Yamim noraim or Yomim Noraim is a Hebrew phrase that translates to days (yomim or yamim) of awe (noraim). The days of awe(s) is a ten-day period ranging from first to tenth of the seventh month, with the first and last days inclusive. Though not explicitly commanded in the scriptures that designates the first and tenth days of the seventh month as set-apart-days, the whole period calls for such a spirit as captured in their meaning.

This period begins with the first day of the seventh month known as Yom Teruah (day of trumpet). Now Adonai gives directions for Yom Teruah that call for an intense, practical self-search. The introspection is so much individualized that by the time the day is over, the person is left in awe at how much set-apart Adonai is, and how low he or she has spiraled into vanity. This self-realization is what triggers the person to stand in awe before Adonai: it kindles a holy fire in an individual and a determination of reclaiming and maintaining the lost fullness of glorious life.

So how does Adonai ignite this fire in us on Yom Teruah?

I will start by explaining how Yom Teruah is significant to an individual then try to launch the yamim noraim period that continues for the ten days that follow.

Yom Teruah is the day commonly known as the day of blowing trumpets. We are instructed to observe it in numbers 29:1 as follows, "...And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you."

I humbly request you to observe a very interesting addition made in numbers 29:1 to the observance of the day. The word is taasu that loosely translates to make, to act, to cause an effective change to something, to adapt.

In Leviticus 23:24, the same day is revealed as zikron teruah; literally translated as memorial/remembrance to blast. If we consult the pictogram that Mosheh originally used to write the verse, the first letter taw in the word t'ruah would reveal as a sealing/affirmation that we make to a given ruah/blast. Without even delving further, we would learn that Yom Teruah is a memorial/remembrance to a certain sealing that was once made to a certain shout/blast.

But how do we make the affirmation? Numbers 29:1 says it is by posing a rhetorical question to ourselves. Why do I say so and which is the question?

Hereafter I will endeavour to answer this question by comparing numbers 29:1 and Leviticus 23:24 then proceed to expound the same.

When the two verses instructing on the set-apart-day are compared, a notable difference emerges as follows: Leviticus 23:24 writes zikron teruah (memorial/remembrance to seal the blasting) while numbers 29:1 writes Yom taasu teruah which literally translates to day to-do or work out the sealing to the blasting. The hebrew word taasu added in numbers 29:1, therefore, reveals that we are to work something already worked in us.

Several questions arise so far:

What has been worked in us?

Who worked it in us?

When was it worked in us?

Can we fail to work it out?

How do we best work it out?

In Genesis 2:7 it is written as follows, "...And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." I find it interesting that the word used as a form is actually supporting the popular claim that Adam was designed as a shofar or ram's horn or goat's horn basically referred to as a trumpet. But how? It is revealed right from the beginning that Adonai, when creating Adam input life from himself into Adam. Of importance is to note the vivid mental picture we are given in this verse. Adonai, without a medium in between, connects himself with Adam, and gives Adam His very life. Now, what does the picture bring out? It's through the mouth that we speak dabar/word. Why did Adonai input his word inside Adam? So that Adam, through his mouth may speak, or pass on the word given to him: and only him does know it; it's a secret between the two. It was the most intimate instance between Elohim and man. And sure enough, when he became alive, Adam blasted the word Adonai had input: Adonai is king forever!

The desired result was perfect. The shofar (Adam) was working fine: Breath through the nostrils and the shofar blasts the input word from within himself through the mouth, amplifying it for all the world to hear the glory of the Mighty King. This word of Adonai working in us so that we work out what is worked in is captured in Isaiah 60:21, "...Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified."

Now, Adonai, who is full of loving-kindness always supplies the Spirit to blow into us, so that we, the shofrot/trumpets, may blast out his glory. He always works in us his glory and we were designed to blast or amplify what is worked in. Philippians 2:12,13 explains it as follows, "...Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." And we are exhorted that we never take this loving-kindness for granted for Adonai is always breathing into us, expecting us to blast out what has been input. 11 Corinthians 6:1 explains as follows, "..We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain."

