More about high holidays

Doubling Holidays: Are Two Heads Better than One?

If you compare a modern-day Jewish calendar with passages in the Torah that refer to the holidays (such as Leviticus 23), you will find a notable discrepancy. Many holidays that the Bible seems to say last for one day are observed for two days on the Jewish calendar. Learn why this practice exists and if it is truly biblical.

Medicine for the Soul: Repentance, Prayer and Righteousness

A man goes to the doctor to get some test results. As he sits in the doctors office he sees that there are three folders on the doctor’s desk. One is labeled Good News. Another is labeled Bad News. And yet another is labeled Bad News and Good News.

Is Rosh Hashanah the New Year?

The Torah commands that we observe a certain holiday on the first day of the seventh month. Scripturally, it is given two similar names: yom teru'ah (Day of Blasting/Shouting) in Numbers 29:1 and zichron teru'ah (Remembrance of Blasting/Shouting) in Leviticus 23:24. Jewish tradition refers to this day as Rosh HaShanah, which means "Beginning (lit., 'head') of the Year." But how can the beginning of the year occur in the seventh month? Didn't God command that the new year is to begin in the springtime?