Yom Teruah

How the Day of Shouting Became Rosh
Hashanah

by Nehemia Gordon

On the 1st day of the Seventh month (Tishrei) the Torah commands us to
observe the holy day of Yom Teruah which means “Day of Shouting” (Lev 23:23-25;
Nu 29:1-6). Yom Teruah is a day of rest on which work is forbidden. One of the
unique things about Yom Teruah is that the Torah does not say what the purpose
of this holy day is. The Torah gives at least one reason for all the other holy
days and two reasons for some. The Feast of Matzot (Unleavened Bread)
commemorates the Exodus from Egypt but it is also a celebration of the beginning
of the barley harvest (Exodus 23:15; Lev 23:4–14). The Feast of Shavuot (Weeks)
is a celebration of the wheat harvest (Ex 23:16; 34:22). Yom Ha-Kippurim is a
national day of atonement as described in great detail in Leviticus 16. Finally
the Feast of Sukkot (Booths) commemorates the wandering of the Israelites in the
desert but it is also a celebration of the ingathering of agricultural produce
(Ex 23:16). In contrast to all these Torah festivals, Yom Teruah has no clear
purpose other than that we are commended to rest on this day.

The name of Yom Teruah may provide a clue as to its purpose. Teruah
literally means to make a loud noise. This word can describe the noise made by a
trumpet but it also describes the noise made by a large gathering of people
shouting in unison (Nu 10:5–6). For example,

“And it shall come to pass when the ram’s horn makes a long blast, when
you hear the sound of the shofar, the entire nation will shout a great shout,
and the wall of the city shall fall in its place, and the people shall go up as
one man against it.” (Joshua 6:5)

In this verse the word “shout” appears twice, once as the verb form of
Teruah and a second time as the noun form of Teruah. Although this verse
mentions the sound of the shofar (ram’s horn), the two instances of Teruah both
refer to the shouting in unison of the Israelites which was followed by the fall
of the walls of Jericho.

While the Torah does not explicitly tell us the purpose of Yom Teruah its
name may indicate that it is intended as a day of public prayer. The verb form
of Teruah often refers to the noise made by a gathering of the faithful calling
out to the Almighty in unison. For example:

“Clap hands, all nations, shout to God, with a singing voice!” (Ps 47:2)

“Shout to God, all the earth!” (Ps
66:1)

“Sing to God, our strength, shout to the God of Jacob!” (Ps
81:2)

“Shout to YHVH, all the earth!” (Ps
100:1)

In Lev 23:24, Yom Teruah is also referred to as Zichron Teruah. The word
Zichron is sometimes translated as “memorial” but this Hebrew word also has the
meaning of “mentioning” often in reference to speaking the name of YHVH (e.g. Ex
3:15; Isa 12:4; ; 26:13; Ps 45:18). The day of Zichron Teruah, the “Mentioning
Shout”, may refer to a day of gathering in public prayer in which the crowd of
the faithful shouts the name of YHVH in unison.

Today few people remember the biblical name of Yom Teruah and instead it
is widely known as "Rosh Hashanah" which literally means “head of the year” and
hence also “New Years”. The transformation of Yom Teruah (Day of Shouting) into
Rosh Hashanah (New Years) is the result of pagan Babylonian influence upon the
Jewish nation. The first stage in the transformation was the adoption of the
Babylonian month names. In the Torah the months are numbered as First Month,
Second Month, Third Month, etc (Leviticus 23; Numbers 28). During their sojourn
in Babylonia our ancestors began to use the pagan Babylonian month names, a fact
readily admitted in the Talmud:

“The names of the months came up with them from Babylonia.” (Jerusalem
Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 1:2 56d)

The pagan nature of the Babylonian month names is epitomized by the
fourth month known as Tammuz. In the Babylonian religion Tammuz was the god of
grain whose annual death and resurrection brought fertility to the world. In the
book of Ezekiel, the prophet described a journey to Jerusalem in which he saw
the Jewish women sitting in the Temple “weeping over Tammuz” (Ezekiel 8:14). The
reason they were weeping over Tammuz is that according to Babylonian mythology
Tammuz had been slain but had not yet been resurrected. In ancient Babylonia the
time for weeping over Tammuz was the early summer, when the rains cease
throughout the Middle East and green vegetation is burnt by the unrelenting sun.
To this day the Fourth Month in the rabbinical calendar is known as the month of
Tammuz and it is still a time for weeping and mourning.

