ng the forty years of wanderings through the
wilderness expanded into thanksgiving for His guidance throughout the
forty centuries of Israel's pilgrimage through all lands and ages. This
joy culminated on the last day in the Feast of Rejoicing in the Law, when
the annual cycle of readings from the Pentateuch was completed in the
Synagogue amid overflowing pride in the possession of God's law by
Israel.(1492) The rabbis gave Sukkoth a universal significance by taking
the seventy bullocks prescribed for the seven days as offerings for the
salvation of the seventy nations of the world, while the one bullock
offered on the last day suggested the uniqueness of Israel as God's
peculiar people.(1493)

12. The highest point of religious devotion in the synagogue is reached on
the New Year's day and the Day of Atonement preceding the Feast of
Sukkoth. These are first mentioned in the Priestly Code and were
undoubtedly instituted after the time of Ezra;(1494) they were then
brought into closer connection by the Pharisees and permeated with lofty
ideas which struck the deepest chords of the human heart and voiced the
sublimest truths of religion for all time to come.

The New Year's Day on the first of Tishri appears in the Mosaic Code
simply as the memorial "Day of the Blowing of the Trumpet," because of the
increased number of trumpet blasts to usher in the seventh or Sabbatical
month with its great pilgrim feast. Under Babylonian influence, however,
it received a new name and meaning. The Babylonian New Year was looked
upon as a heavenly day of destiny when the fates of all beings on earth
and in heaven were foretold for the whole year from the tables of destiny.
The leaders of Jewish thought also adopted the first day of the holy month
of Tishri as a day of divine judgment, when God allots to each man his
destiny for the year according to his record of good and evil deeds in the
book of life.(1495) Accordingly, the stirring notes of the Shofar were to
strike the hearts of the people with fear, that they might repent of their
sins and improve their ways during the new year. As fixed by tradition,
the liturgy contained three blasts of the Shofar to proclaim three great
ideas of Judaism:(1496) the recognition of God as King of the world; as
Judge, remembering the actions and thoughts of men and nations for their
reward and punishment; and as the Ruler of history, who revealed Himself
to Israel in the trumpet-blasts of Sinai and w