Whether secular, religious, Sephardic, Ashkenazi, or (fill-in-the-blank), we all share a uniquely Jewish experience at Rosh Hashanah: the soulful sound of the shofar. Whether you’re in New York, Netanya, or Nice, if you can find enough Jewish people on Rosh Hashanah, you’ll hear it! But have you heard why we blow the shofar at Rosh Hashanah? Jewish tradition cites many reasons . . . and it’s uncanny how many of them seem to point to Jesus.

Before we dive into those reasons, it’s worth remembering that the original name of the holiday, the one found in the Torah,¹ is Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets. The famous 10th-century Rabbi Saadia Gaon identified ten reasons for blowing the shofar at Rosh Hashanah. Let’s look at five of his reasons² and see how they relate to Jesus.³

1. “The shofar’s piercing wail serves to awaken slumbering souls that have grown complacent.”

It’s been said that the sound of the shofar is a lot like a modern alarm clock—if that alarm clock was made of an ancient animal horn and made someone contemplate their mortality!

Jesus likewise used piercing words to awaken people from their complacency. To those who were complacent about God’s holiness, using the Temple grounds to conduct business, Jesus cited Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11, saying, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”⁴  To those whose complacency took the form of religious self-righteousness, he said, “You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God.”⁵

God cares enough about us to give us reality checks—and Jesus is really good at that!

2. “Made of a ram’s horn: The shofarrecalls the near sacrifice of Isaac, who was saved when G‑d showed Abraham a ram to bring as an offering in his stead.”

What is more uncomfortable than waiting in breathless solidarity as the shofar blower attempts to blast out the longest tekiah gadol ever?⁶ For some, it’s the annual reading of the Akedah, or the Binding of Isaac from Genesis 22, referenced by Saadiah above. The same thing that can unsettle us in the Akedah can make us uneasy about Jesus.

Jesus understood and interpreted his mission through the Akedah, so let’s unpack that. First, how could a good God ask Abraham to sacrifice his only son, whom he loves? And how could it be good for Abraham to obey? Even though God prevented Abraham from going through with it, the story still feels primitive and not like anything we might hope for in a relationship with God.

But what if the Akedah is not so much a picture of what God expects from us as what he wants us to expect from him?

Abraham would not withhold anything from God—even his beloved son on whom God’s promise and all Abraham’s hopes rested—because Abraham somehow believed that God would keep his covenant through Isaac no matter what.  Earlier, Genesis 15:6 states, “And [Abraham] believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” That belief culminated in Abraham’s willingness to bind Isaac to the altar.

Jesus stated his mission succinctly when he said: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).⁷

Can you see the points of reference to the Genesis narrative here? God provided a substitute to spare Abraham’s son—but a day would come when he wouldn’t spare his own son. In a supreme act of love, Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice, giving his life as the final substitute for our atonement. And just as Abraham’s belief in God counted as righteousness, so those who believe in Jesus’ sacrifice on their behalf are spared judgment. While many view that as offensive and un-Jewish, it’s actually very much in keeping with the Hebrew Scriptures.⁸

3. “On Rosh Hashanah we coronate G‑d as King of the world. The shofar’strumpeting call heralds this exciting event.”

This is wonderfully poetic. That said, who do you know that finds the idea of being subject to a king exciting? And how does this point to Jesus?

First, because Jesus helped people understand why God’s kingship is something to be excited about in his talks about the countercultural and seemingly upside-down kingdom of God.⁹

Second, while Jesus refused to be trapped into claiming to rule that kingdom (which the Romans would have seen as seditious), he never denied that he was the king; in fact, he said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”¹⁰

The Romans mocked Jesus by crowning him with thorns and labeling the cross he was crucified on, “King of the Jews.” Despite the intended sarcasm, this public declaration identified Jesus as the King Messiah who would suffer for the sins of his people—as described by the Jewish prophet Isaiah, hundreds of years before Jesus walked the earth.¹¹

4. “The blast of the shofar reminds us of the Revival of the Dead, about which we read, ‘dwellers of the earth … a shofaris sounded you shall hear.’”¹²

Saadia is referring to the resurrection that Jewish tradition says will take place after Messiah comes and the exiles are gathered back to Israel. How does this point to Jesus? He told his followers that he would rise from the dead three days after his death.¹³ Elsewhere in the New Testament we read that “Jesus is the first fruits from the dead.”¹⁴ As the earliest part of the crop is a sign of the coming harvest, so Jesus’ death and resurrection assures us that there will be an “end-time” resurrection to come.

5. “The sound of the shofar gives us hope, mirroring the sound of the ‘great shofar’ that will call together the Jewish people who are scattered to the corners of the earth at the time of the coming of Mashiach.”

How does this point us to Jesus? In fact, traditional Judaism teaches that Jesus isn’t the Messiah because he did not gather all Jews to Israel—or destroy our enemies, or establish world peace. But Jesus’ disciples expected him to return to fulfill the rest of the Messianic prophecies. Which is why they asked,

“Tell us … what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”¹⁵

Jesus didn’t respond by saying, “Whoever said I would return?” Instead, he said: “Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son [that is, Jesus himself], but the Father only.”¹⁶

Although he didn’t give the time or day of his return, Jesus did say that “the Son of Man” (a title he commonly used to describe himself) will be seen “coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”¹⁷ He continues to describe his dramatic return as follows:

“And he [God] will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other”¹⁸.

Many of Jesus’ followers have taken this passage to mean that he will return on Rosh Hashanah. While we can’t “confirm or deny” that Jesus will return on Rosh Hashanah, we are certain that he will return! And the peace that he has brought to our hearts will spread throughout Israel and all the nations.

 

For reflection:

This Rosh Hashanah, do you think the sound of the shofar will:

1. make you glad that you understand the purposes behind it?
2. be a wakeup call for something specific that God wants you to know?
3. sound like a goose choking on a kazoo next to a foghorn?

 

[1] Numbers 29:1; see also Leviticus 23:24–25.

[2] You can find these, as well as Saadia’s other five reasons, here: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4837/jewish/Shofar.htm

[3] In no way are we attributing to Saadia the connections to Jesus.

[4] Matthew 21:13.

[5] Luke 16:15 NLT.

[6] The shofar service includes three different shofar calls: tekiah (a single blast), shevarim (a triple blast), and teruah (at least nine sharp, rapid blasts). Tekiah gadol is a “big” or extended tekiah and makes for an impressive final blast of the shofar.

[7] emphasis supplied.

[8] https://jewsforjesus.org/learn/jesus-most-offensive-claim.

[9] Find out about the upside-down kingdom here: https://jewsforjesus.org/learn/the-freedom-paradox.

[10] John 18:36.

[11] See Isaiah 53:4–6 and see also https://jewsforjesus.org/learn/the-rabbis-dilemma-a-look-at-isaiah-53.

[12] Isaiah 18:3.

[13] See Matthew 16:21, Mark 8:31, and Luke 9:22.

[14] 1 Corinthians 15:20–23. 1 Corinthians 15:20–23

[15] Matthew 24:3.

[16] Matthew 24:36.

[17] Matthew 24:30.

[18] Matthew 24:31; emphasis added.