The Meaning of Yom Teruah

I looked into this Feast because HE said to me this day is the “sound of My Name.”

It’s written that Yom Teruah (what some know as the Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah) was to be a remembrance of “TERUAH” on the first day of the seventh month, but the reason for the Feast is not explained in the Scriptures.

Here’s what I found:

The word RUA in Hebrew means to shout, to make a battle cry, or to sound an alarm. By the letters, the word is a picture of:

as you would do when hearing a loud shout or alarm.

TERUAH is the Hebrew word for the sound itself – the sound of a loud cry, of an alarm, and of a great shout.

In the wilderness, YHVH told Moses to make two silver trumpets. “Teruah” is a great and loud sound that could be made by those trumpets, and the sound was to be used for two specific occasions:

1. To move the camps, and
2. In a time of war

YHVH told Israel in the wilderness that when they made the sound of teruah in a time of war, they would be remembered by Him and saved from their enemies. And here is where I understood what HE meant when HE told me that Yom Teruah is the sound of His Name. To sound the Teruah is to call out for the salvation (YASHUA) which HE has already promised. Teruah is a call for salvation, and salvation (YASHUA) is HIS NAME.

There is a future Day (Yom) of Teruah to come.

The Great Day of THE LORD is called a day of trumpet and teruah (Zephaniah 1).

And, on the Day of THE LORD, HE will move the camps in a time of war.

It’s written that when YASHUA returns, HE comes with all His saints. That is, HE moves the camps and the armies in heaven follow Him on this Day. And, HE is coming in a time of war in which we will be saved from our enemies – when HE gathers all nations to battle on the Day of THE LORD, a Day of Teruah.

After this future Yom Teruah, YASHUA our King will reign as King of the whole earth, here on earth.

“God is gone up with a shout,
the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God, sing praises:
sing praises unto our King, sing praises.
For God is the King of all the earth:
sing ye praises with understanding.
God reigneth over the heathen:
God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.
The princes of the people are gathered together,
even the people of the God of Abraham:
for the shields of the earth belong unto God:
He is greatly exalted.”

Psalm 47:5-9

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Notes:

1. We discuss Yom Teruah in Episode 16 on the Hebrew letter Ayin.
2. The two silver trumpets were also used for gathering the people to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of meeting and for Feast days and sacrifices. But on these occasions, the sound of teruah was not made. The silver trumpets only sounded the teruah to move the camps, and in a time of war (Numbers 10).
   
3. The word teruah is also used:
   
   • By Balaam who said of Israel that “the teruah of a King is among them;”
   • Of Jericho, which fell with a great teruah;
   • In the days of Eli, the teruah of the people shook the earth when the ark was brought to the battlefield;
   • When the foundation of the second temple was laid, the teruah of the people was so loud, it could be heard from far away; and
   • When David brought back the ark of the covenant, it was with teruah and trumpet.