Hebrew calendar

The Hebrew calendar (Hebrew: ‫ַהּלּוַח ָהִעְבִרי‬, romanized: HaLuah HaIvri), also
called the Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today for Jewish
religious observance and as an official calendar of Israel. It determines the dates
of Jewish holidays and other rituals, such as yahrzeits and the schedule of public
Torah readings. In Israel, it is used for religious purposes, provides a time frame
for agriculture, and is an official calendar for civil holidays alongside the
Gregorian calendar.

Like other lunisolar calendars, the Hebrew calendar consists of months of 29 or

30 days which begin and end at approximately the time of the new moon. As 12
such months comprise a total of just 354 days, a extra lunar month is added
every 2 or 3 years so that the long-term average year length closely Jewish calendar, showing Adar II
approximates the actual length of the solar year. between 1927 and 1948

Originally, the beginning of each month was determined based on physical

observation of a new moon, while the decision of whether to add the leap month was based on observation of natural
agriculture-related events in ancient Israel.[1] Between the years 70 and 1178, these empirical criteria were gradually
replaced with a set of mathematical rules. Month length now follows a fixed schedule which is adjusted based on the
molad interval (a mathematical approximation of the mean time between new moons) and several other rules, while leap
months are now added in 7 out of every 19 years according to the Metonic cycle.

Nowadays, Hebrew years are generally counted according to the system of Anno Mundi (Latin: "in the year of the
world"; Hebrew: ‫לבריאת העולם‬, "from the creation of the world", abbreviated AM). This system attempts to calculate
the number of years since the creation of the world, according to the Genesis creation narrative and subsequent Biblical
stories. The current Hebrew year, AM 5784, began at sunset on 15 September 2023 and will end at sunset on 2 October
2024.[a]

Components

Days

Based on the classic rabbinic interpretation of Genesis 1:5 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0101.htm#5) ("There was
evening and there was morning, one day"), a day in the rabbinic Hebrew calendar runs from sunset (the start of "the
evening") to the next sunset.[2] Similarly, the holidays of Yom Kippur and Passover are described in the Bible as lasting
"from evening to evening".[3] The days are therefore figured locally.

Halachically, the exact time when days begin or end is uncertain: this time could be either sundown (shekiah) or else
nightfall (tzait ha'kochavim, "when the stars appear"). The time between sundown and nightfall (bein hashmashot) is of
uncertain status.[4] Thus (for example) observance of Shabbat begins before sundown on Friday and ends after nightfall
on Saturday, to be sure that Shabbat is not violated no matter when the transition between days occurs.

Instead of the international date line convention, there are varying opinions as to where the day changes. One opinion
uses the antimeridian of Jerusalem (located at 144°47' W, passing through eastern Alaska). Other opinions exist as
well.[5][6] (See International date line in Judaism.)

Hours
Judaism uses multiple systems for dividing hours. In one system, the 24-hour day is divided into fixed hours equal to
1 ⁄ of a day, while each hour is divided into 1080 halakim (parts, singular: helek). A part is 31 ⁄ seconds (1 ⁄ minute).
24 3 18
The ultimate ancestor of the helek was a Babylonian time period called a barleycorn, equal to 1 ⁄72 of a Babylonian time
degree (1° of celestial rotation).[7] These measures are not generally used for everyday purposes; their best-known use is
for calculating and announcing the molad.

In another system, the daytime period is divided into 12 relative hours (sha'ah z'manit, also sometimes called "halachic
hours"). A relative hour is defined as 1 ⁄12 of the time from sunrise to sunset, or dawn to dusk, as per the two opinions in
this regard. Therefore, an hour can be less than 60 minutes in winter, and more than 60 minutes in summer; similarly, the
6th hour ends at solar noon, which generally differs from 12:00. Relative hours are used for the calculation of prayer
times (zmanim); for example, the Shema must be recited in the first three relative hours of the day.[8]

Neither system is commonly used in ordinary life; rather, the local civil clock is used. This is even the case for ritual
times (e.g. "The latest time to recite Shema today is 9:38 AM").[9]

Weeks

The Hebrew week (‫שבוע‬, shavua) is a 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 are simply the day number within the week. The week begins with Day 1 (Sunday)
and ends with Shabbat (Saturday). (More precisely, since days begin in the evening, weeks begin and end on Saturday
evening. Day 1 lasts from Saturday evening to Sunday evening, while Shabbat lasts from Friday evening to Saturday
evening.)

Since some calculations use division, a remainder of 0 signifies Saturday.

In Hebrew, these names may be abbreviated using the numerical value of the Hebrew letters, for example ‫( יום א׳‬Day
1, or Yom Rishon (‫))יום ראשון‬:

Hebrew name Abbreviation Translation English equivalent

Yom Rishon (‫)יום ראשון‬ '‫יום א‬ First day Sunset on Saturday to sunset on Sunday
Yom Sheni (‫)יום שני‬ '‫יום ב‬ Second day Sunset on Sunday to sunset on Monday

Yom Shlishi (‫)יום שלישי‬ '‫יום ג‬ Third day Sunset on Monday to sunset on Tuesday

Yom Revii (‫)יום רביעי‬ '‫יום ד‬ Fourth day Sunset on Thursday to sunset on Friday
Yom Hamishi (‫)יום חמישי‬ '‫יום ה‬ Fifth day Sunset on Wednesday to sunset on Thursday

Yom Shishi (‫)יום שישי‬ '‫יום ו‬ Sixth day Sunset on Thursday to sunset on Friday

Yom Shabbat (‫)יום שבת‬ '‫יום ש‬ Sabbath day Sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday

The names of the days of the week are modeled on the seven days mentioned in the Genesis creation account.[10] For
example, Genesis 1:8 "... And there was evening and there was morning, a second day" corresponds to Yom Sheni
meaning "second day". (However, for days 1, 6, and 7 the modern name differs slightly from the version in Genesis.)

The seventh day, Shabbat, as its Hebrew name indicates, is a day of rest in Judaism. In Talmudic Hebrew, the word
Shabbat (‫ )ַׁשָּבת‬can also mean "week",[11] so that in ritual liturgy a phrase like "Yom Reviʻi beShabbat" means "the
fourth day in the week".[12]

Days of week of holidays

Jewish holidays can only fall on the weekdays shown in the following table:
 Rosh
Purim
17 Hashanah/
Passover Shavuot Katan
Tammuz/ Sukkot/ Yom Chanukah Tu
Purim (first (first 10 Tevet (only in
Tisha Shmini Kippur (first day) Bishvat
day) day) leap
B'Av Atzeret
years)
(first day)

Sun or Sun or
Thu Sat Sun Sun* Mon Wed Sat or Mon Sun or Tue
Mon Tue

Fri Sun Mon Sun Tue Thu Mon Tue Mon Tue
Wed,
Wed or Tue, Wed,
Sun Tue Wed Tue Thu Sat Thu, or Wed or Fri
Thu or Thu
Fri

Fri or
Tue Thu Fri Thu Sat Mon Fri or Sat Thu or Sat Fri or Sun
Sun

*Postponed from Shabbat

The period from 1 Adar (or Adar II, in leap years) to 29 Marcheshvan contains all of the festivals specified in the Bible
(Purim, Passover, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Shemini Atzeret). The lengths of months in this
period are fixed, meaning that the day of week of Passover dictates the day of week of the other Biblical holidays.
However, the lengths of the months of Marcheshvan and Kislev can each vary by a day (due to the Rosh Hashanah
postponement rules which are used to adjust the year length). As a result, the holidays falling after Marcheshvan (starting
with Chanukah) can fall on multiple days for a given row of the table.

Months

The Hebrew calendar is a lunisolar calendar, meaning that months are based on lunar months, but years are based on
solar years.[b] The calendar year features twelve lunar months of 29 or 30 days, with an additional lunar month ("leap
month") added periodically to synchronize the twelve lunar cycles with the longer solar year. These extra months are
added in seven years (3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19) out of a 19-year cycle, known as the Metonic cycle (See Leap months,
below).

The beginning of each Jewish lunar month is based on the appearance of the new moon. Although originally the new
lunar crescent had to be observed and certified by witnesses (as is still done in Karaite Judaism and Islam), nowadays
Jewish months have generally fixed lengths which approximate the period between new moons. For these reasons, a
given month does not always begin on the same day as its astronomical conjunction.[13]

The mean period of the lunar month (precisely, the synodic month) is very close to 29.5 days. Accordingly, the basic
Hebrew calendar year is one of twelve lunar months alternating between 29 and 30 days:[14]
 Month number*

Ecclesiastical/ Gregorian range for first day Range for last day
Biblical Civil Hebrew month Length of month[c] of month

1 7 Nisan 30 12 Mar to 11 Apr 10 Apr to 10 May

2 8 Iyar 29 11 Apr to 11 May 9 May to 8 Jun

3 9 Sivan 30 10 May to 9 Jun 8 Jun to 8 Jul

4 10 Tammuz 29 9 Jun to 9 Jul 7 Jul to 6 Aug

5 11 Av 30 8 Jul to 7 Aug 6 Aug to 5 Sep

6 12 Elul 29 7 Aug to 6 Sep 4 Sep to 4 Oct

7 1 Tishrei 30 5 Sep to 5 Oct 4 Oct to 3 Nov

Cheshvan (or
8 2 29 (or 30) 5 Oct to 4 Nov 3 Nov to 2 Dec
Marcheshvan)

9 3 Kislev 30 (or 29) 4 Nov to 3 Dec 2 Dec to 31 Dec

10 4 Tevet 29 3 Dec to 1 Jan 31 Dec to 29 Jan

11 5 Shevat 30 1 Jan to 30 Jan 30 Jan to 28 Feb

Adar I (only in leap

12 6 30 31 Jan to 11 Feb 1 Mar to 12 Mar
years)

Adar (Adar II in leap

12 6 29 11 Feb to 13 Mar 11 Mar to 10 Apr
years)
354 (or 353 or 355)
Total 30 days more in
leap years

* – For the distinction between numbering systems, see § New year below.

Thus, the year normally contains twelve months with a total of 354 days. In such a year, the month of Marcheshvan has
29 days and Kislev has 30 days. However, due to the Rosh Hashanah postponement rules, in some years Kislev may
lose a day to have 29 days, or Marcheshvan may acquire an additional day to have 30 days.

