(1) In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations. You shall observe it as a day of teruah.
(24) Speak to the Israelite people thus: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with teruah. (25) You shall not work at your occupations; and you shall bring an offering by fire to יהוה.
(3) Take up the song, sound the timbrel, the melodious lyre and harp. (4) Blow the horn (tekiah) on the new moon, on the full moon for our feast day.
(6) God ascends midst Teruah; the Eternal, to the blasts of the horn. (7) Sing, O sing to God; sing, O sing to our Sovereign;
(5) Sing praise to the Eternal with the lyre, with the lyre and melodious song. (6) With trumpets and the blast of the horn raise a shout before the Eternal, the Sovereign.
(21) No harm is in sight for Jacob, No woe in view for Israel. Their God the Eternal is with them, And their King’s acclaim (teruah) in their midst. (22) God who freed them from Egypt Is for them like the horns of the wild ox.
2] The Eternal said to Joshua, “See, I will deliver Jericho and her king [and her] warriors into your hands. 3] Let all your troops march around the city and complete one circuit of the city. Do this six days, 4] with seven priests carrying seven ram’s horns (shofar yovel) preceding the Ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing (tekiah) the horns. 5] And when a long blast is sounded on the horn—as soon as you hear that sound of the horn (shofar)—all the people shall give a mighty shout (teruah). Thereupon the city wall will collapse, and the people shall advance, every man straight ahead.”
(1) The Eternal spoke to Moses, saying: (2) Have two silver trumpets made; make them of hammered work. They shall serve you to summon the community and to set the divisions in motion. (3) When they are blown (tekiah), the whole community shall assemble before you at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting; (4) and if only one is blown (tekiah), the chieftains, heads of Israel’s contingents, shall assemble before you. (5) But when you sound (tekiah) short blasts (teruah), the divisions encamped on the east shall move forward; (6) and when you sound (tekiah) short blasts (teruah) a second time, those encamped on the south shall move forward. Thus short blasts shall be blown for setting them in motion, (7) while to convoke the congregation you shall blow long blasts (tekiah), not short ones (teruah). (8) The trumpets shall be blown by Aaron’s sons, the priests; they shall be for you an institution for all time throughout the ages. (9) When you are at war in your land against an aggressor who attacks you, you shall sound short blasts (teruah) on the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the Eternal your God and be delivered from your enemies. (10) And on your joyous occasions—your fixed festivals and new moon days—you shall sound (tekiah) the trumpets over your burnt offerings and your sacrifices of well-being. They shall be a reminder of you before your God: I, the Eternal, am your God.
A Shofar-less Rosh Hashanah: A Karaite’s Experience of Yom Teru’ah by Shawn Joe Lichaa
For most Jews, Rosh Hashanah is synonymous with the blowing of the shofar. But I have never actually heard the shofar blown at my Karaite Jewish synagogue. By way of background, my family comes from the historical Karaite Jewish community in Egypt, and I attend Congregation B’nai Israel, the only free-standing Karaite Jewish synagogue in the Western Hemisphere, located just south of San Francisco in Daly City, California.
Among the historical divides between Karaites and Rabbanites concerns whether we are commanded to blow the shofar on Yom Teru’ah, the day most Jews refer to as Rosh Hashanah. Quite simply, the Karaite view is that no such commandment exists.
The phrase “Yom Teru’ah” is generally interpreted by Karaites as “Day of Shouting,” as in “shouting in prayer.” This understanding is consistent with the usage of the word teru’ah in Joshua 6:5 in which the people are told to “shout a great shout.”...
Another important reason that Karaites have historically not blown the shofar on Yom Teru’ah is that traditional Karaite halacha deems playing instruments – including blowing the shofar – to be an act of melachah—forbidden labor of the sort prohibited on Shabbat and Yom Tov. Yom Teru’ah is a day on which the Torah says that melechet avodah is forbidden (see Leviticus 23:23-25), and the majority of Karaites deem that prohibition to encompass blowing of the shofar. For example, the 11th century Karaite scholar, Jacob Ben Reuben, wrote in his Sefer ha-Osher that one reason the majority of Karaites do not blow the shofar is “so that they will not profane the holiday.”
Rosh Hashanah with the Early Israelites by Prof. Karel van der Toorn
The New Year festival, especially in the monarchic period, contained rituals and liturgy emphasizing YHWH’s kingship over Israel, which fits with the theme of the new year festival as celebrated among the nations surrounding Israel. In the Babylonian Akitu festival, the population chanted to Marduk as the god made his way to the temple to be seated on his royal throne. At Ugarit, the celebration focused on the storm-god Baal. Having defeated his mythical enemies Yammu and Mot, Baal was hailed once again as king.
Whether or not Israel had a clear parallel to the mythological aspect of the chief god defeating his enemies is uncertain, though it does have:
The ritual of blowing the shofar “ram’s horn” on this festival (Lev 23:24, Num 29:1), which is connected to coronation rituals.
Psalms alluding to the existence of such stories (Ps 74:12–17 and Hab 3).
Psalms discussing the coronation of YHWH and likely connected with the New Year festival (Pss 47 and 93).
In addition, the theme of YHWH’s coronation is especially prominent in three Israelite psalms preserved in a mid-fourth century B.C.E. Egyptian papyrus, which give a glimpse into the New Year festival as it was celebrated in Israel before the fall of Samaria (722 B.C.E.).