Jewish/Hebrew Calendar

The Hebrew/Jewish calendar (Hebrew: הלוח העברי) or Jewish calendar is the annual calendar used in Judaism

The Jewish/Hebrew Calendar determines the dates of the Jewish holidays, the appropriate Torah portions for public reading, Yahrzeits (the date to commemorate the death of a relative), and the specific daily Psalms which some customarily read. Two major forms of the calendar have been used: an observational form used prior to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, and based on witnesses observing the phase of the moon, and a rule-based form first fully described by Maimonides in 1178 CE, which was adopted over a transition period between 70 and 1178.

When does the year begin?
According to the Mishnah, there are four new years, in Nisan for civil purposes, Elul for certain matters connected with agriculture and the Temple, Tishri for religious purposes and Shevat for trees. The last of these is marked by a minor festival, Tu Bishvat, named after the day it occurs on, the 15th Shevat (ט"ו בשבט). Months are numbered from Nisan (reflecting the injunction in Exodus "This month shall be to you the beginning of months". However, the New Year is the first of Tishri, when the year number increases by 1 and the formal new year festival Rosh Hashana is celebrated. There may be an echo here of a controversy in the Talmud about whether the world was created in Tishri or Nisan; it was decided that the answer is Tishri.

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