Here is a link to my Yom Teruah study guide: https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/yom_teruah.pdf
Here is a link to my YouTube channel with numerous teachings on the biblical feasts including Yom Teruah: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5EzE5DQnrHfWWbczzkRo6IOnglxhbRfM
Stay tuned for my notes on the teaching that I will give tomorrow. I will post them shortly.
The new moon was sighted by multiple witnesses this past evening marking the first day of the seventh month on the biblical calendar. This means that Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets/Shofars, will be on Monday, September 30. A joyous Yom Teruah to all!
My family and I (at least the ones who can make it) will be celebrating Yom Teruah at home as a high holy day Shabbat. This means that I will be shutting down my business, no work, and spending the day with YHVH and our family focusing on the meaning of the day.
Ten days from now, on the tenth day of the seventh biblical month, will be Yom Kippur on Wednesday, October 9. Five days after that will be Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, starting on Monday, October 14 and lasting until Sunday, October 20. The first day of Sukkot is a high holy day Shabbat. Shemini Atzeret, the Eighth Day, another high holy day Shabbat, will be Tuesday, October 21.
As I have done my entire life (since 1960), except for several years in the 1990s when I was part of the Sunday church world and failed to honor the Sabbath and biblical feasts, I, along with my wife, will be taking the time off from our daily work to honor these divinely mandated, set-apart times and to be with YHVH Elohim and his people.
May YHVH bless you as you honor and obey him by celebrating these appointed times!
The Good Ancient Paths Are Stepping Stones to the Future
Following Torah is an ancient river path that leads back thousands of years to the beginning of humanity and forward to eternity. It’s a true path that won’t lead us astray, because it’s divine Truth. At the same time, it’s a path that is greatly disparaged and hated by the devil and those who wittingly or unwittingly follow him. Why? Because it leads to Elohim and to eternal life. The biblical feasts are like the skeletal framework, blueprint or outline of the Torah and the whole Bible. They’re Elohim’s ancient plan of salvation and redemption for humans.
Thus saith YHVH, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old/ancient/eternal [Heb. olam, also everlasting, perpetual, unending future] paths [Heb. nathiyb, also footpath, trodden, traveller] where is the good way [Heb. derek, also journey, direction, manner, habit, way, of course of life (fig.), of moral character (fig.)], and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. (Jer 6:16)
Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity/worthless idols, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in pathways and not on a highway, to make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing… (Jer 18:15)
Elohim’s ways are high ways as opposed low ways or to the other lower paths that most humans find themselves walking on.
Don’t Forget!
Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. (Deut 32:7)
Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of YHVH: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (Mal 4:4–6)
Humans tend to forget their past history and YHVH’s ancient Torah-ways, which is why humans continually repeat the same mistakes of the past. Each present generation thinks that it’s wiser and smarter than the previous one and that they won’t make the same mistakes of the past, but they invariably do. This is because of human pride and ego. The feasts and Sabbath help to keep us on track spiritually, so that we won’t keep making the same mistakes over and over again. They help man to evolve spiritually to a higher level. The feasts are essential in that they help us so that we don’t forget who we are, where we’ve come from and where we’re going.
Choose the Upward, Less Travelled Path, Not the One of the Majority
Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? (Song 1:7)
Each of us is continually confronted with two choices; we have to make a decision many times every day. Will I choose to go up to where my heavenly bridegroom feeds his flocks on the mountaintops, or am I going to hang out with my companions and peers? The former is a highway; the latter is a low way.
The Biblical Feasts—The Aerial View
The biblical feasts are moedim or divine appointments when Elohim meets with his people—when heaven and earth meet at a high place spiritually and kiss each other. When this happens, the mundane, secular, earthly or horizontal plane meets or bisects the heavenly, divine vertical plane. This is the place of the holy of holies, heaven on earth and the way of the cross (two beams meeting—a horizontal and vertical one).
The biblical feasts and weekly Sabbath are when YHVH gathers his sheep together to restore, refresh, encourage, energize, correct, unite them and to point them to the higher way. The feasts are like a mini Garden of Eden as well as a New Jerusalem, heaven on earth events. They keep us in touch with our sorry past and our potential glorious future.
