Bible Encyclopedias

Name given to the first of Tishri, as being the New-Year's Day. In the Bible the Day of the Blowing of the Trumpet is the first day of the seventh— Sabbatical— month (Leviticus 23:24 ), and no mention is made of the Day of Judgment. The "day of God," in the sense of a time of divine judgment of the wicked, is the one that will appear at the end of days (see Day of the Lord Eschatology ) and a description of the divine judgment in heaven is found in Daniel 7:9,10 , 22, where the "Ancient of days" is depicted as sitting upon the throne while the books are opened before Him. This description is also found in the apocryphal books. Of a specific day in the year on which God holds judgment over the world, no trace is found in pre-Talmudic literature. Philo, in his treatise on the festivals, calls New-Year's Day the festival of the sacred moon and feast of the trumpets, and explains the blowing of the trumpets as being a memorial of the giving of the Law and a reminder of God's benefits to mankind in general ("De Septennario," § 22). The Mishnah R. H. 1:2 contains the first known reference to the Day of Judgment. It says: "Four times in the year the world is judged: On Passover a decree is passed on the produce of the soil on the Pentecost, on the fruits of the trees on New-Year's Day all men pass before Him [the Lord] [an expression rendered by the Amoraim "like young lambs" (see "' Aruk," s.v. and )] and on the Feast of Tabernacles a decree is passed on the rain of the year."

This Mishnaic dictum is amplified in the Tosef. R. H. 1:11-13. Besides the Psalm (xxxiii:15) quoted in regard to New-Year's Day, Psalm 81:4-5 is quoted, and then follows R. Akiba's dictum: