With the first day of the seventh month fast approaching, which will introduce the beginning of our next set of commanded feasts, of which Yom Teruah is the first of three, I have some reason for grave concern. Now you may ask what that concern would be, and bravely inquire as to why this concern is as a stone on my heart? The reason is to be found in the words of Yehovah where we were warned, “All the things I command you, be careful to do it. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it” (see Dt 12:32; also witnessed to in Dt 4:2). Now this is a serious charge; one that is well worth our while, and our time and effort, to obey the voice of God!! Now see, here is the thing that concerns me; WHERE in the Tanakh (...Old Testament) does it say that Yom Teruah is a New Years celebration, known as Rosh Hashanah (New Years)? While the Torah does not explicitly tell us the purpose of Yom Teruah its name may indicate that it is intended as a day of public prayer. The verb form of Teruah often refers to the noise made by a gathering of the faithful calling out to the Almighty in unison. For example: “Clap hands, all nations, shout to God, with a singing voice!” (Ps 47:2); “Shout to God, all the earth!” (Ps 66:1); “Sing to God, our strength, shout to the God of Jacob!” (Ps 81:2); “Shout to Yehovah, all the earth!” (Ps 100:1). In Lev 23:24, Yom Teruah is also referred to as Zichron Teruah. The word Zichron is sometimes translated as “memorial” but this Hebrew word also has the meaning of “mentioning” often in reference to speaking the name of Yehovah (e.g. Ex 3:15; Isa 12:4; 26:13; Ps 45:18). The day of Zichron Teruah, the “Mentioning Shout,” may refer to a day of gathering in public prayer in which the crowd of the faithful shouts the name of Yehovah in unison. Today few people remember the biblical name of Yom Teruah and instead it is widely known as Rosh Hashanah which literally means “head of the year” and hence also “New Years.” The transformation of Yom Teruah (Day of Shouting) into Rosh Hashanah (New Years) is the result of pagan Babylonian influence upon the Jewish nation. The first stage in the transformation was the adoption of the Babylonian month names. In the Torah the months are numbered as First Month, Second Month, Third Month, etc. (Lev 23; Nu 28). During their sojourn in Babylonia the Israelites began using the pagan Babylonian month names, a fact readily admitted in the Talmud: “The names of the months came up with them from Babylonia.” (Jerusalem Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 1:2 56d) The pagan nature of the Babylonian month names is epitomized by the fourth month known as Tammuz. In the Babylonian religion Tammuz was the god of grain whose annual death and resurrection brought fertility to the world. In the book of Ezekiel, the prophet described a journey to Jerusalem in which he saw the Jewish women sitting in the Temple “weeping over Tammuz” (Eze 8:14). The reason they were weeping over Tammuz is that according to Babylonian mythology Tammuz had been slain but had not yet been resurrected. In ancient Babylonia the time for weeping over Tammuz was the early summer, when the rains cease throughout the Middle East and green vegetation is burnt by the unrelenting sun. To this day the Fourth Month in the rabbinical calendar is known as the month of Tammuz and it is still a time for weeping and mourning. Some of the Babylonian month names found their way into the later books of the Tanakh, but they always appear alongside the Torah month names. For example, Esther 3:7 says: “In the First Month, which is the month of Nissan, in the twelfth year of King Achashverosh.” This verse starts off by giving the Torah name for the month (“First Month”) and then translates this month into its pagan equivalent (“which is the month of Nissan”). By the time of Esther all the Jews lived within the boundaries of the Persian Empire and the Persians had adopted the Babylonian calendar for the civil administration of their Empire. At first the Jews used these Babylonian month names alongside the Torah month names but over time the Torah month names fell into disuse. As the Jewish People became more comfortable with the Babylonian month names they became more susceptible to other Babylonian influences. This is similar to the way the American Jewish observance of Channukah has been influenced by Christmas. This influence began with the seemingly harmless custom of giving gifts on Channukah. Until the Jews arrived in America this custom was unknown and it is still a rarity in Israel where Channukah does not need to compete with Christmas for the hearts and minds of the Jewish youth. Once Channukah took on this relatively trivial aspect of Christmas it became ripe for more significant influences. Today many Jews have established the custom of setting up a “Channukah bush” as a Jewish alternative to the Christmas tree. These Jews did not want to adopt Christmas outright so they “Judaized” the Christmas tree and incorporated it into Channukah. This example shows how easy it is to be influenced by the practices of a foreign religion, especially when there is some similarity to begin with. The fact that Channukah often falls out around the same time as Christmas facilitated the American Jews in incorporating elements of Christmas into their observance of Channukah. Just as the Jews of America have been influenced by Christmas the ancient Rabbis were influenced by the pagan Babylonian religion. Although many Jews returned to Judea when the Exile officially ended in 516 BCE, the forebears of the Rabbis remained behind in Babylonia where rabbinical Judaism gradually took shape. Many of the earliest known Rabbis such as Hillel I were born and educated in Babylonia. Indeed Babylonia remained the heartland of Rabbinical Judaism until the fall of the Gaonate in the 11th Century CE. The Babylonian Talmud abounds with the influences of Babylonian paganism. Indeed, pagan deities even appear in the Talmud recycled as genuine angels and demons. One field of Babylonian religious influence was in the observance of Yom Teruah as a New Years celebration. From very early times the Babylonians had a lunar-solar calendar very similar to the biblical calendar. The result was that Yom Teruah often fell out on the same day as the Babylonian New Years festival known as “Akitu.” Akitu fell out on the 1st day of Tishrei which coincided with Yom Teruah on the 1st day of the Seventh Month. The fact that the Jews had started calling the Seventh Month by the Babylonian name Tishrei paved the way for turning Yom Teruah into a Jewish Akitu. At the same time the Rabbis did not want to adopt Akitu outright so they Judaized it by changing the name of Yom Teruah (Day of Shouting) to Rosh Hashanah (New Years). The fact that the Torah did not give a reason for Yom Teruah no doubt made it easier for the Rabbis to proclaim it the Jewish New Years. It may seem bizarre to celebrate Yom Teruah as New Years considering that it falls out on the first day of the Seventh Month, but in the context of the Babylonian culture this was perfectly natural. The Babylonians actually celebrated Akitu, New Years, twice every year, once on the first of Tishrei and again six months later on the first of Nissan. The first Babylonian Akitu celebration coincided with Yom Teruah and the second Akitu coincided with the actual New Years in the Torah on the first day of the First Month. While the Rabbis proclaimed Yom Teruah to be New Years they readily admitted that the 1st day of the “First Month” in the Torah was, as its name implied, also a New Years. They could hardly deny this based on Exodus 12:2 which says: “This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it is first of the months of the year.” The context of this verse speaks about the celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread which falls out in the First Month. In light of this verse the Rabbis could not deny that the first day of the First Month was a biblical New Years. But in the cultural context of Babylonia where Akitu was celebrated as New Years twice a year, it made perfect sense that Yom Teruah could be a second New Years even though it was in the Seventh Month.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 11:50:46 +0000
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