Normally the 12th month is named Adar. During leap years, the 12th and 13th months are named Adar I and Adar II
(Hebrew: Adar Aleph and Adar Bet—"first Adar" and "second adar"). Sources disagree as to which of these months is
the "real" Adar, and which is the added leap month.[15]

Justification for leap months

The Bible does not directly mention the addition of leap months (also known as "embolismic" or "intercalary" months).
The insertion of the leap month is based on the requirement that Passover occur at the same time of year as the spring
barley harvest (aviv).[16] (Since 12 lunar months make up less than a solar year, the date of Passover would gradually
move throughout the solar year if leap months were not occasionally added.) According to the rabbinic calculation, this
requirement means that Passover (or at least most of Passover) should fall after the March equinox.[17] Similarly, the
holidays of Shavuot and Sukkot are presumed by the Torah to fall in specific agricultural seasons.[18]

Maimonides, discussing the calendrical rules in his Mishneh Torah (1178), 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",[19] which implies that we should count the year by months and not by days.[20]

Years Year 5784 since the creation of the world,

according to the traditional count.

New year This year has 383 days,

making it a deficient (‫ )חסרה‬year.
The Hebrew calendar year conventionally begins on Rosh
Hashanah, the first day of Tishrei. However, the Jewish In 5784, Rosh Hashanah is on Saturday,
calendar also defines several additional new years, used for while Passover is on Tuesday
different purposes. The use of multiple starting dates for a year According to the Machzor Katan, the 19-year
is comparable to different starting dates for civil "calendar (Metonic) cycle used to keep the Hebrew calendar
years", "tax or fiscal years", "academic years", and so on. The aligned with the solar year:
Mishnah (c. 200 CE) identifies four new-year dates:
This year is the 8th year of the 305th cycle.
It is a leap year.
The 1st of Nisan is the new year for kings and According to the Machzor Gadol, a 28-year solar
festivals; the 1st of Elul is the new year for the cycle used to calculate the date to recite Birkat
cattle tithe... the 1st of Tishri is the new year for Hachama, a blessing on the sun:
years, of the years of release and Jubilee years, for
the planting and for vegetables; and the 1st of This year is the 16th year of the 207th cycle.
Shevat is the new year for trees—so the school of According to the current reckoning of sabbatical
Shammai; and the school of Hillel say: On the (shmita) years:
15th thereof. [21]
This year is the 2nd year of the cycle.
It is a maaser sheni year.
Two of these dates are especially prominent:

1 Nisan is the ecclesiastical new year, i.e. the date from which
months and festivals are counted.[22] Thus Passover (which begins
on 15 Nisan) is described in the Torah as falling "in the first
month",[23] while Rosh Hashana (which begins on 1 Tishrei) is
described as falling "in the seventh month".[24]
1 Tishrei is the civil new year, and the date on which the year
number advances. This date is known as Rosh Hashanah (lit. "head
of the year"). Tishrei marks the end of one agricultural year and the
beginning of another,[25] and thus 1 Tishrei is considered the new A shofar made from a ram's horn is
year for most agriculture-related commandments, including Shmita, traditionally blown in observance of
Yovel, Maaser Rishon, Maaser Sheni, and Maaser Ani. Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the
Jewish civic year.
For the dates of the Jewish New Year see Jewish and Israeli holidays 2000–
2050.

Anno Mundi

The Jewish year number is generally given by Anno Mundi (from Latin "in the year of the world", often abbreviated AM
or A.M.). In this calendar era, the year number equals the number of years that have passed since the creation of the
world, according to biblical accounts of the creation and subsequent history. From the eleventh century, anno mundi
dating became the dominant method of counting years throughout most of the world's Jewish communities, replacing
earlier systems such as the Seleucid era.[26][27]

As with Anno Domini (A.D. or AD), the words or abbreviation for Anno Mundi (A.M. or AM) for the era should
properly precede the date rather than follow it.
The reference junction of the Sun and the Moon (Molad 1) on the day of
creation is considered to be at 5 hours and 204 halakim, or 11:11:20 p.m., in the
evening of Sunday, 6 October 3761 BCE.[28]

In Hebrew there are two common ways of writing the year number: with the
thousands, called ‫"( לפרט גדול‬major era"), and without the thousands, called
‫"( לפרט קטן‬minor era"). Thus, the current year is written as ‫ ה'תשפ"ד‬‎(5784)
using the "major era" and ‫ תשפ"ד‬‎(784) using the "minor era".

The Jewish calendar's reference

Cycles of years
point is traditionally held to be about
one year before the Creation of the
Since the Jewish calendar has been fixed, leap months have been added
world.
according to the Metonic cycle of 19 years, of which 12 are common (non-leap)
years of 12 months, and 7 are leap years of 13 months. This 19-year cycle is
known in Hebrew as the Machzor Katan ("small cycle").

Because the Julian years are 365 and 1/4 days long, every 28 years the weekday pattern repeats. This is called the sun
cycle, or the Machzor Gadol ("great cycle") in Hebrew. The beginning of this cycle is arbitrary. Its main use is for
determining the time of Birkat Hachama.

Because every 50 years is a Jubilee year, there is a jubilee (yovel) cycle. Because every seven years is a sabbatical year,
there is a seven-year release cycle. The placement of these cycles is debated. Historically, there is enough evidence to fix
the sabbatical years in the Second Temple Period.[29] But it may not match with the sabbatical cycle derived from the
biblical period; and there is no consensus on whether or not the Jubilee year is the fiftieth year or the latter half of the
forty ninth year.

Every 247 years, or 13 cycles of 19 years, form a period known as an iggul, or the Iggul of Rabbi Nahshon. This period
is notable in that the precise details of the calendar almost always (but not always) repeat over this period. This occurs
because the molad interval (the average length of a Hebrew month) is 29.530594 days, which over 247 years results in a
total of 90215.965 days. This is almost exactly 90216 days - a whole number and multiple of 7 (equalling the days of
the week). So over 247 years, not only does the 19-year leap year cycle repeat itself, but the days of the week (and thus
the days of Rosh Hashanah and the year length) typically repeat themselves.[30][31]

Calculations

Leap year calculations

To determine whether a Jewish year is a leap year, one must find its position in the 19-year Metonic cycle. This position
is calculated by dividing the Jewish year number by 19 and finding the remainder. (Since there is no year 0, a remainder
of 0 indicates that the year is year 19 of the cycle.) For example, the Jewish year 5784 divided by 19 results in a
remainder of 8, indicating that it is year 8 of the Metonic cycle. The Jewish year used is the anno mundi year, in which
the year of creation according to the Rabbinical Chronology (3761 BCE) is taken as year 1. Years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17,
and 19 of the Metonic cycle are leap years. The Hebrew mnemonic GUCHADZaT ‫ גוחאדז״ט‬refers to these years,[d]
while another memory aid refers to musical notation.[e]

Whether a year is a leap year can also be determined by a simple calculation (which also gives the fraction of a month
by which the calendar is behind the seasons, useful for agricultural purposes). To determine whether year n of the
calendar is a leap year, find the remainder on dividing [(7 × n) + 1] by 19. If the remainder is 6 or less it is a leap year; if
it is 7 or more it is not. For example, the remainder on dividing [(7 × 5784) + 1] by 19 is 0, so the year 5784 is a leap
year. The remainder on dividing [(7 × 5785) + 1] by 19 is 7, so the year 5785 is not a leap year.[32] This works because
as there are seven leap years in nineteen years the difference between the solar and lunar years increases by 7/19-month
per year. When the difference goes above 18/19-month this signifies a leap year, and the difference is reduced by one
month.
The Hebrew calendar assumes that a month is uniformly of the length of an average synodic month, taken as exactly
2913753 ⁄25920 days (about 29.530594 days, which is less than half a second from the modern scientific estimate); it also
assumes that a tropical year is exactly 127 ⁄19 times that, i.e., about 365.2468 days. Thus it overestimates the length of the
tropical year (365.2422 days) by 0.0046 days (about 7 minutes) per year, or about one day in 216 years. This error is
less than the Julian years (365.2500 days) make (0.0078 days/year, or one day in 128 years), but much more than what
the Gregorian years (365.2425 days/year) make (0.0003 days/year, or one day in 3333 years).

Rosh Hashanah postponement rules

Besides the adding of leap months, the year length is sometimes adjusted by adding one day to the month of
Marcheshvan, or removing one day from the month of Kislev. Because each calendar year begins with Rosh Hashanah,
adjusting the year length is equivalent to moving the day of the next Rosh Hashanah. Several rules are used to determine
when this is performed.

To calculate the day on which Rosh Hashanah of a given year will fall, the expected molad (moment of lunar
conjunction or new moon) of Tishrei in that year is calculated. The molad is calculated by multiplying the number of
months that will have elapsed since some (preceding) molad (whose weekday is known) by the mean length of a
(synodic) lunar month, which is 29 days, 12 hours, and 793 parts (there are 1080 "parts" in an hour, so that one part is
equal to 31 ⁄3 seconds). The very first molad, the molad tohu, fell on Sunday evening at 11.111 ⁄3 in the local time of
Jerusalem,[33][f] -3761/10/6 (Proleptic Julian calendar) 20:50:23.1 UTC, or in Jewish terms Day 2, 5 hours, and 204
parts.

In calculating the number of months that will have passed since the known molad that one uses as the starting point, one
must remember to include any leap months that falls within the elapsed interval, according to the cycle of leap years. A
19-year cycle of 235 synodic months has 991 weeks 2 days 16 hours 595 parts, a common year of 12 synodic months
has 50 weeks 4 days 8 hours 876 parts, while a leap year of 13 synodic months has 54 weeks 5 days 21 hours 589 parts.

Four conditions are considered to determine whether the date of Rosh Hashanah must be postponed. These are called
the Rosh Hashanah postponement rules, or deḥiyyot.[34][35][36][37][38] The two most important conditions are:

If the molad occurs at or later than noon, Rosh Hashanah is postponed a day. This is called deḥiyyat
molad zaken (‫ְדִחַּית מֹוָלד ָזֵקן‬, literally, "old birth", i.e., late new moon). This rule is mentioned in the
Talmud,[39] and is used nowadays to prevent the molad falling on the second day of the month.[40] This
ensures that the long-term average month length is 29.530594 days (equal to the molad interval), rather
than the 29.5 days implied by the standard alternation between 29- and 30-day months.
If the molad occurs on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday, Rosh Hashanah is postponed a day. If the
application of deḥiyyah molad zaken would place Rosh Hashanah on one of these days, then it must be
postponed a second day. This is called deḥiyyat lo ADU (‫)ְדִחַּית ֹלא אד״ו‬, an acronym that means "not
[weekday] one, four, or six".

