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		Living in Exile     Pinchas   (Num 25:11 - 30:1(29:40))

B'Midbar/Numbers 29:1   And in the seventh month, on the first of the month, there shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall not any any work of service - it shall be a day of blowing for you.

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Our text comes about half-way through the detailed list of offerings, additional offerings and festival offerings to be brought on all the festivals days throughout the Jewish calendar. It is a close parallel to Vayikra 23, the chapter that locates all the festivals in the calendar and tells the people what to do; this list tells the priests what to do. If you were in any doubt before, the festivals - from the weekly Shabbat through to the end of Sukkot - are no holiday for a priest; there is just so much work to do! Our main focus is going to be on the last phrase of our text - יוֹם תְּרוּעָה יִהְיֶה לָכֶם, it shall be a day of blowing for you - to consider what it meant then and what it means now, particularly for exiles, away from home and awaiting the return of the King.

The first thing that we should notice is that while trumpets are to be sounded on each Rosh Khodesh, New Moon festival - "on your joyous occasions -- your fixed festivals and new moon days -- you shall sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and your sacrifices of well-being" (B'Midbar 10:10, NJPS) - the verb used there is וּתְקַעְתֶּם, "and you shall blow", from the root תקע, "to clap, strike, drive, fasten" (Davidson). This is interpreted as sharp, percussive blasts on the silver trumpets that can only be sounded by the priests; more, they are specifically to be blown over the offerings so that The Name ...

HaShem: literally, Hebrew for 'The Name' - an allusion used to avoid pronouncing the Tetragrammaton, the so-called 'ineffable' name of G–d
HaShem will hear and remember Israel. In our text the verb is תְּרוּעָה, from the root רוע, "to cry aloud, shout, sound" (Davidson) and is both a long drawn-out wailing blast and blown on a shofar, a ram's horn, rather than the silver trumpets. The Psalmist has this day in mind when he says, "Blow the shofar on the new moon, on the full moon for our feast day" (Psalm 81:4).

Who Is ...

Abraham Ibn Ezra: (1089-1167 CE), born in Tudela, Spain; died in the South of France after wandering all around the shores of the Mediterranean and England; a philosopher, astronomer, doctor, poet and linguist; wrote a Hebrew grammar and a commentary on the Bible
Ibn Ezra reports that "this sounding of the horn is a commandment", and asks, "if it were simply something that accompanied the offering, why would there be no mention of it on the other festivals?" While the Rosh Khodesh festival is to be observed on the first day of every month in the year, following the sighting of the new moon, Rabbi Hirsch explains that "the first day of this month again calls us out of our working service of the world into the service of G-d and invites us to the sanctuary." Rosh Khodesh for the other months is not a full festival day with a prohibition on work; Yom Teruah is and requires us to put down our work in order to hear and engage with the meaning of the shofar. Like our text above, the Vayikra parallel instructs us "In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts" (Vayikra 23:24, NJPS), the last phrase here being זִכְרוֹן תְּרוּעָה, a remembrance of blowing.

Jacob Milgrom proposes that, in the sanctuary on Yom Teruah, "perhaps Psalm 47 and 95-100, in which shofar blowing is prominent were sung and their theme of cosmic judgement - 'He is coming to judge the earth' (Psalms 96:13, 98:9) - was incorporated as a permanent theme in the liturgy of this day." Psalm 47 starts with a verse combining both the trumpet blowing verbs, both imperatives: "All you peoples, תִקְעוּ clap your hands, הַרִיעוּ raise a joyous shout for G-d" (Psalm 47:2, NJPS). Suggesting that Yom Teruah could have been traditionally understood as "Day of Blast", Michael Morales explains that "the blast is an alarm, calling for attention, a summons to return to G-d and prepare oneself for the Day of Atonement as if for the Day of Judgement."¹ It is tradition to blow the shofar once each day after the Shacharit prayer service during the month of Elul - the sixth month - to warn everyone that Yom Teruah is coming and that it is time to repent.

We blow the full sequence of blasts - one long, three short, nine staccato, one long - on the shofar on Yom Teruah each year to announce freedom from sin; to proclaim that the gates of heaven are open and that it is time to gain first the forgiveness of our fellow man against whom we have sinned, then to seek the forgiveness of heaven. Yeshua stressed the importance of doing both in the right order in Matthew's gospel: "If you are offering your gift at the Temple altar and you remember there that your brother has something against you, leave your gift where it is by the altar, and go, make peace with your brother. Then come back and offer your gift" (Matthew 5:23-24, CJB). The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, ten days later, is the day when - following an elaborate ritual in the sanctuary and the sending away of a goat bearing the sins of the people - HaShem forgives the sons of His people. The shofar is also blown one last long time at the very end of Yom Kippur, now not as an alarm, but as a cry of joyful freedom as G-d's people celebrate the freedom He has given us in Messiah.

