What is Rosh Hashanah?

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year.  (Rosh Hashanah is Hebrew for “head of the year”).  The holiday begins at sundown September 29, 2019 and continues through nightfall October 1, 2019. It will be the Jewish Year 5780.

"And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD." - Leviticus 23:23-25 KJV

The primary theme of the holiday is acceptance of God as King. The sounding of the shofar (a ram’s horn) represents the trumpet blast of a people's coronation of their king. The sound of the shofar is also a call to repentance, for Rosh Hashanah is the anniversary man's first sin and his repentance. It is the first of the "Ten Days of Repentance" which will culminate in Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement.

Rosh Hashanah is the day of the sounding of the shofar. The shofar is a ram's horn which is blown like a trumpet. A ram is a male sheep. A horn is a symbol of strength. The shofar is a reminder of the Binding of Isaac (which also occurred on Rosh Hashanah), in which God provided a ram to take Isaac’s place when Abraham was about to offer him as a sacrifice to God.

We can see Isaac as a symbol of the people of God - a holy, living sacrifice, giving themselves in love to service to God. We can see the ram as a symbol of God providing Himself as a substitute sacrifice, because God loved Isaac and Abraham so much. The beautiful fulfillment of this is God taking on the form of man as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world – Jesus Christ - because He loves us so much. Taking our place of death, we, like Isaac, become a living sacrifice.

The Binding of Isaac is a metaphor of Jesus giving His life in our place, and we becoming a living sacrifice to Him.

"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." - John 1:29 KJV

Jesus gave His life in our place and shed His blood for the penalty of our sins. We lay down our life for Jesus and become a living sacrifice.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." - Romans 12:1-2 KJV

One of the most important observances of this holiday is hearing the sounding of the shofar. A total of 100 blasts are heard over the course of the Rosh Hashanah services. The shofar's call is like a love call...it is a call to repentance, a call to return to God.

See the link below for many articles about Rosh Hashanah.

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4762/jewish/What-Is-Rosh-Hashanah.htm