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Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah) – A Call to Return and Remember – Lev 23:23-25


The Feast of Trumpets is a day of trumpet blasting and remembrance.  Among non-believing Jews today, this holiday is called Rosh HaShanah (which means the head of the year), but this is a non-biblical change of this otherwise biblical holiday by the sages.  The real Rosh Hashanah (head of the year) occurs on the first day of the first month of the biblical year or Nisan 1, 14 days before Passover.  Since the commandments related to this Appointed Time speak directly to our dress rehearsal for the second coming of Messiah, and because the non-believing Jews have no historic referent for this holiday in all of Israel’s history, it is no surprise that the sages altered this holiday.


However, for the believer, after the long, warm, busy summer, we are beckoned back once again to prepare for the sanctification process that God designed in His Appointed Times. The sound of the ram’s horn reminds us that it is a time for settling accounts, repenting, apologizing, forgiving, reconciling, and refocusing on what God is doing in our lives. It is a time to honestly evaluate our progress and determine our shortcomings-those areas where we fell short of the divine revelation given to us at “Sinai,” or Shavuot.
Yom Teruah (The Day of Trumpets) prophetically foreshadows the trumpet that will herald the coming of Messiah, His coronation in Jerusalem, and the ingathering and resurrection of the dead. On the Feast of Trumpets, we repent with an urgency inspired by the coming of the next appointment, just ten days away.

The practical elements of this holiday includes, gathering as a community for a time of worship and fellowship, looking for and sighting the New Moon (the first sliver of the moon as it begins to wax anew), and blowing or hearing blown the Shofar or Ram's horn (that which is likened to the voice of the Lord in Scripture, Rev 1:10 & 4:1).


Their is a Jewish tradition of eating lots of sweets, sweet breads, apples in honey or carmel, etc. We take the liberty of incorporating this tradition into our gatherings.  It is a joyous time for all as we rehearse the second coming of the Messiah while we look to the heavens (sky) and anticipate that one day our dress rehearsal will turn into THE real Appointed Time of His return.  We will not be found going our own way when the Master returns, unprepared for His arrival and taken off guard like the rebellious children of the nations.  No. We will already be gathered according to His commandment, looking to the sky, anticipating His return, and as the Scriptures say, we will meet Him in the air, and so shall we always be with the Lord.


1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”


Practical Aspects of The Day of Trumpets


The Day of Trumpets marks a period of 10 days in which we stop to consider if we have offended anyone, if we need to ask forgiveness from anyone or forgive anyone who has offended us. Communities and families can often have issues throughout the year, personality conflicts, miscommunications etc.; however, it is at this time that everyone in the community needs to do as the Messiah commanded and first go and be reconciled with our brothers and sisters before we present our offerings to the LORD and pour our hearts out in repentance, fasting, and personal reflection at the next Appointed Time, Yom Kippur.

Trumpets (Yom Teruah):