The name of the next Jewish Holiday is Rosh Hashanah meaning New Year.

Is it the biblical New Year?

One very surprising tradition is that the Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23: 23-25) is called the Jewish New Year even though this feast falls out on the 7th month of the year and not the first. The Bible gives only one New Year, which is at Passover as we read in Exodus 12:1.

 

So how did the seventh month become recognized as the start of the Jewish New Year? This title (Rosh Hashanah) is not in the Torah and it is fairly new. It developed well after Moses, sometime between Ezra and the first century.  Rosh Hashanah is one place where  we can begin to see the great divide between rabbinical Judaism and Biblical Judaism. In fact, many Jews have a hard time discerning between these two theological platforms.

 

When questioning the rabbis or scholars concerning this issue, the usual answer one gets is that there are two Jewish New Years (according to Sarna, Cassuto), one in the Fall, the civil New Year and one in the Spring, the religious New Year. It’s ok if you want two new years or even four, but why is it that we barely, if ever, hear about the true New Year at Passover when God Himself put so much emphasis on it?

 

Imagine you celebrate a birthday all your life and then find out that the date is wrong.

 

Most Jews are surprised to find out that this is the only New Year found in the Bible, and one that is given by God Himself. Religion has the power to make great changes and turn the truth around. And if God decided to make the Passover the New Year, there is a very good reason for it; for here we see the importance of the Lamb of God, the Messiah Himself, Yeshua; this is what Passover is about. The Passover is a time when one of the most descriptive prophecies of the work of the Lamb of God is bought out. The Lord wanted to keep the memory of the redemptive work of the lamb alive so that for generations following, they would look on the true Lamb of God in is His salvific work. This way, every Passover, on New Years, we can always celebrate our salvation.