This rule is applied for religious reasons, so that Yom Kippur does not fall on a Friday or Sunday, and
Hoshana Rabbah does not fall on Shabbat.[g] Since Shabbat restrictions also apply to Yom Kippur, if
either day feel immediately before the other, it would not be possible to make necessary preparations
for the second day (such as candle lighting).[h] Additionally, the laws of Shabbat override those of
Hoshana Rabbah, so that if Hoshana Rabbah were to fall on Shabbat, the Hoshana Rabbah aravah
ritual could not be performed.[41]
Thus Rosh Hashanah can only fall on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The kevi'ah uses
the letters ‫ב‬, ‫ג‬, ‫ ה‬and ‫( ז‬representing 2, 3, 5, and 7, for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday) to
denote the starting day of Rosh Hashana and the year.

Another two rules are applied much less frequently and serve to prevent impermissible year lengths. Their names are
Hebrew acronyms that refer to the ways they are calculated:

If the molad in a common year falls on a Tuesday, on or after 9 hours and 204 parts, Rosh Hashanah is
postponed to Thursday. This is deḥiyyat GaTaRaD (‫ְדִחַּית גטר״ד‬, where the acronym stands for "3
[Tuesday], 9, 204").
If the molad following a leap year falls on a Monday, on or after 15 hours and 589 parts after the Hebrew
day began (for calculation purposes, this is taken to be 6 pm Sunday), Rosh Hashanah is postponed to
 Tuesday. This is deḥiyyat BeTUTeKaPoT (‫)ְדִחַּית בט״ו תקפ״ט‬, where the acronym stands for "2
[Monday], 15, 589".

Deficient, regular, and complete years

A Jewish common year can only have 353, 354, or 355 days. A leap year is always 30 days longer, and so can have
383, 384, or 385 days.[14]

A chaserah year (Hebrew for "deficient" or "incomplete") is 353 or 383 days long. Both Cheshvan and
Kislev have 29 days.
A kesidrah year ("regular" or "in-order") is 354 or 384 days long. Cheshvan has 29 days while Kislev
has 30 days.
A shlemah year ("complete" or "perfect", also "abundant") is 355 or 385 days long. Both Cheshvan and
Kislev have 30 days.

Whether a year is deficient, regular, or complete is determined by the time between two adjacent Rosh Hashanah
observances and the leap year.

A Metonic cycle equates to 235 lunar months in each 19-year cycle. This gives an average of 6,939 days, 16 hours, and
595 parts for each cycle.[42] But due to the Rosh Hashanah postponement rules (preceding section) a cycle of 19 Jewish
years can be either 6,939, 6,940, 6,941, or 6,942 days in duration. Since none of these values is evenly divisible by
seven, the Jewish calendar repeats exactly only following 36,288 Metonic cycles, or 689,472 Jewish years. There is a
near-repetition every 247 years, except for an excess of 50 minutes 162 ⁄3 seconds (905 parts).

Contrary to popular impression, one's Hebrew birthday does not necessarily fall on the same Gregorian date every 19
years, since the length of the Metonic cycle varies by several days (as does the length of a 19-year Gregorian period,
depending whether it contains 4 or 5 leap years).[43]

Keviah

There are three qualities that distinguish one year Days in year -> 353 354 355 383 384 385
from another: whether it is a leap year or a common Day of Rosh HaShanah English Kevi'ah
year; on which of four permissible days of the week
Monday (2) 2D3 2C5 2D5 2C7
the year begins; and whether it is a deficient, regular,
or complete year. Mathematically, there are 24 Tuesday (3) 3R5 3R7
(2×4×3) possible combinations, but only 14 of them
Thursday (5) 5R7 5C1 5D1 5C3
are valid.
Saturday (7) 7D1 7C3 7D3 7C5
Each of these patterns is known by a kevi'ah
(Hebrew: ‫ קביעה‬for 'a setting' or 'an established thing'), which is a code consisting of two numbers and a letter. In
English, the code consists of the following:

The left number is the day of the week of 1 Tishrei, Rosh Hashanah (2 3 5 7; Hebrew: ‫)ב ג ה ז‬
The letter indicates whether that year is deficient (D, "‫"ח‬, from Hebrew: ‫חסרה‬, romanized: Chasera),
regular (R, "‫"כ‬, from Hebrew: ‫כסדרה‬, romanized: Kesidra), or complete (C, "‫"ש‬, from Hebrew: ‫שלמה‬,
romanized: Shlema)
The right number is the day of the week of 15 Nisan, the first day of Passover or Pesach
(1 3 5 7; Hebrew: ‫)א ג ה ז‬, within the same Hebrew year (next Julian/Gregorian year)

The kevi'ah in Hebrew letters is written right-to-left, so their days of the week are reversed, the right number for
1 Tishrei and the left for 15 Nisan.

The kevi'ah also determines the Torah reading cycle (which parshiyot are read together or separately.[44]

The four gates

The keviah, and thus the annual calendar, of a numbered Hebrew year can be determined by consulting the table of Four
Gates, whose inputs are the year's position in the 19-year cycle and its molad Tishrei.[45]: 150–152 [46][47][48][i][49] In this
table, the years of a 19-year cycle are organized into four groups (or "gates"): common years after a leap year but before
a common year (1 4 9 12 15); common years between two leap years (7 18); common years after a common year but
before a leap year (2 5 10 13 16); and leap years (3 6 8 11 14 17 19).[50]

This table numbers the days of the week and hours for the limits of molad Tishrei in the Hebrew manner for calendrical
calculations, that is, both begin at 6 pm, thus 7d 18h 0p is noon Saturday. The oldest surviving table of Four Gates was
written by Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi in 824.[51]

Four gates or Table of Limits

molad Year of 19-year cycle
Tishrei ≥ 1 4 9 12 15 7 18 2 5 10 13 16 3 6 8 11 14 17 19
7d 18h 0p 2D3 ‫בחג‬ 2D5 ‫בחה‬
1d 9h 204p
1d 20h 491p 2C5 ‫בשה‬ 2C7 ‫בשז‬
2d 15h 589p
2d 18h 0p 3R5 ‫גכה‬ 3R7 ‫גכז‬
3d 9h 204p
3d 18h 0p 5R7 ‫הכז‬ 5D1 ‫החא‬
4d 11h 695p
5d 9h 204p 5C1 ‫השא‬ 5C3 ‫השג‬
5d 18h 0p
6d 0h 408p 7D1 ‫זחא‬ 7D3 ‫זחג‬
6d 9h 204p
6d 20h 491p 7C3 ‫זשג‬ 7C5 ‫זשה‬

Incidence

Comparing the days of the week of molad Tishrei with those in the kevi'ah shows that during 39% of years 1 Tishrei is
not postponed beyond the day of the week of its molad Tishrei, 47% are postponed one day, and 14% are postponed
two days. This table also identifies the seven types of common years and seven types of leap years. Most are represented
in any 19-year cycle, except one or two may be in neighboring cycles. The most likely type of year is 5R7 in 18.1% of
years, whereas the least likely is 5C1 in 3.3% of years. The day of the week of 15 Nisan is later than that of 1 Tishrei by
one, two or three days for common years and three, four or five days for leap years in deficient, regular or complete
years, respectively.
 Incidence (percentage)
common years leap years

5R7 18.05 5C3 6.66

7C3 13.72 7D3 5.8

2C5 11.8 2D5 5.8

3R5 6.25 3R7 5.26

2D3 5.71 2C7 4.72

7D1 4.33 7C5 4.72

5C1 3.31 5D1 3.87

Worked example

Given the length of the year, the length of each month is fixed as described above, so the real problem in determining the
calendar for a year is determining the number of days in the year. In the modern calendar, this is determined in the
following manner.[j]

The day of Rosh Hashanah and the length of the year are determined by the time and the day of the week of the Tishrei
molad, that is, the moment of the average conjunction. Given the Tishrei molad of a certain year, the length of the year is
determined as follows:

First, one must determine whether each year is an ordinary or leap year by its position in the 19-year Metonic cycle.
Years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 are leap years.

Secondly, one must determine the number of days between the starting Tishrei molad (TM1) and the Tishrei molad of
the next year (TM2). For calendar descriptions in general the day begins at 6 p.m., but for the purpose of determining
Rosh Hashanah, a molad occurring on or after noon is treated as belonging to the next day (the first deḥiyyah).[k] All
months are calculated as 29d, 12h, 44m, 31 ⁄3 s long (MonLen). Therefore, in an ordinary year TM2 occurs 12 ×
MonLen days after TM1. This is usually 354 calendar days after TM1, but if TM1 is on or after 3:11:20 a.m. and before
noon, it will be 355 days. Similarly, in a leap year, TM2 occurs 13 × MonLen days after TM1. This is usually 384 days
after TM1, but if TM1 is on or after noon and before 2:27:162 ⁄3 p.m., TM2 will be only 383 days after TM1. In the
same way, from TM2 one calculates TM3. Thus the four natural year lengths are 354, 355, 383, and 384 days.

However, because of the holiday rules, Rosh Hashanah cannot fall on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday, so if TM2 is one
of those days, Rosh Hashanah in year 2 is postponed by adding one day to year 1 (the second deḥiyyah). To
compensate, one day is subtracted from year 2. It is to allow for these adjustments that the system allows 385-day years
(long leap) and 353-day years (short ordinary) besides the four natural year lengths.

But how can year 1 be lengthened if it is already a long ordinary year of 355 days or year 2 be shortened if it is a short
leap year of 383 days? That is why the third and fourth deḥiyyahs are needed.

If year 1 is already a long ordinary year of 355 days, there will be a problem if TM1 is on a Tuesday,[l] as that means
TM2 falls on a Sunday and will have to be postponed, creating a 356-day year. In this case, Rosh Hashanah in year 1 is
postponed from Tuesday (the third deḥiyyah). As it cannot be postponed to Wednesday, it is postponed to Thursday, and
year 1 ends up with 354 days.

On the other hand, if year 2 is already a short year of 383 days, there will be a problem if TM2 is on a Wednesday.[m]
because Rosh Hashanah in year 2 will have to be postponed from Wednesday to Thursday and this will cause year 2 to
be only 382 days long. In this case, year 2 is extended by one day by postponing Rosh Hashanah in year 3 from
Monday to Tuesday (the fourth deḥiyyah), and year 2 will have 383 days.

