Our Predicament

God is holy, and He must be regarded as holy (Lev. 19:2). Sin cannot exist where He is,  and in fact His eyes are too pure even to look upon evil (Hab. 1:13). If God is to be approached, it must be according to His prescribed means.

For those of you who have attended, a Rosh HaShanah service (or watched one here on the Shalom Adventure magazine), a prominent practice you will observe is the blowing of a shofar, or ram's horn.   This practice is largely derived from the Biblical injunction in Leviticus 23 to observe this day with "blast of trumpets."  At many Rosh Hashanah services, it is not uncommon for the shofar to be "blasted" upwards of 100 times!

It was early September 1956, the High Holidays were approaching, and Elihu Schimmel was in the Cold War's coldest theater.

Water immersion (tevilah mikveh) ... repentance--and therefore forgiveness--is a predominant theme during Rosh Hashanah. ... Elul, the month preceding Tishri, is the beginning of a special 40-day period in which Jewish people prepare themselves for the intensified reflection, self-examination, and repentance that Rosh Hashanah, the Days of Awe, and Yom Kippur are characterized by.  During the last days of Elul, you will find in many Jewish synagogues special prayers for forgiveness--called Selichot--being offered by the penitent.

The Feast of Trumpets is the first of the fall feasts. It begins on the first day of the seventh month on the Hebrew calendar, known as Tishri.  It was a holy convocation, a ceremonial Sabbath; no work was to be done.

Full White House text of remarks by President Donald Trump and Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner in a call to Jewish leaders, September 15, 2017: