Hebrew calendar

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The Hebrew calendar or Jewish calendar is a lunisolar calendar used by Jews for predominantly religious purposes. It is used to reckon the Jewish New Year and dates for Jewish holidays, and also to determine appropriate public reading of Torah portions, Yahrzeits (dates to commemorate the death of a relative), and daily Psalm reading, among many ceremonial uses. Originally the Hebrew calendar was used by Jews for all daily purposes, but by the era of the Roman occupation (1st Century BCE), Jews followed the imperial civil calendar for all civic matters, such as the payment of taxes and dealings with government officials.

The Hebrew calendar's epoch (reference date), 1 Tishrei 1 anno mundi, is equivalent to Monday, October 7 3761 BCE in the proleptic Julian calendar, the equivalent tabular date (same daylight period) and is about one year before the traditional Jewish date of Creation on 25 Elul AM 1, based upon the Seder Olam Rabbah of Rabbi Yossi ben Halafta, a second century CE sage to any Julian/Gregorian year number after 1 CE will yield the Hebrew year. For earlier years there may be a discrepancy.

Two major forms of the calendar have been used. Before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the calendar was observational, with the beginning of each month determined by the testimony of witnesses who had observed a new crescent moon. Between 70 and 1178 CE a rule-based fixed-arithmetic lunisolar calendar system was adopted to achieve the same effect.

The origins of the Hebrew calendar are found in the Torah, which refers to the existence of several numbered but unnamed months in the Noahide (pre-Jewish) period, and which recounts several calendar-based commandments, including God's commandment during the Exodus from Egypt to fix the month of Nisan as the first month of the year. The development of the calendar was likely influenced by the Babylonian exile in the 6th Century BCE, during which Babylonian names for the months were adapted; the Babylonians also employed a lunisolar calendar derived from the Sumerian calendar. Following the Jewish diaspora of Roman times (c. 1st Century CE), calculations were increasingly used to fix dates, with the principles fully described by Maimonides in 1178 CE in the Mishneh Torah.

Because of the roughly eleven-day difference between twelve lunar months and one solar year, the year lengths of the Hebrew calendar vary in a repeating 19-year Metonic cycle of 235 lunar months, with an intercalary lunar month added every two or three years, for a total of 7 times per 19 years. Seasonal references in the Hebrew calendar reflect its development in the region east of the Mediterranean Sea and the times and climate of the Northern Hemisphere. With respect to the present-day mean solar year, the Hebrew calendar's year is longer by about 6 minutes and 25+25/57 seconds, meaning that every 224 years, the Hebrew calendar will fall a full day behind the modern fixed solar year, and about every 231 years it will fall a full day behind the Gregorian calendar year. This is due to the 0.6 second discrepancy between the Calendric "Molad" (lunar conjunction interval), which is fixed by Jewish Law, and the actual mean lunar conjunction interval, which itself is slowly changing over time.

Contents

Structure

The Jewish calendar is a [lunisolar calendar, or "fixed lunar year," based on twelve lunar months of twenty-nine or thirty days, with an intercalary lunar month added seven times every nineteen years (once every two to three years) to synchronize the twelve lunar cycles with the slightly longer solar year. Each Jewish lunar month starts with the new moon; although originally the new lunar crescent had to be observed and certified by witnesses, the timing of the new moon is now mathematically determined.

Concurrently there is a weekly cycle of seven days, mirroring the seven day period of the Book of Genesis in which the world is created. The names for the days of the week, like those in the Creation story, are simply the day number within the week, with Shabbat being the seventh day. The Jewish day runs from sunset to the next sunset, and accordingly, standard times and time zones have no place in the Jewish calendar.

The twelve regular months are: Nisan (30 days), Iyar (29 days), Sivan (30 days), Tammuz (29 days), Av (30 days), Elul (29 days), Tishrei (30 days), Cheshvan (29 or 30 days), Kislev (29 or 30 days), Tevet (29 days), Shevat (30 days), and Adar (29 days). In the leap years an additional month, Adar I (30 days) is added after Shevat, and the regular Adar is referred to as "Adar II".

