What is Rosh Hashanah?

 

We say, שָׁנָה  טוֹבָה (Shanah Tovah, literally translated as Good Year) or Happy New Year (to our Jewish friends on Rosh Hashanah (רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה). It is the beginning of their calendar year. 

        It is like us Chinese celebrating the first day of the new calendar year. The Jewish year of 5782 starts on September 7, 2021 being the first month of the Jewish month, Tishrei. 

        The word 'rosh' (רֹאשׁ) means the 'head' or the 'chief' and 'shanah' (שָׁנשָה) means year.' 

        Biblically, this is also known as the Yom Teruah (יוֹם תְּרוּעַה) which can be translated as 'Day of Shouting.' 

        Although the Jews celebrate this day as one of their High Holy Days, being Gentile believers in Christ, Paul warned us against the influence of the Judaizers during his time.  

“Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day — things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ." (Colossians 2:16–17)

  

Christ is Our Focus 

        Our focus should always be on Christ alone, who Alone is the culmination of all prophecies regarding Him and the fulfilment of all the requirements under the Law of Moses. The Law was given to the Israelites so that they could be goaded to the Messiah who was to come.

        Throughout His ministry, Jesus never instructed the disciples (who were Jews themselves) to teach others to follow the Jewish traditions; otherwise, the worldwide church would have been celebrating the Jewish feasts like our brethren of faith from the Jewish tradition. 

        Instead, Christ instituted only one -- the Lord's Supper, -- which is a culmination of all that He came for. This has been the tradition for both the Jewish and Gentile believers. 

        The dispute with the Judaisers became so intensive that the apostles had to call for the Council of Jerusalem, where all the instructions to the Gentile believers were summed up in these words with only four necessities spelt out clearly for the Gentile believers:

"For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials:

 that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell.”

(Acts 15:28–29 NAS95)  

 

        Because Christ is the fulfilment of all the prophecies and feasts of the Old Testament, we are therefore, no longer required to celebrate the feasts as Gentile believers. 

        Those who quote scriptures in the Old Testament to support their idea that these feasts are meant to be celebrated by the Church, have failed to see that Christ is the substance and fulfilment of all the requirements and feasts under the Mosaic Law.  They bring others into bondage once again to the Law, when Christ's work on the Cross was supposed to set us free!

It is Finished!

        When Christ came, He lived a perfect life, free from sins. He was the perfect pascal lamb who was sacrificed as an atonement for our sins. Unlike the Jewish priestly traditions, our Lord only had to do it once and He did it for all. There was no need for Him to lay down His life every year like what the High Priest had to do with the pascal lamb once a year on Yom Kippur.

        On the cross, our Lord cried out, Τετέλεσται, which meant, 'It is finished!'  (John 19:30). Paraphrased, this means, "It's a done deal!" or "All debts paid!" 

        Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it (Matt 5:17):

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

        He has delivered us from the bondage of the Law that could not save us, so why, if we have been saved by God's grace, do we now go back to the Law? 

“Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day — things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ." (Colossians 2:16–17)