“What Happened to the Jewish Calendar?”
Our celebration of the traditional Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah, will take place on the evening of Wednesday, September 8th, at 7:30 PM. We will conclude our celebration with a service on Thursday, September 9th, at 11:00 AM. The biblical name of this holiday is Yom Teruah—literally the Day of Blowing (trumpets).
Several people have asked me, “What happened to the calendar?” since this “Feast of the Lord” usually occurs late in September. The answer is that the biblical calendar is based on the cycles of the moon, which last approximately 30 days. Twelve months of thirty days leaves us a few days short of the sun’s cycle (365+ days), so periodically an adjustment is made by adding a “leap month.”
Yom Teruah is the first of the three biblical fall feasts. The trumpet sound reminds us of the voice of God calling His people to the mountain to meet with Him (Exodus 19). We join with the traditional Jewish people in seeing this as a spiritual wake-up call. It is a time to reflect on our relationships with others, to seek reconciliation wherever needed andto prepare ourselves for the second biblical feast in the fall, Yom Kippur.
Traditionally, Yom Kippur is called The Day of Atonement, although literally, it is the “Day of Covering.” During the time when the Temple existed, this was the holiest day of the year, since it was the only time a human being, the High Priest, was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies. He went in with an offering of blood to cover (or atone) for the sins of the nation against their God. Year after year the High Priest would perform the required service and hope that the offering was accepted and the sins of the nation would be forgiven. Today, since there is no Temple nor High Priest, our people hope that God will accept fasting in place of the biblical requirements of this Feast.
The Talmud, the writings of the ancient rabbis, tells us that for forty years before the Temple was destroyed, God refused to accept the Yom Kippur offering. In response to my question about this, I was told it was for “baseless (undeserved) hatred.” How unusual. Yeshua became our High Priest and offered His own blood as the “once-and-forever” Yom Kippur offering just about forty years before the Temple was destroyed. This serves to affirm our faith in His final words: “It is finished” (John 19:30).
Yeshua, our High Priest, has finished and fulfilled the requirements of Yom Kippur which causes us to rejoice. That’s just what the final fall feast, Sukkot (Tabernacles) is all about. It is the “Season of Our Rejoicing” (Zeman Simchatainu). We rejoice that Yeshua tabernacled among us, paid the full price for our sins, fulfilled the requirements of the sacrificial system, and has gone to prepare a place for us in His Father’s house.
I hope you will come and rejoice with us. We will be waving palms (Leviticus 23:40, John 12:13), parading with the flags of the nations our international members are from (Zechariah 14:16), eating meals under the stars in our Temple sukkot, and gathering together in a PraiseFest with Messianic believers from throughout South Florida.
Rejoicing in the finished work of Yeshua,
Rabbi Neil
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