You may not be accustomed to receiving New Year's greetings at this time of the year, but we are.

You see, Rosh HaShanah is the New Year on one of the Jewish calendars (they have several of them, but this is the one they adopted during the Babylonian Captivity). In Hebrew, rosh hashanah literally means "head of the year." The biblical name for this observance is Yom Teruah (Day of Blowing the Shofar; Lev. 23:24-25).

The traditional Hebrew greeting on Rosh HaShanah is "L'Shanah Tovah," or "For a Good Year."

According to rabbinic tradition, Adam and Eve were created 5,771 years ago. (We're pretty sure that's not accurate; but hey, it's tradition. So what can you do?) On the Jewish calendar, therefore, we're just beginning the year 5,771.

Rosh Hashanah begins the "Days of Awe," a 10-day countdown to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the most holy observance in traditional Judaism.

Of course, if you have one of our Messianic Jewish Home Calendars, you already know most of this.

Here's a link to the Wikipedia article about Rosh HaShanah: click here

So from all of us at CJF Ministries, L'Shanah Tovah!