Sept 21-22, 2017 - YOM TERUAH The Shofar Shouts Alarm and Repentence

The Watchman

"...Yom Teruah is the only festival which has an uncertain beginning, since the first day of the month, Rosh Chodesh, depends on sighting the new moon by two witnesses. For this reason, even in Israel this festival is celebrated for two days.

Yom Teruah: Which means a day of blowing (the shofar) or breathing. This name is found in:

Bamidbar (Numbers) 29:1 "'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 shofarot.

Vayikra (Leviticus) 23:24 "Say to the Israelites: 'On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with shofar blasts.

Teruah in Hebrew means not only a certain unique sound. It also connotes "to break", as the prophet says:

Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 24:19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.

After the earth quaked, something broke to pieces. Teruah is associated with breakage and damage, for example we find the people of Sodom threatened to do damage to Lot for not turning over his guests to them.

Yom Ha-Zekaron: Which means a day of memorial or remembrance. This is derived from the verse:

Vayikra (Leviticus) 23:24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.

Rosh HaShanah: This is the common name used by most Jews.

The shofar has played a major role in several biblical events:

1. When the Torah was given:

Shemot (Exodus) 19:16-19 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud shofar blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because HaShem descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, And the sound of the shofar grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.

2. When the walls of Jericho fell:

Yahoshua (Joshua) 6:20 When the shofarot sounded, the people Teruah’d, and at the sound of the shofar, when the people gave a Teruah gadol, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city.

3. When Mashiach returns:

Zechariah 9:13-15 I will bend Judah as I bend my bow and fill it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and make you like a warrior's sword. Then HaShem will appear over them; his arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign HaShem will sound the shofar; he will march in the storms of the south, And HaShem Almighty will shield them. They will destroy and overcome with slingstones. They will drink and roar as with wine; they will be full like a bowl used for sprinkling the corners of the altar.

I Thessalonians 4:13-18 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Yeshua died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Yeshua those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the shofar call of God, and the dead in Mashiach will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.

4. To gather the outcast of Israel:

Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 27:12-13 In that day HaShem will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered up one by one. And in that day a great shofar will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship HaShem on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

Notice that even Ezra observed two days:

Nehemiah 8:2-3 So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.

Nehemiah 8:13 On the second day of the month, the heads of all the families, along with the priests and the Levites, gathered around Ezra the scribe to give attention to the words of the Law."

Both days of Yom Teruah are considered as one long day possessing equal sanctity.