Hebrew
60-505: Judeo-Aramaic Judeo-Arabic Other Jewish diaspora languages Jewish folklore Jewish poetry The Hebrew calendar ( Hebrew : הַלּוּחַ הָעִבְרִי , romanized : halLūaḥ hāʿĪḇrī ), also called the Jewish calendar , is a lunisolar calendar used today for Jewish religious observance and as an official calendar of Israel . It determines the dates of Jewish holidays and other rituals, such as yahrzeits and
120-541: A 19-year cycle, known as the Metonic cycle (See Leap months , below). The beginning of each Jewish lunar month is based on the appearance of the new moon . Although originally the new lunar crescent had to be observed and certified by witnesses (as is still done in Karaite Judaism and Islam ), nowadays Jewish months have generally fixed lengths which approximate the period between new moons. For these reasons,
180-600: A Palestinian dialect but were to some extent normalised to follow Babylonian usage. Eventually, the Targums became standard in Judaea and Galilee also. Liturgical Aramaic, as used in the Kaddish and a few other prayers, was a mixed dialect, to some extent influenced by Biblical Aramaic and the Targums. Among religious scholars, Hebrew continued to be understood, but Aramaic appeared in even the most sectarian of writings. Aramaic
240-480: A given month does not always begin on the same day as its astronomical conjunction. The mean period of the lunar month (precisely, the synodic month ) is very close to 29.5 days. Accordingly, the basic Hebrew calendar year is one of twelve lunar months alternating between 29 and 30 days: Thus, the year normally contains twelve months with a total of 354 days. In such a year, the month of Marcheshvan has 29 days and Kislev has 30 days. However, due to
300-470: A leap year, find the remainder on dividing [(7 × n ) + 1] by 19. If the remainder is 6 or less it is a leap year; if it is 7 or more it is not. For example, the remainder on dividing [(7 × 5785) + 1] by 19 is 7, so the year 5785 is not a leap year. The remainder on dividing [(7 × 5786) + 1] by 19 is 14, so the year 5786 is not a leap year. This works because as there are seven leap years in nineteen years
360-476: A period known as an iggul , or the Iggul of Rabbi Nahshon . This period is notable in that the precise details of the calendar almost always (but not always) repeat over this period. This occurs because the molad interval (the average length of a Hebrew month) is 29.530594 days, which over 247 years results in a total of 90215.965 days. This is almost exactly 90216 days – a whole number and multiple of 7 (equalling
420-585: A remainder of 0 signifies Saturday. In Hebrew, these names may be abbreviated using the numerical value of the Hebrew letters, for example יום א׳ ( Day 1 , or Yom Rishon ( יום ראשון )): The names of the days of the week are modeled on the seven days mentioned in the Genesis creation account . For example, Genesis 1:8 "... And there was evening and there was morning, a second day" corresponds to Yom Sheni meaning "second day". (However, for days 1, 6, and 7
480-411: A set of mathematical rules. Month length now follows a fixed schedule which is adjusted based on the molad interval (a mathematical approximation of the mean time between new moons) and several other rules , while leap months are now added in 7 out of every 19 years according to the Metonic cycle . Nowadays, Hebrew years are generally counted according to the system of Anno Mundi ( Latin : "in
540-551: A small Babylonian time period called a she , meaning '"barleycorn", itself equal to / 72 of a Babylonian time degree (1° of celestial rotation). The Hebrew calendar defines its mean month to be exactly equal to 29 days 12 hours and 793 halakim, which is 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes and 3 1 / 3 seconds. It defines its mean year as exactly 235/19 times this amount, or 365 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes, and 25 and 25/57 seconds (approximately 365.2468222 days). This standards - or measurement -related article
600-403: Is 3 + 1 ⁄ 3 seconds ( 1 ⁄ 18 minute). The ultimate ancestor of the helek was a Babylonian time period called a barleycorn , equal to 1 ⁄ 72 of a Babylonian time degree (1° of celestial rotation). These measures are not generally used for everyday purposes; their best-known use is for calculating and announcing the molad . In another system, the daytime period
