Feast of Trumpets

Yom Teruah, also known as the Feast of Trumpets, is commanded in Leviticus 23:23-25 and Numbers 29:1-6.

Leviticus 23:24 refers to the festival of the first day of the seventh month as zikhron teru'ah ("a memorial of blowing [of horns]"), and as 'שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן‎' (shabbat shabbaton) or ultimate Sabbath or meditative rest day.. These same words are commonly used in the Psalms to refer to the anointed days. Because Numbers 29:1 calls the festival yom teru'ah ("day of blowing [the horn]"), customs include sounding the shofar, a cleaned-out ram's horn, as prescribed in the Torah, following the prescription of the Hebrew Bible to "raise a noise" on Yom Teruah.

Yom Teruah is therefore a special holy day during which we’re commanded to rest, to have a holy convocation, to offer sacrifices at the Temple, and to make a loud teruah, literally "day of shouting or blasting".

While the blowing of the shofar is a Biblical statute, it is also a symbolic "wake-up call", stirring man to mend his ways and repent. The shofar blasts call out: "Sleepers, wake up from your slumber! Examine your ways and repent and remember your Creator."

Yom Teruah sets off the 10 day period to Yom Kippur, often called the Ten Days of Repentance. This 10-day period is a special time to reflect on our life, repent of our sins, do good deeds, spend time in prayers, and ask God that our names be written in the Book of Life so we may be spared from destruction. Yom Teruah is therefore a day of loud announcement that God's judgment is coming. Yom Teruah is a time to reflect on our lives, repent of the many things that might have been done that were against the commands of God, and re-align our lives with what He wants of us. This is called in hebrew Teshuva.


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