Torah For Today

Rosh Hashanah

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Genesis 22=

Happy New Year!! This year, Rosh Hashanah falls right on Shabbat. What a holy day this Shabbat is for us! On Shabbat we are commanded to remember both creation and redemption. On Rosh Hashanah, we are called to remember the same great works of God. We are commanded to blow th= e shofar or ram’s horn as a way of remembering the great things that God has done. The ram’s horn also serves as a wake = up call to remind us to return to the Lord – to repent of our sins. In f= act the Hebrew name for this day is not “Feast of Trumpets.” Literally it is the Feast of loud noise”. In Hebrew, the name is Yom Teruah= . The Hebrew word “teruah” is translated several ways depending on the context of the passage. For example, in Psalm 150, the word is “loud” or “resounding”. In other places it describes an al= arm. "When you go to war in your land against the adversary who ^aattacks you, then you= shall sound an alarm with the trumpets. (Numbers 10:9)= . The phrase “sound an alarm&#= 8221; is the root of “teruah”. Rosh Hashanah is the day when the = alarm goes off or us to wake us up and prepare ourselves for Yom Kippur, the Day = of Atonement. Rosh Hashanah reminds us that the day is soon coming when we will have to give an account to God for our lives. At our services, when&nbs= p; the shofar is sounded, we are rem= inded of the sovereignty of God, of his covenant faithfulness and of his revelati= on of Himself at Sinai. All of this reminds us that we are accountable to God. This has been a year of great difficulty in the world. Israel = was engaged in a war with Hezbollah and around the world there has been tragedy. All of these events = should serve as “the sound of the shofar” = to us. When Yeshua is asked why bad things have happened to good people (Luke 13) Yeshua responds by telling the people to repent. So in the same way, we sho= uld be repenting and asking God what is the right way for us to walk as believe= rs. In addition, Rosh Hashanah reminds us that it is not only believers who sho= uld be repenting but the world itself as well. If the nations of the world desi= re peace, there must be turn to God. There can be no peace without the Prince = of Peace, Yeshua the Messiah. For a glimpse of the way the world will be when = the nations indeed turn to the Lord, read Isaiah 19:22-25. =

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<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Having talked ab= out repenting and tuning to God, there is another theme at Rosh Hashanah. That = is the theme of joy because this is a new year. It is a time filled with hope = and anticipation of God’s blessing. It is a turning of the page, putting = the past behind and looking forward to the future. At Beth Messiah, we have been focusing recently on the “new song” that we read about in the psalms. Rosh Hashanah is a good time to think about new beginnings and movi= ng forward to places where we can serve God in ways that we thought never coul= d be possible. In this week’s Torah portion, we read about a very happy event, a sad event and a faithful event. In each one of them, people are stretched to the limit with the end result that each event brings about, as it were, a “new song” – something new to say about the greatness of God. First Isaac is bor= n. The birth of this child from two people who are way beyond child bearing ye= ars would stretch the “spiritual imagination” of anyone. In the tex= t, this is described via the laughter of Abraham and Sarah. The second event is the sending away of Ishmael. While it seemed as if Ishmael was destined for death, God intervenes and makes a promise of life to Ishmael because of his relationship with Abraham. Ishmael could now sing a new song because God had given him new life. For Abraham this is a sad event because he was seeing h= is son sent away. However, God reassures him of the safety of Ishmael. The thi= rd event is the “binding of Isaac”. Here we read of the great faithfulness of Abraham and Isaac. They walked in faithful obedience, witho= ut knowing exactly how the situation would turn out!! When it was all over, they were si= nging a “new song” of the faithfulness of God. These events give us hope for the = coming year. If we are faced with challenges, we might see ourselves in t= hese stories – being stretched in our faith and trust in Yeshua. May the upcoming year be a time of returning to the Lord as well as a time of renewed hope as we walk with Lord. Happy new Year. L’Shanah Tova!

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