I gathered my scriptures and my crumbs and walked to edge of the ocean today...The American Senate took the day off today for Rosh Hashanah in the midst of a financial crisis on Wall Street. Someone asked me, "What's the big deal?" Well, that was enough to get me digging into the Jewish holiday. What I found out was pretty cool! Here's what I found out from Howard and Rosenthal's The Feasts of the LORD...
- Rosh Hashanah is the biblical Feast of Trumpets. A celebration based upon a musical instrument? Yup.
- The trumpet was used for the nation of Israel to (1) gather an assembly before the LORD (2) sound a battle alarm and (3) announce the coronation of a new king. Ummmmmm, interesting.
- Modern observance described in the book include "The Days of Awe", "Prayers of Repentance", "The Casting Ceremony", "The Shofar".
- The Days of Awe--the ten day period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are a time of self-examination and judgement.
- Prayers of Repentance--prayers of forgiveness
- The Casting Ceremony--symbolizes the shedding of one's sins. A ceremony that takes place beside a body of water where a brief Tashlikh prayer composed of Hebrew Scriptures (Micah 7:18-20; Ps 118:5-9; Ps 33; Ps 130 and Is 11:9) is prayed. Micah 7:19 states that "You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." So after the prayer, it is customary to toss bread crumbs into the water as a symbol of ridding oneself of sin.
- The Shofar--a ram's horn which is a reminder of God's deliverance of Isaac by a ram caught in a thicket by its horn. I found in the Life Application Bible note for Revelation 8:6 that the purposes for the trumpet blasts are "(1) to warn that judgment is certain; (2) to call the forces of good and evil to battle, and (3) announce the return of the King, the Messiah." Ummmmm, VERY interesting.
The single most amazing thing I found was that "The Feast of Trumpets is next on Israel's prophetic calendar. Israel's four springtime holidays...were fulfilled in connection with the Messiah's first coming. Israel's three autumn holidays...will be filled at His second coming."
