Festival Notes 2: Rosh HaShana

This years (2007) Rosh HaShana has just passed, starting us into the Jewish year 5768. I'm still a little confused about the Jewish calendar, because the rabbi's made this the beginning of a new year, but thankfully didn't change the number of the months. So the new year begins in the 7th month.

Wait, I just read some more. I'll just quote the site I got the info from. "Tishri 1 (Rosh Hashanah) is the new year for years (when the year number increases)" and "Nissan 1 is the new year for the purpose of counting the reign of kings and months on the calendar." [from Judaism 101] Nissan corresponds to the Gregorian months of March and April.

Rosh HaShana

• Translation: "Head of the Year" or "First of the Year,"
  
• Biblical name: "Yom Ha-Zikkaron" (the day of remembrance) or "Yom Teruah" (the day of the sounding of the shofar) [from Judaism 101]
• Reference: Leviticus 23:24-25
• Jewish Date: Tishri 1 (7th month)*
  
• Gregorian Date (2008): September 30 [from floridajewish.com]
• REMEMBER: That is sundown September 29th to sundown September 30th
  
• Sabbath? Yes
• Festival Traditions:
• Don't work!
• Sound the shofar (rabbinical rule: not if it is Shabbat)
  
• A time of reflecting on what was done wrong in the last year while making a plan for change for the next; REPENTANCE
• Beginning of the 10 Days of Awe/Repentance (ends on Yom Kippur)
  
• Eat apples and bread dipped in honey
• Tashlikh or "casting off" of sins/breadcrumbs
  

* Because Rosh HaShanah is on the 1st of the month and the Sanhedrin used to have to determine when each month began by watching for the new moon, outside of Israel this is a two day festival. It took at least a day for the Sanhedrin messengers to let everyone know that the new month had started. Judaism 101 has a good explanation. They didn't mention if it is a Sabbath from work both days or not.

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ^(AA)(A"Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall present a food offering to the LORD."
Leviticus 23:23-25

Most suspect that this is the day Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) is to come back. For instance:

^(A)(B)Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ^(C)(D)in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. ^(E)For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
1 Corinthians 15:51-53

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ^(J)(K)(L)Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17

"Immediately after^(A) the tribulation of those days^(B) the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and^(C) the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then^(D) will appear in heaven^(E) the sign of the Son of Man, and then^(F) all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and^(G) they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven^(H) with power and great glory. ^(I)(J)(K)(L) his elect from^(M)(N)And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Matthew 24:29-31