On a larger scale, we are also commanded to blow the shofar on Yom Kippur itself every seventh year to announce the sabbatical year, when the Land would rest from formal agriculture, and when debts are released. It is also the announcement of the ceremony known as Hakheyl, the gathering of the people during the festival of Sukkot to hear the public reading of Torah. On the widest scale, the shofar is to be blown throughout the land to announce the year of jubilee, when all slaves are released and all land returns to its original ancestral owners. This freedom indeed and was to act as a powerful social defence mechanism, preventing the long-term build-up or accumulation of property by a few wealthy land-owners reducing the majority of the people to landless agricultural workers at permanent risk of poverty.

We can see this last use of the shofar being enacted when Israel entered the Land and took the city of Jericho. HaShem tells Joshua, "Seven priests shall bear seven שׁוֹפְרוֹת הַיּוֹבְלִים shofars before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow "שׁוֹפָרוֹת  the shofars" (Joshua 6:4). The longer phrase שׁוֹפְרוֹת הַיּוֹבְלִים is two nouns in construct, literally "the rams' horns of freedom or jubilee"; the shorter שׁוֹפָרוֹת at the end of the verse is the one noun "rams' horns". As Israel marched around Jericho, they proclaimed a jubilee for the the Land, when it would be returned or released to it rightful owner, HaShem, who would then lease it to the Israelites in perpetuity. The Land was released from its captivity to the Canaanites, who were holding it in bondage or slavery.

Isaiah the prophet cried out in his days, speaking prophetically of the Messiah who was to come: "The Spirit of Adonai ELOHIM is upon me, because ADONAI has anointed me to announce good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted; to proclaim freedom to the captives, to let out into light those bound in the dark; to proclaim the year of the favour of ADONAI and the day of vengeance of our G-d; to comfort all who mourn" (Isaiah 61:1-2, CJB). Notice his language the activities that are being announced: the proclamation of freedom and the year of HaShem's favour. This is the language of jubilee; Isaiah tells us that when messiah comes, He will announce not just a year but a season of jubilee, of freedom and release. This is to be followed by the day of G-d's vengeance or judgement upon all those who are allied with His enemies, those who are in rebellion against Him, refusing His rule and authority, abusing and oppressing others, and indulging in sin.

Yeshua claimed the mantle and role of Messiah when He read that portion from the Isaiah scroll in the synagogue at Nazareth at the start of His ministry: "The Spirit of ADONAI is upon me; therefore He has anointed Me to announce Good News to the poor; He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the imprisoned and renewed sight for the blind, to release those who have been crushed, to proclaim a year of the favour of ADONAI" (Luke 4:18-19, CJB). At that moment, although no physical shofar was blown, His statement that "Today, as you heard it read, this passage of the Tanakh was fulfilled!" (v. 21, CJB) was a clarion call throughout heaven and earth that the time of jubilee had come. In His ministry years in Israel, He personally travelled throughout the Land, announcing that season of jubilee, acting as a human shofar - a time of blasting! Notice too that Yeshua omitted the day of vengeance from His proclamation. He did this because the time for judgement had not yet come; there was to be time, sufficient time, for generations of Jews and Gentile to hear the blast of the shofar - "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17, ESV) - and seek forgiveness and reconciliation with G-d.

Rav Sha'ul tells us in no uncertain terms that the shofar will be significant in announcing Yeshua's return: "For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a rousing cry, with a call from one of the ruling angels, and with G-d's shofar" (1 Thessalonians 4:16, CJB). The shofar will also be the signal for the resurrection: "For the shofar will sound, and the dead will be raised to live forever, and we too will be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52, CJB). Yeshua confirms this when He tells the disciples and, of course, through them, us: "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, all the tribes of the Land will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with tremendous power and glory. He will send out His angels with a great shofar; and they will gather together His chosen people from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 24:30-31, CJB). In these days, we as exiles blow the shofar to announce all these things: the kingdom of G-d, the time of jubilee, the year of the L-rd's favour and freedom from sin. At the same time, as we blow, we alert those around us that Yeshua is coming soon to judge the earth, so urging them to repent and be released from their sin.

So blow the shofar for all you are worth! Whether a real physical shofar, or a proclamation in words or actions, we proclaim His death and resurrection until He comes, His invitation to enter the kingdom right here and now, and the way to find forgiveness, peace and reconciliation with G-d in Him.

1. - L. Michael Morales, Numbers 20-36, Apollos Old Testament Commentary, (London, Apollos, 2024), page 341.

Further Study: Joel 2:1-2; Amos 3:6-8; Romans 13:11-14

Application: Is your proclamation of Yeshua coming across loud and clear in all the noise and bustle of today's busy world? Speak to the Master of the Heralds today and get some tips on technique to extend your reach and penetrate more hearts for Him!

Buy your own copy of the Drash Book for Numbers/B'Midbar now at Amazon US or Amazon UK.

© Jonathan Allen, 2025

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