The feasts and Sabbath help keep us on track spiritually (since they are the seven steps in Elohim’s plan of redemption or salvation for mankind) and are links to connect us to our corporate past and to the future. They help to provide us with a greater context to our lives, so that we will better understand the present—who we are individually and collectively, where we’ve come from, where we’re at and where we’re going. The fall feasts especially help us to understand where we’re going and what the future holds for us. Everyone wants to know what the future holds for them. Celebrate the feasts and find out!
The feasts reaffirm and reestablish the special relationship that man has with Elohim. Only men who were made in Elohim’s image have that relationship. Plants, animals, rocks, fungi and atoms don’t.
The feasts make us remember that we’re dependent on Elohim as our sustainer and creator and that Elohim has chosen in his sovereignty to be dependent upon us because he has allowed us to make his presence known and felt in the world. Without us, Elohim, in a sense, couldn’t exist on this planet, so our mutual relationship is a very big two-way street. We are Elohim’s light to the world, the ambassadors of his kingdom. We reflect him in the darkness of this world, which is why it’s important that we stay on his path of light, and in his ancient river of life that flows from the distant past into eternity. Since we represent the Creator, we need the Creator to show us the upward path, and the Creator needs us in the this world not only to represent him, but to reveal him to the world. It’s impossible for him to just come into this world with all of his power and glory without instantly destroying it. Imagine the earth being a few degrees closer to the sun. Now imagine this by a gazillion percent! That’s what would happen to the earth if Elohim were to show up as he is. That’s one reason he, in a certain sense, “needs” us in order to fulfil his purposes on this earth.
Yom Teruah—The Aerial View
The bottom line of Yom Teruah is that it points us to two very important things that are our great hope for humanity and the future: the coming of the Messiah and resurrection and glorification of the righteous dead. Until Yeshua the Messiah actually comes, Yom Teruah points us to the third most important thing: teshuvah or repentance. We need to stay humble and repentant, so that when he comes, he will find us in a spiritual state that will qualify us either to be resurrected from the dead or, if we’re alive at his return, to be immortalized and glorified in the moment of a twinkling of an eye as we meet him in the air.
Yom Teruah Verses
There are only two verses in the Bible that command the keeping of Yom Teruah.
And YHVH spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto YHVH. (Lev 23:23–25)
And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you. And ye shall offer a burnt offering for a sweet savour unto YHVH; one young bullock, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year without blemish: And their meat offering shall be of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals for a bullock, and two tenth deals for a ram, and one tenth deal for one lamb, throughout the seven lambs: And one kid of the goats for a sin offering, to make an atonement for you: Beside the burnt offering of the month, and his meat offering, and the daily burnt offering, and his meat offering, and their drink offerings, according unto their manner, for a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto YHVH. (Num 29:1–6)
The Breath of Life and Yom Teruah
Without the life-giving breath of YHVH we are dead both physically and spiritually. As YHVH breathed the breath of life into Adam who then became a living being (Heb. nephesh), so when Yeshua breathed on his disciples (John 20:22), they came alive spiritually. Similarly, YHVH breathed on the first century redeemed believers through the wind of the Ruach HaKodesh (the Set-apart Spirit) on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:2, and the congregation of renewed covenant believers was birthed. Similarly, on the day of Messiah’s second return (Yom Teruah), the shofar (called the last trumpet in Hebraic thought, which comes just prior to the final or the great trumpet/shofar hagadol of Yom Kippur) will sound and the dead in Messiah will be resurrected (1 Cor 15:51–53; 1 Thes 4:16). It is the breath of YHVH that will revive the righteous dead. This is similar to the breath of YHVH blowing over the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel 37, which some see as a prophetic picture of the resurrection of the saints.
What can we learn from this? When YHVH breathes or blows on man, the power of the supernatural pierces the natural dimension and the supernatural breaks the status quo of the natural and supernaturally empowers one to do that which he could not do in his own power naturally. We need YHVH’s divine breath to blow on us to empower us with his power and his ability to be and act supernatural in a natural world for his glory and the advancement of his kingdom!
When the shofar sounded in ancient Israel, it signaled that heaven and earth were about to meet, that divine power, the supernatural forces of heaven were about to break into the human realm. It signaled that Elohim was about to do great things!
Are you ready for this to happen again?
When Was the Shofar Blown in Ancient Israel?
The shofar is an instrument unique to the ancient Hebrews and their descendants. In the Scriptures, we see that the shofar played a highly significant role in Hebraic culture. Below are some examples this instrument’s importance:
The History of the Shofar and the Three Trumpets
The ram’s horn shofar is first alluded to in the Scriptures in Genesis 22 at the binding of Isaac and known in Hebrew as the akeidah.
