Shabbat / Rosh Chodesh /

      Yom Teruah / (Rosh HaShannah)

Ps 81 Sing for joy unto YHWH our strength; make a joyful noise unto the Elohim of Jacob. Lift up a song and beat the tambourine, the pleasant lyre and with the harp. Blow the ram's horn at the time of the new moon.

Yom Teruah is (Lev 23:24) in the seventh month, on the first day, you have a rest, a remembrance of blowing of trumpets, a set-apart gathering.

All:   (Num 29:1)  ... you have a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work, it is a day of blowing the shofars for you.

The Feast of Trumpets reminds us of the times for celebration, recalling this day filled with the sound of the shofar. You have distinguished us from all people and have given us holy festivals, full of joy and inspiration. May it be Your will Eternal One, to sanctify Your people and sacred seasons.

All: Blessed are You, YHWH, Eternal One, who has chosen us from among all people, sanctified us with holy acts and gave us special times and seasons for rejoicing.

The blowing of the shofars is a memorial commanded in Scripture. Teruah means to make a loud noise, shouting for joy, the awakening blast. The emphasis is on averting judgment by repenting and appealing to YHWH's mercy. The 30 days preceding the Feast of Trumpets are traditionally a time of special repentance, spiritual preparation, t'shuvah, with an additional 10 days of Awe until the  Day of Atonement, for those who are not yet written in the Book of Life. Blessed are those who know the sound of the shofar, the call to repentance and arrival. Blessed are those who sound the warning to wake the people.

The Shofar

Tekiah is the uninterrupted sounding of the shofar symbolizing our uninterrupted relationship with YHWH. A pure unbroken sound that calls man to search his heart, forsake his wrong ways, and seek forgiveness through repentance.

All: Heavenly Father, thank you for the call on our lives to awaken us from our spiritual slumber, to realize our falling short of Your Glory and the desire for restoration and life in You.

(blow shofars)

Sh'vareem is a wave-like, trembling sound. It typifies the sorrow that comes to man when he realizes his misconduct and desires to change his ways. It represents our suffering through sin in exile. Shevarim symbolizes our cries before YHWH for deliverance by our Redeemer Yahshua.

All: (Is 58:1) "Cry aloud, do not hold back; raise your voice like a ram's horn, and declare to My people their transgression." Praise Your Name for the Mercy You have extended to us, that You have made known through Your arm of salvation

(blow shofars, sh'varim if possible)

Teruah- A broken, staccato sound of alarm calling upon man to stand under the banner of YHWH

All:  (I Thess 4:16-18) For Adonai Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of YHWH; and the dead in Messiah shall raise first. Then we who are alive and remaining shall be caught up together with them in the air; and thus we shall always be with YHWH. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

(blow shofars, teruah if possible)

Tekiah g'dolah is the prolonged, unbroken sound typifying a final appeal to sincere repentance and atonement. It is He who is worthy to open the scrolls - we look into our Judge's face and see our Savior there.

All: (I John 5:1-3)  "Everyone who believes that Yahshua is the Messiah has been born of Elohim. By this we know that we love the children of Elohim, when we love Elohim and guard His commands. For this is love for Elohim, that we guard his commands and His commands are not heavy." Thank you, King of the universe, for gathering us unto You through Your blessed Son that we may have life and that in fullness.

(sound shofars, the long tekiah if possible)

Is 11:12 He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; He will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.

All:  Is11:13 Ephraim's jealousy will vanish, and Judah's enemies will be cut off. Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim.

Is 11:14-15 They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines to the west; together they will plunder the people to the east. They will lay hands on Edom and Moab and the Ammonites will be subject to them. YHWH will dry up the gulf of the Egyptian sea; with a scorching wind He will sweep His hand over the Euphrates River. He will break it up into seven streams so that men can cross over in sandals.

All:  Is 11:16 There will be a highway for the remnant of His people that is left from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from Egypt.

Is 49:13 Shout for joy, o heavens; rejoice o earth; burst into song, o mountains! For YHWH comforts His people and will have compassion on His afflicted ones.

The New Month of Tishri / Ethanim

We celebrate the new moon festival as an appoinment commanded by YHWH, the Incomprehensible One. A search in scripture shows that the new moon is a festival commanded in Torah where an assembly and sacrifice are required. In fact, it is mentioned numerous times along with the Sabbath, inferring a great importance to the celebration as a holy day. Not only was the new moon celebrated in the past, by in Is 66 we are told we will celebrate this festival in the future. As the moon cycles from darkness to darkness, we remember that the Creator made all things ex nihilo out of nothing. Our bodies came from the dust and shall return to the dust. Only the breath of life that He placed in us will remain forever.

All:  I Peter 1:8-9  Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your lives.

At this renewing of the month, and especially at this season of the rehearsal of the culmination of all things of this age, we take the opportunity to call to the nations to realize their sin, their Creator and Judge and their need to respond now while He yet beckons.

(Everyone go outside)

As Yah's messengers and lights in this world, we call for the people to come out of Babylon and be made whole in the Redeemer of all mankind.