It is therefore notable that Adonai desires to always breathe into us, his shofrot/trumpets, and we were designed to amplify that intimate word so that the whole creation may know Adonai is king forever. Joel 2:28,29 "..And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit." From Joel, we learn that Adonai is always ready to breathe or blow his wind/spirit into us his shofrot so that we blast out his glory. When the Talmidim (taught ones or disciples) of Yahshua accepted the responsibility, Adonai blasted through them as a mighty wind and they glorified his marvelous works as Acts 2:1-11 explains "...And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak....the wonderful works of God."

From this scenario on shavuot/'pentecost', that is a flashback to Mt Sinai phenomenon in Exodus 19, we note a very non-coincidental entity accompanying the day when there was a shofar blast from the holy mountain: fire. What for?

Just as a shofar is passive and only blasts out input, so was Adam designed. The enemy knows this very well. So the enemy tries to stop the blast from coming out. How?

A typical shofar has a narrow opening through which you blow, then it widens on the other end so as to amplify the blast as much as possible. Now, what would happen if you stashed some trash in the middle of the shofar? With such a shofar, trash may actually flow out of the end!

That is what the enemy cunningly works on; he tries to ingrow trash within the shofar as much as possible so as to block the input word of Adonai. In this allegory, trash is sin or opposition to the divine will. Note that shofar is still there, the blower, Adonai, has not stopped blowing, only that the shofar is stopped in the middle. If you blew such a stopped shofar, no glory will come out. Actually, at most only trash will come out. And that's what the enemy does with the shofar of Adonai. He places trash in our hearts and when Adonai blows into us, the blown-in word finds a heart full of trash. The input word is stopped and never finds a place for the trash fills the heart; no glorious blast comes out of our being, only trash. Yahshua in Mathew 12:35 explains it as follows, "....good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things."

It is this trash that the fire is needed to burn. On Mt Sinai, Adonai revealed his fire, then blasted his shofar to tell Israel that if they needed him to work through them, they have to accept him to consume the trash stashed in their hearts by the enemy. Deuteronomy 4:24 speaks volumes as follows, "...For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God." Some trash is so ingrown into the tissue of the shofar that the opening of the shofar needs to be curved out or circumcised. The shofar does not hear when the word is spoken for the ear is stopped; the shofar is as dead as one without an opening. The enemy has also cunningly ingrown trash into the heart that the heart of the shofar has to be circumcised so as to make room for the blown-in word besides an opening to blow in. Jeremiah 6:10 raises the concern of curving out an opening to blow in as follows, "...To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised." And of the heart, Deuteronomy 10:16 explains as follows, "...Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked."

To teach us all this, Adonai gives us the day of working out the blast, or the day of blowing the trumpet,Yom Teruah, on the first day of the seventh month. As I said earlier, he teaches us by putting us in a position that will evoke a rhetorical question to ourselves as we handle the shofar. All the observations made above are intended to run through my mind as I work the shofar. Now since the command is that you must work the blast, you cannot then stop at a non-responding shofar. If it is stopped in the middle, you must remove the stoppage no matter the 'pain the shofar may feel or no matter the discomfort it may feel'. As you prepare your shofar your thoughts will be provoked that you too need to work at yourself. It will be clear to you that all trash stashed in your heart by the enemy need to be incinerated by the consuming fire. You will need to do something for the ultimate question posed whenever we hold Yom Teruah is: if a lifeless shofar responded to my blowing with a beautiful blast, why not me, the living shofar?

It is this irony of a non-living shofar outdoing a living shofar that jolts the observer of Yom Teruah into a ten-day period of actualizing Psalms 4:4 as follows, "...Stand in awe, and sin not..." The ten-day period is sufficient for a sinner to do a thorough soul search on whether one is ready to live with a Dangerously Holy Elohim. It is the appreciation of how much high in the heavens Adonai is set-apart that will fuel us through the days of awe and beyond for as Mosheh rightly observes in Deuteronomy 10:17, our Adonai is "...Elohim of mighty ones and Master of masters, the great Ěl, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe."

By Bro, Bonface Muthii.