January 8, 2023

Dear St. Martin of Tours Family & Friends,

Last week, I wrote about the Jewish New Year (Rosh-Ha-Shannah) and how observant Jews would spend their entire day at the synagogue in prayer. Sometimes I think we Catholics have gotten very soft with respect to the discipline of prayer. That’s the reason we have a Holy Hour every Sunday, as a way to thank God for the past week and to ask God to bless the week to come.

We first read of Rosh Ha-Shannah in Leviticus 23:24, where it is called Zikhron Teru'ah, which translates literally to “Memorial of Shouting”; and Numbers 29:1 in which it is called Yom Teru’ah, “Day of Shouting.” The festival is commanded by God to be observed on the first day of the seventh month.

How strange to have a holiday dedicated to shouting! But this shouting is special, mimicking the cries of victory in battle. These are shouts of victory. What is strange is positioning the first day of the year precisely in the middle of the year. Why would God ask for such a thing?

When the Jewish commentary on Sacred Scripture called The Talmud was compiled (probably 200 – 500 A.D.) Jewish sages surmised that this Zikhron Teru'ah or by then called Rosh Ha-Shannah was associated with the coronation of God in two aspects. First as Creator (Genesis 1-2) and second as Savior (The Exodus). It also evokes those Psalms which depict God reigning over the universe as Creator, such as Psalms 45, 47, 93, 95, and 9; or in Psalm 98:6: “with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn – shout for joy before the Lord, the King!” in which God is described as reigning over the people of Israel as their Savior, as described in the Exodus event.

Now the enemies which God overcame at the Creation of the Universe in the Beginning were Darkness, Chaos, Confusion, and the Absence of Life. Once the six days of Creation are completed, God has created Light, Order, Understanding, and Life. His victory over these enemies completed, on the next day — that seventh day, when God enters into His Sabbath rest with all creation shouting for joy, and with all trumpets and instruments blasting out of sheer exuberance — this seventh day is the day God begins His rule over Creation.

Once we grasp the import of that number seven to Genesis 1:1, if the seventh day marks God’s coronation, then what of the possibility that God’s “second” coronation, his glorious victory over the Egyptians and his salvation of the Jews, would therefore take place in the seventh month? Only once that event is completed, and God is crowned as victor and king on the first day of the seventh month, can God’s reign as Savior over the Nation of Israel commence.

Perhaps this is why the seventh month of the Hebrew Year is where Rosh Ha-Shannah finds its proper place. Seven is a very perfect number for the Jewish People, especially in the marking of time, seasons, beginnings and endings.

To be continued . . .