09/04/2026
Shanna Tova - Happy New Year
New Jewish year 5787 begins 9.11.26
Ken Overby Jewish Awareness Ministries
The Feast of Trumpets – Israel’s call to Repentance, Redemption and Reconciliation
Meaning
(Lev. 23:24) Zikhron Teruah “memorial of blowing” [of trumpets]
As of the 2nd century AD it became known as known as Rosh Hashana – literally the Head of the Year
Time
1st of Tishri, (Sept. 11, 2026 Jewish year 5787) the seventh month like the seventh day and the seventh year are Holy times. This month following the harvest contains all three fall feasts. God commands celebration and rest not only from their labors but also from their sin. Therefore repentance - “tshuvah” is necessary. Yom Kippur – Day of Atonement follows 10 days later (Sept. 21, 2027). Sukkot the Feast of Tabernacles is the last of the three Fall holy days - on the 15th of Tishri. (Sept. 26- Oct. 2, 2027)
Although Rosh Ha Shannah is to be held the first day of the month which is determined by the sighting of a new moon it like many of the Feasts has been observed for 2 days by the Jews scattered throughout time zones in the “diaspora”.
Biblical Record and Sacrificial Rites
Rites included the Blowing of trumpets, a Holy Convocation Assembly and a Sabbath of rest. (Lev. 23:23-25 Numb. 29:2-6) Also there was a sacrifice a young bull, a ram, seven lambs and a kid goat. (Numbers 29:2-6)
This was in addition to the daily sacrifices (Numb. 28:1-8) and the sacrifices of a new moon. (Numb. 28:11-15)
The only recorded observance was when Ezra said the Temple altar was rebuilt and the sacrifices were reinstituted after 70 years in Babylonian captivity. This was 30 days after the Temple reconstruction began in the month of Tishre, October 520 BC. The mandated Fall Feasts of Israel interrupted the work that Zerubbabel had begun. The Feast of Trumpets began on the 1st and the Day of Atonement began on the 10th day and the Feast of Tabernacles began on the 21st day.
Ezra 3:1-6 There was an amazing response to this historic festival being observed. (Neh. 7:73-8:13)
Trumpets
Priests used two straight silver trumpets “hatzotzera” Numbers 10:1,2 Solomon used 120 trumpets (2 Chr. 5:12) This type can be verified archaeologically as depicted on the victory arch of Titus in Rome. This is the basis of the newly replicated trumpets in the Temple Institute in Jerusalem for use in the next Temple.
Historical and Rabbinic traditions without exception employ the use of the ram’s horn or “shofar” for this ceremony.
Trumpet Blast sequence
“tekiah” – a long unwavering blast “shevarim” – three short blasts “truah” – nine part staccato blast, (symbolizing weeping) and “tekiah” – concluding blast. Over 100 blasts in these combinations are sounded in this service.
During the 2nd Temple period more than 100 Priests blew the silver trumpets. An additional priest stood with them using the “shofar”. This was in conjunction with a Levitical choir singing Psalm 81. Ezra records 200 singers, men and women. (Ezra 2:65) All the blowing of the shofar are believed to confuse Satan who is the accuser of God’s people in Heaven. The blast are said to lead him to believe that Messiah has come and announced His kingdom thus ending the authority of Satan.
Modern Observance
The High Holiday liturgy covers over 150 pages, lasting four to five hours. It is divided into three parts punctuated by benedictions “brakkahs” and one hundred blasts of the shofar in sets of blasts - 1 + 3 + 9 + 1. The three sections emphasize God’s majesty, remembering His covenant faithfulness, and His trumpet blast on Sinai that preceded the giving of the Torah. The “malkhiyot” – His majesty, the “zikhronot”- Remembering His covenant and the “shofarot”- Announcement of His Holy Law.
Although it is a day of rejoicing, it marks the ten Days of Awe preceding the Day of Atonement, “Yom Kippur”. For that reason Rosh Hashanah is also called the “Yom Ha-Din” or Judgment Day. It is taught that preceding the National Day of Atonement, three books are opened in Heaven. The book of the wicked. The book of the righteous and the book of those in between. All of those in the book of the righteous by “Yom Kippur” will be inscribed in the Book of Life. Those remaining in the book of the wicked will die prematurely within the next year.
The only scriptural record of these days of repentance following Rosh Hashanah is recorded in Nehemiah chapter 8:9-12. Their response was to weep in repentance when they heard the Law. Nehemiah commanded them not to weep on this day. It was to be a day of celebration and feasting.
It is traditional today to eat apples dipped in honey and to eat some sweet fruit that isn’t normally experienced. Instead of the oval shaped loaf of “Hallah’ bread, a round “Hallah” symbolizing a crown is eaten.
After Nehimiah instituted a day of joyous feasting, the eight days that followed were spent in listening to scripture and repentant prayer. Nehemiah 8:13-9:38 This repentance was led by the woeful prayer of Ezra. Ezra 9:1-10:1
Following Rosh HaShannah the ten awesome days of reflection and repentance are to be accompanied by “mitzvoth” good works such as paying debts, forgiving, works or gifts of charity. These say the Rabbi’s atone for ones sin and move one into the book of the righteous. It is customary for Jewish people to greet one another with “May you be inscribed in the Book of Life.” [Leshanah tova] Some add [tikatevu] “for a good year!”
