The beginning of the Days of Awe
What Is Rosh Hashanah? Meaning, Shofar & Biblical Background
An easy guide to the Jewish New Year, Yom Teruah, the shofar, remembrance, repentance, and the questions raised in God, Forgive Me?
Rosh Hashanah · In plain language
More than a new calendar year.
In modern Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashanah begins the Days of Awe. The name means “head of the year,” but the book also directs readers to the biblical language of Yom Teruah—the day of sounding the horn.
Dr. Randy Weiss uses the holiday to ask a central question: how did the celebration develop from the biblical festival, and what does its call to repentance reveal about forgiveness and atonement?
A quick field guide
Carry these ideas with you.
Meaning
Rosh Hashanah means “head of the year.” The book also highlights Yom Teruah, the day of sounding.
Season
It opens the ten Days of Awe that lead to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Central symbol
The shofar calls the hearer to remember, examine the heart, repent, and return to God.
The story of the holiday
Move through the celebration like a guided journey.
Each stop gives the background first, then connects it to the questions raised in the book.
Start here
Why is it called the “head of the year”?
Rosh Hashanah is observed at the beginning of Tishri, the seventh month of the biblical religious calendar. The book explains that Jewish tradition recognizes several kinds of “new year,” each used for a different purpose.
This makes the holiday more than a simple Jewish version of January 1. It is a sacred beginning centered on memory, judgment, and the condition of the soul.
Biblical foundation
Yom Teruah: a memorial proclaimed with horns.
The book points to Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29, where the day is marked by rest, a holy gathering, offerings, and the blast of horns. It notes that the Bible does not develop the full later Rosh Hashanah liturgy.
That difference becomes one of the book’s teaching tools: readers are invited to compare the biblical festival with the rich traditions that developed after the Temple period.
The liturgy
Kingship, remembrance, and the shofar.
The book organizes the Rosh Hashanah service around three major movements: Malchiyot, God’s kingship; Zichronot, remembrance; and Shofarot, the sounding of the ram’s horn.
Together they create a simple spiritual path: recognize who God is, remember His covenant and judgment, and respond to the sound that calls the heart awake.
The sound
The shofar turns hearing into a decision.
The book describes the traditional blasts—tekiah, shevarim, teruah, and the extended tekiah gedolah. Randy Weiss connects them to repentance, the binding of Isaac, the ram provided in Isaac’s place, resurrection, and the hope of Messiah.
The shofar is not background music. It is an alarm: examine your life, turn back, and do not sleep through the condition of your soul.
The question
Can repentance, prayer, and charity settle the account?
Rosh Hashanah begins a season in which many Jewish worshippers seek forgiveness from one another and from God. The book respects the seriousness of that practice while asking whether those acts alone provide the atonement described in Scripture.
That unresolved question carries the reader forward into the Days of Awe and ultimately to Yom Kippur.
Questions about Rosh Hashanah
The essentials, answered clearly.
Open a question for a direct explanation based on the book’s presentation.
Buy the BookIt means “head of the year.” The book also emphasizes the biblical name Yom Teruah, the day of sounding the horn.
It calls people to remembrance, self-examination, repentance, and return. In the book it also connects to the ram provided in the story of Isaac and to hope for Messiah and resurrection.
No. It is observed in Tishri, the seventh month of the biblical religious calendar. Jewish tradition uses several “new years” for different purposes.
Rosh Hashanah opens the Days of Awe. Yom Kippur closes the ten-day season with fasting, prayer, confession, and the central question of atonement.
The complete study
Go deeper than a holiday summary.
Read Dr. Randy Weiss’s full case about the High Holy Days, sacrifice, the Temple, forgiveness, and atonement.