Holidays
For calculated dates of Jewish holidays, see Jewish and Israeli holidays 2000–2050

Accuracy

Molad interval

A "new moon" (astronomically called a lunar conjunction and, in Hebrew, a molad) is the moment at which the sun and
moon have the same ecliptic longitude (i.e. they are aligned horizontally with respect to a north–south line). The period
between two new moons is a synodic month. The actual length of a synodic month varies from about 29 days 6 hours
and 30 minutes (29.27 days) to about 29 days and 20 hours (29.83 days), a variation range of about 13 hours and 30
minutes. Accordingly, for convenience, the Hebrew calendar uses a long-term average month length, known as the
molad interval, which equals the mean synodic month of ancient times. The molad interval is 29 days, 12 hours, and
793 "parts" (1 "part" = 1 /18 minute = 31 /3 seconds) (i.e., 29.530594 days), and is the same value determined by the
Babylonians in their System B about 300 BCE[52] and was adopted by Hipparchus (2nd century BCE) and by Ptolemy
in the Almagest (2nd century CE). Its remarkable accuracy (less than one second from the current true value) is thought
to have been achieved using records of lunar eclipses from the 8th to 5th centuries BCE.[53] In the Talmudic era, when
the mean synodic month was slightly shorter than at present, the molad interval was even more accurate, being
"essentially a perfect fit" for the mean synodic month at the time.[13]

Currently, the accumulated drift in the moladot since the Talmudic era has reached a total of approximately 97
minutes.[13] This means that the molad of Tishrei lands one day later than it ought to in (97 minutes) ÷ (1440 minutes
per day) = nearly 7% of years. Therefore, the seemingly small drift of the moladot is already significant enough to affect
the date of Rosh Hashanah, which then cascades to many other dates in the calendar year, and sometimes (due to the
Rosh Hashanah postponement rules) also interacts with the dates of the prior or next year.

The rate of calendar drift is increasing with time, since the mean synodic month is progressively shortening due to
gravitational tidal effects. Measured on a strictly uniform time scale (such as that provided by an atomic clock) the mean
synodic month is becoming gradually longer, but since the tides slow Earth's rotation rate even more, the mean synodic
month is becoming gradually shorter in terms of mean solar time.[13]

Metonic cycle drift

A larger source of error is the inaccuracy of the Metonic cycle. Nineteen Jewish years average 6939d 16h 33m 031 ⁄3 s,
compared to the 6939d 14h 26m 15s of nineteen mean solar years.[42] Thus, the Hebrew calendar drifts by just over 2
hours every 19 years, or approximately one day every 216 years.[54] Due to accumulation of this discrepancy, the
earliest date on which Passover can fall has drifted by roughly six days, from approximately March 21 (the actual
equinox) to approximately March 27.[55] In the distant future, this drift is projected to move Passover much further in the
year.[55] If the calendar is not amended, then Passover will start to land on or after the summer solstice around
approximately AM 16652 (12892 CE).[n]

Implications for Jewish ritual

When the calendar was fixed in the 4th century, the earliest Passover (in year 16 of the Metonic cycle) began on the first
full moon after the March equinox.[o] This is still the case in about 80% of years; but, in about 20% of years, Passover is
a month late by this criterion.[p] Presently, this occurs after the "premature" insertion of a leap month in years 8, 11, and
19 of each 19-year cycle, which causes Passover to fall especially far after the March equinox in such years. Calendar
drift also impacts the observance of Sukkot, which will shift into Israel's winter rainy season, making dwelling in the
sukkah less practical, and affecting the logic of the Shemini Atzeret prayer for rain which will be more often recited once
rains are already underway.

Modern scholars have debated at which point the drift could become ritually problematic, and proposed adjustments to
the fixed calendar to keep Passover in its proper season.[55] The seriousness of the calendar drift is discounted by many,
on the grounds that Passover will remain in the spring season for many millennia, and the Torah is generally not
interpreted as having specified tight calendrical limits. However, some writers and researchers have proposed
"corrected" calendars (with modifications to the leap year cycle, molad interval, or both) which would compensate for
these issues:

Dr. Irv Bromberg has proposed a 353-year cycle of 4,366 months, which would include 130 leap
months, along with use of a progressively shorter molad interval, which would keep an amended fixed
arithmetic Hebrew calendar from drifting for more than seven millennia.[56] The 353 years would consist
of 18 Metonic cycles, as well as a 11-year period in which the last 8 years of the Metonic cycle are
omitted.[56]
Other authors have proposed to use cycles of 334 or 687 years.[55]
Another suggestion is to delay the leap years gradually so that a whole intercalary month is taken out at
the end of Iggul 21; while also changing the synodic month to be the more accurate 29.53058868 days.
Thus the length of the year would be (235*13*26-1)/(19*13*26) = 365.2426 days, very close to the actual
365.2422 days of the tropical year. The result is the "Hebrew Calendar" in the program
CalMaster2000.[57]

Religious questions abound about how such a system might be implemented and administered throughout the diverse
aspects of the world Jewish community.[58]

Usage

In Auschwitz

While imprisoned in Auschwitz, Jews made every effort to observe Jewish tradition in the camps, despite the
monumental dangers in doing so. The Hebrew calendar, which is a tradition with great importance to Jewish practice
and rituals was particularly dangerous since no tools of telling of time, such as watches and calendars, were permitted in
the camps.[59] The keeping of a Hebrew calendar was a rarity amongst prisoners and there are only two known
surviving calendars that were made in Auschwitz, both of which were made by women.[59] Before this, the tradition of
making a Hebrew calendar was greatly assumed to be the job of a man in Jewish society.[59]

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: major Jewish holidays such
as Sukkot, Passover, and 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.

After the creation of the State of Israel, the Hebrew calendar became one of the official calendars of Israel, along with
the Gregorian calendar. Holidays and commemorations not derived from previous Jewish tradition were to be fixed
according to the Hebrew calendar date. For example, the Israeli Independence Day falls on 5 Iyar, Jerusalem
Reunification Day on 28 Iyar, Yom HaAliyah on 10 Nisan, and the Holocaust Commemoration Day on 27 Nisan.

The Hebrew calendar is still widely acknowledged, appearing in public venues such as banks (where it is legal for use
on cheques and other documents),[60][61] and on the mastheads of newspapers.[62]

The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) is a two-day public holiday in Israel. However, since the 1980s an increasing
number of secular Israelis celebrate the Gregorian New Year (usually known as "Silvester Night"—‫ )ליל סילבסטר‬on
the night between 31 December and 1 January. Prominent rabbis have on several occasions sharply denounced this
practice, but with no noticeable effect on the secularist celebrants.[63]
Wall calendars commonly used in Israel are hybrids. Most are organised according to Gregorian rather than Jewish
months, but begin in September, when the Jewish New Year usually falls, and provide the Jewish date in small
characters.

History

Early formation

Lunisolar calendars similar to the Hebrew calendar, consisting of twelve lunar months plus an occasional 13th
intercalary month to synchronize with the solar/agricultural cycle, were used in all ancient Middle Eastern civilizations
except Egypt, and likely date to the 3rd millenium BCE.[64] While there is no mention of this 13th month anywhere in
the Hebrew Bible,[65] still most Biblical scholars hold that the intercalation process was almost certainly a regularly
occurring aspect of the early Hebrew calendar keeping process.[66]

Month names

Biblical references to the pre-exilic calendar include ten of the twelve months
identified by number rather than by name.

Prior to the Babylonian captivity, the names of only four months are referred to
in the Tanakh: Aviv (first month),[67] Ziv (second month),[68] Ethanim (seventh
month),[69] and Bul (eighth month).[70] All of these are believed to be Canaanite
names.[71] The last three of these names are only mentioned in connection with
the building of the First Temple and Håkan Ulfgard suggests that the use of
Calendar for the year 1840/41.
what are rarely used Canaanite (or in the case of Ethanim perhaps Northwest
Printed by I. Lehrberger u. Comp.,
Semitic) names indicates that "the author is consciously utilizing an archaizing
Rödelheim. In the collection of the
terminology, thus giving the impression of an ancient story...".[72] Alternatively, Jewish Museum of Switzerland.
these names may be attributed to the presence of Phoenician scribes in
Solomon's court at the time of the building of the Temple.[73]

During the Babylonian captivity, the Jewish people adopted the Babylonian names for the months. The Babylonian
calendar descended directly from the Sumerian calendar.[74] These Babylonian month-names (such as Nisan, Iyyar,
Tammuz, Ab, Elul, Tishri and Adar) are shared with the modern Levantine solar calendar (currently used in the Arabic-
speaking countries of the Fertile Crescent) and the modern Assyrian calendar, indicating a common origin.[65] The
origin is thought to be the Babylonian calendar.[65]
 Hebrew names of the months with their Babylonian analogs
Common/ Babylonian Holidays/
# Hebrew Tiberian Academy Length Notes
Other analog Notable days

Called
Abib[75]
and
1 ‫ִניָס ן‬ Nīsān Nisan Nissan 30 days Nisanu Passover
Nisan[76]
in the
Tanakh.

Pesach Sheni Called

2 ‫ ִא יָיר‬/ ‫ִא ָּיר‬ ʼIyyār Iyyar Iyar 29 days Ayaru
Lag B'Omer Ziv[77]

3 ‫ סיוון‬/ ‫ִס יָון‬ Sīwān Sivan Siwan 30 days Simanu Shavuot

Named for
the
Seventeenth of
4 ‫ַּת ּמ ּוז‬ Tammūz Tammuz Tamuz 29 days Dumuzu
Tammuz
Babylonian
god
Dumuzi

Tisha B'Av
5 ‫ָא ב‬ ʼĀḇ Av Ab 30 days Abu
Tu B'Av

6 ‫ֱא לּול‬ ʼĔlūl Elul 29 days Ululu

Called
Rosh Hashanah Ethanim in
Yom Kippur Kings
7 ‫ ִּת ְׁש ִר י‬/ ‫ִּת ְׁש ֵר י‬ Tišrī Tishri Tishrei 30 days Tashritu Sukkot 8:2[78].
Shemini Atzeret First
Simchat Torah month of
civil year.

Marcheshvan Called Bul

/ ‫ַמ ְר ֶח ְׁש ָון‬ 29 or in Kings
8 Marḥešwān Marẖeshvan Cheshvan Arakhsamna
‫מרחשוון‬ 30 days
Marẖeshwan 6:38.[79]
Kislev
29 or
9 ‫ כסליו‬/ ‫ִּכ ְס ֵלו‬ Kislēw Kislev Chisleu
30 days
Kislimu Hanukkah
Chislev

10 ‫ֵט ֵב ת‬ Ṭēḇēṯ Tevet Tebeth 29 days Tebetu Tenth of Tevet

Shevat
11 ‫ְׁש ָב ט‬ Šəḇāṭ Shvat Shebat 30 days Shabatu Tu Bishvat
Sebat

12L* ‫ֲא ָד ר א׳‬ Adar I* 30 days *

Only in
Leap
12 *‫ ֲא ָד ר ב׳‬/ ‫ֲא ָד ר‬ ʼĂḏār Adar / Adar II* 29 days Adaru Purim years.

