The Importance of Repentance at the Individual Level and Also Concerning the Ten Lost Tribes.
The New Year in the Hebrew Calendar is a time for repentance and renewal. It gives us a new lease on life, a chance to do better. This is described in Scripture.
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First posted in September 2012, slightly edited in September 2014.
This week on sundown Wednesday 24th September begins the Hebrew New Year of 5775. It continues through Thursday and Friday. This is the Feast of Rosh Hashanah i.e., the Hebrew New Year.
It is followed by the Sabbath.
The time in Israel is about 8 hours ahead of US Eastern Time.
We all should repent, all the time. Some times are easier and more propitious than others. This is one of them. In this period we will be given a new chance to start anew.
This is good for each and every one of us and also for the peoples of Israel and Judah.
Each and every one of us is more important than we may realize. We can all make a change. God watches over us and wants our betterment and the better good of us and for us.
The God of Israel is our God.
In this period try not to argue with members of your family or with others, at least not overduly.
This may not be easy but it can usually be done.
Just as you (like everyone else) have probably thought or said things you would prefer the Almighty ignore so too do the same for what others may have said about or to you.
cf. Ecclesiastes 7:
20 For there is not a just man on earth who does good
And does not sin.
21 Also do not take to heart everything people say,
Lest you hear your servant cursing you.
22 For many times, also, your own heart has known
That even you have cursed others.
See BAM to Psalms 94.
Brit-Am/Hebrew Nations receives some criticism for saying the Ten Tribes are mainly among Western Peoples.
Surprisingly enough it turns out that from a certain aspect Brit-Am/Hebrew Nations is the main one saying this.
The criticism does not necessarily come from Jews but also from non-Jews.
They say:
How can Brit-Am/Hebrew Nations assert these people to be the Ten Tribes when they do not try to Keep the Law and their basic beliefs are different? Not only that but some of the people Brit-Am/Hebrew Nations identifies as Israelites are anti-Jewish. What is more, they themselves often do not want to listen to any such notions as to being descended from Hebrews!
We reply what we reply: Basically our beliefs are based on the Bible in the light of Rabbinical Commentary and as confirmed with evidence from secular sources. We stick by this. It is correct.
Between ourselves and those non-Jews who agree with us but hold to different religious beliefs we have reached a de facto understanding.
We will get on with spreading knowledge concerning descendants of the Ten Tribes and leave other matters to the Messianic Era.
Fair enough.
Nevertheless we feel that more support for Brit-Am/Hebrew Nations should be forthcoming from those who realize the truth of our teachings concerning the Ten Tribes.
This is an age of specialization. In the past one had learned people who could be jacks-of-all-trades. Nowadays we prefer specialists. And we pay for them.
And when we need them we do not care what they may lack in other fields.
Brit-Am/Hebrew Nations should be considered the specialists concerning the Ten Tribes and this is what is needed in our time.
Remember,
A few days from today it will be Rosh Hashanna or the Jewish New Year, 5775.
Rosha HaShannan lasts for 2 days. It begins on sundown (or just before sundown) on Wednesday evening 24 September, 2014.
It lasts until just after sunset on September 26, 2014, and is followed immediately by the seventh day of the week which is the Sabbath.
Rosh HaShanah continues for two days in part due to problems with setting the Calendar in ancient times.
This was the practice when the exact date could not be known in advance and is mentioned in the Bible concerning the beginning of the month which was also, in a minor way, considered a Holy Day (see 1-Samuel 20:27 "the second day of the month").
In Ancient Israel every male had to go up to Jerusalem three times a year. Keeping the Feast Days was publicly enforced. Not keeping them entailed a severe penalty. There must have been only one calendar. The Sages had authority to decide when the Feast Days would take place. They were given this authority by the Bible. Due to persecution by the Romans they were unable to continue setting the Calendar ad hoc separately every year as they had previously done. They therefore used their authority to set the Calendar for all time, or at least until the Messianic Era.
The Calendar is actually very precise.
http://www.science.co.il/Hebrew-Calendar.asp
# According to the Talmud, one complete cycle of the moon around the earth takes 29.53059 days (MasechetRosh Hashana). This value is very close to the average value measured by NASA: 29.530588.##
The difference between NASA and the Hebrew Calendar is only 00.000001!
