All-purpose Jewish calendar - listing holidays, sefirat ha'omer, shabbat and holiday candle lighting times. The Hebrew calendar (Hebrew: הַלּוּחַ הָעִבְרִי, Ha-Luah ha-Ivri), also called Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today predominantly for Jewish religious observances. It determines the dates for Jewish holidays and the appropriate public reading of Torah portions, yahrzeits (dates to commemorate the death of a.
By Konstantin Bikos
Jewish communities around the world use the Jewish or Hebrew calendar to determine the dates of religious observances and rituals. In Israel, it is also used for agricultural and civil purposes, alongside the Gregorian calendar.
Sun, Moon, and Holy Scripture
Jewish time reckoning is lunisolar, which means that the calendar keeps in sync with the natural cycles of both the Sun and the Moon. Featuring a body of complex regulations, exceptions, and mathematical rules, it is also designed to satisfy a number of requirements conveyed in the Jewish Holy Scripture.
The Hebrew calendar is a comparatively imprecise system in terms of reflecting the duration of a solar year, which is the time it takes Earth to complete a full orbit around the Sun. In comparison with the timing of the astronomical seasons, it is off by 1 day every 216 years.
Calendar Structure
A year in the Hebrew calendar can be 353, 354, 355, 383, 384, or 385 days long.
Regular common years have 12 months with a total of 354 days. Leap years have 13 months and are 384 days long. Months with uneven numbers usually have 30 days, while months with even numbers have 29 days.
In addition to these regular (kesidrah) year lengths, both common and leap years can be a day shorter (cheserah or deficient year with 353/383 days) or a day longer (shlemah or complete year with 355/385 days).
These alterations are designed to prevent Rosh Hashana and other holidays from falling on certain days of the week. In practice, a day is added to the 8th month (Marcheshvan) or subtracted from the 9th month (Kislev).
In civil contexts, a new year in the Jewish calendar begins on Rosh Hashana on Tishrei 1. However, for religious purposes, the year begins on Nisan 1.
Jewish Calendar Conversion
When Was Year 1?
According to Hebrew time reckoning we are now in the 6th millennium. The Hebrew year count starts in year 3761 BCE, which the 12th-century Jewish philosopher Maimonides established as the biblical Date of Creation.
Years in the Jewish calendar are designated AM to identify them as part of the Anno Mundi epoch, indicating the age of the world according to the Bible. For example, the beginning of the year 2020 in the Gregorian calendar converts to year AM 5780 in the Jewish calendar.
Leap Year Rules
Like in the Islamic calendar, months in the Jewish calendar are based on the phases of the Moon. Each month begins with the appearance of a Crescent Moon after the New Moon phase and lasts for a full lunation, a Moon cycle encompassing all phases of the Moon.
Since the sum of 12 lunar months is about 11 days shorter than a solar year, a leap month is added every 2 to 3 years, or 7 times in a 19-year cycle. Leap months are meant to keep the calendar in step with the astronomical seasons and make sure that the religious observances occur at the correct time of year, as mentioned in the Torah.
Jewish Calendar 2020 Printable
History and Background
The Jewish calendar is based on a history of time reckoning efforts dating back to ancient times. Both Israelite and Babylonian influences played an important role in its development. According to the account of Persian astronomer al-Khwarizmi (c. 780 – 850 CE), most of the features of its modern-day version were in place by the 9th century CE.
In parallel with the modern Islamic calendar, the timing of the months in the early forms of the Jewish calendar depended on actual sightings of the Crescent Moon. However, this practice was gradually changed, and by 1178 CE the calculation of the beginning of a new calendar month had been fully replaced by the mathematical approximation of the moment the Crescent Moon begins to appear (Molad) rather than actual sightings.
Isaiah 53 from the Aleppo Codex
Who has believed Our report? And to whom has the arm of יהוה been revealed? For He comes up as a tender plant before Him, and as a Root out of a dry ground. He has no form, nor honor, when we observe Him, nor beauty, that we should desire Him. He was despised, and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And as one hiding His countenance from us, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by Elohim, and afflicted. And He was pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned each to his own way, and יהוה has laid on Him את the punishment of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led as a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, He did not open His mouth. By oppression and trial was taken away, and who can speak of את His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And He made His grave with את the wicked, and with את the rich in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased יהוה to bruise Him and to cause Him to suffer, and though יהוה makes His life an offering for sin, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of יהוה will prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him a portion with the great, and shall divide את the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul even to death, and was numbered with את the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.