Past methods of dividing years

According to some Christian and Karaite sources, the tradition in ancient Israel was that 1 Nisan would not start until the
barley is ripe, being the test for the onset of spring.[q] If the barley was not ripe, an intercalary month would be added
before Nisan.

In the 1st century, Josephus stated that while –

Moses...appointed Nisan...as the first month for the festivals...the commencement of the year for everything
relating to divine worship, but for selling and buying and other ordinary affairs he preserved the ancient
order [i. e. the year beginning with Tishrei]."[81]
Edwin Thiele concluded that the ancient northern Kingdom of Israel counted years using the ecclesiastical new year
starting on 1 Aviv/Nisan (Nisan-years), while the southern Kingdom of Judah counted years using the civil new year
starting on 1 Tishrei (Tishri-years).[82] The practice of the Kingdom of Israel was also that of Babylon,[83] as well as
other countries of the region.[65] The practice of Judah is continued in modern Judaism and is celebrated as Rosh
Hashana.

Past methods of numbering years

Before the adoption of the current Anno Mundi year numbering system, other systems were used. In early times, the
years were counted from some significant event such as the Exodus.[84] During the period of the monarchy, it was the
widespread practice in western Asia to use era year numbers according to the accession year of the monarch of the
country involved. This practice was followed by the united kingdom of Israel,[85] kingdom of Judah,[86] kingdom of
Israel,[87] Persia,[88] and others. Besides, the author of Kings coordinated dates in the two kingdoms by giving the
accession year of a monarch in terms of the year of the monarch of the other kingdom,[89] though some commentators
note that these dates do not always synchronise.[82] Other era dating systems have been used at other times. For
example, Jewish communities in the Babylonian diaspora counted the years from the first deportation from Israel, that of
Jehoiachin in 597 BCE.[90] The era year was then called "year of the captivity of Jehoiachin".[91]

During the Hellenistic Maccabean period, Seleucid era counting was used, at least in Land of Israel (under Greek
influence at the time). The Books of the Maccabees used Seleucid era dating exclusively,[92] as did Josephus writing in
the Roman period. From the 1st-10th centuries, the center of world Judaism was in the Middle East (primarily Iraq and
Palestine), and Jews in these regions also used Seleucid era dating, which they called the "Era of Contracts [or
Documents]".[26] The Talmud states:

Rav Aha bar Jacob then put this question: How do we know that our Era [of Documents] is connected with
the Kingdom of Greece at all? Why not say that it is reckoned from the Exodus from Egypt, omitting the
first thousand years and giving the years of the next thousand? In that case, the document is really post-
dated!
Said Rav Nahman: In the Diaspora the Greek Era alone is used.
He [Rav Aha] thought that Rav Nahman wanted to dispose of him anyhow, but when he went and studied
it thoroughly he found that it is indeed taught [in a Baraita]: In the Diaspora the Greek Era alone is used.[93]

In the 8th and 9th centuries, as the center of Jewish life moved from Babylonia to Europe, counting using the Seleucid
era "became meaningless", and thus was replaced by the anno mundi system.[26] The use of the Seleucid era continued
till the 16th century in the East, and was employed even in the 19th century among Yemenite Jews.[94]

Occasionally in Talmudic writings, reference was made to other starting points for eras, such as destruction era dating,
being the number of years since the 70 CE destruction of the Second Temple.[94] There is indication that Jews of the
Rhineland in the early Middle Ages used the "years after the destruction of the Temple".[95]

Leap months

According to normative Judaism, Exodus 12:1–2 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0212.htm#1) requires that the

months be determined by a proper court with the necessary authority to sanctify the months. Hence the court, not the
astronomy, has the final decision.[96] When the observational form of the calendar was in use, whether or not a leap
month was added depended on three factors: 'aviv [i.e., the ripeness of barley], fruits of trees, and the equinox. On two
of these grounds it should be intercalated, but not on one of them alone.[1] It may be noted that in the Bible the name of
the first month, Aviv, literally means "spring". Thus, if Adar was over and spring had not yet arrived, an additional
month was observed.

Determining the new month in the Mishnaic period

The Tanakh contains several commandments related to the keeping of the
calendar and the lunar cycle, and records changes that have taken place to the
Hebrew calendar. Numbers 10:10 stresses the importance in Israelite religious
observance of the new month (Hebrew: ‫ראש חודש‬, Rosh Chodesh, "beginning
of the month"): "... in your new moons, ye shall blow with the trumpets over
your burnt-offerings..."[97] Similarly in Numbers 28:11.[98] "The beginning of
The Trumpeting Place inscription, a
the month" meant the appearance of a new moon, and in Exodus 12:2.[99] "This
stone (2.43×1 m) with Hebrew
month is to you".
inscription "To the Trumpeting Place"
is believed to be a part of the
According to the Mishnah and Tosefta, in the Maccabean, Herodian, and
Second Temple.
Mishnaic periods, new months were determined by the sighting of a new
crescent, with two eyewitnesses required to testify to the Sanhedrin to having
seen the new lunar crescent at sunset.[100] The practice in the time of Gamaliel
II (c. 100 CE) was for 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.[101] These observations
were compared against calculations.[39]

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 began to light false fires, messengers were sent.[102] The inability of the
messengers to reach communities outside Israel before mid-month High Holy Days (Succot and 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.[103] It has been noted that the
procedures described in the Mishnah and Tosefta are all plausible procedures for regulating an empirical lunar
calendar.[104] Fire-signals, for example, or smoke-signals, are known from the pre-exilic Lachish ostraca.[105]
Furthermore, the Mishnah contains laws that reflect the uncertainties of an empirical calendar. Mishnah Sanhedrin, for
example, holds that when one witness holds that an event took place on a certain day of the month, and another that the
same event took place on the following day, their testimony can be held to agree, since the length of the preceding
month was uncertain.[106] Another Mishnah takes it for granted that it cannot be known in advance whether a year's
lease is for twelve or thirteen months.[107] Hence it is a reasonable conclusion that the Mishnaic calendar was actually
used in the Mishnaic period.

The accuracy of the Mishnah's claim that the Mishnaic calendar was also used in the late Second Temple period is less
certain. One scholar has noted that there are no laws from Second Temple period sources that indicate any doubts about
the length of a month or of a year. This led him to propose that the priests must have had some form of computed
calendar or calendrical rules that allowed them to know in advance whether a month would have 30 or 29 days, and
whether a year would have 12 or 13 months.[108]

The fixing of the calendar

Between 70 and 1178 CE, the observation-based calendar was gradually replaced by a mathematically calculated
one.[109]

The Talmuds indicate at least the beginnings of a transition from a purely empirical to a computed calendar. Samuel of
Nehardea (c. 165-254) stated that he could determine the dates of the holidays by calculation rather than
observation.[110] According to a statement attributed to Yose (late 3rd century), Purim could not fall on a Sabbath nor a
Monday, lest Yom Kippur fall on a Friday or a Sunday.[111] This indicates that, by the time of the redaction of the
Jerusalem Talmud (c. 400 CE), there were 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. Elsewhere, Shimon ben Pazi is reported to have
counseled "those who make the computations" not to set Rosh Hashana or Hoshana Rabbah on Shabbat.[112] This
indicates that there was a group who "made computations" and controlled, to some extent, the day of the week on which
Rosh Hashana would fall.

There is a tradition, first mentioned by Hai Gaon (died 1038 CE), that Hillel II was responsible for the new calculated
calendar with a fixed intercalation cycle "in the year 670 of the Seleucid era" (i.e., 358–359 CE). Later writers, such as
Nachmanides, explained Hai Gaon's words to mean that the entire computed calendar was due to Hillel II in response to
persecution of Jews. Maimonides (12th century) stated that the Mishnaic calendar was used "until the days of Abaye and
Rava" (c. 320–350 CE), and that the change came when "the land of Israel was destroyed, and no permanent court was
left." Taken together, these two traditions suggest that Hillel II (whom they identify with the mid-4th-century Jewish
patriarch Ioulos, attested in a letter of the Emperor Julian,[113] and the Jewish patriarch Ellel, mentioned by
Epiphanius[114]) instituted the computed Hebrew calendar because of persecution. H. Graetz[115] linked the
introduction of the computed calendar to a sharp repression following a failed Jewish insurrection that occurred during
the rule of the Christian emperor Constantius and Gallus. Saul Lieberman argued instead that the introduction of the
fixed calendar was due to measures taken by Christian Roman authorities to prevent the Jewish patriarch from sending
calendrical messengers.[116]

Both the tradition that Hillel II instituted the complete computed calendar, and the theory that the computed calendar was
introduced due to repression or persecution, have been questioned.[117][118][119] Furthermore, two Jewish dates during
post-Talmudic times (specifically in 506 and 776) are impossible under the rules of the modern calendar, indicating that
some of its arithmetic rules were established in Babylonia during the times of the Geonim (7th to 8th centuries).[120]
Most likely, the procedure established in 359 involved a fixed molad interval slightly different from the current one,[r]
Rosh Hashana postponement rules similar but not identical to current rules,[s] and leap months were added based on
when Passover preceded a fixed cutoff date rather than through a repeated 19-year cycle.[121] The Rosh Hashana rules
apparently reached their modern form between 629 and 648, the modern molad interval was likely fixed in 776, while
the fixed 19-year cycle also likely dates to the late 8th century.[121]

Except for the epoch year number (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), the calendar rules reached their current form by the beginning of the 9th
century, as described by the Persian Muslim astronomer Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi in 823.[122][123] Al-
Khwarizmi's study of the Jewish calendar describes the 19-year intercalation cycle,[124] the rules for determining on
what day of the week the first day of the month Tishrei 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.[122][123] Not all the rules were in place by 835.[109]

In 921, Aaron ben Meïr proposed changes to the calendar. Though the proposals were rejected, they indicate that all of
the rules of the modern calendar (except for the epoch) were in place before that date. In 1000, the Muslim chronologist
al-Biruni described all of the modern rules of the Hebrew calendar, except that he specified three different epochs used
by various Jewish communities being one, two, or three years later than the modern epoch.[45]

In 1178, Maimonides included all the rules for the calculated calendar and their scriptural basis, including the modern
epochal year, in his work Mishneh Torah. He wrote[125] that he had chosen the epoch from which calculations of all
dates should be as "the third day of Nisan in this present year ... which is the year 4938 of the creation of the world" (22
March 1178).[126] Today, these rules are generally used by Jewish communities throughout the world.

Other calendars
Outside of Rabbinic Judaism, evidence shows a diversity of practice.

