August 13, 2007

  • Notes about the Shofar Part I

    08/12/2007 in Intro to Jewish Roots class this was the topic

    Leviticus 23:24 - Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.

    the guy talking this day blew an actual Shofar for us...if you have heard the intro on graftedin.com Shabbat messages then you know the sound I am refering to.

    The Shofar is not a musical instrument and it is not the same as a trumpet.  He told us there is no such thing as a Feasts of Trumpets and he said he got that info from a book called Horeb - and that it is not written by a Messianic believer so if you decide to read it then you need to do so with a Messianic filter.

    He said that from the time he was 5 years old and up after reading the word trumpet in the Bible he thought it was an important instrument so he learned to play.

    As he got older he wondered why it uses the word trumpet....that it's not necessarily wrong..but what does it really mean.

    Like keep the Sabbath and remember the Sabbath are both used...do they mean the same....etc.

    I. There is a difference between the shofar and the chatzotzarot (silver trumpets)

    A. The shofar:

    #1- it must be from the horn of a kosher animal; but it cannot be the horn of a bull because of the sad incident involving the golden calf

    #2- the first usage of the term shofar is in

    Exodus 19:16 & 19 - 16And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.  19And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.

    In response to the "voice of the shofar" the people shuddered {I have no idea which translation he reads from that says shofar in these verses...I searched at biblegateway and couldn't find one online that uses shofar not trumpet...hrmmm}

    this term is used again  in the context of the shofar in I Kings 1:32-53 and will show up later in the outline - {for those of you reading, maybe we'll get to that in next week's class}

    #3-Shofar has a relationship with the word Shafat and that is the word for "to judge"

    #4- Shofar is often mistranslated as trumpet, which in our mind has a different connotation and look. Our concept of trumpet is closer to the term chotzotzarot. {yeah I don't know if he misspelled here I am just typing it as I see it in the handout}

    B. The chatzotzarot (the -ot ending lets us know that this is plural because they were blown as a pair):

    #1- Read Numbers 10:1-10.  the chatzotzarot are made of hammered silver.

    #2- the tekiah (longs blasts) and teruah (short blasts) are listed in the Horeb book pages 136-137  {I wanted to point out that he asked who has a KJV in the room and I was the only one...he asked if those 10 verses mentioned the words long or short...I said no, then he asked for all the other translations in the room and only one, which I didn't catch the name of, had the word short in it.  So he basically said KJV was bogus for not being Hebraic enough, that it was englishized and so have all the other translations been since...uh yeah does anyone have any rebuttal for that?  oh and even the Sterns didn't use short or long in this passage}

    #3- They are used in war, 10:9 teruah is used

    #4- they are used at the festivals, at Rosh Chodeshim (new moons), over elevation offerings, and festival peace offerings {he pointed out that on our calendar we note a new moon as no moonlight but it really should be that first sliver of light...that there were guys who hung out just waiting to signal that they've seen the new moon so a new month begins....so if it was cloudy, they wouldn't see it....and the first of a month is a break for women...their men wait on them that day...so yeah ladies!}

    #5- note: read Horeb pag 140 and the note on page 232

    He said the word Iyyer means to count and that month usually falls in our month of may and at that time we are counting the Omer

    He also pointed out that the first pair of silver trumpets were destroyed but the ones made after should still be around somewhere they were not suppose to leave the temple {but with all the raids they probably were} and according to tradition these chatzotzarot will be sounded when Yeshua returns.... {so RH anyone!!!}

     

    and that's as far as he got on his handout of three roman numerals.  So stay tuned