fact-Checking the Scripture!

So, what are the facts as we know them? Where are they found in the Bible? How do they affect Prophecy Interpretation? Are they a useful tool in Outreach to the Jewish Community? Why do many Jewish Believers convert during the Fall Feasts?

1) Rosh HaShanah is not in the Bible. It was a Tradition brought back from the Babylonian Captivity and based on the Mesopotamian (Assyrian, Persian, Babylonian) Solar Calendars. It is not based on the Jewish Lunar Calendar!

2) The Scriptures clearly state in Exodus 12:2, 40:17, Leviticus 23:4, Numbers 28:16, 33:3, Ezekiel 45:18, that Passover was in Aviv (April) or Nisan (Babylonian Name). The Levitical & Biblical...FIRST MONTH! So, Rosh HaShanah cannot be the New Year.

3) The Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets is celebrated in the Seventh Month, Ethanim or Tishrei (Babylonian Name) meaning “Month of the Beginning” 1 Kings 8:2 (Of the 2nd Half-Year, NOT the New Year!). “A Memorial of Blowing of Trumpets” (Numbers 29:1, Leviticus 23:23-24).

4) The Tradition of Rosh HaShanah, though brought back by the Babylonian Captives, was NOT fully changed and adopted into Jewish Culture until after the Destruction of 2nd Temple in 70 AD (The Final Terms, Dates and Names were not complete until the 13th Century).

5) The Rabbinical Traditions also “ASSUMED” that Rams-horn Shofars of Wrath, Judgement and Yom Kippur were used in Yom Teruah Feast because of the proximity of both Feasts to each other.

6) The Silver Trumpets (Chatzotzerot) originally were used to: a) Assemble the Congregation. b) Signal Wilderness Journey camp movements (Numbers 10:1-2). c) And, used in times of Warfare (Numbers 10:9, 31:6, 2 Chronicles 13:12-14).

7) Importantly, “Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God” (Numbers‬ ‭10:10‬).

8) Yom Teruah is a Feast to make a Joyful Noise (Psalm 81:1-4, 100:1), a Triumphant Shout (Psalm 47:1, 118:15) and Trumpet Sound (Psalm 47:5, 81:3). The Celebration of the Final Harvest at the End of the Season.

9) Yom Teruah’s, “Silver Trumpets of Redemption”, correlate Rabbi Shaul’s (Apostle Paul) reference to the “Last Trump” shall sound in the End of The Age (Matthew 24:14, 1 Corinthians 15:51-54, 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18)

10) Lastly, Yom Teruah, is the hardest Feast Day to schedule because it falls on exactly the New Moon of the Seventh Month. Until it actually appears...Not a Rabbi, Talmudim, “No Man Knoweth The Day or The Hour” (Matthew 24:36, Mark 13:32).

We are in the “Beginning of Sorrows” now. But soon, “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God (1 Thessalonians‬ ‭4:16‬). We shall Rise in Rapture to a New Beginning in Eternity with Yahweh Yeshua HaMashiach!

Chag Yom Teruah,

David J Sagil, MJR Director 
MJR (Ministry of Jewish Relations)