Karaite calendar

Karaites use the lunar month and the solar year, but the Karaite calendar differs from the current Rabbinic calendar in a
number of ways. The Karaite calendar is identical to the Rabbinic calendar used before the Sanhedrin changed the
Rabbinic calendar from the lunar, observation based, calendar to the current, mathematically based, calendar used in
Rabbinic Judaism today.

In the lunar Karaite calendar, the beginning of each month, the Rosh Chodesh, can be calculated, but is confirmed by
the observation in Israel of the first sightings of the new moon.[127] This may result in an occasional variation of a
maximum of one day, depending on the inability to observe the new moon. The day is usually "picked up" in the next
month.

The addition of the leap month (Adar II) is determined by observing in Israel the ripening of barley at a specific stage
(defined by Karaite tradition) (called aviv),[128] rather than using the calculated and fixed calendar of rabbinic Judaism.
Occasionally this results in Karaites being one month ahead of other Jews using the calculated rabbinic calendar. The
"lost" month would be "picked up" in the next cycle when Karaites would observe a leap month while other Jews
would not.

Furthermore, the seasonal drift of the rabbinic calendar is avoided, resulting in the years affected by the drift starting one
month earlier in the Karaite calendar.

Also, the four rules of postponement of the rabbinic calendar are not applied, since they are not mentioned in the
Tanakh. This can affect the dates observed for all the Jewish holidays in a particular year by one or two days.

In the Middle Ages many Karaite Jews outside Israel followed the calculated rabbinic calendar, because it was not
possible to retrieve accurate aviv barley data from the land of Israel. However, since the establishment of the State of
Israel, and especially since the Six-Day War, the Karaite Jews that have made aliyah can now again use the
observational calendar.

Samaritan calendar

The Samaritan community's calendar also relies on lunar months and solar years. Calculation of the Samaritan calendar
has historically been a secret reserved to the priestly family alone,[129] and was based on observations of the new
crescent moon. More recently, a 20th-century Samaritan High Priest transferred the calculation to a computer algorithm.
The current High Priest confirms the results twice a year, and then distributes calendars to the community.[130]

The epoch of the Samaritan calendar is year of the entry of the Children of Israel into the Land of Israel with Joshua.
The month of Passover is the first month in the Samaritan calendar, but the year number increments in the sixth month.
Like in the Rabbinic calendar, there are seven leap years within each 19-year cycle. However, the Rabbinic and
Samaritan calendars' cycles are not synchronized, so Samaritan festivals—notionally the same as the Rabbinic festivals
of Torah origin—are frequently one month off from the date according to the Rabbinic calendar. Additionally, as in the
Karaite calendar, the Samaritan calendar does not apply the four rules of postponement, since they are not mentioned in
the Tanakh. This can affect the dates observed for all the Jewish holidays in a particular year by one or two
days.[129][130]

The Qumran calendar

Many of the Dead Sea Scrolls have references to a unique calendar, used by the people there, who are often assumed to
be Essenes. The year of this calendar used the ideal Mesopotamian calendar of twelve 30-day months, to which were
added 4 days at the equinoxes and solstices (cardinal points), making a total of 364 days.[131]

With only 364 days, the calendar would be very noticeably different from the actual seasons after a few years, but there
is nothing to indicate what was done about this problem. Various scholars have suggested that nothing was done and the
calendar was allowed to change with respect to the seasons, or that changes were made irregularly when the seasonal
anomaly was too great to be ignored any longer.[131]

Other calendars used by ancient Jews

Calendrical evidence for the postexilic Persian period is found in papyri from the Jewish colony at Elephantine, in
Egypt. These documents show that the Jewish community of Elephantine used the Egyptian and Babylonian
calendars.[132][133]

The Sardica paschal table shows that the Jewish community of some eastern city, possibly Antioch, used a calendrical
scheme that kept Nisan 14 within the limits of the Julian month of March.[134] Some of the dates in the document are
clearly corrupt, but they can be emended to make the sixteen years in the table consistent with a regular intercalation
scheme. Peter, the bishop of Alexandria (early 4th century CE), mentions that the Jews of his city "hold their Passover
according to the course of the moon in the month of Phamenoth, or according to the intercalary month every third year
in the month of Pharmuthi",[135] suggesting a fairly consistent intercalation scheme that kept Nisan 14 approximately
between Phamenoth 10 (March 6 in the 4th century CE) and Pharmuthi 10 (April 5).
Jewish funerary inscriptions from Zoar (south of the Dead Sea), dated from the 3rd to the 5th century, indicate that when
years were intercalated, the intercalary month was at least sometimes a repeated month of Adar. The inscriptions,
however, reveal no clear pattern of regular intercalations, nor do they indicate any consistent rule for determining the
start of the lunar month.[136]

See also
Judaism portal

Biblical and Talmudic units of measurement

Chronology of the Bible
Gezer calendar
Hebrew astronomy
Jewish astrology
Jewish and Israeli holidays 2000–2050
List of observances set by the Hebrew calendar

Notes
a. This and certain other calculations in this article are now provided by a template ({{Hebrew
year/rhdatum}}). This template is mainly sourced from http://www.hebcal.com, though the information is
widely available.
b. In contrast, the Gregorian calendar is a pure solar calendar, while the Islamic calendar is a pure lunar
calendar.
c. Valid at least for 1999-2050. In other years, the ranges for Kislev through Adar I may be a bit wider. After
2089 the earliest date for most months will be one day later, and after 2213 the last date will be one day
later.
d. In which the letters refer to Hebrew numerals equivalent to 3, 6, 8, 1, 4, 7, 9.
e. Intervals of the major scale follow the same pattern as do Jewish leap years, with do corresponding to
year 19 (or 0): a whole step in the scale corresponds to two common years between consecutive leap
years, and a half step to one common year between two leap years. This connection with the major
scale is more plain in the context of 19 equal temperament: counting the tonic as 0, the notes of the
major scale in 19 equal temperament are numbers 0 (or 19), 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, the same numbers as
the leap years in the Hebrew calendar.
f. UTC-02:20:56.9
g. This is the reason given by most halachic authorities, based on the Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 20b and
Sukkah 43b. Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Kiddush Hachodesh 7:7), however, writes that the
arrangement was made (possible days alternating with impossible ones) in order to average out the
difference between the mean and true lunar conjunctions.
h. The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 20b) puts it differently: over two consecutive days of full Shabbat
restrictions, vegetables would wilt (since they can't be cooked), and unburied corpses would putrefy.
i. In the Four Gates sources (kevi'ot cited here are in Hebrew in sources except al-Biruni): al-Biruni
specified 5R (5 Intermediate) instead of 5D in leap years. Bushwick forgot to include 5D for leap years.
Poznanski forgot to include 5D for a limit in his table although he did include it in his text as 5D1; for
leap years he incorrectly listed 5C7 instead of the correct 5C3. Resnikoff's table is correct.
j. The following description is based on the article "Calendar" in Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem:
Ketter, 1972). It is an explanatory description, not a procedural one, in particular explaining what is
going on with the third and fourth deḥiyyot
k. So for example if the Tishrei molad is calculated as occurring from noon on Wednesday (the 18th hour
of the fourth day) up until noon on Thursday, Rosh Hashanah falls on a Thursday, which starts
Wednesday at sunset wherever one happens to be.
l. This will happen if TM1 is on or after 3:11:20 a.m. and before noon on a Tuesday. If TM1 is Monday,
Thursday or Saturday, Rosh Hashanah in year 2 does not need to be postponed. If TM1 is Sunday,
Wednesday or Friday, Rosh Hashanah in year 1 is postponed, so year 1 is not the maximum length.
m. TM2 will be between noon and 2:27:162⁄3 p.m. on Tuesday, and TM3 will be between 9:32:431⁄3 and
noon on Monday.
n. The exact year when this will begin to occur depends on uncertainties in the future tidal slowing of the
Earth rotation rate, and on the accuracy of predictions of precession and Earth axial tilt.
o. That is to say, Passover began within a day or so of the full moon
p. As it was in AM 5765, 5768 and 5776, the 8th, 11th and 19th years of the 19-year cycle = Gregorian
2005, 2008 and 2016 CE.
q. The barley had to be "eared out" (ripe) in order to have a wave-sheaf offering of the first fruits according
to the Law.[80]
r. An interval of 29 days/12 hours/792 halakim, as opposed to the current interval of 29/12/793
s. Unlike in the current calendar, the first day of Rosh Hashana was permitted to fall on Sunday; otherwise
the rules were about the same.

