Fall Feasts For Beginners - Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets)

First let me say, we are not a ministry who follows the rabbinic teachings regarding the Feast Days. We make them simple and Biblical. Or as Biblical as is humanly possible. We don’t teach that they are commandments required for your salvation, either. Yet we DO teach that, once saved, we should feel that change of heart in us that makes us desire to live as Yeshua lived, and that pull to follow the commandments Yahweh would have us follow. This process brings us to sanctification, where we will be living in such a way that others will see the fruit in our spirits and in our every action.

So how do we follow and celebrate the fall Feast days? 

We teach each new family to start by reading up on calendaring. Our Parent Ministry, Shofar Productions has a free e-book on the topic. This e-book explains why we follow the Hillel II calendar for calculating the Feast days through the year. I will point out this one detail: the Hillel II calendar DOES tend to have set aside two days for some of the Feasts which are only commanded for one day. WE follow the Biblical teaching that these days are ONE day only.

The example of this for our fall Feast schedule this year is that Feast of Trumpets is from Sundown on Sunday, September 29 until Sundown on Tuesday, October 1, 2019. We are honoring the one-day celebration starting on Sunday September 29th at Sundown to Monday at Sundown as the Bible states. For all upcoming years, we will be calculating the Feast Days in this same way.

Many will follow the Jewish traditions for Rosh Hashanah, which include a lot of baked goods and pastries, a big feast dinner, apples dipped in honey, honey cake, pomegranates, matzah balls, and the list goes on and on! Often, these traditions vary from Jewish community to community, family to family. We do enjoy eating honey cake, which happens to be one of my husband’s favorite treats this time of year, as well as pomegranates if they are fresh and lots of apples. But we do not adhere to typical, traditional Jewish foods on the Feast Days, with the exception of those things that are commanded in scripture (such as unleavened bread during that Feast Time.)

We also enjoy a wonderful feast dinner for at least one of the evening meals – this year we will be doing that on Monday evening because I won’t have time Sunday to make the big feast.  

The key to Feasts is: what does Yahweh say we should do on the Fall Feast days?

Let’s start with Yom Teruah, The Feast Of Trumpets, or Rosh Hashanah (Head of the Year).

In Leviticus 23 we see the Feasts of Yahweh given to His people. Yahweh tells Moses to instruct the people on the Feast days. He covers the instructions that are given for the spring feasts as well as the fall feasts. Leviticus 23:24-25 talks specifically of the Feast of Trumpets, or Yom Teruah:

"Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. 'You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD.'"

From these verses we can summarize that on this Feast Day, back in the wilderness, Yahweh commanded Moses and the people to do the following things:

Set aside the first day of the seventh month
Honor it as a Shabbat
Include the blowing of trumpets as a remembrance, a memorial
Have a holy convocation – a reading or meeting, an assembly
Do no laborious work – none of your job
Present and offering by fire at the Temple

Additional scriptures on Yom Teruah are:

Numbers 29:1-6 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 the LORD; 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 the LORD.

Simply reiterates the timing
The Holy Convocation
No laborious work
Blowing of trumpets
Sacrifices for “sweet savor,” meat offering, sin offering to make atonement which are in addition to monthly offerings.

Numbers 29:1-5
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 the LORD; 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: 6Beside 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 the LORD. (KJV)
Reiterates timing
Holy convocation
No servile/laborious work
Blowing of trumpets
Offerings at the Temple
 
Nehemiah 8:2-5 contains an example of the reading of The Word of Yahweh before an assembly of all who would listen:

And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: 6And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground. (KJV)

From all these examples, we can conclude that this is the basic list of things that were done on Yom Teruah in ancient times:

Set aside the first day of the seventh month for the Feast of Trumpets
Honor it as a Shabbat
Include the blowing of trumpets as a remembrance, a memorial
Have a holy convocation – a reading or meeting, an assembly
Do no laborious work – none of your job
Present an offering by fire at the Temple

Starting at the bottom of the list, we no longer offer sacrifices at the Temple, especially sin offerings. Yeshua was our ultimate sacrifice and the Temple sacrifices are no longer necessary for us to accomplish. In addition, we do not have an active Temple, Tabernacle, or Levitical Priesthood to bring the offerings to.

Is there a third Temple being considered and planned at this time? It appears to be, yes. Is it completed according to Yahweh’s instructions? No. Is there a possible Levitical priesthood organized? It appears to be, yes, but there is no Temple at which to sacrifice. In addition, we are not required to sacrifice at this time as Yeshua has suffered, bled and died for us. We accept Him and His sacrifice for us.

We can, for now, remove that from our list of what we are to do on this Feast. We COULD, however, still teach our children the importance of the ancient sacrifices. We can teach them why they were implemented, how they were done, what they were for. We may also have an opportunity to share this with other adults, such as family and friends.

We are left with honoring it as a Shabbat, blowing the Shofar in remembrance or memorial, and having an assembly - all to be done on the first day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. This might be a good time to recognize that it DOES simplify life if we are all following the same calendar year to year.

When we are divided into many different calendars it becomes complicated for holding a meeting with others who are Torah Observant – if we each celebrate Feast days on different months, in different weeks, on different days, how can we demonstrate to Abba that we are holding a holy reading, meeting, or assembly? We can’t.

So how do WE celebrate Feast of Trumpets using the Biblical model?