Maybe NASA is wrong?
The Almighty predicted that the Jews would fast on certain days according to HIS calendar (Zechariah 8:19)!!
[The Calendar was to be determined according to the authority HE gave the Sages! Deuteronomy ch.17].
If you are not Jewish we do not expect you to physically observe the holiness of these days though you may have to do in the future.
For the present it may be enough that you internalize the spiritual message that these days represent, and that you repent. We also hope we merit to repent for what we should repent about.
It is not always easy.
If we make a beginning God will help us.
Malachi 3:7
"Return to Me, and I will return to you," Says the Lord of hosts.
i.e. Make a beginning and God will help you keep going.
Malachi in continuation speaks of the importance of tithes and offerings. This too, is a function of Repentance.
Rosh HaShannah begins on the first day of the month of Tishrei. This is actually the first day of the seventh month since the first month in Nissan, the month they went out of Egypt.
We therefore have two separate days both of which are considered a New Years Day only each one marks a different beginning.
One day is the official day on which the counting of months begins i.e. the first of Nissan in the Spring (Aviv).
The other day (in the seventh month) is a day of assembly, of blowing the shofar, and of remembrance.
This is Rosh HaShana or the New Year Day for the purpose of judgment.
Leviticus 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 [Hebrew: Shabaton-Zicaron] of blowing of trumpets [Hebrew: Truah i.e. shofar blowing], a holy convocation. 25 You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.
Concerning the Land of Israel we are told that it is,
Deuteronomy 11:
12 a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.
We thus have a beginning of the year and an end of the year.
This is connected with the overseeing of the Land by the Almighty. By implication this involves the whole of creation except that the Land of Israel, as if to say, is to receive special attention.
This day (Rosh HaShana) is set aside as the new year for calculating calendar years and Sabbatical (Shemita) and Jubilee (Yovel) years. This coming new year, 5775, is a Sabbatical Year (Shmittah). On many farms in Israel there will be no work. Many of the Orthodox will not eat any of the Produce of the Land of Israel for that year. Some will do so, for reasons of their own. the issue is compolicated. We shall see how matters eventuate.
... Even though the Israelites were delivered from Egypt in the month of Nisan at the time of Passover which is about seven months later, on Rosh HaShanah their actual physical servitude in Egypt itself came to an end. In principle, we can make a new beginning any moment we decide to do so but some seasons are more propitious than others. This is another chance we all have now to start over again. Let us do our best. Let us pray to the Almighty to enable us to do our best and better ourselves for our own sake and for the sake of all they who are in contact with us and whom we have some influence over.
Rosh HaShanah occurs ten days before Yom Kippur. Together, Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur are known as the Yamim Nora'im, which means the Days of Awe in Hebrew. In English they are often referred to as the High Holy Days. After that comes the Feast of Tabernacles, i.e. Succot.
Rosha HaShana is important not only due to its own innate importance but also since it leads up to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) ten days later.
During the Hebrew Feast Day of Rosh HaShana (New Year's Day)...the shofar is sounded a hundred times.
At the end of the upcoming holy day of Yom Kippur the shofar will also be sounded.
This is the month of Tishrei on the Hebrew calendar and according to one tradition during this month the Ten Tribes will return.
[Isaiah 27:13] So it shall be in that day:
The great trumpet [Hebrew: Shofar] will be blown;
They will come, who are about to perish [Hebrew: "Ovdim" also translatable as "they who were being lost"] in the land of Assyria,
And they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt,
And shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.
[Isaiah 58:1] 'Cry aloud, spare not;
Lift up your voice like a trumpet [Hebrew: Shofar],;
Tell My people their transgression,
And the house of Jacob their sins.
This is directed both to Israel and Judah.
See:
Different Tasks.
Each Tribe has its own peculiar mission to fulfill.
Source:
Slightly Modified Extracts from:
Brit-Am and Rosh HaShana (Every Year).
See Also:
Rosh HaShanah and the Bible
Make an Offering to Brit-Am.