The Hebrew Calendar
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            Ancient Jews developed a lunar calendar to mark seasons and events that dates back sixteen centuries according to the rules set forth by Hillel II.  A Jew must consult a luah (calendar) in order to live a Jewish life.  It provides the necessary information for lighting of Sabbath candles, commemorating yahrzeit (an anniversary of death), setting a date for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, and knowing which Torah portions are to be read at service.

            Every type of calendar is based on observation of the skies.  Genesis 1:14 instructs “Let there be lights . . . to divide day from night and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.”  The Jewish calendar is determined by the movement of the moon around the earth.  It takes the moon a little more than twenty-nine and one-half days to circle the earth.  This constitutes one lunar month.  Twelve of these months add up to about 354 days or eleven days less than a solar calendar year (the time it takes the earth to orbit the sun).  In order for Jews to be able to celebrate their festivals in the seasons described in Torah, an extra thirty days must be added (Jewish Leap Year) every three years to compensate for the “lost” thirty-three days.  This extra month is named Adar II and occurs in this year 2000.

            The lunar calendar worked for the ancient Hebrews, who were mostly desert shepherds.  They did not depend on the changing seasons.  Later, when the people settled in the Land of Canaan and became farmers, they required a sun-based cycle for the planting and harvesting of crops.  Thus a lunar-solar calendar was adopted.
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            Even in the modern world, every month of the Hebrew calendar begins with Rosh Hodesh (the head of the month), the time of the appearance of a new moon.  For observant Jews, the coming month is to be blessed with readings from Torah and prayers.  These readings are conducted on the Sabbath previous to Rosh Hodesh, at which time the molad (the point of birth of the new moon) is announced.  In ancient times, the molad was proclaimed by direct observation of the moon.  By the middle of the fourth century, a stable calendar was devised based on precise chronological calculations.  The Hebrew calendar also provides a daily-weekly scheme that corresponds to the chronology of creation.  The first day of the week is Sunday and thus the seventh day is Saturday–the Sabbath (Shabbat).

            The year begins with the first spring month of Nisan.  This appears to be contradictory, as the fall High Holy Day of Rosh Ha-Shanah is referred to as the New Year or Head of the Year.  But in the modern secular world, we have a need for a fiscal year that does not necessarily begin on January 1, in addition to an academic year that begins in September.  Similarly, the Jewish people also recognize the need for more than one beginning.  In an agricultural society, the time of planting is Nisan, the first spring month.  The ancient Hebrew calendar was set to follow Nisan in order of seasons: Iyyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Av, Elul, Tishri, Heshvan, Kislev, Tevel, Shevat, and Adar.  In anticipation of and in preparation for the fall harvest, it was a sound practice to make the conditions of life right between man and God.  That period is known as the Days of Awe, when the Book of Life is opened and the fate of each person is sealed for the coming year.  All of life runs in cycles.  The first of Tishri (Rosh Ha-Shanah) is a time of separating the old from the new.  It is a recognition of the need for renewal and is followed by the beginning of the cycle of Torah reading on the 23rd of Tishri.  In every society there is need for more than one beginning.

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