The Church period, in a figurative sense, comes between the feast of Pentecost and the feast of trumpets. During this period, from 7th Sivan to the end of the three months, Tammuz, Ab, and Elul, there is no feast to Jehovah.
The Israeli year begins on 1st Tisri (Sept.-Oct.), at the time of the feast of trumpets. However, the feast cannot be celebrated as prescribed until there are priests with Urim and Thummim.
At the present time the feast is called Rosh Hashana and is celebrated as a two-day holiday. (The two-day celebration is probably based on Lev. 23:3232It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath. (Leviticus 23:32).) During the two days, according to tradition, the Heavenly Court decides all that is to happen to all beings during the coming year.
From 1949 to 1999 there are fifteen possible convocations which fall on a Sabbath in 1st Tisri. For the purpose of these remarks, the last four are shown as follows:
1986 Sat., Oct. 4 and Sun., Oct. 5
1989 Sat., Sept. 30 and Sun., Oct. 1
1996 Sat., Sept. 14 and Sun., Sept. 15
1999 Sat., Sept. 11 and Sun., Sept. 12
Seven inclusive years deducted from 1996 is 1990, and seven from 1999 is the year 1993.
Mayor Teddy Kollek points out that 1996 will be the 3000th anniversary of King David's making Jerusalem the Jewish capital.
“And here we are," he said, "while so many others have disappeared in three millennia. How are we to account for it?" "What will be relevant in the 21st century?" Israel is already starting to ask.
Now starts the 21st century, argues the Israeli philosopher Yirmiyahu Yovel. The 20th century was not only brutish but short. It started in 1914, with the conflict President Woodrow Wilson called "the war to end all wars.”
It ends, Yovel claims with some intellectual justification, in 1989. This year, the most heavily armed parts of the world learned that force is not strength.
W. Bothwell