The shofar on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) was not just a call to repentance. According to the Targum's version of (Numbers 29), the trumpets served a cosmic combat function: "that by the voice of your trumpets you may disturb Satana who comes to accuse you." The Accuser arrives on the first of Tishri to prosecute Israel before the heavenly court, and the shofar blast scrambles his case. This is one of the earliest sources for the idea that the shofar confuses Ha-<strong>Satan (the Accuser, heaven's prosecutor)</strong>.
The Targum's description of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) expands the Torah's command to "afflict your souls" into five specific abstentions: food, drink, bathing, anointing with oil (called "friction"), wearing leather sandals, and marital relations. These five categories, which later became codified in the Talmud, already appear here in this ancient Aramaic translation—evidence that the oral tradition was far older than its written form.
The Sukkot (the Festival of Tabernacles) offerings contain the Targum's most theologically ambitious addition. Over the seven days of the festival, Israel offered a total of seventy bulls—thirteen on the first day, twelve on the second, decreasing by one each day. The Targum explains: these seventy were offered "for the seventy nations." Israel was not just celebrating its own harvest. It was making atonement for every nation on earth. The Temple in Jerusalem functioned as the spiritual center of the entire world, and Israel served as priests on behalf of all humanity.
The Targum provides precise liturgical choreography for each day, specifying how many "orders"—processional groups of priests—would handle each type of sacrifice. On the first day, the thirteen bulls were offered by thirteen orders, the two rams by two orders, and the fourteen lambs by eight orders, with six pairs and two singles. Each subsequent day had its own unique arrangement, growing more complex as the bull count decreased.
On the sixth day, the Targum adds something found nowhere in the Torah: "a vase of water to be outpoured on the day of the Feast of Tabernacles in grateful acknowledgment of the showers of rain." This is the nisukh ha-mayim, the water libation ceremony that became one of the most joyous celebrations in Temple worship. On the seventh day, the ninety-eight total lambs offered across all seven days are said to "make atonement against the ninety-eight maledictions"—the curses listed in (Deuteronomy 28). Even the math of sacrifice was deliberate.