Hearing the Shofar on the Feast of Trumpets
Netivyah International
The Feast of Trumpets, called Yom Teruah in the Bible, falls on the first day of the seventh Hebrew month, Tishrei. Scripture tells Israel to rest, gather and hear the blast of the shofar, the ram's horn. Today the day is kept as Rosh Hashanah. Synagogues around the world customarily sound the shofar at least 100 times, and of all the customs of the holiday, that sound is the one that comes straight from the Torah.
What the Torah actually commands
The instruction is short. Leviticus 23:24 says: "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.'" Numbers 29:1 gives the day its name: "It is a day of blowing the trumpets for you." In Hebrew that phrase is yom teruah, a day of the loud blast or shout.
A holy convocation meant a gathering before God. Ordinary work stopped and the people assembled. Numbers 29:1-6 lists the offerings brought at the sanctuary. All of this was also true of the other appointed feasts. What set this one apart was a single word: memorial.
A memorial with no explanation
Every other feast in God's Biblical Calendar tells you what to remember. At Passover you remember the Exodus from Egypt. At Sukkot you remember the booths Israel lived in after leaving Egypt (Leviticus 23:42-43). The Torah spells it out.
For the Feast of Trumpets it says nothing. The day is simply "a memorial of blowing." Whatever is remembered is called up by the sound itself.
In Scripture, remembering is never just thinking about the past. When "God remembered Noah" (Genesis 8:1), He made the waters recede. When "the LORD remembered" Hannah (1 Samuel 1:19), she conceived Samuel. Memory leads to action.
On this day the action is listening. At the other feasts we connect to God's story through what we see, taste, smell or touch. We eat matzah, sit in a sukkah and take up branches. On Yom Teruah the connection comes through the ear.
When the shofar was blown in the Bible
To hear what an Israelite heard on this day, you have to know where else that sound turned up. The shofar appears in dozens of passages, from Exodus to Zechariah. It could be played in praise (Psalm 150:3). Mostly, though, it was a signal. When it sounded, something important was happening.
- New moons and feasts. "Blow the shofar at the time of the New Moon, at the full moon, on our solemn feast day" (Psalm 81:3).
- War and warning. The watchman blew it when he saw the sword coming (Ezekiel 33:3-6).
- A king crowned. "They blew the horn, and all the people said, 'Long live King Solomon!'" (1 Kings 1:39).
- Freedom. Every fiftieth year, on the Day of Atonement, the shofar announced the Jubilee (Leviticus 25:9-10). Family land came back to its owners. An Israelite who had sold himself to pay a debt went home free (Leviticus 25:39-41).
Some of the great turning points in Israel's story came with a shofar blast. At Jericho the priests blew their horns, the people shouted, and the wall fell (Joshua 6:20). Gideon sent his 300 men against the Midianites with jars, torches and shofars, and the enemy camp ran (Judges 7:19-22). At Sinai, "when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice" (Exodus 19:19).
So the sound could stir up a lifetime of memories. It might bring back the year your family's land came back to you, or the day you walked out of servitude. It might bring back the moment you heard God speak.
Why the shofar is blown 100 times on Rosh Hashanah
Two separate things explain the 100 blasts.
The first is the kinds of blasts. The Torah commands a teruah, but the sages were unsure exactly what sound that was. It might be a broken, groaning sound or a rapid, sobbing one. The Talmud records that Rabbi Abbahu in Caesarea settled the question by having all of them blown (Rosh Hashanah 34a). That is why three sounds are used today:
- Tekiah: one long, steady blast, often heard as the sound of a king being proclaimed.
- Shevarim: three shorter, broken blasts, traditionally likened to groaning.
- Teruah: a quick run of short staccato notes (customarily at least nine), traditionally likened to sobbing or an alarm.
These are combined in set orders, such as tekiah, shevarim, teruah, tekiah. Every possible meaning of the biblical teruah is covered that way.