(Facing in all directions, call out)

All: Sh'ma !  T'shuvah!  Chazarbi  b'emunah !

        Hear !    Repent !     Return to obedience by faith !

(sound the shofars !)

We declare our position, by the adoption, in the kingdom of YHWH and give Him all the glory.

(Face east and declare the Sh'ma)

All:  Sh'ma, Ysrael, YHWH Eloheinu, YHWH Echad.

         Hear, o Israel,  YHWH our Elohim, YHWH is One.

The new month of Tishri / Ethanim has arrived to us and to the entire Commonwealth of Israel for goodness. We beseech you YHWH to renew it for life and peace, for gladness and joy, for deliverance and consolation.

==========================================

(return inside for the kiddush)

==========================================

Readings for the day:

Traditional:

Gen 21+22 / Num 29:1-6 / I Sam 1:1-2,10 / Jer 31:1-19

Alternate:

Isaiah 11 + 30:19-33 / Matt 24 + 25: 31-46 / Ez 3:1-7 +

     Neh 8:1-12

==========================================

Themes of the day

* This is the day that Israel will be gathered.

* This is the coronation day of the King of kings.

* This is resurrection day.

* This is a day for judgment. Psalm 81:4

* This is a day to remember the fathers.

* This is a day to blow the shofar.

* This is the day that the world was created.

Judgment:

Yom HaDin: Which means a Day of Judgment. In anticipation of this judgment, we begin teshuvah, to repent, at the beginning of Elul, thirty days earlier. We will have our final time for repentance at the end of this forty day period, on Yom HaKippurim. [Note that His Majesty King Yeshuah, the Mashiach’s fast for forty days in the wilderness is very much related to this festival of Yom HaKippurim.] Repentance is also the important concept in the ritual of tashlich, where we symbolically cast our sins away, on this day.

On this day man is judged for all of his actions, and all that will transpire and occur during the coming year is recorded. The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 8a) derives this from the verse:

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 11:12 The eyes of God, your Lord, are upon it [the land] from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.

 Rosh Hashanah was ordained as a day of judgment for two reasons:

 1. This is the day the world was created. The world was created by "Elohim"; this name is used when the attribute of justice is exercised.

 2. This is the day Adam was judged, he repented, and he was forgiven. Yom Teruah is “the sixth day” when Adam was created. This is also the day when Adam will be reborn into an indestructible body.

New Year

The Baal Shem Tov explains something that Yah's blessing entails:

"Scripture states [in the beginning of the Torah portion of Nitzavim (Deut 29:9), 'You are all standing today....' 'Today' refers to Rosh HaShanah, which is the day of judgment.... You (all Israel) stand fast and upright on this day; i.e., you are judged favorably. On the Shabbat preceding Rosh HaShanah which is the last Shabbat of the month of Elul, we read the portion of 'You are all standing today....' This is El's blessing on the Shabbat when we bless the 'seventh month,' [a month] that is satiated and satiates all Jews with abundant goodness the year round."

Thoughts to consider

The name of the seventh month is "Tishri". This name has two possible meanings:

1. To loosen, to untie, or to dissolve. Thus the theme of Yom Teruah - "Dissolve and pardon our iniquities".

2. "You shall begin" from:

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 16:9 Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.

 The names of the months are all Babylonian. The sages have ruled that the names remain Babylonian, even though idolatrous, because of what Yiremyahu (Jeremiah) said in:

 Yiremyahu (Jeremiah) 16:14-15 "However, the days are coming," declares YHWH, "when men will no longer say, 'As surely as YHWH lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' But they will say, 'As surely as YHWH lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers.

 The sages have ruled that we should return to biblical, that is numbered, names when ALL Israel is restored to the land. In the meantime, the names of the months are a reminder. The Sages have also stated that there is deep meaning to these Babylonian names that speak to Adonai's people today.

We do not weep because we are to be judged:

Nehemiah 8:10 Do not mourn and do not weep, eat delicacies and drink sweet things and send gifts of food to those who lack, for the day is holy unto our Master. Do not grieve for Adonai's joy is your strength.

I Shmuel (Samuel) 25:4-12 While David was in the desert, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. So he sent ten young men and said to them, "Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name. Say to him: 'Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours! "'Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing. Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my young men, since we come at a festive time (Yom Tov). Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.'" When David's men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David's name. Then they waited. Nabal answered David's servants, "Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?" David's men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word.

Lessons to be learned:

1. This day is sacred to the Lord. Repeated three  (3) times.

2. Do not grieve. Repeated three (3) times.

3. Enjoy choice food and sweet drinks. Repeated two (2) times.

4. Send some to those who have nothing prepared.

 Repeated two (2) times.

========================================

Tashlich

Micah 7:19

(Invitation to take bread crumbs to the creek behind the pond and throw "sins into the sea of forgetfulness")

=========================================

Aaronic blessing

All: Almighty YHWH, place Your fear upon all Your works to declare You as sovereign and to perform Your will with humble hearts. May Your Kingdom come and may all Israel rejoice in Your salvation. HalleluYah !

Shofar blast !