How the Jewish Calendar Works
Lunar months adjusted to the solar year by a leap-month every two or three years — the calendar Hillel II formalized in 358/9 CE.
Sacred Time
The calendar, Shabbat, and every holiday of the year
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Your First Holiday Cycle
The Jewish year has a clear shape. Knowing the shape makes every individual holiday more meaningful.
Continue reading →The Parshah Cycle
The Torah is divided into 54 parshiyot; one is read each Shabbat, completing the cycle annually on Simchat Torah.
Daf Yomi: A Page a Day
The 7.5-year program that has unified Jewish learning across the world since 1923.
Counting the Omer (Sefirat HaOmer)
The 49-day count from the second night of Pesach to the eve of Shavuot — a Torah commandment, a practical bridge, and a Kabbalistic discipline.
Rosh Hashanah
The Jewish New Year — the Day of Judgment, the head of the Ten Days of Repentance, and the day on which the shofar is sounded.
Yom Kippur
The Day of Atonement — the holiest day of the year, observed with a 25-hour fast, five services, and white garments.
Sukkot
Festival of Booths — seven days of dwelling in the sukkah and waving the four species, commemorating the Israelites' wandering.
Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah
The eighth-day festival following Sukkot — in Israel a single day, in the diaspora two — climaxing with the dance of Simchat Torah.
Pesach
Passover — the Festival of Freedom, the foundational story of the Jewish people, and the seder that is the most widely observed Jewish ritual in the world.
Shavuot
The Festival of the Giving of the Torah — fifty days after Pesach, the early summer pilgrimage festival.
Hanukkah
The eight-day winter festival commemorating the Maccabean victory and the miracle of the oil.
Purim
The festival of Esther — the joyful deliverance of Persian Jewry, observed with the Megillah, gifts to the poor, mishloach manot, and the seudat Purim.
Tu BiShvat
The New Year of the Trees — a Mishnaic minor festival recovered with great enthusiasm in modern times.
Lag BaOmer
The 33rd day of the Omer — the end of the spring period of mourning, observed with bonfires and visits to the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron.
Tisha B'Av
The 9th of Av — the major fast day of the Jewish year, commemorating the destruction of both Temples and many other catastrophes.
The Four Minor Fasts
Four daylight fast days frame the Jewish year with grief and remembrance.
Yom HaShoah
Holocaust Remembrance Day — the 27th of Nisan, established by the Knesset in 1953.
Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut
Israel's Memorial Day and Independence Day — observed back-to-back on the 4th and 5th of Iyar.
Yom Yerushalayim
The 28th of Iyar — commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of 1967.