The first month of the year is Nisan. The 14th of Nisan is the start of the festival of Pesach, corresponding to the full moon of Nisan. Though it is not expressly prescribed in these terms, Pesach is a spring festival, so the 14th of Nisan is the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Therefore, from the standpoint of determining the annual calendar cycle, the principal problem is that the lunar month/new moon of Nisan must occur before the spring equinox. Since at least the 12th Century, the Hebrew calendar has determined this time mathematically, but prior to this tradition held that the 1st of Nisan does not start (and an intercalary month would be added) "until the barley is ripe."

While the bible designates this month (without calling it Nisan) as the first month of the year, Rosh Hashanah, which is literally "The Head of the Year", meaning "The Beginning of the Year", is actually celebrated on the first of the seventh month, currently called Tishrei, so most Jews today view Tishrei as the "De Facto" beginning of the year. Although there are references to this holiday in the Torah, it was not then regarded as the beginning of the year, but more as a Holiday for reflection and remembrance.

Sources and History

The Torah contains several commandments related to the keeping of the calendar and the lunar cycle.

The day

The day is the smallest unit in the Jewish calendar. It is modeled on the Creation story and is of no fixed length. Based on the reference to "...there was evening and there was morning...", the Jewish day runs from sunset (start of "the evening") to the next sunset. Accordingly, standard tim]s and time zones have no place in the Jewish calendar. However, the steady progression of sunset around the world and seasonal changes results in gradual time changes from one day to the next based on observable astronomical phenomena (the sunset) and not on man-made laws and conventions.

Weeks

The Hebrew calendar follows a seven-day weekly cycle, which runs concurrently but independently of the monthly and annual cycles. The names for the days of the week are simply the day number within the week. In Hebrew, these names may be abbreviated using the numerical value of the Hebrew letters, for example יום א׳ (Day 1, or Yom Rishon (Hebrew: יום ראשון):

Yom Rishon (Hebrew: יום ראשון), abbreviated יום א׳ = "first day" = Sunday
Yom Sheni (יום שני), abbr. יום ב׳ = "second day" = Monday
Yom Shlishi (יום שלישי), abbr. יום ג׳ = "third day" = Tuesday
Yom Reviʻi (יום רבעי), abbr. יום ד׳ = "fourth day" = Wednesday
Yom Ḥamishi (יום חמישי), abbr. יום ה׳ = "fifth day" = Thursday
Yom Shishi (יום ששי), abbr. יום ו׳ = "sixth day" = Friday
Yom Shabbat (יום שבת or more usually שבת - Shabbat), abbr. יום ש׳ = "Sabbath day (Rest day)" = Saturday

The names of the days of the week are modeled on the seven days mentioned in the Creation story. For example, "... And there was evening and there was morning, one day". "One day" also translates to "first day" or "day one".

The Jewish Shabbat has a special place in the Jewish weekly cycle. There are many special rules which relate to the Sabbath, discussed more fully in Shabbat.

In Hebrew, the word "Shabbat" (שַׁבָּת) can also mean "(Talmudic) week", so that in ritual liturgy a phrase like "Yom Reviʻi bəShabbat" means "the fourth day in the week".

Importance of Lunar Months

Num 10:10 stresses the importance of the new moon and consequently lunar months, "... in your new moons, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt-offerings,"

In his work Mishneh Torah, of 1178, Maimonides included a chapter "Sanctification of the New Moon," in which he discusses the calendrical rules and their scriptural basis. He notes,
"By how much does the solar year exceed the lunar year? By approximately 11 days. Therefore, whenever this excess accumulates to about 30 days, or a little more or less, one month is added and the particular year is made to consist of 13 months, and this is the so-called embolismic (intercalated) year. For the year could not consist of twelve months plus so-and-so many days, since it is said: throughout the months of the year Num 28:14, which implies that we should count the year by months and not by days."

Months

Mosaic pavement of a zodiac in the 6th century synagogue at Beit Alpha, Israel.
Mosaic pavement of a zodiac in the 6th century synagogue at Beit Alpha, Israel.