660-464: Is where N is the number of lunar months since the beginning. (N equals 71440 for the beginning of the 305th Machzor Katan on 1 October 2016.) Adding 0.25 to this converts it to the Jewish system in which the day begins at 6 PM. Judeo-Aramaic languages The Judaeo-Aramaic languages are those varieties of Aramaic and Neo-Aramaic languages used by Jewish communities. Aramaic, like Hebrew,
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#1732773091456720-555: Is a Northwest Semitic language , and the two share many features. From the 7th century BCE, Aramaic became the lingua franca of the Middle East . It became the language of diplomacy and trade, but it was not yet used by ordinary Hebrews. As described in 2 Kings 18:26 , the messengers of Hezekiah, king of Judah, demand to negotiate with ambassadors in Aramaic rather than Hebrew ( yehudit , literally "Judean" or "Judahite") so that
780-553: Is a seven-year release cycle. The placement of these cycles is debated. Historically, there is enough evidence to fix the sabbatical years in the Second Temple Period . But it may not match with the sabbatical cycle derived from the biblical period; and there is no consensus on whether or not the Jubilee year is the fiftieth year or the latter half of the forty ninth year. Every 247 years, or 13 cycles of 19 years, form
840-452: Is added every 2 or 3 years so that the long-term average year length closely approximates the actual length of the solar year . Originally, the beginning of each month was determined based on physical observation of a new moon, while the decision of whether to add the leap month was based on observation of natural agriculture-related events in ancient Israel . Between the years 70 and 1178, these empirical criteria were gradually replaced with
900-440: Is divided into 12 relative hours ( sha'ah z'manit , also sometimes called "halachic hours"). A relative hour is defined as 1 ⁄ 12 of the time from sunrise to sunset, or dawn to dusk, as per the two opinions in this regard. Therefore, an hour can be less than 60 minutes in winter, and more than 60 minutes in summer; similarly, the 6th hour ends at solar noon , which generally differs from 12:00. Relative hours are used for
960-417: Is equal to 3 + 1 ⁄ 3 seconds). The very first molad, the molad tohu , fell on Sunday evening at 11:11:20 pm in the local time of Jerusalem , 6 October 3761 BCE ( Proleptic Julian calendar ) 20:50:23.1 UTC , or in Jewish terms Day 2, 5 hours, and 204 parts. The exact time of a molad in terms of days after midnight between 29 and 30 December 1899 (the form used by many spreadsheets for date and time)
1020-471: Is performed. To calculate the day on which Rosh Hashanah of a given year will fall, the expected molad (moment of lunar conjunction or new moon ) of Tishrei in that year is calculated. The molad is calculated by multiplying the number of months that will have elapsed since some (preceding) molad (whose weekday is known) by the mean length of a (synodic) lunar month, which is 29 days, 12 hours, and 793 parts (there are 1080 "parts" in an hour, so that one part
1080-430: Is the "real" Adar, and which is the added leap month. The Bible does not directly mention the addition of leap months (also known as "embolismic" or " intercalary " months). The insertion of the leap month is based on the requirement that Passover occur at the same time of year as the spring barley harvest ( aviv ). (Since 12 lunar months make up less than a solar year, the date of Passover would gradually move throughout
1140-461: Is the new year for kings and festivals. The 1st of Elul is the new year for the cattle tithe ... The 1st of Tishri is the new year for years, of the Shmita and Jubilee years, for planting and for vegetables. The 1st of Shevat is the new year for trees—so the school of Shammai, but the school of Hillel say: On the 15th thereof . Two of these dates are especially prominent: For the dates of
1200-506: The Book of Genesis in which the world is created. The names for the days of the week are simply the day number within the week. The week begins with Day 1 ( Sunday ) and ends with Shabbat ( Saturday ). (More precisely, since days begin in the evening, weeks begin and end on Saturday evening. Day 1 lasts from Saturday evening to Sunday evening, while Shabbat lasts from Friday evening to Saturday evening.) Since some calculations use division,
