The Calendar and Holidays (incl. Sabbath)
- Chanukah
- Other Holidays and Fasts
- Passover
- Purim
- Rosh HaShanah
- Shavuos
- Sukkos
- The Jewish Calendar
- The Sabbath
- Yom Kippur
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How is the Jewish Calendar Fixed?
How is the Jewish calendar fixed? Fixing the calendar is the responsibility of the Sanhedrin (the highest Jewish court); today we use rules that the Sanhedrin formulated about 1500 years ago. Since the calendar underlies all the commandments that have…
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The Basic Principles of the Jewish Calendar
What are the basic principles of the Jewish calendar? When was the present Jewish calendar established? Answer: The Jewish calendar is based on solar years and lunar months. The lunar month, which begins at the new moon, is about 29-1/2…
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Changing the Calendar
How was Hillel II allowed to change the Jewish calendar? Declaring the new month by observation of the new moon, and the new year by the arrival of spring, can only be done by the Sanhedrin. In the time of…
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The Accuracy of the Jewish Calendar
How accurate is the Jewish calendar? The Jewish calendar is based on a figure for the length of the solar year that is 6 or 7 minutes too long. As a result, over the past 1500 years (since the time…
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The Names of the Jewish Months
Where did the names of the Jewish months come from? The names that we use nowadays come from Bablyonia (Talmud Yerushalmi Rosh Ha-Shanah 1:2); in Biblical times the months had other names. Only four of the original Hebrew names of…
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Shabbos Candles
My relatives are having a Bar Mitzvah in a nearbyhotel and will be eating their meals there. Theywill be sleeping in their house.Where should theylight Shabbos candles? Is it preferable in theplace where they sleep or the place will they…
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MarCheshvan
What is the meaning of the name of the month MarCheshvan? According to the Encyclopedia Judaica (vol.11 cols. 971-2), the word “marcheshvan” is believed to be etymologically related to the Assyrian “arahsammu”, “eighth month”. In the Bible (1 Kings 6:38)…
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The Two Reasons for Shabbos
Why does the Torah give two reasons for observing Shabbos, one in Exodus(20:10: “because G-d made the heavens and the earth in six days, and on the seventh day He rested”) and one in Deuteronomy (5:15: “because you were a…
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Straining a Liquid on Shabbos
Is straining a liquid to remove dissolved impurities permitted on Shabbos? Straining a liquid would be problematic (the melacha is called meshamer) if the straining removed perceptible impurities from the liquid. Thus there would be a problem if the impurities…