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Jon, as you have observed, the Bible is very brief about the "feast of trumpets", now called Rosh Hashanah. It is described in Lev 23:23-25 and Num 29:1-6. No explicit reason for observing the holiday or sounding the trumpets is stated in the Bible. It was not originally associated with the idea of a new year, that tradition arose much later, but it may not be that hard to figure out why Trumpets came to be thought of as a new year. In the original context, the Trumpets might be seen as setting the stage for the coming of the Day of Atonement, on the tenth day of the same month, and then the Feast of Tabernacles began on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (see context in Lev 23 and Num 29, and see also Lev 16 for the Day of Atonement). The Day of Antonement was the annual national cleansing from sin, so it seems natural enough to associate that idea of a new beginning in the seventh month with the idea of a new year. As you surmise, most of the traditions and practices associated with Rosh Hashanah originate long after the original (Biblical) institution of the holiday, and in fact are centered in Synagogue life rather than Tabernacle/Temple observance. Prayers and other rituals are substituted for the offering by fire (as in all Jewish holy days now). The sacrifices of the OT have generally been replaced among observant Jews by symbolic objects and prayers. That trend had already begun in the diaspora even before the second temple was destroyed, and became the prescribed practice of Rabbinic Judaism as it developed after the temple and Jerusalem had been destroyed and taken from the Jews. I'll offer some suggestions about the possible symbolism of the three feasts in the seventh month later.
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