Biblical references to the pre-Jewish calendar include ten months identified by number rather than by name. In parts of the Torah portion Noach (Noah) (specifically, Gen 7:11, Gen 8:4-5, Gen 8:13-14 it is implied that the months are thirty days long. There is no indication as to the total number of months in the annual cycle.

In the parts of the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) prior to the Babylonian exile, only four months are named: Aviv (first; literally "spring", which originally probably meant "the ripening of barley"), Ziv (second; literally "light"), Ethanim (literally "strong" in plural, perhaps referring to strong rains) I Kings 6:38: seventh month; and Bul I Kings 6:38: eighth month. All of these are Canaanite names, and at least two are Phoenician (Northern Canaanite).

According to the Book of Exodus, the first commandment the Jewish people received as a nation was to determine the new moon: Exodus 12:2 states, "This month Nisan is for you the first of months." Deut 16:1 refers to a specific month: "Observe the month of Aviv (HE: spring), and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God; for in the month of Aviv the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night."

During the Babylonian exile, which started in 586 BCE, Jews adopted Babylonian names for the months, which are still in use. The Babylonian calendar also used a lunisolar calendar, derived from the Sumerian calendar.

Hebrew names and romanized transliteration may somewhat differ, as they do for כסלו / Kislev or חשוון / Marheshvan: the Hebrew words shown here are those commonly indicated e.g. in newspapers.

Hebrew names of the months with their Babylonian analogs
Number Hebrew Tiberian Academy Common/Other Length Babylonian analog Notes
1 נִיסָן Nīsān Nisan Nissan 30 days Nisanu called Aviv and Nisan in the Tanakh
2 אִיָּר / אייר ʼIyyār Iyyar Iyar 29 days Ayaru called Ziv in the Tanakh
3 סִיוָן / סיוון Sīwān Siwan Sivan 30 days Simanu
4 תַּמּוּז Tammūz Tammuz Tamuz 29 days Du'uzu
5 אָב ʼĀḇ Av Ab 30 days Abu
6 אֱלוּל ʼĔlūl Elul Elul 29 days Ululu
7 תִּשׁרִי Tišrī Tishri Tishrei 30 days Tashritu called Eitanim in the Tanakh.
Modern first month, Rosh Hashana is celebrated in Tishrei.
8 מַרְחֶשְׁוָן / מרחשוון Marḥešwān Marẖeshwan Marcheshvan 29 or 30 days Arakhsamna often shortened to Cheshvan; called Bul in the Tanakh
9 כִּסְלֵו / כסלוו Kislēw Kislew Kislev, Chisleu 30 or 29 days Kislimu also spelled Chislev
10 טֵבֵת Ṭēḇēṯ Tevet Tebeth 29 days Tebetu
11 שְׁבָט Šəḇāṭ Shevat Shvat, Shebat 30 days Shabatu
12* אֲדָר א׳ ʼĂḏār Adar I* 30 days Adaru *Only in leap years
12 / 13* אדר / אדר ב׳ Adar / Adar II* 29 days

In a short (chaser) year, both Kislev and Cheshvan have 29 days. In a regular (kesidran) year, Kislev has 29 days and Cheshvan has 30 days. In a full (maleh) year, both Kislev and Cheshvan have 30 days.

The calendar rules have been designed to ensure that Rosh Hashanah does not fall on a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday. This is to ensure that Yom Kippur does not directly precede or follow Shabbat, which would create practical difficulties, and that Hoshana Rabbah is not on a Shabbat, in which case certain ceremonies would be lost for a year.

Leap months

Detail of the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, dating from the era of the Babylonian captivity.
Detail of the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, dating from the era of the Babylonian captivity.

Due to the difference in length between twelve lunar months and a solar year, a purely lunar calendar cycle would have resulted in the gradual shifting of the Hebrew calendar independently of the seasons. However, the Torah requires that certain festivals take place during certain seasons. This implies that a system of reconciling lunar months in the context of solar years and consequently seasons was in use. The Bible does not directly mention the addition of an "embolismic" or intercalary month that would prevent the drifting of the calendar year.