Israel’s call to Repentance, Redemption and Reconciliation
We can take an application practically and prophetically from the order of these 3 feasts -Trumpets, Atonement and Ingathering/ Booths. Though it cannot be interpreted as a prophecy its similarity to prophetic events is striking. Since Jesus was crucified on Passover and raised on the feast of First fruits and since the Church was born on Pentecost many note that the parallel may be prophetic. The Feast of Trumpets = The Rapture trumpet. The Day of Atonement = Israel’s Judgment and national conversion in the Tribulation. The Feast of Tabernacles = The Millennial reign of Messiah Jesus on earth. Some go so far as to say the next Biblically prophesied events will happen on those feast days. For certain there is a typology fulfillment though hardly an exact matching date, else they would be able to predict the second coming, which is forbidden. “no man knows the day nor the hour”. If the order of the seven Levitical feasts parallels prophetic events it would be limited to being fulfilled only in regards to Israel. Could the Feast of Trumpets parallel Israel’s regathering in 1948 to present? Undoubtedly the Day of Atonement parallels with Israel’s future national acceptance of Messiah at the end of the Gog Magog “Battle of Armageddon”. Are the ten awesome days of repentance the seven year “Time of Jacob’s trouble”?
If we were to speculate, for 1st Century Jewish followers of Jesus who knew nothing of this Church age and Rapture, the parallel could have been; Feast of Trumpets = The Trumpets of God’s Judgment in the Tribulation. The Feast of Tabernacles = Messiah will deliver Israel. His angel will gather the elect from the four corners of the earth, and then He will “Tabernacle” dwell with them in the Millennial Kingdom.
The Trumpet calls for Repentance.
Joel 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand
For the Nation of Israel certainly The Days of Awe await them. The Revelation by the Apostle John lists seven staccato blasts “teruah” that announce judgment and her greatest time of mourning. 7 trumpets of Judgment Revelation 8
In chapter 7 the 144,000 Jewish virgin male evangelists 7:8 have scoured the globe preaching the Gospel and have harvested an innumerable multitude of disciples. 7:9 Many have become martyers for their faith in Jesus the Messiah as seen in white robes in Heaven.7:14 Israel has had the opportunity to hear the almost super human witnesses in the streets of Jerusalem for 3 and ½ years in addition to the witness of some of the 144,000.
In chapter 8 the screaming staccato blasts of the trumpets of God cry out that their last chance to receive Jesus as Messiah are numbered. They are in the final Days of Awe known as The Day of the Lord. Amos 5:17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD. 18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light. 19 As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. 20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
By the time the great “abomination that maketh desolate” happens to her newly constructed temple and her hopes are dashed in the breaking of her 7 year peace treaty her final call to repentance and redemption will have been issued. Zephaniah 1:14 The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. 15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, 16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. 17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. 18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
Joel 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. 32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: 21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. 22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. Many will be saved, but many will go on in their rebellion to receive the Messiah who already came.
Isa 13:6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. 7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt: 8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. 9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
John the revelator said Rev. 6:12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; 13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. 14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
Jer 30:5 For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. 6 Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? 7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. 8 For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him: 9 But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them. 10 Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. 11 For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. 12 For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.
The only two times listed in scripture when God blows the trumpet himself is at Sinai (Ex. 19:18-20) and the Rapture of the Church. Rabbis for centuries have quoted Zecheriah 9:14 “and the Lord GOD shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.” Their Talmudic interpretation is “And it iis the ram’s horn that The holy One, Blessed be he, is destines to blow when the son of David, our righteous one, will reveal himself, as it is said: ‘And the Lord God will blow the horn’” (Tanna debe Eliyahu Zutta XXII)
The Trumpet calls for Redemption & Reconciliation
Jer. 31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Only when repentant Israel is willing to say “Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.” (Psalm 1118:26, Mt. 23:39) willtrue national and personal redemption take place. David said the requirement is to “Kiss the Son.” That is “The Lord’s anointed” “lest He be angry and ye perish”. Isaiah said “every knee shall bow” and “ every tongue shall take an oath” Isa. 45:23
Dan 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
Personal reception of The Messiah is necessary for reconciliation to God. In Proverbs 30:4 Solomon asks if you know His son’s name. Rabbi Elieze, on of Israel’s ancient Rabbis, declared, “Repent one day before your death.” His astonished disciple asked, “Does then one know on what day he will die/” The Rabbi replied, “Then all the more reason that he repent today.” Shabbat 153a
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
The Trumpet calls for Restoration
Zec 10:6 And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the LORD their God, and will hear them. 9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. 6 And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. 8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
Inscribed or blotted out?
Psalm 69:28 David “Let them be blotted out of the Book of the Living, and not be written with the righteous.”
Exodus 32:32-33 God said to Moses, “ Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot Him out of My book.”
Daniel 12:1 Daniel was told, “thy people shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book.”
Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Final ceremony
The Jewish congregation will gather by a body of water or a fountain or well on the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah. There they will recite the Tashlikh prayer including these scriptures, Psalm 118:5,9; Psalm 33; Psalm 130:7 Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. 8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Isa. 11:9. “tashlikh” is from the word “cast” in Micah 7:19 “He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”
