Months & festivals
Begins the Torah’s month count. The Exodus took place in Nisan, and Exodus 12:2 names it as the first month.
A guide for the classroom
Understanding the Jewish calendar
The Jewish calendar connects the cycles of the moon and sun with a rhythm of sacred time. This guide follows that rhythm from a single day to the weekly reading, months, holidays, and longer cycles of years.
Starting points in Torah
Time is marked by lunar months and the spring season
The Torah gives two central calendar instructions. Exodus 12:2 names the month of the Exodus as the beginning of the month count. Exodus 34:18 places the Feast of Unleavened Bread at the set time of the month of Aviv, when the Israelites went forth from Egypt. Aviv refers to the spring season.
Months follow the moon, while the Torah requires Passover to remain in the spring. Because twelve lunar months are shorter than the solar year, the calendar must bring lunar months and the seasons back into alignment. The Jewish calendar is lunisolar: it keeps the months tied to the moon while preserving the seasonal place of festivals such as Passover.
הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם רֹאשׁ חֳדָשִׁים, רִאשׁוֹן הוּא לָכֶם לְחָדְשֵׁי הַשָּׁנָה׃
“This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first for you of the months of the year.”
אֶת־חַג הַמַּצּוֹת תִּשְׁמֹר שִׁבְעַת יָמִים תֹּאכַל מַצּוֹת ... לְמוֹעֵד חֹדֶשׁ הָאָבִיב, כִּי בְּחֹדֶשׁ הָאָבִיב יָצָאתָ מִמִּצְרָיִם׃
“You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread … at the set time of the month of Aviv, for in the month of Aviv you went forth from Egypt.”
One calendar, more than one new year. Nisan is the first month in the Torah’s month count. Exodus 12:1–2 places this instruction at the beginning of the Exodus story, before the Israelites leave Egypt. Tishrei begins the year count used today for Rosh Hashanah and the Hebrew year number. Read Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:1 on Sefaria ↗
The short cycle
Day and week
A day begins in the evening
Genesis’ creation refrain says, “And there was evening and there was morning” (Genesis 1:5). In Jewish timekeeping, a date therefore begins at sunset and continues through the following day until nightfall. A holiday listed on a civil calendar usually begins the evening before its daytime date.
Seven days, with Shabbat at the center
The days of the week are commonly numbered: yom rishon (first day, Sunday), yom sheni (second, Monday), yom shlishi (third, Tuesday), yom revi’i (fourth, Wednesday), yom chamishi (fifth, Thursday), and yom shishi (sixth, Friday). The seventh day has its own name: Shabbat.
Shabbat begins Friday evening and ends Saturday night. Genesis connects it with the completion of creation; the Ten Commandments also connect it with liberation from slavery (Exodus 20:8–11; Deuteronomy 5:12–15). It is a weekly pause for rest and holiness.
A year of reading
Shabbat, parasha, and the five books
On Shabbat, Jewish communities read a portion of the Torah scroll. A weekly Torah portion is called a parasha (plural: parshiot); it is also often called the parashat ha-shavua, the portion of the week. The annual cycle divides the Torah into 54 portions. Some are joined in certain years so the reading can finish within the annual cycle. Festival readings can take the place of the regular weekly portion, and the schedule can differ between Israel and the Diaspora.
Below are the five books of the Torah and their weekly portions. Each chapter-and-verse range links to the reading on Sefaria. Spellings vary among communities and publications; these are widely used English transliterations.
The chapter ranges show each portion’s usual Torah text, not the weekly schedule for every particular year. Combined portions, holidays, and community practice affect what is read on a given Shabbat. Browse the Torah on Sefaria ↗.
Lunar months
The months of the Jewish year
Months follow the moon: a new month begins near the new moon, and months are 29 or 30 days long. In the Torah, months are often identified by number; later Hebrew month names entered Jewish usage during the Babylonian exile. Nisan is month one in the Torah’s count, while Tishrei is month seven.