Whether or not an embolismic month was announced after the "last month" (Adar) depended on whether "the barley was ripe". It may be noted that in the Bible the name of the first month, Aviv, literally means "spring" but originally it probably meant "the ripening of barley". Thus, if Adar was over and the barley was not yet ripe, an additional month was observed. However, according to some traditions, the announcement of the month of Aviv could also be postponed depending on the condition of roads used by families to come to Jerusalem for Passover, adequate numbers of lambs to be sacrificed at the Temple, and on the ripeness of the barley that was needed for the first fruits ceremony.

Under the codified rules, the Jewish calendar is based on the Metonic cycle of 19 years, of which 12 are common years (12 months) and 7 leap years (13 months). The leap years are years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 of the Metonic cycle. Year 19 (there is no year 0) of the Metonic cycle is a year exactly divisible by 19 (when the Jewish year number, when divided by 19, has no remainder). In the same manner, the remainder of the division indicates the year in the Metonic cycle (years 1 to 18) the year is in.

During leap years a month, Adar II, is added before Nisan. During leap years Adar I (or Adar Aleph — "first Adar") is actually considered to be the extra month, and has 30 days. Adar II (or Adar Bet — "second Adar") is the "real" Adar, and has the usual 29 days. For this reason, during a leap year, holidays such as Purim are observed in Adar II, not Adar I.

New year

A shofar made from a ram's horn is traditionally blown in observance of Rosh Hashana, the beginning of the Jewish civic year.
A shofar made from a ram's horn is traditionally blown in observance of Rosh Hashana, the beginning of the Jewish civic year.

The Jewish year has four distinct starting points, according to the Mishnah, Rosh Hashanah 1:1:

The day most commonly referred to as the "New Year" is the first of Tishrei, when the formal New Year festival, Rosh Hashanah ("head of the year") is observed. This is the beginning of the civil year, and the point at which the year number advances. Certain agricultural practices are also marked from this date.

However, the first month of the year as prescribed in Exodus 12:2 is Nisan: "This month shall be to you the beginning of months". This means that the civil new year, Rosh Hashanah, actually begins in the seventh month of the year.

The month of Elul is the new year for counting animal tithes (ma'aser). Tu Bishvat ("the 15th of Shevat") marks the new year for trees (and agricultural tithes).

There may be an echo here of a controversy in the Talmud about whether the world was created in Tishrei or Nisan; it was decided that the answer is Tishrei, and this is now reflected in the prayers on Rosh Hashanah.

Epoch

The Jewish calendar uses a calendar era anno mundi ("in the year of the world"), abbreviated AM. Interestingly, the beginning of "year 1" is not Creation, but about one year before Creation. This caused the new moon of its first month (Tishrei) to be called molad tohu (the mean new moon of chaos or nothing).

Change to a calculated calendar

Observational principles

A stone (2.43x1 m) with Hebrew inscription "To the Trumpeting Place" is believed to be a part of the Second Temple.
A stone (2.43x1 m) with Hebrew inscription "To the Trumpeting Place" is believed to be a part of the Second Temple.

Before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the general disruption of Jewish communal life after the Jewish-Roman Wars, and for a transitional period thereafter, the new moons/months were determined on an observational basis.

In Second Temple times (c. 518 BCE - 70 CE), the beginning of each lunar month was decided on the basis of two eyewitnesses testifying to having seen the new lunar crescent at sunset. Patriarch Gamaliel II (c. 100) asked the witnesses to select the appearance of the moon from a collection of drawings that depicted the crescent in a variety of orientations, only a few of which could be valid in any given month. According to tradition, these observations were compared against calculations made by the supreme Jewish court, the Sanhedrin. When thirty days elapsed since the last new moon, the witnesses were readily believed.

At first the beginning of each Jewish month was signaled to the communities of Israel and beyond by fires lit on mountaintops, but after the Samaritans and Boethusians began to light false fires, messengers were sent. The inability of the messengers to reach communities outside Israel before mid-month High Holy Days (Succot, Passover) led outlying communities to celebrate scriptural festivals for two days rather than one, observing the second feast-day of the Jewish diaspora because of uncertainty of whether the previous month ended after 29 or 30 days.

