On the evening of September 24th, 2006, our congregation assembled for a night of fellowship and study and blasting of the Shofar!  This was a wonderful event despite the fact that the sky was overcast and we were unable to view the new moon which announced the beginning of the 7th month on the Hebrew calendar. According to the Jewish calendar, Rosh HaShanah (New Year), or literally the head of the year was on Friday, September 22nd.  Judaism has two “New Years” on its calendar; one it refers to as the “civil - in the Fall” and one it refers to as the “religious - in the Spring”. While I had always restricted my declaration of the New Year to the spring based upon the words of Exodus 12:1-2, I now understand that the origin of this is idea of two New Years is most likely associated with the words of Exodus 34:22.  There it speaks of the “turn” of the year.  The Hebrew here is “tequfah” and it is understood to mean that when one reaches this month, one begins a trek back towards the Spring. 

At any rate, we had a great time and several congregants took turns at blowing on our new ram’s horn trumpet.  We had several visitors on this night and they all said that they would enjoy coming again.