Olivier Melnick Are Rosh Hashanah and the Rapture Connected?

Are Rosh Hashanah and the Rapture connected? In this teaching, Olivier Melnick explores the prophetic links between Rosh Hashanah (Yom Teruah/Feast of Trumpets) and the biblical Rapture, and how the fall feasts outline God’s end-times timeline.

What you’ll learn:

• How Rosh Hashanah’s trumpet imagery relates to 1 Thessalonians 4 & 1 Corinthians 15

• Where Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble” fit prophetically

• How Sukkot (Tabernacles) points to Messiah’s future reign

• Why readiness matters—and how to live with hope, not fear

Watch to connect the dots between the feasts of Leviticus 23 and New Testament prophecy, and to better understand the difference between the Rapture and the Second Coming.

Are Rosh Hashanah and the Rapture Connected?

Shalom, my friends. Today we are going to look at Rosh Hashanah, the “Head of the Year,” one of the Feasts of the Lord found in Leviticus 23.

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Rosh Hashanah / Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets)

Rosh Hashanah is also called the Feast of Trumpets. Its biblical name is Yom Teruah, which means “a day of blowing” (Numbers 29:1).

The main Scripture reference appears in Leviticus 23:23–25:

Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord.’”

This is the fifth festival and the first of the three fall festivals. The fall feasts will be fulfilled in connection with Messiah’s Second Coming.

Leviticus 23 divides the feasts into two sections. Each is fulfilled by a specific event in the redemptive work of Yeshua the Messiah, and together they give us the order of end-times events, always in the same sequence on the Jewish calendar: the spring festivals were fulfilled at His First Coming, while the fall festivals, beginning with Rosh Hashanah, will be fulfilled at His Second Coming.

This feast is to be observed in the seventh month, known on the Hebrew calendar as Tishrei.

Other Hebrew names include Zikhron Teruah (“memorial of blowing,” Leviticus 23:24) and Rosh Hashanah (“head of the year,” see Ezekiel 40:1). The feast is never called “Rosh Hashanah” in Scripture, but Jewish tradition holds that God created the heavens and the earth on that day, so it marks the head of the civil year.

Biblical Observance

Biblically, it is a one-day observance: a day of rest, special sacrifices, and the blowing of the trumpet (shofar, the ram’s horn).

Rabbinic Observance & Customs

• Elul, the month prior to Tishrei, is a month of preparation and repentance. Psalm 27 is recited twice daily throughout Elul.
• In the Diaspora, Rosh Hashanah became a two-day celebration. Because the new day begins at evening (when three stars are visible), communities outside Israel historically observed two days to ensure they did not miss the correct day.

Blowing of the Shofar

Leviticus 23 gives one explicit command for this feast: the blowing of trumpets. Rabbinic sources highlight three purposes:

1. A call to repentance.
2. A reminder of Israel’s covenant relationship with God.
3. A sound to confound Satan on the day he accuses Israel.

The rabbis also saw the blowing of the shofar as a symbol of the final regathering of Israel when Messiah comes, and as a symbol of the resurrection of the dead.

There are traditionally 100 blasts in a service, grouped into four types:

• Tekiah — a long, continuous blast.
• Shevarim — three rising sounds (considered one unit).
• Teruah — nine very short staccato sounds (considered one unit).
• Tekiah Gedolah — a very long continuous blast (“the great trump,” often called the last trump).

“Books” Opened (Rabbinic Theme)

Rabbinic Judaism teaches that on Yom Teruah three “books” are opened in heaven: the Book of the Righteous, the Book of the Wicked, and the Book of the In-Between. One’s fate is decided on Rosh Hashanah but not sealed until Yom Kippur.

Scripture Readings (Traditional)

• Torah: Genesis 21–22; Numbers 29:1–6
• Prophets: 1 Samuel 1:1–2:10; Jeremiah 31:2–20
• Writings: Psalm 47

Tashlich (“Casting”) – Micah 7:18–20

Based on Micah 7:18–20 (“You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea”), Jews gather by a body of living water on the first day of Rosh Hashanah to symbolically cast away sins—often using breadcrumbs. The service typically includes Micah 7:18–20, Psalm 118:5–9, and Psalm 33.