1st-3rd Centuries CE

In Rome the Arch of Titus still stands, depicting the enslaved Judeans and objects from the Temple being brought to Rome.
In Rome the Arch of Titus still stands, depicting the enslaved Judeans and objects from the Temple being brought to Rome.

By the Roman era some sects, such as the Essenes, used a solar calendar during the last two centuries BCE.

The Jewish-Roman wars of 66–73, 115–117, and 132–135 caused major disruptions in Jewish life, also disrupting the calendar. During the third and fourth centuries, Christian sources describe the use of eight, nineteen, and 84 year lunisolar cycles by Jews, all linked to the civil calendars used by various communities of Diasporaews, which were effectively isolated from [[Levant Jews and their calendar. Some assigned major Jewish festivals to fixed solar calendar dates, whereas others used epacts to specify how many days before major civil solar dates Jewish lunar months were to begin.

The Talmud notes the irregular intercalation (adding of extra months) performed in three successive years in the early second century.

The Ethiopic Christian computus (used to calculate Easter) describes in detail a Jewish calendar which must have been used by Alexandrian Jews near the end of the third century. These Jews formed a relatively new community in the aftermath of the annihilation (by murder or enslavement) of all Alexandrian Jews by Emperor Trajan at the end of the 115–117 Kitos War. Their calendar used the same epacts in nineteen year cycles that were to become canonical in the Easter computus used by almost all medieval Christians, both those in the Latin West and the Hellenist East. Only those churches beyond the eastern border of the Byzantine Empire differed, changing one epact every nineteen years, causing four Easters every 532 years to differ.

The transitional period

The period between 70 and 1178 saw a gradual transition from an observation based calendar to a purely mathematically calculated one. Except for the modern year number, the modern rules reached their final form before 820 or 921, with some uncertainty regarding when. The rules were codified in 1178 by Maimonides, who described all of the modern rules, including the modern epochal year.

Under the patriarchate of Rabbi Judah III (300-330) the testimony of the witnesses with regard to the appearance of the new moon was received as a mere formality, the settlement of the day depending entirely on calculation. This innovation seems to have been viewed with disfavor by some members of the Sanhedrin, particularly Rabbi Jose, who wrote to both the Babylonian and the Alexandrian communities, advising them to follow the customs of their fathers and continue to celebrate two days, an advice which was followed, and is still followed, by the majority of Jews living outside of Israel.

Traditionally, intercalations were determined at meetings of a special calendar commission of the Sanhedrin. But Constantius II, following the precedents of Hadrian, prohibited the holding of such meetings. However, the Jewish community outside the land of Israel depended on the calendar sanctioned by the Judean Sanhedrin for the proper observance of the Jewish holidays. However, danger threatened the participants in that sanction and the messengers who communicated their decisions to distant congregations. Temporarily, to relieve the foreign congregations, Huna ben Abin once advised Rava not to wait for the official intercalation:

When you are convinced that the winter quarter will extend beyond the sixteenth day of Nisan declare the year a leap year, and do not hesitate (R. H. 21a).

There is a popular tradition, first mentioned by Hai Gaon (d.1038), that as religious persecutions continued, Patriarch Hillel II determined to provide an authorized mathematically-based calendar for all time to come, though by so doing he severed the ties which united the Jews of the diaspora to their mother country and to the patriarchate. It is recorded that the calendar was adopted at a clandestine, and maybe final, meeting of the Sanhedrin in 358, marking the last universal decision made by that body.

This explanation has been questioned. It is noted that the Talmud, which did not reach its final form until c. 500, does not mention the continuous calendar or even anything as mundane as either the nineteen-year cycle or the length of any month, despite discussing the characteristics of earlier calendars, suggesting the final form of the modern calendar was fixed subsequent to the sixth century.

Furthermore, Jewish dates during post-Talmudic times (specifically in 506 and 776) are impossible using modern rules, and all evidence points to the development of the arithmetic rules of the modern calendar in Babylonia during the times of the Geonim (seventh to eighth centuries), under the Abbasid Caliphate. The Babylonian rules required the delay of the first day of Tishrei when the new moon occurred after noon.