1260-504: The Gregorian years (365.2425 days/year) make (0.0003 days/year, or one day in 3333 years). Besides the adding of leap months, the year length is sometimes adjusted by adding one day to the month of Marcheshvan, or removing one day from the month of Kislev. Because each calendar year begins with Rosh Hashanah , adjusting the year length is equivalent to moving the day of the next Rosh Hashanah. Several rules are used to determine when this
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#17327730914561320-461: The Rosh Hashanah postponement rules , in some years Kislev may lose a day to have 29 days, or Marcheshvan may acquire an additional day to have 30 days. Normally the 12th month is named Adar . During leap years , the 12th and 13th months are named Adar I and Adar II (Hebrew: Adar Aleph and Adar Bet —"first Adar" and "second adar"). Sources disagree as to which of these months
1380-504: The Seder Olam Rabbah . Thus, adding 3760 before Rosh Hashanah or 3761 after to a Julian calendar year number starting from 1 CE will yield the Hebrew year. For earlier years there may be a discrepancy; see Missing years (Jewish calendar) . In Hebrew there are two common ways of writing the year number: with the thousands, called לפרט גדול ("major era"), and without the thousands, called לפרט קטן ("minor era"). Thus,
1440-550: The remainder . (Since there is no year 0, a remainder of 0 indicates that the year is year 19 of the cycle.) For example, the Jewish year 5785 divided by 19 results in a remainder of 9, indicating that it is year 9 of the Metonic cycle. The Jewish year used is the anno mundi year, in which the year of creation according to the Rabbinical Chronology (3761 BCE) is taken as year 1. Years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 of
1500-489: The Jewish New Year see Jewish and Israeli holidays 2000–2050 . The Jewish year number is generally given by Anno Mundi (from Latin "in the year of the world", often abbreviated AM or A.M. ). In this calendar era , the year number equals the number of years that have passed since the creation of the world , according to an interpretation of Biblical accounts of the creation and subsequent history. From
1560-520: The Julian years are 365 and 1/4 days long, every 28 years the weekday pattern repeats. This is called the sun cycle, or the Machzor Gadol ("great cycle") in Hebrew. The beginning of this cycle is arbitrary. Its main use is for determining the time of Birkat Hachama . Because every 50 years is a Jubilee year, there is a jubilee ( yovel ) cycle. Because every seven years is a sabbatical year, there
1620-401: The Metonic cycle are leap years. The Hebrew mnemonic GUCHADZaT גוחאדז״ט refers to these years, while another memory aid refers to musical notation. Whether a year is a leap year can also be determined by a simple calculation (which also gives the fraction of a month by which the calendar is behind the seasons, useful for agricultural purposes). To determine whether year n of the calendar is
1680-499: The Moon (Molad 1) is considered to be at 5 hours and 204 halakim, or 11:11:20 p.m., on the evening of Sunday, 6 October 3761 BCE. According to rabbinic reckoning, this moment was not Creation , but about one year "before" Creation, with the new moon of its first month (Tishrei) called molad tohu (the mean new moon of chaos or nothing). It is about one year before the traditional Jewish date of Creation on 25 Elul AM 1, based upon
1740-640: The Persians, continued to be regarded as normative, and the writings of Jews in the east were held in higher regard because of it. The division between western and eastern dialects of Aramaic is clear among different Jewish communities. Targumim , translations of the Jewish scriptures into Aramaic, became more important since the general population ceased to understand the original. Perhaps beginning as simple interpretive retellings, gradually 'official' standard Targums were written and promulgated, notably Targum Onkelos and Targum Jonathan : they were originally in
1800-586: The beginning of the 20th century, dozens of small Aramaic-speaking Jewish communities were scattered over a wide area extending between Lake Urmia and the Plain of Mosul , and as far east as Sanandaj . Throughout the same region l, there were also many Aramaic-speaking Christian populations. In some places, Zakho for instance, the Jewish and Christian communities easily understood each other's Aramaic. In others, like Sanandaj, Jews and Christians who spoke different forms of Aramaic could not understand each other. Among