References
1. Tosefta Sanhedrin 2:2 (https://www.sefaria.org.il/Tosefta_Sanhedrin.2.2?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=he)
"The year may be intercalated on three grounds: aviv [i.e.the ripeness of barley], fruits of trees, and the
equinox. On two of these grounds it should be intercalated, but not on one of them alone."; also quoted
in Stern 2001, p. 70; see also Talmud, Sanhedrin 11b
2. Kurzweil, Arthur (2011). The Torah For Dummies (https://books.google.com/books?id=t8VZga76bw4C&
q=%22jewish+day+begins%22+evening&pg=PA169). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781118051832 – via
Google Books.
3. Leviticus 23:32 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0323.htm#32); Exodus 12:18 (https://mechon-mamre.o
rg/p/pt/pt0212.htm#18)
4. "Zmanim Briefly Defined and Explained" (https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/134527/jewish/
Zmanim-Briefly-Defined-and-Explained.htm). chabad.org.
5. Roth, Willie (March 1, 2002). "The International Date Line and Halacha" (https://web.archive.org/web/20
110718065425/http://koltorah.org/ravj/The%20International%20Date%20Line%20and%20Halacha.ht
m). koltorah.org. Archived from the original (http://koltorah.org/ravj/The%20International%20Date%20Lin
e%20and%20Halacha.htm) on July 18, 2011..
6. "Appendix II: Baal HaMaor's Interpretation of 20b and its Relevance to the Dateline" in Talmud Bavli,
Schottenstein Edition, Tractate Rosh HaShanah, Mesorah Publications Ltd. ("ArtScroll") 1999, where
"20b" refers to the 20th page 2nd folio of the tractate.
7. Otto Neugebauer, "The Astronomy of Maimonides and its Sources", Hebrew Union College Annual 23
(1949) 321–363 JSTOR link (https://www.jstor.org/stable/23506591).
8. Mishna Berachot 1:2. Note that the mishna specifies that the Shema may be recited "until three hours";
this is understood to mean "until the end of the third hour".
9. See e.g. Zmanim: Jerusalem (https://www.myzmanim.com/day.aspx?askdefault=1&vars=27526341&q=j
erusalem)
10. Hebrew-English Bible, Genesis 1 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0101.htm#1)
11. Jastrow: ‫( ַׁשָּבת‬https://www.sefaria.org/Jastrow%2C_1.‫)ַׁשָּבת‬
12. For example, when referring to the daily psalm recited in the morning prayer (https://www.sefaria.org/Sid
dur_Sefard%2C_Weekday_Shacharit%2C_Song_of_the_Day.15?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en).
13. Bromberg, Dr. Irv (August 5, 2010). "Moon and the Molad of the Hebrew Calendar" (http://individual.utor
onto.ca/kalendis/hebrew/molad.htm). utoronto.ca. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
14. Bonnie Blackburn and Leofranc Holford-Strevens. The Oxford Companion to the Year: An Exploration of
Calendar Customs and Time-reckoning. US: Oxford University Press; 2000, p. 722-725
15. Which is the true Adar? (https://dinonline.org/2014/03/03/which-is-the-true-adar/)
16. Deuteronomy 16:1 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0516.htm#1), Exodus 23:15 (https://mechon-mamr
e.org/p/pt/pt0223.htm#15); see ‫( למועד חודש האביב‬https://www.daat.ac.il/he-il/hagim/luach_ivri/%D7%9
4%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%97-%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99/%D7%A0%D7%A1%D
7%A4%D7%97%D7%99%D7%9D/aviv.htm)
17. Talmud, Rosh Hashana 21a; see ‫( למועד חודש האביב‬https://www.daat.ac.il/he-il/hagim/luach_ivri/%D7%
94%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%97-%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99/%D7%A0%D7%A1%
D7%A4%D7%97%D7%99%D7%9D/aviv.htm) for elaboration.
18. Exodus 23:16 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0223.htm#16), 34:22 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt
0234.htm#22); Leviticus 23:39 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0323.htm#39); Deuteronomy 16:9,13 (h
ttps://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0516.htm#9)
19. Hebrew-English Bible, Num 28:14 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0428.htm#14).
20. Mishneh Torah, Sanctification of the New Moon 1:2; quoted in Sanctification of the New Moon (https://pe
rsonal.stevens.edu/~msenator/hand0.pdf). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100621084628/htt
p://personal.stevens.edu/~msenator/hand0.pdf) 2010-06-21 at the Wayback Machine. Translated from
the Hebrew by Solomon Gandz; supplemented, introduced, and edited by Julian Obermann; with an
astronomical commentary by Otto Neugebauer. Yale Judaica Series, Volume 11, New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1956.
21. Rosh Hashanah 1:1
22. Hebrew-English Bible, Exodus 12:2 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0212.htm#2) "This month
[Aviv/Nisan] shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you."
23. Hebrew-English Bible, Leviticus 23:5 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0323.htm#5)
24. Hebrew-English Bible, Leviticus 23:24 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0323.htm#24)
25. Hebrew-English Bible, Exodus 23:16 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0223.htm#16), 34:22 (https://me
chon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0234.htm#22)
26. Dr. Floyd Nolen Jones (March 2005). Chronology of the Old Testament (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=AvVPlyYjX7YC&pg=PA295). New Leaf Publishing. p. 295. ISBN 978-1-61458-210-6. "When the
center of Jewish life moved from Babylonia to Europe during the 8th and 9th centuries CE, calculations
from the Seleucid era became meaningless. Over those centuries, it was replaced by that of the anno
mundi era of the Seder Olam. From the 11th century, anno mundi dating became dominant throughout
most of the world's Jewish communities."
27. Alden A. Mosshammer (16 October 2008). The Easter Computus and the Origins of the Christian Era (ht
tps://books.google.com/books?id=0umDqPOf2L8C&pg=PA87). OUP Oxford. p. 87-89.
ISBN 9780191562365.
28. Edgar Frank, Talmudic and Rabbinical Chronology: The System of Counting Years in Jewish Literature,
(New York: Philip Feldheim, Publisher, 1956)
29. B. Zuckermann, A Treatise on the Sabbatical Cycle and the Jubilee, trans. A. Löwy. New York: Hermon
Press, 1974.
30. Nadia Vidro, "The Origins of the 247-Year Calendar Cycle", Aleph, 17 (2017), 95-137 doi link (https://do
i.org/10.2979/aleph.17.1.0095).
31. Dov Fischer, The Enduring Usefulness of the Tur’s 247-year Calendar Cycle (Iggul of Rabbi Nachshon)
(https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4364371)
32. Dershowitz, Nachum; Reingold, Edward M. (December 2007). Calendrical Calculations (Third ed.).
Cambridge University Press. p. 91.
33. Tøndering, Trine; Tøndering, Claus. "Calendar FAQ: the Hebrew calendar: New moon" (https://www.ton
dering.dk/claus/cal/hebrew.php#newmoon).
34. R. Avraham bar Chiya ha-nasi (1851). "9,10". Sefer ha-Ibbur (in Hebrew). Vol. 2. London.
OCLC 729982627 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/729982627).
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D7%95%D7%A8%D7%97_%D7%97%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9D_%D7%AA%D7%9B%D7%97).
36. Rambam. Hilchos Kiddush ha-Chodesh (chapters 6, 7, 8) (https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%A8%D
7%9E%D7%91%22%D7%9D_%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%AA_%D7%A7%D7%99%
D7%93%D7%95%D7%A9_%D7%94%D7%97%D7%95%D7%93%D7%A9_%D7%95).
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(2nd ed.). Hermon Press.
38. Hugo Mandelbaum (1986). "Introduction: Elements of the Calendar Calculations". In Arthur Spier (ed.).
The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar (3rd ed.).
39. Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashanah 20b: "This is what Abba the father of R. Simlai meant: 'We
calculate the new moon's birth. If it is born before midday, then certainly it will have been seen shortly
before sunset. If it was not born before midday, certainly it will not have been seen shortly before
sunset.' What is the practical value of this remark? R. Ashi said: Confuting the witnesses." I. Epstein,
Ed., The Babylonian Talmud Seder Mo'ed, Soncino Press, London, 1938, p. 85.
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ebrewcalendar.tripod.com/#25). Retrieved 7 February 2015.
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42. Weinberg, I., Astronomical Aspects of the Jewish Calendar (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1956MNSSA..
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at the far right.
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arizmi.html#JewCal).
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109
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ecalen00rich). Oxford University Press. p. 224. ISBN 978-0-19-286205-1.
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%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99/%D7%A0%D7%A1%D7%A4%D7%97%D7%99%D
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e_concerning_the_fixing_of_the_Calendar). The Sanhedrin.
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61. ‫( !?צ'ק עם תאריך עברי‬https://www.aish.co.il/i/j/195842211.html)
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Rishon" (https://www.makorrishon.co.il/).; "Israel HaYom" (https://www.israelhayom.co.il/).; "Haaretz" (htt
ps://www.haaretz.co.il/).; "The Marker" (https://www.themarker.com/).; "Maariv" (https://www.maariv.co.i
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Hill, ISBN 978-0-8028-4278-7, p. 179
66. What Is the Bible’s Calendar? (https://www.thetorah.com/article/what-is-the-bibles-calendar) The
Torah.com. By Prof. Sacha Stern. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
67. Exodus 12:2 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0212.htm#2), 13:4 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt021
3.htm#4), 23:15 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0223.htm#15), 34:18 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/p
t0234.htm#18), Deut. 16:1 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0516.htm#1)
68. 1 Kings 6:1 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09a06.htm#1), 6:37 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09a
06.htm#37)
69. 1 Kings 8:2 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09a08.htm#2)
70. 1 Kings 6:38 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09a06.htm#38)
71. Hachlili, Rachel (2013). Ancient Synagogues – Archaeology and Art: New Discoveries and Current
Research (https://books.google.com/books?id=jRjhAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA342). Brill. p. 342. ISBN 978-
9004257733.
72. Ulfgard, Håkan (1998). The Story of Sukkot : the Setting, Shaping and Sequel of the biblical Feast of
Tabernacles (https://books.google.com/books?id=uxnXaYBj2wgC&pg=PA99). Mohr Siebeck. p. 99.
ISBN 3-16-147017-6.
73. Seth L. Sanders, “Writing and Early Iron Age Israel: Before National Scripts, Beyond Nations and
States,” in Literate Culture and Tenth-Century Canaan: The Tel Zayit Abecedary in Context, ed. Ron E.
Tappy and P. Kyle McCarter, (Winona Lake, IN, 2008), p. 101–102
74. "Hebrew Calendar" (https://web.archive.org/web/20190721072923/http://www.ehebrew.org/articles/hebr
ew-calendar.php#.XTQUVo77SUk). Archived from the original (http://www.ehebrew.org/articles/hebrew-
calendar.php) on 21 July 2019.
75. Hebrew-English Bible, Exodus 13:4 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0213.htm#4), 23:15 (https://mech
on-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0223.htm#15), 34:18 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0234.htm#18), Deut. 16:1 (h
ttps://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0516.htm#1)
76. Hebrew-English Bible, Esther 3:7 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt3303.htm#7)
77. Hebrew-English Bible, 1 Kings 6:1 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09a06.htm#1), 6:37 (https://mecho
n-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09a06.htm#37)
78. Hebrew-English Bible, 1 Kings 8:2 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09a08.htm#2)
79. Hebrew-English Bible, 1 Kings 6:38 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09a06.htm#38)
80. Jones, Stephen (1996). Secrets of Time.
81. Josephus, Antiquities 1.81, Loeb Classical Library, 1930.
82. Edwin Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, (1st ed.; New York: Macmillan, 1951; 2d
ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965; 3rd ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan/Kregel, 1983). ISBN 0-8254-
3825-X, 9780825438257
83. The Chronology of the Old Testament, 16th ed., Floyd Nolan Jones, ISBN 978-0-89051-416-0, pp. 118–
123
84. e.g., Hebrew-English Bible, 1 Kings 6:1 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09a06.htm#1)
85. e.g., Hebrew-English Bible, 1 Kings 14:25 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09a14.htm#25)
86. e.g., Hebrew-English Bible, 2 Kings 18:13 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09b18.htm#13)
87. e.g., Hebrew-English Bible, 2 Kings 17:6 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09b17.htm#6)
88. (e.g., Hebrew-English Bible, Nehemiah 2:1 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt35b02.htm#1)
89. e.g., Hebrew-English Bible, 2 Kings 8:16 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09b08.htm#16)
90. e.g., Hebrew-English Bible, Ezekiel 1:1–2 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1201.htm#1)
 91. e.g., Hebrew-English Bible, 2 Kings 25:27 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09b25.htm#27)
92. e.g., Hebrew-English Bible, 1 Maccabees 1:54 (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1Maccabees/1?54), 6:20 (ht
tps://bible.usccb.org/bible/1Maccabees/6?20), 7:1 (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1Maccabees/7?1), 9:3 (h
ttps://bible.usccb.org/bible/1Maccabees/9?3), 10:1 (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1Maccabees/10?1)
93. "Babylonian Talmud: Avodah Zarah 10a" (https://www.sefaria.org/Avodah_Zarah.10a.3?lang=bi&with=a
ll&lang2=en). www.sefaria.org. Sefaria.
94. Avodah Zarah 9a (https://halakhah.com/zarah/zarah_9.html) Soncino edition, footnote 4: "The Eras in
use among Jews in Talmudic Times are: (a) ERA OF CONTRACTS [H] dating from the year 380 before
the Destruction of the Second Temple (312–1 BCE)... It is also termed Seleucid or Greek Era [H].... This
Era... was generally in vogue in eastern countries till the 16th cent, and was employed even in the 19th
cent, among the Jews of Yemen, in South Arabia... (b) THE ERA OF THE DESTRUCTION (of the
Second Temple) [H] the year 1 of which corresponds to 381 of the Seleucid Era, and 69–70 of the
Christian Era. This Era was mainly employed by the Rabbis and was in use in Palestine for several
centuries, and even in the later Middle Ages documents were dated by it."
95. e.g., Mainz Anonymous
96. Scherman, Nosson (2005). The complete ArtScroll Machzor / [1.] Rosh Hashanah (in Hebrew).
Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publ. ISBN 9780899066790.
97. Hebrew-English Bible, Numbers 10:10 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0410.htm#10)
98. Hebrew-English Bible, Numbers 28:11 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0428.htm#11)
99. Hebrew-English Bible, Exodus 12:2 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0212.htm#2)
100. Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:7
101. Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 2:6–8
102. Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 2.2
103. Babylonian Talmud Betzah 4b
104. Stern 2001, pp. 162ff..
105. James B. Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, Vol. 1, Princeton
University Press, p. 213.
106. Mishnah Sanhedrin 5:3: "If one testifies, 'on the second of the month, and the other, 'on the third of the
month:' their evidence is valid, for one may have been aware of the intercalation of the month and the
other may not have been aware of it. But if one says, 'on the third', and the other 'on the fifth', their
evidence is invalid."
107. Mishnah Baba Metzia 8:8.
108. Gandz, Solomon. "Studies in the Hebrew Calendar: II. The origin of the Two New Moon Days", Jewish
Quarterly Review (New Series), 40(2), 1949–50. JSTOR 1452961 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/145296
1). doi:10.2307/1452961 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F1452961). Reprinted in Shlomo Sternberg, ed.,
Studies in Hebrew Astronomy and Mathematics by Solomon Gandz, KTAV, New York, 1970, pp. 72–73.
109. Stern 2001.
110. Rosh Hashanah 20b (https://www.sefaria.org.il/Rosh_Hashanah.20b.2?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en)
111. Yerushalmi Megillah 1:2, pp. 70b. Text:‫ חל להיות‬,‫א"ר יוסה לית כאן חל להיות בשני ולית כאן חל להיות בשבת‬
‫ חל להיות בשבת צומא רבא בערובתא‬,‫בשני צומא רבא בחד בשובא‬
112. Yerushalmi Sukkah 54b. Text: ‫ר' סימון מפקד לאילין דמחשבין יהבון דעתכון דלא תעבדין לא תקיעתה בשבת‬
:‫ ואין אדחקון עבדון תקיעתה ולא תעבדון ערבתא‬.‫ולא ערבתא בשבתא‬
113. Julian, Letter 25, in John Duncombe, Select Works of the Emperor Julian and some Pieces of the
Sophist Libanius, Vol. 2, Cadell, London, 1784, pp. 57–62.
114. Epiphanius, Adversus Haereses 30.4.1, in Frank Williams, trans., The Panarion of Epiphanius of
Salamis Book I (Sections 1–46), Leiden, E. J.Brill, 1987, p. 122.
115. H. Graetz, Popular History of the Jews, (A. B. Rhine, trans.,) Hebrew Publishing Company, New York,
1919, Vol. II, pp. 410–411. Quoted in Stern 2001, p. 216
116. Lieberman, S. (1946). "Palestine in the Third and Fourth Centuries". Jewish Quarterly Review. 36 (4):
329–370. doi:10.2307/1452134 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F1452134). JSTOR 1452134 (https://www.jst
or.org/stable/1452134). Quoted in Stern 2001, pp. 216–217.
117. Stern 2001, In particular section 5.1.1, discussion of the "Persecution theory.".
118. Poznanski, Samuel, "Ben Meir and the Origin of the Jewish Calendar", Jewish Quarterly Review,
Original Series, Vol. 10, pp. 152–161 (1898). JSTOR 1450611 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1450611).
doi:10.2307/1450611 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F1450611).
119. "While it is not unreasonable to attribute to Hillel II the fixing of the regular order of intercalations, his full
share in the present fixed calendar is doubtful." Entry "Calendar", Encyclopaedia Judaica, Keter,
Jerusalem, 1971.
120. Samuel Poznanski, "Calendar (Jewish)", Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. 3, p. 118 (https://ar
chive.org/details/encyclopaediaofr03hastuoft).
121. A Short History of the Jewish Fixed Calendar: The Origin of the Molad (https://hakirah.org/vol20Ajdler.pd
f)
122. E.S. Kennedy, "Al-Khwarizmi on the Jewish calendar", Scripta Mathematica 27 (1964) 55–59.
123. "al-Khwarizmi", Dictionary of Scientific Biography, VII: 362, 365.
124. Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (823). Risāla fi istikhrāj ta’rīkh al-yahūd (Arabic: ‫رسالة في إستخراج‬
‫تأريخ اليهود‬, "Extraction of the Jewish Era"). (date uncertain)
125. Mishneh Torah, Sanctification of the Moon, 11:16
126. Solomon Gandz (1947–1948). "Date of the Composition of Maimonides' Code". Proceedings of the
American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 17, pp. 1–7. doi:10.2307/3622160 (https://doi.org/10.230
7%2F3622160). JSTOR 3622160 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3622160). Retrieved March 14, 2013.
127. "Karaite Korner – New Moon and the Hebrew Month" (http://www.karaite-korner.org/new_moon.shtml).
www.karaite-korner.org.
128. "Aviv Barley in the Biblical Calendar – Nehemia's Wall" (http://www.karaite-korner.org/abib.shtml). 24
February 2016.
129. "The Samaritan Calendar" (http://shomron0.tripod.com/articles/samaritancalendar.pdf) (PDF).
www.thesamaritanupdate.com. 2008. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
130. Benyamim, Tzedaka. "Calendar" (https://www.israelite-samaritans.com/religion/calendar/).
www.israelite-samaritans.com. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
131. Jonathan Ben-Dov. Head of All Years: Astronomy and Calendars at Qumran in their Ancient Context.
Leiden: Brill, 2008, pp.16-20
132. Sacha Stern, "The Babylonian Calendar at Elephantine", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik
130, 159–171 (2000).
133. Lester L. Grabbe, A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period, Volume 1: Yehud: A
History of the Persian Province of Judah, T&T Clark, London, 2004, p. 186.
134. Eduard Schwartz, Christliche und jüdische Ostertafeln, (Abhandlungen der königlichen Gesellschaft der
Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Philologisch-Historische Klasse. Neue Folge, Band viii, Berlin, 1905
Internet Archive link (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Sn8TAAAAYAAJ).
135. Peter of Alexandria, quoted in the Chronicon Paschale. Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae,
Chronicon Paschale Vol. 1, Weber, Bonn, 1832, p. 7
136. Stern 2001, pp. 87–97, 146–153.

