[DouglasKC]

The first day of the seventh month is the "new year of years." That is a tradition. It is not in the Tanakh.

At our Trumpets services today one of the speakers brought up an interesting point.

Lev 23:24 "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.
Lev 23:25 You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.' "

A memorial of what? Scripture isn't really clear on what this is. I tend to come down on the side of a memorial of the actions of God in Genesis...the molding of the earth for man. But I don't think it's really provable from scripture or tradition.

[Carry_Okie]

A memorial of what? Scripture isn't really clear on what this is.

The Hebrew is clear enough. The root is zayin.haf.resh (Strong's H2142). Here is the Brown-Drive-Briggs entry for that root:

1) to remember, recall, call to mind
a) (Qal) to remember, recall
b) (Niphal) to be brought to remembrance, be remembered, be thought of, be brought to mind
IMO, the purpose of Yom Teruah is to "call to mind" that Yom Kippur is at hand, and to prepare one's self accordingly.

[Buggman]

My own thought is that since this is a "memorial," we have to look for an antecedant where a great sound (which is what teruah literally means; "trumpets" is interpolated) occurred. The only one I know of is the Holy One appearing on Mt. Sinai in fire and a cloud on Sukkot. Ergo, I connect this memorial with the idea of the Holy One appearing visiably to His people--which connects with several threads of both rabbinic and New Testament thought on Yom Teruah's meaning.

Shalom.