Ten Days of Penitence (Aseret Yemei Teshuvah)

Rabbis say a person’s fate is decided on Rosh Hashanah but sealed on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). During these ten days, people seek forgiveness from those they have wronged. The Sabbath within this period is called Shabbat Shuvah (“Sabbath of Repentance,” cf. Hosea 14:2).

Yom Teruah in the Hebrew Scriptures

Five key passages mention or allude to Yom Teruah/Rosh Hashanah:

• Leviticus 23:23–25 — day of rest; blowing of trumpets; sacrifices.
• Numbers 29:1–6 — day of rest; detailed sacrifices; trumpet blown.
• Psalm 81:3–4 — likely references the ram’s horn (shofar) at the new moon.
• Ezra 3:1–6 — after the return from Babylon, sacrifices resume on Yom Teruah (v. 6).
• Nehemiah 8:1–12 — Ezra reads the Law on this day (v. 2).

The Trumpet/Shofar in the Tanakh

The shofar is used throughout Scripture:

• Walls of Jericho (Joshua 6).
• Gideon confusing the Midianites (Judges 7:16, 18, 20, 22).
• Call to war (1 Samuel 13:3; Jeremiah 4:5; Amos 3:6).
• Anointing of a king (2 Samuel 15:10; 2 Kings 9:13).
• Announcing the new moon (Psalm 81:3).
• Praising God (Psalm 98:6).
• Call to repentance (Joel 2:15).

Teruah (“shout/blast/alarm”) is used to:

• Name the feast (Leviticus 23:24; Numbers 29:1).
• Sound an alarm for war (Jeremiah 4:19; Ezekiel 21:22).
• Signal the marching of the tribes (Numbers 10:5–6).
• Express a shout of joy (Job 8:21; Ezra 3:11–13).

Shofar and teruah together appear in: Leviticus 25:9 (Jubilee), Joshua 6:5 (Jericho), 1 Chronicles 15:28 (ark brought to Jerusalem), 2 Chronicles 15:14 (repentance), Psalm 47:5 (praise), and Jeremiah 4:19 (war).

The Trumpet in the New Testament

• Announce something important (Matthew 6:2, metaphorically).
• Call to battle (1 Corinthians 14:8).
• At Sinai (Hebrews 12:19, recalling the giving of the Law).
• Voice of God (Revelation 1:10; 4:1).

Prophetic / Messianic Significance

Isaiah 27:13 — “In that day a great trumpet will be blown,” and the exiles will be gathered to worship the Lord in Jerusalem (a regathering motif).

Matthew 24:31 — “He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather His elect from the four winds.” Here, the elect in context are Jewish people regathered to the Land, and the gathering follows the sounding of a trumpet.

Yom Teruah and the Rapture

Yom Teruah will be fulfilled by the Rapture. Two key passages:

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18
Paul answers a question about believers who had died before the Rapture (“fallen asleep”). He explains that the dead in Messiah will rise first, followed by those who are alive and remain. Note the sequence:

1. The Lord Himself descends from heaven.
2. There is a shout (a command).
3. The voice of an archangel (often understood as Michael).
4. The trumpet of God sounds (summons for the Rapture; fits Yom Teruah).
5. The dead in Messiah rise first.
6. The living believers are caught up next.
7. Together we meet the Lord in the air and go to the place He promised (cf. John 14:1–3). “Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

1 Corinthians 15:50–58
Because “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” we must be changed. This happens “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. “Death is swallowed up in victory… thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.”

A note on the “last trumpet”: Some argue this means the last trumpet in Revelation 11; however, the Corinthians (A.D. 55) would not have known Revelation (c. A.D. 95). The believers at Corinth would have understood trumpets in light of Yom Teruah—including the Tekiah Gedolah (“the great trump,” the climactic, last blast). This speaks to the manner of the Rapture, not its placement after the Tribulation. Since Yom Teruah precedes Yom Kippur, and Yom Kippur typologically points to the Tribulation/national repentance, the Rapture precedes the Tribulation.

Conclusion: Yom Teruah (Rosh Hashanah) will be fulfilled by the Rapture of the saints—the regathering of believers to Messiah.

That’s it for today. Next time we’ll look at Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Thank you - and shalom.