Some of the Babylonian month names found their way into the later books
of the Tanakh, but they always appear alongside the Torah month names. For
example, Esther 3:7 says:

“In the First Month, which is the month of Nissan, in the twelfth year of
King Achashverosh.”

This verse starts off by giving the Torah name for the month (“First
Month”) and then translates this month into its pagan equivalent (“which is the
month of Nissan”). By the time of Esther all the Jews lived within the
boundaries of the Persian Empire and the Persians had adopted the Babylonian
calendar for the civil administration of their Empire. At first the Jews used
these Babylonian month names alongside the Torah month names but over time the
Torah month names fell into disuse.

As the Jewish People became more comfortable with the Babylonian month
names they became more susceptible to other Babylonian influences. This is
similar to the way the American Jewish observance of Channukah has been
influenced by Christmas. This influence began with the seemingly harmless custom
of giving gifts on Channukah. Until the Jews arrived in America this custom was
unknown and it is still a rarity in Israel where Channukah does not need to
compete with Christmas for the hearts and minds of the Jewish youth. Once
Channukah took on this relatively trivial aspect of Christmas it became ripe for
more significant influences. Today many Jews have established the custom of
setting up a “Channukah bush” as a Jewish alternative to the Christmas tree.
These Jews did not want to adopt Christmas outright so they “Judaized” the
Christmas tree and incorporated into Channukah. This example shows how easy it
is to be influenced by the practices of a foreign religion, especially when
there is some similarity to begin with. The fact that Channukah often falls out
around the same time as Christmas made facilitated the American Jews in
incorporating elements of Christmas into their observance of Channukah.

Just as the Jews of America have been influenced by Christmas the ancient
Rabbis were influenced by the pagan Babylonian religion. Although many Jews
returned to Judea when the Exile officially ended in 516 BCE, the forebears of
the Rabbis remained behind in Babylonia where rabbinical Judaism gradually took
shape. Many of the earliest known Rabbis such as Hillel I were born and educated
in Babylonia. Indeed Babylonia remained the heartland of Rabbinical Judaism
until the fall of the Gaonate in the 11th Century CE. The Babylonian Talmud
abounds with the influences of Babylonian paganism. Indeed, pagan deities even
appear in the Talmud recycled as genuine angels and
demons.1

One field of Babylonian religious influence was in the observance of Yom
Teruah as a New Years celebration. From very early times the Babylonians had a
lunar-solar calendar very similar to the biblical calendar. The result was that
Yom Teruah often fell out on the same day as the Babylonian New Years festival
known as “Akitu”. Akitu fell out on the 1st day of Tishrei which coincided with
Yom Teruah on the 1st day of the Seventh Month. The fact that the Jews had
started calling the Seventh Month by the Babylonian name Tishrei paved the way
for turning Yom Teruah into a Jewish Akitu. At the same time the Rabbis did not
want to adopt Akitu outright so they Judaized it by changing the name of Yom
Teruah (Day of Shouting) to Rosh Hashanah (New Years). The fact that the Torah
did not give a reason for Yom Teruah no doubt made it easier for the Rabbis to
proclaim it the Jewish New Years.

It may seem bizarre to celebrate Yom Teruah as New Years considering that
it falls out on the first day of the Seventh Month, but in the context of the
Babylonian culture this was perfectly natural. The Babylonians actually
celebrated Akitu, New Years, twice every year, once on the first of Tishrei and
again six months later on the first of Nissan. The first Babylonian Akitu
celebration coincided with Yom Teruah and the second Akitu coincided with the
actual New Years in the Torah on the first day of the First Month. While the
Rabbis proclaimed Yom Teruah to be New Years they readily admitted that the 1st
day of the “First Month” in the Torah was, as its name implied, also a New
Years. They could hardly deny this based on Exodus 12:2 which says:

“This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it is first of the
months of the year.”

