Joseph Shulam: God’s Calendar [2023 - Rosh Hashana]

This Shabbat is one of those special Shabbats that the Hebrew Calendar has during the year. It is the Shabbat of what TRADITION calls The Jewish New Year. It is celebrated on the first day of the seventh month! Well, anyone with a head on his shoulders ought to ask the obvious question, “How can it be that the first day of the seventh month be a “NEW YEAR” holiday. You don’t have to be a genius to understand that something has gone wrong in the land of Narnia.

The tradition that has the Shabbat on the first day of the seventh month has special Torah and prophet readings on this special Shabbat of Rosh Hashanah. We too, in the Roeh Israel Congregation in Jerusalem will flex our knees in respect for this Jewish Tradition of celebrating the New Year on the first day of the seventh month.

Well, we Jews actually have not invented the wheel! There are others who have such strange and nonhistorical ‘holy holidays. For example, our Christian brothers and sisters, have a holiday called “Christ’s Mass” – i.e., Christmas. Ho Ho Ho – this a very big Christian Holiday. Some of the practices are much older than Yeshua. These practices were even older than Moses. I am sure that Abraham, our father, was happy to go to the marketplace in Hebron and see the Hittite fathers walking hand in hand with their young children, looking for a nice cedars of Lebanon young tree to buy and take home to do what the prophet Jeremiah described in chapter 10: 1-6;

“Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the LORD: “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are futile; for one cuts a tree from the forest, The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple. They are upright, like a palm tree, and they cannot speak; They must be carried, because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor can they do any good.” In as much as there is none like You, O LORD (You are great, and Your name is great in might),” (Jeremiah 10:1–6 NKJV).

So, in order for all to know that we are no better than other nations and we can import and even invent our own pagan holidays and rename them and redecorate them and clean them up a little just like we did to the first day of the seventh month and may be circumcised it a little to make it Kosher and called it The Jewish New Year.

I forgot to tell you dear brothers and sisters, that actually the first day of the seventh month IS a Biblical holiday, with no small importance.
Here is the Biblical significance of this date on the Biblical Calendar; the Kosher holiday that falls on this important date.

“Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel. Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation.” (Leviticus 23:24)

Here you have the date:

The First Day of the Seventh Month. It is the Feast of blasting a loud sound with the trumpets. There is no mention of New Year on this date neither in the Torah nor in the Prophets, nor in the historical texts in the Bible, nor in the wisdom literature of the Bible. Just simply blast with the trumpets (Shofar) on the first day of the seventh month.

What is the biblical significance of this specific command from God to blast on this very day with the trumpets? Here are the biblical meanings and uses of blasting the trumpets, the Shofar (ram’s horn).
Leviticus (23:24) says regarding that first day of Tishrei:

“In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath [as in "day of rest"], a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation” (Leviticus 23:24 NKJV)

““When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God, and you will be saved from your enemies. Also, in the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lord your God.”” (Numbers 10:9-10 NKJV)

The true biblical significance of blowing the trumpets is an announcement to the camp of Israel. There were no cellphones or radio or television in those days of the wilderness. There were ram’s horns and brass trumpets that could announce important announcements for the whole camp of Israel.

Specifically, in times of war, the headquarters of the children of Israel had to mobilize the army of the camp and they had to do it with the loud sound of the trumpets and the Ram’s horn. This was no trivial matter to gather the men of Israel to get ready for war against their enemies. It was an important matter that gathered the forces of Israel against idolatry.

All the names of the Hebrew Months are not biblical. The biblical way of marking the months is with numbers, the first month, second month, third month and all the way to the 12th month. The names used today were adopted after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and took the elite population of Judea to Babylon. The elite of the Jewish society was 70 years in Babylon until the Babylonian King sent them back. With Ezra and Nehemiah, they returned to Israel and Jerusalem and rebuild it.

The first of the Babylonian / Akkadian calendar is called Tishrin or in local dialect in Canaan, Tishrei. The basic meaning of Tishrei is “The Beginning!” In the Arabic calendar the month of Tishrei is also called “The First Month!” So, what was the reason for adopting and importing the pagan Canaanite New Year to the Jewish calendar? Here is my understanding of the reason and the connection.

Why was it so important to blow the trumpets on this first day of the seventh month? The story of the conversion of Biblical New Year that is mentioned, clearly says that it is on the first day of the first month; which is the month of Nissan: not in the seventh month.

The feast of trumpets, from the book of Leviticus and Numbers, adopts, with the commands, to blow the trumpets with the war against idolatry and especially against the Baal worship. In Israel it connects the declaration of war against Baal idolatry and the Baal Cycle.[1] So, this is what happens!

The blowing of the trumpets (Shofarot) is an instrument for informing the people of war or calamity. This holiday in the Torah, given by God, is the blowing of the trumpets; a call to war against the idolatry of Baal. Therefore, the command is to declare war against the Baal worship in Israel, on the very day that Baal returns to his place out of Hades (Hell). These are the roots of the blowing of the trumpets (shofar) on the first day of the seventh month.

There are other weird developments in our calendar and worship. We have at least two commands to blow the trumpets (Shofar) on the first day of the seventh month. There is no question on what day this date falls; it could actually fall on any day of the week. Actuality, the first day of the month of Tishrei falls on the Sabbath day, only on rare occasions. The Rabbis decided that on the first day of the pagan month of Tishrei, there will be no blowing of the trumpets (Shofar).

Here you have it, dear brothers. We Jews have lost our way. We cancel a clear and direct order from God and by our wisdom, we cancel the whole command to blow the trumpets on the first day of the seventh month and replace God’s law with some sufistic human smart and fake logic that says blowing the trumpets on Shabbat is not allowed. For me God’s word has priority above and beyond any doctrine or teaching of ruling by man that cancels the word of God.

In Jerusalem on this next Shabbat, in our congregation, we are going to blow the trumpets loud and clear. We are going to practice the clear and blessed command to blow the trumpets (shofar) with conviction and faith and blow our Shofars (Trumpets) and keep declaring war against idolatry and Baalism.

In our congregation in Jerusalem, we will always choose to be obedient to the Torah and the Word of God above all. And when there is no contradiction between Rabbinical traditions and teachings and the WORD of God, and of course the Living WORD of God, Yeshua – we will respect and keep and celebrate our rich Rabbinical traditions and teachings, and continue to give priority and superiority to God’s Word in the Torah first of all, the prophets and the wisdom literature and finally to the teachings and instructions of the Apostles.
Hearing and doing the instructions of the Torah is also a Torah commandment and also Yeshua’s commandment:

“Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.” (Matthew 23:1-3 NKJV)