Category
Hebrew Months
13 entries. Click any to see everything it connects to.
The months of the Hebrew calendar (Nisan, Iyar, Sivan and the rest), belong to a lunisolar system in which each month begins at the new moon and a thirteenth month, Adar II, is added in seven years of every nineteen to keep the festivals in season. The calendar sets the timing of the Jewish festival cycle. Each month carries its festivals, a zodiac sign, and in Kabbalistic sources a Hebrew letter and a tribe.
Facts
Overview
- Entries in the Atlas
- 13
- Size of the Traditional Set
- 12 months (13 in a leap year, when Adar I is intercalated) 1
Origins
- Place of Origin
- The month names are Babylonian, adopted into Jewish usage during and after the Babylonian exile 2
Structure
- Structure
- Lunisolar: months of 29 or 30 days beginning near the new moon, with a thirteenth month intercalated seven times in every nineteen years so that Passover stays in spring. 1
Status
- Status Today
- Living tradition, practised today 1
Sources
- Calendrical Calculations: The Ultimate Edition Edward M. Reingold and Nachum Dershowitz, 2018, on the Hebrew calendar
- Encyclopedia of Religion Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), 2005, s.v. Calendars: Jewish Calendar
Learn More
The Months of the Hebrew Calendar
The months of the Hebrew calendar (Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Av, Elul, Tishrei, Cheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat and Adar), belong to a lunisolar system in which each month begins at the new moon. To keep the festivals in their proper seasons, a thirteenth month, Adar II, is added in seven years of every nineteen, in the fixed Metonic cycle that governs the calendar.
Each month carries its festivals and observances: Nisan holds Passover, Tishrei the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and the festival of Sukkot, Kislev the beginning of Hanukkah, Adar the feast of Purim.
Season and festival
The insistence on keeping Passover in spring is why the Hebrew calendar is lunisolar rather than purely lunar, and the nineteen-year cycle of leap months is its solution. The months structure the Jewish year of remembrance, fasting and rejoicing, and the calendar's era is counted from a traditional date of creation.
The atlas gives each month its place in the year, its festivals, and its character. The Hebrew months belong with the other calendars gathered under Calendars & Time, and their festivals connect to the holiday category.
Enter a year to compare these entries as the atlas records them at that moment. Leave it empty for the present. A year before the common era is entered with a minus sign, so 44 BCE is minus 44.
Regular Months
12
Intercalary Months
1