The context of this verse speaks about the celebration of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread which falls out in the First Month. In light of this verse the
Rabbis could not deny that the first day of the First Month was a biblical New
Years. But in the cultural context of Babylonia where Akitu was celebrated as
New Years twice a year, it made perfect sense that Yom Teruah could be a second
New Years even though it was in the Seventh Month.

In contrast to Babylonian paganism, the Torah does not say or imply that
Yom Teruah has anything to do with New Years. On the contrary, the Feast of
Sukkot (Booths) which takes place exactly two weeks after Yom Teruah is referred
to in one verse as “the going out of the year” (Ex 23:16). No one would ever
call January 15 in the modern Western calendar “the going out of the year” and
the Torah would not describe Sukkot in this manner if it intended Yom Teruah to
be celebrated as a New Years.

Some modern Rabbis have argued that Yom Teruah is actually referred to as
Rosh Hashanah in Ezekiel 40:1 which describes a vision that the prophet had, “At
the beginning of the year (Rosh Hashanah) on the tenth of the month”. The fact
that Ezekiel 40:1 refers to the tenth day of the month proves that in this
context Rosh Hashanah could not mean “New Years”. Instead it must retain its
literal sense of “the head of the year” referring to the First Month in the
Torah calendar. Therefore, the 10th day of Rosh Hashanah in Ezekiel 40:1 must
refers to the 10th day of the First Month.

Yom Teruah is mentioned in the following biblical
passages:

Lev 23:23-25 "And YHVH spoke unto Moses saying, Speak to the Children
of Israel saying, In the Seventh month on the first of the month will be a day
of rest (Shabbaton) for you, a Remembrance Shouting, a holy convocation. You
shall do no work and you will bring a fire sacrifice to
YHVH."

Nu 29:1-6 "And in the Seventh month on the first of the month will be a
holy convocation for you; you shall do no work, it will be a Day of Shouting
for you. [List of Sacrifices for Yom Teruah]."

Yom Teruah FAQ

Q: What about Leviticus 25:9?

A: Some people have argued that Yom Teruah should be
considered New Years because it is the beginning of the Sabbatical year.
However, the Torah does not say that Yom Teruah is the beginning of the
Sabbatical year and all indications are that the Sabbatical year begins on the
1st day of the First Month. The Torah does say the following:

“And you shall pass a shofar of blasting in the Seventh Month on the tenth
of the month; on the Day of Atonement you shall pass a shofar throughout all
your land.” (Lev 25:9)

This verse is saying that a shofar should be used to announce the arrival
of the Jubilee year, the 50th year in the Sabbatical system. It does not say
that the Jubilee begins on the Day of Atonement only that the impending arrival
of the Jubilee year is announced on the Day of Atonement. Indeed the shofar may
be passed through the land on Yom Kippur of the 49th year, six months before the
beginning of the coming Jubilee year. This interpretation is supported by the
immediate context in Leviticus 25. Verse 8 says to count forty nine years, verse
9 says to pass the shofar throughout the land, and verse 10 says to proclaim the
50th year as the Jubilee. This shows that the shofar announcing the coming
Jubilee in verse 9 is passed through the land before the Jubilee is actually
proclaimed in verse 10.

Q: Isn’t the Seventh Month the beginning of the
agricultural cycle?

A: In the Torah the middle of the Seventh Month is actually the end of the
agriculture cycle, specifically of the grain cycle. In the Land of Israel,
grains are planted in Autumn and harvested in Spring. The new agricultural cycle
would not actually begin until the plowing of the fields. This would not take
place until the first light rains which moisten the ground enough to be broken
by iron and wooden plows. In the Land of Israel this could be as early as the
middle of the Seventh Month but is usually in the Eighth Month or later. By the
above logic the Eighth Month should be considered the beginning of the year, not
the Seventh Month.

1 Zvi Cahn, The Rise of the Karaite Sect, New
York 1937, pages 98–101. Cahn’s central thesis is that the refusal of rabbinical
leaders to repudiate the deep-rooted Babylonian paganism that had infiltrated
Babylonian Judaism led to the rise of the Karaite back-to-the-Bible movement in
the early Middle Ages. In this context Cahn gives a detailed list of various
pagan influences in rabbinical Judaism.