We work from home. Jim is self-employed. We know that when the feast days are approaching, he has to ensure enough work is done in advance that he can take off for the Holy Days. This may be something you need to plan for as well. If you work OUTSIDE the home, is there a way you can plan for a personal day or vacation day on the Feast Days?

If not, there are great ideas in our article titled Torah Observance in the Military that can be applied for even the civilian workplace. Try your best to do as little strenuous work as possible, but also remember your responsibility to your boss and fellow employees.

We plan ahead to do no work around the home, either, unless it is an emergency situation. We set aside all yard work, gardening, home repairs, housework, etc. All those can easily be done on another day. We have had emergencies crop up before, and we have been put in a position even to help others. We had a neighbor’s water line in the yard break one year. Jim went over to offer his help as they hand dug the line. They didn’t need his help in the end because another neighbor came along with his large equipment and dug the line in a jiffy!  Another example was one Sabbath or Feast Day when our dehumidifier in our old house suddenly sprung a leak and shot water 6 feet into the air in the basement. THAT needed fixed immediately!

Remember to be kind to yourself if things happen. Especially if you are new to Torah observance. Yahweh is SO loving and forgiving – we are in an age of grace where we are covered by Yeshua’s sacrifices.

To ensure we don’t have to work on Feast Days, we have a Prep Day all day before Sundown on the day it is going to start. For us this year, that would be Sunday, Sept. 29, 2019. If there was any cleaning or laundry to be done, we would do that all before sundown. We would accomplish as much of the cooking and food preparation as possible on that Prep Day just as we would on a prep day before Shabbat.

I believe in demonstrating a practical application, so I will give you an idea of what we are going to do this year based on our menu:

Sunday: Dinner will be frozen pizzas and maybe a small side salad
Monday:
      Morning’s brunch:     Quiche and coffee (me!) or hot herbal drink (Jim)
                                                Snack – honey cake, apples and honey or natural peanut butter
      Dinner:                          Backed Chicken, broccoli with cheese, baked potatoes

Sunday I will be preparing the whole chicken for Monday’s roasting in the oven. It will be oiled up with olive oil and sprinkled with herbs, placed into the baking dish, and covered in the fridge. On Monday, I will slide it into the oven uncovered and let the oven do the rest!

Sunday, too, the potatoes and broccoli will be washed. On Monday, the potatoes will be popped into the oven at the right time along with the chicken.  The washed broccoli will be placed into a saucepan in the fridge. On Monday, all I will need to do is add water and steam, then strain, sprinkle with herbs and cheddar, and serve.

I also bake the quiche ahead of time on Sunday so that all we need to do on Monday is reheat it when we are ready to eat. All the advance preparation makes it easy for us to enjoy the day as a day of rest and remembrance.

As far as activities go:

Sunday night we will pray and praise, as well as blow the Shofars. As this is the close of the agricultural year and what is celebrated as a new beginning by many, we will be remembering this as well. It IS the first day of the month and a Rosh Chodesh, so we honor and respect this one as we do all Rashei Chodashim (plural for Rosh Chodesh). Every Rosh Chodesh we praise Yahweh for all the blessings He has given us in the previous month and praise Him for the blessings to come from the next one as well. So, we will include this as we get to celebrate a bit more than the usual start of the month – with a big Feast.

If our neighbors will tolerate it, we will blow shofars long and loud outside for a bit. Living in the Appalachian Mountains makes them sound really awesome sometimes, and it is something I look forward to this time of year. In the past, we have had a fire outside before sundown and enjoyed supper around the fire as we allowed it to burn out on its own. This year, we are under fire watches, so we will pass on that for the evening.

Don’t have a shofar? There are recordings on YouTube that you can use, or believe it or not, there are even APPS for your phone or tablet! Some can even be downloaded onto your computer, as well. Plug in a set of speakers and let it blow!

I believe that the most difficult part of Feast days can be the holy convocation – this would be an assembly or gathering of people where they share the reading, study, or discussion of The Word Of Yahweh. Many of us are “the only ones” in our area, family, or group of friends.

What can you do? Plan a special day with family or friends – invite them over to your home for the feast meal. You can use this time to share your meal with them – and if they are receptive to it, talk about why you are celebrating Yom Teruah this year. This last part, you might need to play by ear because some friends and family may not want to hear anything religious while others may not appreciate your decision to change holidays to Biblical holy days. Just remember to be kind and loving in your communications.

If you DO find you are alone, is there a favorite ministry you might enjoy listening to? Maybe there is a live broadcast available that you can be a part of. If you can't find something live to enjoy, gather your husband and children around and watch a video broadcast together. This is likely what Jim and I will be doing along with reading and studying. 

Remember to close out your Feast of Trumpets with a closing prayer at Sundown on Monday. Is this commanded? Not according to the Bible. It is simply a gentle reminder and suggestion from us because it is a great time to spend some extra time in His presence. Thanking him for the blessed day you have been given, and praying He touch your heart as you approach the Day of Atonement coming up in just over a week.
 
I hope this helps everyone who is new to Torah and Fall Feasts and may even be a reminder to all those who have been doing it a while. Sometimes we need that gentle reminder that Yahweh didn’t make it difficult, and that the yoke is easy, and the burden truly is light. (Matthew 11:30)

Shalom

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​Yom Teruah For Beginners