The second is the number itself. Sounding 100 blasts across the morning service is a custom built on top of those sequences. One well-known medieval tradition links the hundred notes to the cries of Sisera's mother at her window (Judges 5:28), answered with a hundred sounds of mercy. The last blast is usually the tekiah gedolah, the great tekiah, held as long as the blower's breath lasts.
When the shofar is blown today
In Jewish practice the shofar is sounded on both days of Rosh Hashanah. If the first day falls on Shabbat, it is not blown that day. In many communities it is also blown every weekday morning in the month of Elul, the month before the feast, as a call to repentance. Its last great blast of the season closes Yom Kippur.
The ten days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur are a season of searching the heart. Many pray Avinu Malkeinu: Our Father, Our King throughout those days.
What the shofar means for followers of Yeshua
For a disciple of Yeshua (Jesus), the shofar points back to Sinai and forward to the promises God has not yet finished keeping.
Yeshua said the Son of Man "will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds" (Matthew 24:31). Paul was a Pharisee trained under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3, 23:6), and he had heard this sound every autumn of his life. He described the resurrection this way: "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52). To the believers in Thessalonica he wrote, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God" (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
The Israelite who heard the shofar remembered what God had done. We remember too, and we also listen ahead. The same sound that brought down Jericho and announced the Jubilee will one day announce the King. Each Feast of Trumpets is a yearly reminder to be awake and ready for that day.
Marking Yom Teruah at home
You do not need a full synagogue service to keep this day. The Torah asks for rest, gathering and hearing the shofar, and a family can do all three around a table.
Read the command together. Start with Leviticus 23:23-25. Then read 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 so the children hear where the sound is heading.
Hear the shofar. If someone in your home can blow one, let them sound a tekiah, shevarim, teruah and a long tekiah gedolah. If not, listen to a recording of the traditional blasts. Afterward, ask each person what they heard. Did it sound like a warning, like crying, or like a celebration?
Share a sweet meal. Many families dip apples in honey and pray for a good and sweet year. How to Have a Rosh Hashanah Seder at Home walks you through a simple table order.
Pray toward the future. Thank God for the moments He has already set you free. Then name, out loud, the promises you are still waiting on.
When the long final blast fades this year, sit for a moment in the quiet and ask: what walls in my life am I still waiting to see fall, and would I be ready if the last trumpet sounded today?
Questions people ask
Why is the shofar blown 100 times on Rosh Hashanah?
The sages were unsure exactly which sound the Torah meant by teruah, so the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 34a) has three kinds of blasts blown in set combinations: tekiah, shevarim and teruah. Sounding 100 blasts in all is a later custom built on those sequences. A medieval tradition links the number to the cries of Sisera's mother in Judges 5:28.
When is the shofar blown?
The shofar is blown on both days of Rosh Hashanah, except on Shabbat. In many communities it is also sounded each weekday morning in the month of Elul, and once more at the close of Yom Kippur. In biblical times it also marked new moons, warnings, coronations and the Jubilee year.
How many times is the shofar mentioned in the Bible?
The shofar appears in dozens of passages across the Tanakh, from the giving of the Torah in Exodus 19 to the prophets, such as Zechariah 9:14. It shows up at Sinai, Jericho, Gideon's battle, Solomon's coronation and the Jubilee laws of Leviticus 25. The New Testament carries the same image forward in the 'last trumpet' of 1 Corinthians 15:52.
When was the shofar blown in the Bible?
It sounded at Mount Sinai as God answered Moses (Exodus 19:19) and before the wall of Jericho fell (Joshua 6:20). Gideon's men blew it against Midian (Judges 7), and it was blown when Solomon was crowned (1 Kings 1:39). It also announced the Jubilee every fiftieth year (Leviticus 25:9).
What does the Feast of Trumpets mean for Christians?
Followers of Yeshua hear in it both a memory and a promise. Yeshua spoke of His elect gathered 'with a great sound of a trumpet' (Matthew 24:31), and Paul taught that the dead will be raised at the last trumpet (1 Corinthians 15:52). Each year the shofar calls believers to be awake and ready for His coming.