Most of the modern rules appear to have been in place by about 820, according to a treatise by the Muslim astronomer Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Ḵwārizmī (c. 780-850 CE) a Persian polymath noted for his contributions to Islamic mathematics, Islamic astronomy, Islamic astrology and geography. Al-Khwārizmī's study of the Jewish calendar, Risāla fi istikhrāj taʾrīkh al-yahūd "Extraction of the Jewish Era" describes the 19-year intercalation cycle, the rules for determining on what day of the week the first day of the month Tishrī shall fall, the interval between the Jewish era (creation of Adam) and the Seleucid era, and the rules for determining the mean longitude of the sun and the moon using the Jewish calendar.

One notable difference between the calendar of that era and the modern form was the date of the epoch (the fixed reference point at the beginning of year 1), which at that time was one year later than the epoch of the modern calendar.

In 921 Aaron ben Meir, a leader of the Jewish community in Palestine otherwise unknown to history, sought to return the authority for the calendar to the Land of Israel by asserting that the first day of Tishrei should be the day of the new moon unless the new moon occurred more than 642 parts (35⅔ minutes, where a "part" is 1/1080 of an hour or 1/18 of a minute or 3⅓ seconds) after noon, when it should be delayed by one or two days. He may have been asserting that the calendar should be run according to Jerusalem time, not Babylonian. Local time on the Babylonian meridian was indeed about 642 parts (35 minutes and 40 seconds) later than (ahead of) the meridian of Jerusalem, corresponding to a longitude difference of 8° 55'.

An alternative explanation for the 642 parts is that Ben Meir may have believed, along with many earlier Jewish scholars, in a Creation theology placing Creation in the Spring season, and that the calendar rules had been adjusted by 642 parts to fit in with an Autumn date. If Creation occurred in the Autumn, to coincide with the observance of Rosh Hashana, the calculated time of New Moon during the six days of creation was on Friday at 14 hours exactly (counting from the day starting at 6pm the previous evening). However, if Creation actually occurred six months earlier, in the Spring, the new moon would have occurred at 9 hours and 642 parts on Wednesday.

In any event, he was opposed by Saadiah Gaon of the Talmudic academy of Sura. Only a few Jewish communities accepted ben Meir's opinion, and even these soon rejected it. Accounts of the controversy show that all of the rules of the modern calendar (except for the epoch) were in place before 921.

Codification of the rules

In 1000 the Muslim chronologist al-Biruni also described all of the modern rules, except that he specified three different epochs used by various Jewish communities being one, two, or three years later than the modern epoch. Finally, in 1178 Maimonides described all of the modern rules, including the modern epochal year.

In his work Mishneh Torah of 1078, Maimonides included a chapter "Sanctification of the New Moon," in which he discusses the calendrical rules and their scriptural basis. He notes,
"By how much does the solar year exceed the lunar year? By approximately 11 days. Therefore, whenever this excess accumulates to about 30 days, or a little more or less, one month is added and the particular year is made to consist of 13 months, and this is the so-called embolismic (intercalated) year. For the year could not consist of twelve months plus so-and-so many days, since it is said: throughout the months of the year (Num. 28:14), which implies that we should count the year by months and not by days."

Maimonides continues, showing analytically how the scriptural procedure for determining the calendar must be flawed, something he could explain through his faith. He noted that non-Jewish savants had presented mathematically correct methods of calculating the potential visibility of the new crescent, and reasoned that since these methods exist, they must have been used by the Court and the record of their use lost.

If one back-calculates the moments of the traditional moladot using modern astronomical calculations then the closest that their reference meridian of longitude ever got to Israel was midway between the Nile River and the end of the Euphrates River (about 4° east of Jerusalem), and that was in the era of the Second Temple.

From the times of the Amoraim (third to fifth centuries), calculations were increasingly used, for example by Samuel the astronomer, who stated during the first half of the third century that the year contained 365 ¼ days, and by "calculators of the calendar" circa 300. Jose, an Amora who lived during the second half of the fourth century, stated that the feast of Purim, 14 Adar, could not fall on a Sabbath nor a Monday, lest 10 Tishrei (Yom Kippur) fall on a Friday or a Sunday. This indicates a fixed number of days in all months from Adar to Elul, also implying that the extra month was already a second Adar added before the regular Adar.

