Rosh Hashanah: The Bible’s second new year and a different kind of beginning

The Bible speaks of two beginnings of the year: in Nisan the sacred calendar begins, while in Tishri the civil and Jubilee years start. The Tishri new year is not merely a rabbinic tradition – it is rooted in the Bible itself, which commands that the fiftieth year, the year of liberty, must be proclaimed then. The prophet Ezekiel received his final vision “at the beginning of the year” (in Hebrew, Rosh Hashanah), and in the same season Jesus read from Isaiah in the synagogue: “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Nisan and Tishri – two beginnings of the year

Scripture presents two points of reference for the year. One is the first of Nisan, marking Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and the beginning of the festival cycle (Exodus 12:2). The other is the month of Tishri, which governs agricultural cycles, sabbatical years, and the Jubilee.

The Tishri beginning of the year has biblical grounding: the Torah commands that the Jubilee year must be consecrated on the Day of Atonement, the tenth of the seventh month (Leviticus 25:9–10).

Ezekiel dates his final vision with these words:

“In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month…” (Ezekiel 40:1).

In Hebrew the phrase is בְּרֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה – literally “at the head of the year.” While not yet a holiday name, the text shows that Ezekiel’s vision took place at the Tishri turning point, on the Day of Atonement. This is another indication that the Tishri new year rests on biblical foundations.

Rosh HaShanah - The Feast of Trumpets

The Torah establishes the first day of the month Tishri as a unique memorial day:

“In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. For you it is a day of blowing the trumpets” (Numbers 29:1).

“In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation” (Leviticus 23:24).

But what trumpet blast were the Israelites to remember as they wandered in the wilderness? The moment when God Himself descended on Mount Sinai:

“And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud… Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire.” (Exodus 19:18)

The memorial of trumpet blasts points back to that awesome encounter when the Lord came down to the Earth to enter covenant with His people.

The beginning of the Year of the Lord’s Favor

In Jewish tradition the Nitzavim Torah portion is always read on the last Sabbath before Rosh Hashanah. The prophetic portion attached to it comes from Isaiah 61.

For centuries this chapter has been read on the Sabbath leading directly into the first day of Tishri - Rosh HaShanah. This explains why, in the synagogue of Nazareth, Jesus was given precisely this scroll to read:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor… to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

(Luke 4:18–19, citing Isaiah 61)

This was not a random reading but a programmatic act: at the threshold of the biblical new year, Jesus proclaimed the true year of release, the beginning of God’s redemptive favor.

The new beginning of the year in Tishri is not only a matter of calculation but of encounter: at Sinai the Lord descended in fire, and in Nazareth the Messiah proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favor. In these days, as Israel groans under division within and threats without, the call to covenant and redemption resounds more urgently than ever. May this year be a true Jubilee – a holy season of release and forgiveness, freedom for the captives, deliverance for those enslaved by sin, and the dawning light of the Messianic age. May this indeed be the Lord’s acceptable year – the year of redemption, of mercy, and of new beginnings.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He has anointed Me

To preach the gospel to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

(Luke 4:18–19)