1נִיסָןNisan
2אִיָּרIyar
3סִיוָןSivan
4תַּמּוּזTammuz
5אָבAv
6אֱלוּלElul
7תִּשְׁרֵיTishrei
8מַרְחֶשְׁוָןCheshvan
9כִּסְלֵוKislev
10טֵבֵתTevet
11שְׁבָטShevat
12אֲדָרAdar
Why add Adar II?
Twelve lunar months total about 354 days, roughly 11 days shorter than the solar year. If the calendar followed the moon alone, spring festivals would drift through the seasons. The Jewish calendar is therefore lunisolar: it keeps lunar months while also keeping holidays such as Passover in their proper season. In the fixed calendar now used, seven leap years occur in each 19-year cycle. In a leap year, one additional month—Adar II—is inserted after the usual Adar, bringing the year to 13 months. A common year has one Adar. Purim is observed in Adar II during a leap year. The Torah gives the seasonal requirement for Passover; the 19-year arithmetic cycle is a later calendar system.
Months gathered into a year
Four new years and the festival cycle
“What is the Jewish New Year?” has more than one answer. The Mishnah names four dates, each for a different kind of counting:
אַרְבָּעָה רָאשֵׁי שָׁנִים הֵם. בְּאֶחָד בְּנִיסָן רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה לַמְּלָכִים וְלָרְגָלִים. בְּאֶחָד בֶּאֱלוּל רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה לְמַעְשַׂר בְּהֵמָה. רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר וְרַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן אוֹמְרִים, בְּאֶחָד בְּתִשְׁרֵי. בְּאֶחָד בְּתִשְׁרֵי רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה לַשָּׁנִים וְלַשְּׁמִטִּין וְלַיּוֹבְלוֹת, לַנְּטִיעָה וְלַיְרָקוֹת. בְּאֶחָד בִּשְׁבָט, רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה לָאִילָן, כְּדִבְרֵי בֵּית שַׁמַּאי. בֵּית הִלֵּל אוֹמְרִים, בַּחֲמִשָּׁה עָשָׂר בּוֹ׃
“There are four new years. On the first of Nisan is the new year for kings and for festivals. On the first of Elul is the new year for animal tithes; Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Shimon say, on the first of Tishrei. On the first of Tishrei is the new year for years, for sabbatical years, for jubilee years, for planting and for vegetables. On the first of Shevat is the new year for the tree, according to Beit Shammai; Beit Hillel say, on the fifteenth of that month.”
Today, Rosh Hashanah on 1 Tishrei is the best-known new year and begins the Hebrew year number. Nisan remains month one for the biblical sequence of months and festivals.
Animal tithes
A new year for tithing livestock in the Mishnah’s calendar.
Years & agriculture
Rosh Hashanah; used for counting years, sabbatical cycles, and other agricultural obligations.
Trees
Tu BiShvat, the new year for trees according to the school of Hillel.
Festivals mark the year’s seasons
Leviticus 23 sets out Shabbat and the appointed times, including Passover, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot are the three pilgrimage festivals (shalosh regalim), connected in the Torah with appearing before God and the agricultural year. Other dates in today’s Jewish calendar come from rabbinic tradition and later communal history. Their observance and customs vary across communities.
Longer cycles
Hebrew years, Shmita, and Jubilee
Hebrew years are conventionally numbered from the traditional calculation of creation; the year begins in Tishrei. To convert a Hebrew year to a Gregorian year, subtract 3760 or 3761 depending on whether the Hebrew date falls before or after Rosh Hashanah.
Shmita: the sabbatical year
Leviticus 25 and Deuteronomy 15 describe a cycle of six years of cultivation followed by a seventh year of rest for the land and remission of debts. This year is called Shmita. Its biblical roots connect the rhythm of agricultural time with social obligations.
Yovel: the Jubilee
Leviticus 25 describes counting seven cycles of seven years—49 years—and proclaiming the 50th year as Jubilee (Yovel), with release and restoration. The relationship between the Jubilee year and the seventh-year cycle has been interpreted in different ways across Jewish tradition.
To use the calendar: dates and holiday schedules may differ by one day between Israel and the Diaspora, and communities may follow different customs. The current-week readings and date tools remain available from the home page calendar and date finder.