Epoch

The Jewish calendar's reference point is traditionally held to be about one year before the Creation of the world.
The Jewish calendar's reference point is traditionally held to be about one year before the Creation of the world.

The Jewish calendar uses a calendar era anno mundi ("in the year of the world"), abbreviated AM. Interestingly, the beginning of "year 1" is not Creation, but about one year before Creation. This caused the new moon of its first month (Tishrei) to be called molad tohu (the mean new moon of chaos or nothing).

Its epoch (reference date), 1 Tishrei 1 AM, is equivalent to Monday, October 7 3761 BCE in the proleptic Julian calendar, the equivalent tabular date (same daylight period). This date is about one year before the traditional Jewish date of Creation on 25 Elul AM 1, based upon the Seder Olam of Rabbi Yossi ben Halafta, a second century CE sage. (A minority opinion places Creation on 25 Adar AM 1, six months earlier, or six months after the modern epoch.) Thus, adding 3760 (from September-October through December 3761) to any Julian/Gregorian year number after 1 CE will yield the Jewish year, ending in September-October, which roughly coincides with that Julian/Gregorian year. Owing to the slow drift of the modern Jewish calendar relative to the Gregorian calendar, this will be true for about another 20,000 years.

The traditional Jewish date for the destruction of the First Temple (3338 AM = 423 BCE) differs from the modern scientific date, which is usually expressed using the Gregorian calendar (586 BCE). The scientific date takes into account evidence from the ancient Babylonian calendar and its astronomical observations. In this and related cases, a difference between the traditional Jewish year and a scientific date in a Gregorian year results from a disagreement about when the event happened — and not simply a difference between the Jewish and Gregorian calendars.

Usage in contemporary Israel

Early Zionist pioneers were impressed by the fact that the calendar preserved by Jews over many centuries in far flung diasporas, as a matter of religious ritual, was geared to the climate of their original country: the Jewish New Year marks the moment of transition from the Dry Season to the Rainy one, and major Jewish Holidays such as Sukkot, Passover or Shavuot correspond to major points of the country's agricultural year such as planting and harvest.

Accordingly, in the early 20th Century the Hebrew Calendar was re-interpreted as an agricultural rather than religious calendar. The Kibbutz movement was especially inventive in creating new rituals fitting this interpretation.

With the creation of the State of Israel the Hebrew Calendar was made its official calendar. New holidays and commemorations not derived from previous Jewish tradition invariably were to be defined according to their Hebrew dates - notably the Israeli Independence Day on Iyar 5, Jerusalem Reunification Day on 28 Iyar, and the Holocaust Commemoration Day on Nisan 27 (close to the Hebrew date of the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising).

Nevertheless, since the 1950s the Hebrew calendar steadily declined in importance in Israeli daily life, in favor of the worldwide Gregorian calendar. At present, Israelis - except for the minority of religiously observant - conduct their private and public life according to the Gregorian Calendar.

The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana) is a two-day public holiday in Israel. However, since the 1980s an increasing number of secularist Israelis had taken up the habit of celebrating the Gregorian New Year (usually known as "Sylvester Night" - "ליל סילבסטר") by holding all-night parties on the night between December 31 and January 1. Prominent Rabbis have on several occasions sharply denounced this practice, but with no noticeable effect on the secularist celebrants.

The disparity between the two calendars is especially noticeable with regard to commemoration of the assassinated Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. The official Day of Commemoration, instituted by a special Knesset law, is marked according to the Hebrew Calendar - on Heshvan 12. However, left-leaning Israelis, who revere Rabin as a martyr for the cause of peace and who are predominantly secularist, prefer to hold their own mass memorial rallies on November 4. In some years the two competing Rabin Memorial Days are separated by as much as two weeks.

The wall calendars commonly used in Israel are hybrids - organised according to Gregorian rather than Jewish months, but beginning in September, where the Jewish New Year usually falls, and providing the Jewish date in small characters.

See also

External links

Date converters

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