The Jewish Calendar
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The Beginning of the New Year
If Nisan is the first month of the year, why does the New Year begin in Tishrei? Answer: The year begins on different dates for different purposes: in Nisan, for dating a king’s reign; in Elul, for giving tithes from…
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Keeping Two Days of a Holiday
Why do we keep many of the holidays for two days, when according to the Torah they are only one day? Answer: Before the time of Hillel II, when the months were still proclaimed by the Sanhedrin court on the…
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Where the Jewish Calendar Begins
Can you please tell me what time period is being counted when we see that the new Hebrew year is 5769. I guess the question is where does the calendar start? What time in history? Answer: G-d’s calendar follows the…
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Calculating a New Jewish Month
I had a question in regard to Rosh Chodesh, determining a new lunar month on the Jewish calendar. Is Rosh Chodesh determined by the first sliver of the new moon, or is it determined by the dark moon? Could you…
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Nisan and the New Year
If the first month of the Hebrew calendar is Nisan, why is Rosh Hashanah, which I understand to be the New Year, observed during the month of Tishri? Good question. Nissan is the first month because that’s when the Exodus…
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The 8 days of Passover
Why is passover celebrated for 8 days? I’m sure you’ve noticed that the Torah itself mandates only seven days for Passover (perhaps allowing for a whole cycle of this-worldly affairs found in a week to be affected by the heightened…
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List of Holy Days
Besides the Sabbath, on which days of the year is creative work forbidden? The Holy days when creative work is forbidden are: Pesach – Festival of Passover – the 15th of Nissan and the 21st of Nissan (7th day of…
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Two beginnings to the Jewish Year?
Why was the jewish year change from the way God had it, begining in spring to the way it is now? In the the book of Exodus 12 speaks about where God spoke about the begining of the year and…
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The Days of the Week
What do the Jews call the days of the week? The days of the Jewish week have no names; they are referred to as "first day", "second day", …, "sixth day", and "Sabbath", i.e. basically following the usage in Gen.Ch.1.