Bibliography
Ari Belenkiy. "A Unique Feature of the Jewish Calendar – Dehiyot". Culture and Cosmos 6 (2002) 3–22.
Sherrard Beaumont Burnaby. Elements of the Jewish and Muhammadan Calendars. George Bell and Sons,
London, 1901 – Internet Archive link (https://archive.org/details/elementsofjewish00burnuoft).
Nathan Bushwick. Understanding the Jewish Calendar. Moznaim, New York/Jerusalem, 1989. ISBN 0-
940118-17-3
William Moses Feldman. Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy, 3rd edition, Sepher-Hermon Press, New
York, 1978.
The Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah), Book Three, Treatise Eight: Sanctification of the New Moon.
Translated by Solomon Gandz. Yale Judaica Series Volume XI, Yale University Press, New Haven,
Conn., 1956.
Edward M. Reingold and Nachum Dershowitz. Calendrical Calculations: The Millennium Edition.
Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (2001). ISBN 0-521-77752-6 723–730.
Arthur Spier. The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar: Twentieth to the Twenty-Second Century 5660–
5860/1900–2100. Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem/New York, 1986.
Stern, Sacha (2001). Calendar and Community: A History of the Jewish Calendar 2nd Century BCE to 10th
Century CE. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198270348.
Ernest Wiesenberg. "Appendix: Addenda and Corrigenda to Treatise VIII". The Code of Maimonides
(Mishneh Torah), Book Three: The Book of Seasons. Yale Judaica Series Volume XIV, Yale University
Press, New Haven, Conn., 1961. pp. 557–602.
Francis Henry Woods. "Calendar (Hebrew)", Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics. T. & T. Clark,
Edinburgh, 1910, vol. 3, pp. 108–109.

External links
Chabad.org: Introduction to the Jewish Calendar (http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/55194/je
wish/introduction.htm:)
Hebcal.com: Jewish Holiday Calendars & Hebrew Date Converter (http://www.hebcal.com/)
Aish.com: Jewish Calendar (http://www.aish.com/jewish-calendar/jewish_calendar.html)
Tripod.com: Hebrew Calendar Science and Myths (http://hebrewcalendar.tripod.com/)
Yeshiva.co: Jewish Calendar with Halachic times date converter and daf yomi (http://www.yeshiva.co/ca
lendar/)
Illustrating the "Four Gates" (https://michoelr.github.io/Keviyus/FourGates/FourGates.htm)

Date converters
TorahCalc.com: Molad Calculator (http://www.torahcalc.com/molad/)
Kaluach.org: Hebrew Date Converter (http://www.kaluach.org/)
Hebcal Hebrew Date Converter (http://www.hebcal.com/converter/)
Chabad.org: Jewish/Hebrew Date Converter (http://www.chabad.org/calendar/converter_cdo/aid/6225/j
ewish/jewish-hebrew-date-converter.htm)
University of Toronto: The "Kalendis" Calendar Calculator (http://individual.utoronto.ca/kalendis/kalendi
s.htm)
Calendar-Converter.com: Jewish/Hebrew Calendar Converter (http://www.calendar-converter.com/jewis
hhebrew)

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