1860-473: The calculation of prayer times ( zmanim ); for example, the Shema must be recited in the first three relative hours of the day. Neither system is commonly used in ordinary life; rather, the local civil clock is used. This is even the case for ritual times (e.g. "The latest time to recite Shema today is 9:38 AM"). The Hebrew week ( שבוע , shavua ) is a cycle of seven days, mirroring the seven-day period of
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1920-413: The classification of Imperial Aramaic as an "official language", noting that no surviving edict expressly and unambiguously accorded that status to any particular language. Documentary evidence shows the gradual shift from Hebrew to Aramaic: The phases took place over a protracted period, and the rate of change varied depending on the place and social class in question: the use of one or other language
1980-551: The common people would not understand. During the 6th century BCE, the Babylonian captivity brought the working language of Mesopotamia much more into the daily life of ordinary Jews. Around 500 BCE, Darius I of Persia proclaimed that Aramaic would be the official language for the western half of his empire, and the Eastern Aramaic dialect of Babylon became the official standard. In 1955, Richard Frye questioned
2040-491: The current year is written as ה'תשפ"ה (5785) using the "major era" and תשפ"ה (785) using the "minor era". Since the Jewish calendar has been fixed, leap months have been added according to the Metonic cycle of 19 years, of which 12 are common (non-leap) years of 12 months, and 7 are leap years of 13 months. This 19-year cycle is known in Hebrew as the Machzor Katan ("small cycle"). Because
2100-487: The day changes. One opinion uses the antimeridian of Jerusalem (located at 144°47' W, passing through eastern Alaska ). Other opinions exist as well. (See International date line in Judaism .) Judaism uses multiple systems for dividing hours. In one system , the 24-hour day is divided into fixed hours equal to 1 ⁄ 24 of a day, while each hour is divided into 1080 halakim (parts, singular: helek ). A part
2160-400: The days of the week). So over 247 years, not only does the 19-year leap year cycle repeat itself, but the days of the week (and thus the days of Rosh Hashanah and the year length) typically repeat themselves. To determine whether a Jewish year is a leap year, one must find its position in the 19-year Metonic cycle. This position is calculated by dividing the Jewish year number by 19 and finding
2220-408: The difference between the solar and lunar years increases by 7/19-month per year. When the difference goes above 18/19-month this signifies a leap year, and the difference is reduced by one month. The Hebrew calendar assumes that a month is uniformly of the length of an average synodic month , taken as exactly 29 13753 ⁄ 25920 days (about 29.530594 days, which is less than half a second from
2280-559: The different Jewish dialects, mutual comprehension became quite sporadic. In the middle of the 20th century, the founding of the State of Israel led to the disruption of centuries-old Aramaic-speaking communities. Today, most first-language speakers of Jewish Aramaic live in Israel, but their distinct languages are gradually being replaced by Modern Hebrew . Modern Jewish Aramaic languages are still known by their geographical location before
2340-506: The eleventh century, anno mundi dating became the dominant method of counting years throughout most of the world's Jewish communities, replacing earlier systems such as the Seleucid era . As with Anno Domini (A.D. or AD), the words or abbreviation for Anno Mundi (A.M. or AM) for the era should properly precede the date rather than follow it. The reference junction of the Sun and
2400-488: The festivals specified in the Bible ( Purim , Passover , Shavuot , Rosh Hashanah , Yom Kippur , Sukkot , and Shemini Atzeret ). The lengths of months in this period are fixed, meaning that the day of week of Passover dictates the day of week of the other Biblical holidays. However, the lengths of the months of Marcheshvan and Kislev can each vary by a day (due to the Rosh Hashanah postponement rules which are used to adjust
2460-547: The final decline of Hebrew to the margins of Jewish society. Writings from the Seleucid and Hasmonaean periods show the complete supersession of Aramaic as the language of the Jewish people. In contrast, Hebrew was the holy tongue . The early witness to the period of change is the Biblical Aramaic of the books of Daniel and Ezra . The language shows a number of Hebrew features have been taken into Jewish Aramaic:
