Yom Teruah

Yom Teruah, which means "Day of Shouting", and is also called the "Feast of Trumpets", occurs every year on the first day of the seventh month (Tishrei), which by observation, fell on 21 September this year. In Hebrew the word month means "new moon" or it is sometimes referred to by the word for moon. Each month starts with the sighting of the new moon. Yom Teruah is special because it is the only "appointed time"(The Hebrew word translated feast is "moed", and literally, according to Strong's concordance, means 'an appointment, that is, a fixed time or season'; thus "appointed time") listed in Leviticus 23 that begins on the first day of a new month. We can predict when the new moon will be sighted, but according to Hebrew tradition, the new month does not start until the moon is sighted by two witnesses (YHVH controls the clouds). Therefore, no one knows the day or the hour that the moon will be sighted and thus begin Yom Teruah. It sounds a lot like Matt. 24:36... and it would also fit nicely with the sounding of the trumpet and shout at the Messiah's return.(1 Cor 15:52 and 1 Thes 4:16)

As a family, we have started observings God's "appointed times". I don't know why we as Children of God ever stopped, but it is clear that we will be celebrating at least some of them, if not all of them, in the Messianic Kingdom to come (Eze 46:1-6,11 and Zec 14:16-19) so we might as well start now. I don't think that God ever intended us to stop celebrating His "appointed times." By observing them we are reminded of what He has done in the past and what He will do in the future.

Paul loves to study the Bible and he is a great teacher. I love being his sounding board and I have learned so much as he has been studying. As Yom Teruah drew close, I started thinking about the practical side of things you don't think about until you actually celebrate something. A new moon is difficult to see in the best of circumstances, but I didn't even know which way to look! Through my googling, I discovered the moonrise and moonset times for our area and the declination. I also discovered that you look for the new moon where the sun was about two hours before the time you are looking. The new moon had been sighted in Jerusalem before it was even possible for us to see it in Alaska, so Yom Teruah had started, but we wanted to go through the motions of looking, blowing the shofar and shouting when we saw it too. These times have been great opportunities to teach the kids. We built a fire on the beach and made a celebration of it while we watched and waited. Unfortunately it was a very cloudy day and we discovered that a mountain was situated right were my calculations said we were supposed to look for the new moon. Oh well, maybe next year we'll climb the mountain so we can see better and when Yeshua returns, seeing Him will not be a problem.

We all took turns blowing the shofar anyway.

David and Quentin harmonizing.

Abigail and Sarah.

Caleb had fun tending the fire.

Regina came and brought Nakita.

The Martin's joined us.

Lavonne and Josh.

The phone guy still hasn't showed up to fix the cut line. I'm still enjoying the peace and quiet, but 17 homes, Tribal and the school are without a phone and I think most everyone else is ready for them to be fixed.