As Jewish people around the world are in the midst of observing their High Holy Days, they do so this year with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. While these holidays hold great spiritual significance to so many, the Jewish people remember that these days can be mixed with tragedy.
God gave the children of Israel three fall feasts:
• The Feast of Trumpets, or Rosh Hashanah (Tishri 1; Leviticus 23:23–25; Numbers 29:1–6). This two-day celebration marks the beginning of a new year for the people of Israel.
• The Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur (Tishri 10; Leviticus 23:26–32; Numbers 29:7–11). This day of elaborate ceremony (Leviticus 16:1–34) foreshadowed the forthcoming, final sacrifice of the Messiah to remove our sins forever (Hebrews 9:6–14).
• The Feast of Tabernacles, Booths, or Ingathering, also called Sukkot (Tishri 15–21; Leviticus 23:33–36, 39–43; Numbers 29:12–39; Deuteronomy 16:13–17; Ezekiel 45:25; Zechariah 14:16–19; one of three Pilgrim Feasts requiring the presence of every Israelite man [Deuteronomy 16:16–17]). This beautiful harvest celebration of thanksgiving was intended for the whole family and the whole nation.
In this year of 2026, the fall feasts take place as follows:
• The Feast of Trumpets: September 11–13
• The Day of Atonement: September 20–21
• The Feast of Tabernacles: September 25–October 2
These feasts were intended to be holy times of celebration. Even today, they point back to ancient biblical traditions while also foreshadowing major events in the prophetic future. Sadly, however, in at least two major cases, they have become reminders of the most unholy ambitions of Israel’s enemies.
The October 7 Massacre
These events happened almost exactly 50 years apart. The most recent one, in 2023, reshaped the world, including our own United States due to the alliance we share with Israel on so many levels. It had much the same effect on the people of Israel as September 11, 2001, did on us here in America.
Hamas savagely kidnapped, raped, and murdered Israelis after infiltrating the nation’s border with Gaza on Saturday, October 7, 2023. These attacks took place on the Sabbath, which was also Shemini Atzeret, the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:36; Numbers 29:35), and also Simchat Torah, a rabbinic holiday formulated to encourage rejoicing in the Torah. This slaughter devastated the people and nation of Israel and continues to play out before us in the news on a daily basis.
The Yom Kippur War
Many believe that the terrorists who carried out these horrific attacks three years ago were hearkening back to the events of October 6, 1973, another Sabbath day, when a coalition of mostly Arab countries, led by Egypt and Syria, carried out a surprise military attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year.
The fighting lasted until October 24. It became a dramatic story of Israel overcoming overwhelming odds. The United States’ assistance may have spared the world from the potential of a nuclear disaster, but the effects of the Yom Kippur War continue to influence the Middle East today.
It would seem that those who hate Israel have taken particular joy in using their holidays as opportunities to mount these kinds of assaults against them—on days when they might be the least suspecting and least prepared.
Although their rebellion did not take place during a fall holiday, the Jewish people remaining in Poland launched the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on April 19, 1943, just as Passover began. They engaged the Nazis as a direct response to their scheme to imprison and kill thousands of the residents remaining in Warsaw during that holy spring season.
Throughout history, we see God’s loving and providential care for His Chosen People in spite of the worst ambitions of their adversaries, even on these most holy and meaningful days. As Christians, we stand with Israel and the Jewish people at such times of deepest need and amidst tragedy.
It would seem reasonable to conjecture that the Antichrist, energized by Satan—who desires to destroy Israel and thwart the Second Coming of their Messiah—might utilize a similar strategy during the Tribulation, possibly at its midpoint. Perhaps his breaking of his covenant with Israel and his determination to “bring an end to sacrifice and offering” (Daniel 9:27), when “he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4), will be undertaken in conjunction with the perversion of one of Israel’s holy biblical feast days.
It is imperative that we as believers in Israel’s Messiah understand and appreciate the significance of these feasts, even as we anticipate their fulfillment in a restored nation of Israel when that Messiah returns.
Paul Scharf is a Church Ministries Representative for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.
