New Year

Rosh Hashanah means the Head of the Year or the Beginning of the Year.  This is may seem odd because of Exodus 12:1-3

1And Yehovah spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

Exodus 12 designates Aviv or Nisan as the beginning of the year, not Tishri.  In reality, there are three Jewish New Years:

  • 1st of Nisan, Begins the Sacred Calendar, Priest were ordained.
  • 1st of Tishri, Begins the Civil Calendar, Kings were crowned.
  • Tu Bishvat, 15th of Shevat, 1st day of spring in Eretz Yisrael, 6 weeks after Chanukah, it is called the New Year for Trees.

So there are 3 new years.  The significance of Rosh Hashanah is in Leviticus 25:8-9

8And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. 9Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.

Although our forefathers entered the land at Passover, the Jubliees are counted from Tishri, Rosh Hashanah being the first day of the month.

So Rosh Hashanah is the New Year.  The beginning of the civil  new year.

Next Yom Triuah: Day of Trumpets

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