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2520-486: The importance of Judeo-Aramaic cultural heritage. Helek The helek , also spelled chelek ( Hebrew חלק, meaning "portion", plural halakim חלקים) is a unit of time used in the calculation of the Molad . Other spellings used are chelak and chelek , both with plural chalakim . The hour is divided into 1080 halakim. A helek is 3 1 / 3 seconds or / 18 minute. The helek derives from
2580-650: The language of religious scholars. The 13th-century Zohar , published in Spain, and the popular 16th-century Passover song Chad Gadya , published in Bohemia, testify to the continued importance of the language of the Talmud long after it had ceased to be the language of the people. Aramaic continued to be the first language of the Jewish communities that remained in Aramaic-speaking areas throughout Mesopotamia. At
2640-484: The letter He is often used instead of Aleph to mark a word-final long a vowel and the prefix of the causative verbal stem, and the masculine plural -īm often replaces -īn . Different strata of Aramaic began to appear during the Hasmonaean period, and legal, religious, and personal documents show different shades of hebraism and colloquialism. The dialect of Babylon, the basis for Standard Aramaic under
2700-550: The modern name differs slightly from the version in Genesis.) The seventh day, Shabbat , as its Hebrew name indicates, is a day of rest in Judaism. In Talmudic Hebrew, the word Shabbat ( שַׁבָּת ) can also mean "week", so that in ritual liturgy a phrase like "Yom Reviʻi beShabbat" means "the fourth day in the week". Jewish holidays can only fall on the weekdays shown in the following table: The period from 1 Adar (or Adar II , in leap years) to 29 Marcheshvan contains all of
2760-472: The modern scientific estimate); it also assumes that a tropical year is exactly 12 7 ⁄ 19 times that, i.e., about 365.2468 days. Thus it overestimates the length of the tropical year (365.2422 days) by 0.0046 days (about 7 minutes) per year, or about one day in 216 years. This error is less than the Julian years (365.2500 days) make (0.0078 days/year, or one day in 128 years), but much more than what
2820-651: The official Aramaic of the Persian Empire by this period. Middle Babylonian Aramaic was the dominant dialect, and it is the basis of the Babylonian Talmud . Middle Galilean Aramaic , once a colloquial northern dialect, influenced the writings in the west. Most importantly, it was the Galilean dialect of Aramaic that was most probably the first language of the Masoretes , who composed signs to aid in
2880-504: The pronunciation of scripture, Hebrew as well as Aramaic. Thus, the standard vowel marks that accompany pointed versions of the Tanakh may be more representative of the pronunciation of Middle Galilean Aramaic than of the Hebrew of earlier periods. As the Jewish diaspora was spread more thinly, Aramaic began to give way to other languages as the first language of widespread Jewish communities. Like Hebrew before it, Aramaic eventually became
2940-454: The return to Israel. These include: Judeo-Aramaic studies are well established as a distinctive interdisciplinary field of collaboration between Jewish studies and Aramaic studies . The full scope of Judeo-Aramaic studies includes not only linguistic, but rather the entire cultural heritage of Aramaic-speaking Jewish communities, both historical and modern. Some scholars, who are not experts in Jewish or Aramaic studies, tend to overlook
3000-438: The schedule of public Torah readings . In Israel, it is used for religious purposes, provides a time frame for agriculture, and is an official calendar for civil holidays alongside the Gregorian calendar . Like other lunisolar calendars, the Hebrew calendar consists of months of 29 or 30 days which begin and end at approximately the time of the new moon. As 12 such months comprise a total of just 354 days, an extra lunar month
3060-403: The solar year exceed the lunar year? By approximately 11 days. Therefore, whenever this excess accumulates to about 30 days, or a little more or less, one month is added and the particular year is made to consist of 13 months, and this is the so-called embolismic (intercalated) year. For the year could not consist of twelve months plus so-and-so many days, since it is said: "throughout the months of
