Shana Tova Umetukah. In the Hebrew language, this phrase is a common New Year’s greeting which means “a good and sweet year.” Another common Hebrew greeting for the New Year celebration is L’shana Tovah, meaning “for a good year.” In big holiday events, like New Year’s Day, I am always fascinated by wondering what God thinks of these. For the most part, we can get some great insight by reading about the Jewish Feast and Holidays. For certain celebrations and times of the year, God gave the Isrealites instruction on how to celebrate. It is incredible how much imagery of Jesus Christ can be found in the Jewish Feasts.
The Jewish New Year celebration is call Rosh Hashanah which means literally “head of the year.” Of course if you know anything about the Jewish calendar you know this holiday happens in the Jewish month of Tishri which for us is in September. However, the concept of celebrating a new year remains the same.
Sometimes I think we need to remember that many holidays we celebrate go back to ancient celebrations centered around the “Ancient of Days.” This God we worship has been worshiped from the beginning of man, and the Jews have celebrated this God way longer then Christians. We can learn much from how God instructed them to celebrate.
During Rosh Hashana (also called the Feast of Trumpets, see Numbers 29:1, see also Nehemiah 8) the Israelites celebrate a sacred assembly in which they frequently blow a shofar. Alfred Edershiem in his book The Temple: Its Ministry and Services
wrote:
…the Rabbis hold that the blowing of trumpets is intended, first, to bring Israel, or rather the merits of the patriarchs and God’s covenant with them, in remembrance before the Lord; secondly, to be a means of confounding Satan, who appears on that day specially to accuse Israel; and lastly, as a call to repentance— as it were, a blast to wake men from their sleep of sin. (p 236)
What a great way for us to remember to celebrate the new year. First and foremost let’s remember our covenant with God written in the blood of Jesus Christ (Matthew 26:17-30). Let us remember to repent and call a time of repentance. Make it a time of celebration and remembrance. Shana Tova Umetukah.
