In this week’s double Torah portion called Nitzavim (נִצָּבִים/“standing firm”)/Vayelech (וַיֵּלֶךְ/“and went”), in Deuteronomy 31:10-11 we read, “And Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.” This is the conclusion of a series of years ending on Sukkot, or Tabernacles. Two cycles of three years followed by the year of release in the seventh year. We find this pattern of seven throughout the Bible, having religious, agricultural and prophetic meaning.

Here Moses commands the Torah to be heard at the Sukkot/Tabernacles gathering by the entire covenant community. Still, for the disciple of Messiah, the hearing of the Torah on Sukkot takes on an even greater meaning when we consider the Word made flesh: Yeshua/Jesus (Jn. 1:14).

The annual festival calendar beings on the new moon of Nisan in early spring, signifying renewal. It continues to Passover and the deliverance of His people. Bikkurim/first fruits follows revealing resurrection. The Lord then commands a daily counting called the Omer, teaching preparation. Finally, the spring feasts conclude on Shavuot/Weeks/Pentecost with the empowering of the people of God with the Word and the Holy Spirit. These are feasts and appointed times in the spring, which lead us into summer and fall.

We are quickly approaching the beginning of the fall feasts. Next week is the observance of Yom Teruah, or Rosh Hashanah (Ezek. 40:1), which is commanded in Leviticus 23:23-25, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you are to have a Shabbat rest, a memorial of blowing trumpets, a holy convocation. You are to do no regular work, and you are to present an offering made by fire to the Lord.”

Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets begins on a new moon: בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִי בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ, “in the seventh month, on the first day of the month…” “Month” חֹדֶשׁ, meaning moon or month, is from חָדַשׁ, meaning new, renewed or repair; so, each new month has an element of “repair” or “renewal” in them. As we will consider, the Lord through the sound of the trumpet is calling us to return to Him; yet as so often happens, we get caught up in the very human drama of our lives, and we need to be called to attention.

When was the last time that you admired a sunset? Or the last time that you lay in bed, looking out the window in awe of a sunrise? When did you last share those types of moments with loved ones and friends? If we cannot pause to admire this beauty, what of the beauty of our Messiah and King who is ever close at us?

Yom Teruah, Rosh Hashanah, is called in the Torah: זִכְרוֹן תְּרוּעָה, מִקְרָא-קֹדֶשׁ, “a memorial of trumpets, a holy gathering to rehearse before Me.” Of the Day of Trumpets, Maimonides writes:

“The Scriptural injunction of the Shofar for New Year’s Day has a profound meaning. It says: Awake, ye sleepers, and ponder over your deeds; remember your Creator and go back to Him in penitence. Be not of those who miss realities in their pursuit of shadows and waste their years in seeking after vain things which cannot profit or deliver. Look well to your souls and consider your acts; forsake each of you his evil ways and thoughts, and return to God so that He may have mercy upon you.”  

The ram’s horn (קֶרֶן/keren, from which the Shofar is made) is called the glory, or beauty of the ram. It is their crown, but it is broken. Still, with this broken crown we cry out with a sigh, a deep moan, and a primal yell from the very depths of our souls unto the Lord, a cry for change and renewal. Yom Teruah, Day of Trumpets, means: the day of the broken sound.

The understanding that the Day of Trumpets is a Day of Judgment comes from the “t’ruah,” or the wailing cry of the Shofar, which suggests a cry from the depths of our soul, in repentance and return. It is traditional to read Genesis 22 on this feast, the binding of Isaac. As we know, it was the ram caught in the thicket by his horn (קֶרֶן/keren) that would become the substitutionary sacrifice for Isaac, saving him. Here we see in type the “only begotten Son” of the Living God who would come as the “keren yeshua” spoken of by Zechariah 1:69, meaning the “horn of salvation.” The Shofar/trumpet, then, has come to symbolize the Lord’s grace and mercy by substitutionary sacrifice.

Paul writes, “For the Lord Himself shall come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the blast of God’s shofar, and the dead in Messiah shall rise first” (I Thess. 4:16). Who is the Lord’s shofar? Well, none other than the keren yeshua (κέρας σωτηρίας) spoken of by Zechariah, as John writes, “I was in the Spirit on the Day of the Lord, and I heard behind me a loud voice like that of a trumpet saying … Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me …” (Rev. 1:10, 12). And Who is this voice? Yeshua/Jesus.

John begins his revelation of Messiah with the shofar/trumpet. John needed to hear and pay attention, just as we do. The shofar wakes up the sleepers (Rev. 2-3), coming from the long summer months, who need to be awakened and renewed in the 10-day period leading up to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and the harvest to Sukkot, the marriage feast of the Lamb.

On Rosh Hashanah we hear the Voice of the Trumpet once again, anticipating. We consider our ways. We wake up. We return to Him. We prepare for that day when we will hear the voice of Messiah in power and glory. Why do we gather in messianic faith for this feast? To hear and rehearse, to listen and obey, to rejoice and worship the One in Whom all the types become realized.

Maranatha. Shalom.