The symbolism in this historical event is tremendously significant. The ram represents Yeshua the Lamb of Elohim who died to redeem man from sin. The thicket is a biblical poetic symbol of human sinfulness. Humanity is entangled in the thicket of sin from which it needs to be freed. Yeshua the Messiah is the Lamb (or ram) slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8), who, while hanging on the cross, wore a crown of thorns. Is this not a picture of the “ram caught in the thicket” (Gen 22:13) of the man’s sins? After all, the Scriptures say that the sins of man were laid upon Yeshua (Isa 53:6). The crown of thorns is a picture of this. Furthermore, in Matthew 13, in Continue reading
Here are some Hoshana Rabbah resources that will help you to understand the significance of Yom Teruah or the Day of Trumpets which is almost here.
For a written teaching, go to https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/yom_teruah.pdf
For video teachings, go to https://www.youtube.com/user/HoshanaRabbah?feature=mhee and check out the playlist on the Sabbath and Biblical Feasts. There you will find several video teachings on Yom Teruah.
More insights on Yom Teruah to follow, so stay tuned…
May YHVH Elohim bless you mightily as you connect the message of the gospel with its pro-Torah Hebraic roots!
Main Yom Teruah Verses
Lev 23:23–25
Num 29:1
The Breath of Life and Yom Teruah
Without the life-giving breath of YHVH we are dead both physically and spiritually. As YHVH breathed the breath of life into Adam who then became a living being (nephesh), so when Yeshua breathed on His disciples (John 20:22) they came alive spiritually. YHVH breathed on the first century redeemed believers through the wind of the Ruach HaKodesh (the Set-apart Spirit) on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:2, and the congregation of renewed covenant believers was birthed. Similarly, on the day of Messiah’s second return (Yom Teruah), the shofar (called the last trumpet in Jewish thought, which comes just prior to the final or the great trumpet/shofar hagadol of Yom Kippur) will sound and the dead in Messiah will be resurrected. Again the breath of YHVH will revive the dead, which is similar to the breath of YHVH blowing over the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel 37.
What can we learn from this? When YHVH breathes or blows on man, the supernatural pierces the natural dimension and the supernatural breaks the status quo of the natural and supernaturally empowers one to do that which he could not do in his own power naturally. We need YHVH’s divine breath to blow on us to empower us with his power and his ability to be and act supernatural in a natural world for his glory and the advancement of his kingdom!
When the shofar sounded in ancient Israel, it signaled that heaven and earth were about to meet, that divine power, the supernatural forces of heaven was about to break Continue reading
Getting in Sync With YHVH Times and Seasons
What are the forty days of teshuvah (the Hebrew word meaning “repentance”) all about? Let’s briefly explore this concept to see how why they occur when they do and how they relate to the fall biblical feasts and the second coming of King Yeshua the Messiah.
During these forty days, which begin on the first day of the sixth month on the biblical calendar and end on the Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), it is time for the redeemed believer to get his or her spiritual house in order for the upcoming biblical high holy days. Why? Because these holidays prophetically picture the second coming of Yeshua the Messiah and his gathering his people to himself, and the coming judgments upon the earth of the wicked and lukewarm, and the pouring out of YHVH’s wrath upon the wicked along with the destruction of Babylon the Great by Yeshua. They also point to the time when Yeshua will establish his millennial kingdom on this earth, and finally, the coming of the new heaven and new earth at the end of the millennium.
Furthermore, during the forty days of teshuvah, it’s time for YHVH’s people to awake from their spiritual slumber (1 Thess 5:1–8; Rom 13:11–14) and repent (or make teshuvah) from sin and turn back to wholehearted obedience to Elohim. The three months between the biblical feasts of Shavuot or Pentecost and Yom Teruah (the Day of Shofar Blasts) prophetically pictures the 2000 year time period between the first and advents of Yeshua the Messiah. As we near the end of this period, it is time to get ready for Yeshua’s second coming and to put off spiritual lukewarmeness by repenting of sin (Torahlessness) and by putting on the robes of righteousness and looking heavenward in anticipation of our Messiah’s coming. The forty days between the first day of the sixth month and Yom Kippur is the time to be doing this.
Why forty days and why now? According to the biblical record and Jewish tradition, Moses received the tablets of the ten commandments on Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks or