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#17327730914563120-532: The solar year if leap months were not occasionally added.) According to the rabbinic calculation, this requirement means that Passover (or at least most of Passover) should fall after the March equinox . Similarly, the holidays of Shavuot and Sukkot are presumed by the Torah to fall in specific agricultural seasons. Maimonides , discussing the calendrical rules in his Mishneh Torah (1178), notes: By how much does
3180-475: The stars appear"). The time between sundown and nightfall ( bein hashmashot ) is of uncertain status. Thus (for example) observance of Shabbat begins before sundown on Friday and ends after nightfall on Saturday, to be sure that Shabbat is not violated no matter when the transition between days occurs. Instead of the International Date Line convention, there are varying opinions as to where
3240-438: The week can be derived. The Hebrew calendar is a lunisolar calendar , meaning that months are based on lunar months , but years are based on solar years . The calendar year features twelve lunar months of 29 or 30 days, with an additional lunar month ("leap month") added periodically to synchronize the twelve lunar cycles with the longer solar year. These extra months are added in seven years (3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19) out of
3300-536: The year length). As a result, the holidays falling after Marcheshvan (starting with Chanukah) can fall on multiple days for a given row of the table. A common mnemonic is " לא אד"ו ראש, ולא בד"ו פסח ", meaning: "Rosh HaShana cannot be on Sunday, Wednesday or Friday, and Passover cannot be on Monday, Wedesday or Friday" with each days' numerical equivalent, in gematria , is used, such that א' = 1 = Sunday, and so forth. From this rule, every other date can be calculated by adding weeks and days until that date's possible day of
3360-450: The year of the world"; Hebrew : לבריאת העולם , "from the creation of the world", abbreviated AM). This system attempts to calculate the number of years since the creation of the world according to the Genesis creation narrative and subsequent Biblical stories. The current Hebrew year, AM 5785, began at sunset on 2 October 2024 and will end at sunset on 22 September 2025. Based on the classic rabbinic interpretation of Genesis 1:5 ("There
3420-530: The year", which implies that we should count the year by months and not by days. The Hebrew calendar year conventionally begins on Rosh Hashanah , the first day of Tishrei . However, the Jewish calendar also defines several additional new years, used for different purposes. The use of multiple starting dates for a year is comparable to different starting dates for civil "calendar years", "tax or fiscal years ", " academic years ", and so on. The Mishnah (c. 200 CE) identifies four new-year dates: The 1st of Nisan
3480-467: Was evening and there was morning, one day"), a day in the rabbinic Hebrew calendar runs from sunset (the start of "the evening") to the next sunset. Similarly, Yom Kippur , Passover , and Shabbat are described in the Bible as lasting "from evening to evening". The days are therefore figured locally. Halachically , the exact time when days begin or end is uncertain: this time could be either sundown ( shekiah ) or else nightfall ( tzait ha'kochavim , "when
3540-737: Was probably a social, political, and religious barometer. The conquest of the Middle East by Alexander the Great in the years from 331 BCE overturned centuries of Mesopotamian dominance and led to the ascendancy of Greek , which became the dominant language throughout the Seleucid Empire , but significant pockets of Aramaic-speaking resistance continued. Judaea was one of the areas in which Aramaic remained dominant, and its use continued among Babylonian Jews as well. The destruction of Persian power, and its replacement with Greek rule helped
3600-717: Was used extensively in the writings of the Dead Sea Scrolls , and to some extent in the Mishnah and the Tosefta alongside Hebrew. The First Jewish–Roman War of 70 CE and Bar Kokhba revolt of 135, with their severe Roman reprisals, led to the breakup of much of Jewish society and religious life. However, the Jewish schools of Babylon continued to flourish, and in the west, the rabbis settled in Galilee to continue their study. Jewish Aramaic had become quite distinct from
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