Jewish Festivals and Holy Days

Rosh Hashanah

Hebrew Date 1–2 Tishrei

Season Autumn

Duration 2 days

Type Biblical Festival

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year and the beginning of the High Holy Days. The Torah describes the first day of the seventh month as a sacred day marked by the sounding of the horn. Jewish tradition later developed the day into a time of judgment, reflection, repentance and hope for the coming year.

About Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah means "head of the year." It is the Jewish New Year and one of the most important days in the Jewish calendar.

The festival begins on the first day of Tishrei. It opens a ten-day period of reflection that leads to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

The best-known symbol of Rosh Hashanah is the shofar. This horn, usually made from a ram's horn, is sounded during synagogue worship. Its sound calls worshipers to attention and reminds them to examine their lives.

Rosh Hashanah combines celebration with seriousness. Families share festive meals and wish one another a good year. At the same time, worshipers think about their actions and their relationship with God.

The festival therefore looks in two directions. It looks back at the year that has passed and forward to the year that is beginning.

Origin

The biblical foundation for Rosh Hashanah is found in the Torah. Leviticus commands Israel to observe the first day of the seventh month as a day of rest and remembrance marked by the sounding of blasts. Numbers also describes it as a sacred occasion and a day of sounding the horn.

The Torah does not call this day Rosh Hashanah. It also does not identify it as the beginning of the year. In Exodus, Nisan is called the first month.

Over time, the first of Tishrei took on additional importance. Jewish tradition came to recognize it as the beginning of the civil year.

The day also became associated with God's judgment of humanity. Repentance and self-examination became major themes.

The Rosh Hashanah known today therefore combines a biblical sacred day with meanings that developed through later Jewish tradition.

Biblical Basis

Leviticus 23 gives the clearest biblical command for the observance. Israel was to rest on the first day of the seventh month. The day was to be marked by a memorial of trumpet blasts and a sacred assembly.

Numbers 29 gives similar instructions. The people were not to perform their ordinary work. Special offerings were presented to God, and the day was marked by the sounding of the horn.

Neither passage calls the occasion Rosh Hashanah or New Year's Day.

Nehemiah 8 records another important event on the first day of the seventh month. Ezra read the Law before the assembled people in Jerusalem. When the people began to weep, they were told that the day was holy and that they should rejoice.

These passages provide the biblical foundation upon which the later Jewish observance developed.

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Jewish Meaning

Rosh Hashanah is both a beginning and a time for serious reflection.

The new year brings hope. Families celebrate together and pray for blessing in the year ahead. Sweet foods express the desire for a good and sweet year.

Yet the festival also reminds worshipers that life is lived before God. Jewish tradition describes Rosh Hashanah as a day of judgment. People are called to examine their actions and consider what needs to change.

This process is closely connected with teshuvah, often translated as repentance. The Hebrew idea carries the sense of turning or returning. A person recognizes what is wrong and turns back toward the right path.

Rosh Hashanah therefore begins the year with both hope and responsibility. A new year offers the opportunity to change, repair relationships and begin again.

Jesus and the New Testament

Rosh Hashanah is not mentioned by name in the New Testament. There is no Gospel account that identifies Jesus as celebrating this festival on a particular occasion.

Its biblical symbol, however, is very familiar in the New Testament. Trumpets appear in passages about resurrection, judgment and the gathering of God's people.

Jesus spoke of a great trumpet accompanying the gathering of His chosen people. Paul used the image of a trumpet when describing the resurrection of the dead. Revelation also gives trumpets an important place in its visions of divine judgment.

These passages should not automatically be treated as direct references to Rosh Hashanah. Trumpets had several uses in biblical Israel.

Still, knowing the importance of the shofar and trumpet imagery in Jewish Scripture helps Christians better understand the world of symbols used by New Testament writers.

Christian Relevance

Rosh Hashanah helps Christians understand an important part of the Jewish religious calendar.

It also provides a useful lesson in reading the Bible carefully. The modern Jewish New Year grew from a biblical observance, but not every later custom appears in the Torah. Recognizing that development helps us distinguish Scripture from later tradition.

The themes of Rosh Hashanah are also familiar to Christian readers. Scripture repeatedly calls people to repentance and reminds them that human life is accountable to God.

The shofar provides another connection. Horns and trumpets appear throughout the Bible. They can announce worship, warn of danger or signal an important event. New Testament writers use trumpet imagery when speaking about the return of Christ and the resurrection.

Christians should be careful not to claim that every Rosh Hashanah custom predicts a Christian event. The greater value is understanding the Jewish setting from which many biblical images come.

Why It Matters

Rosh Hashanah shows how a biblical observance can develop additional meaning over centuries of Jewish life. The Torah commands a sacred day marked by the sounding of the horn. Jewish tradition later came to understand the day as the beginning of the new year and a time of judgment before God.

The festival also begins a period of serious spiritual reflection that leads to Yom Kippur. Themes of repentance, forgiveness and accountability are therefore central to the season.

For Christians, understanding Rosh Hashanah helps explain the Jewish calendar and the importance of the shofar. It also provides background for biblical images of trumpets, judgment and gathering before God.