ISRAEL REPORT
September 2026
It gives me great pleasure to have the privilege of posting Mike Claydon’s Israel Report. We ask for your continued prayers for Mike, who is battling cancer, as is his wife. These are the first two reports Mike has been able to send for sometime for which we thank God and pray for his continued improvement. The second report follows.
Gibber! Gibber!
Chugley
The Feast of Trumpets [Rosh Hashana]
The Jewish Feast of Trumpets [Rosh Hashana] occurs this year from 11 September [an auspicious day] until 13 September.
What Is Rosh Hashanah? -The Jewish New Year
What’s It Really All About?
Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the universe, the day God created Adam and Eve, and it’s celebrated as the head of the Jewish year.
When: Rosh Hashanah is observed on the first two days of the Jewish new year, Tishrei 1 and 2, beginning at sundown on the eve of Tishrei 1. Rosh Hashanah 2026 begins at sundown on Friday, September 11, and continues through nightfall on Sunday, September 13.
Rosh Hashanah is celebrated with candle lighting in the evenings, festive meals with sweet delicacies during the night and day, prayer services that include the sounding of the ram’s horn (shofar) (but not on Shabbat), and desisting from creative work.
As we read in the Rosh Hashanah prayers, each year on this day “all inhabitants of the world pass before God like a flock of sheep,” and it is decreed in the heavenly court “who shall live, and who shall die … who shall be impoverished and who shall be enriched; who shall fall and who shall rise.”
It is a day of prayer, a time to ask the Almighty to grant us a year of peace, prosperity and blessing. But it is also a joyous day when we proclaim God King of the Universe.
The central observance of Rosh Hashanah is the sounding of the shofar the ram’s horn, on both days of the holiday (except if the first day is Shabbat, in which case we blow the shofar only on the second day).]
The first 30 blasts of the shofar are blown following the Torah reading during morning services, and as many as 70 additional are blown during (and immediately after) the Musaf service, adding up to 100 blasts over the course of the Rosh Hashanah morning services (some communities sound another round of 30 blasts after services as well). For someone who cannot come to synagogue, the shofar may be heard the rest of the day.
The shofar blowing contains a series of three types of blasts: tekiah, a long sob-like blast; shevarim, a series of three short wails; and teruah, at least nine piercing staccato bursts.)
The blowing of the shofar represents the trumpet blast that is sounded at a king’s coronation. Its plaintive cry also serves as a call to repentance. The shofar itself recalls the Binding of Isaac, an event that occurred on Rosh Hashanah in which a ram took Isaac’s place as an offering to God.
“Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast” [Isaiah chapter 26 verse 20]
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” — [1 Corinthians chapter 15: verse 52]
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others who have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so will God bring with Him those also who sleep in Jesus.
For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord: that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who are asleep.
For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first;
then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Therefore comfort one another with these words. [1 Thessalonians chapter 4; verses 13-18]
Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep; but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. [1 Corinthians chapter 15- verses 51-58]
Israel Report