



The word “trumpets” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied. Nor does the word shofar ever appear in the Hebrew text of the Torah in connection with the holiday Jewish people call Rosh Hashanah. In the passage quoted above, the holiday is simply called Yom T’ruah, a day of blowing. However, it means more than simply “blowing” a trumpet or ram’s horn.

Three basic trumpet calls are sounded in the synagogue during the Rosh Hashanah service. The first is the simple t’kiyah, one long, sustained blast. In ancient Israel, the t’kiyah was a reassuring sound. It signalled that the watchmen guarding the city were on duty and all was well. That sound periodically divided up the watches of the day and night.


The third trumpet call, however—the one mentioned in the Bible in reference to the Feast of Trumpets—is the sound of alarm. It consists of nine rapid bursts on the shofar, referred to as t’ruah. The sound of the t’ruah alerted Israel that they were under attack and that all the fighting men were needed to draw together immediately for battle. The t’ruah might also be sounded for some other calamity that required the immediate and urgent convocation of all the people. Thus in most of the Bible texts where t’ruah appears, the word is translated “alarm.” A simpler, better translation of the Hebrew phrase Yom T’ruah, usually rendered “Feast of Trumpets,” would be “Day of Alarm.” It has the advantage of being a very literal translation, and it also communicates more of the flavor and intent of the holiday.




Rosh Hashanah (Yom T’ruah) was a preparation for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It was intended to turn minds away from the secular affairs of the summer season to focus on spiritual issues: God’s holiness, the people’s sin and the atonement God had provided.

Ancient Israel needed to be periodically alarmed—by the awareness of sin that separated her from God, and by her need for atonement. In the synagogue today the shofar sound of t’ruah should still alarm people. It should still register as the sound of an alert that points to the danger of remaining in sin without atonement. The Hebrew Bible says, “Your iniquites have separated you from your God” and “The soul who sins shall die” (Isaiah 59:2; Ezekiel 18:4).

