Accessing a current Jewish calendar is essential to observing the mo'edim! For example, if Nisan 27 happened to begin on Friday at sundown, it would be moved to Nisan 26. Note that if a Jewish holiday were to occur on a Sabbath, it would be moved to the previous Thursday on the calendar.
In the example above, Yom HaShoah is observed both on Thursday the 5th (after sundown) and Friday the 6th (during daylight hours). Observance of a holiday begins at sundown on the day before it is listed in the calendar! Most Jewish calendars do not indicate the previous night as part of the holiday. Thus a given Jewish holiday spans two days on our Gregorian calendar. For example, Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) occurs on Nisan 27, which actually begins after sundown on the previous day: Since the Jewish day (yom) begins at sundown, you must remember that a Jewish holiday actually begins on the night before the day listed in a Jewish calendar.
Evening is sometimes defined as the late afternoon, that is, between 3:00 pm to sundown. The Hebrew day (yom) begins at sundown, when three stars become visible in the sky (the rabbis reasoned that the day begins at sunset based on the description of God's activity in creation, "and the evening and the morning were the first day," Genesis 1:5). Indeed, part of being a Jew today is to be mindful of this divinely ordered spiral of time and to order our affairs accordingly. The western sense of time is basically the measurement of linear, progressive motion, but in Hebrew thinking, time is seen as an ascending helix, with recurring patterns or cycles that present a thematic message or revelation of sacred history. In this way the lunar calendar is synchronized with the solar cycle of the agricultural seasons.
Passover in springtime, Sukkot in the fall, etc.), an extra month (Adar II) is added every two or three years to offset the 11 day lag per solar year. To ensure that the festivals would occur in their proper seasons (e.g. In fact, the Talmud (Avodah Zarah, 9A) states that the olam hazeh (this world) will only exist for six thousand years, while the seventh millennium will be an era of worldwide shalom called the olam haba (world to come).Īctually, the Jewish calendar might best be described as "luni-solar." Since every lunar cycle runs roughly 29.5 days, the Jewish year has 354 days compared to 365 days of the solar calendar. Indeed, according to the Jewish sages, the history of the world may be understood as seven 1,000 year "days," corresponding to the seven days of creation. 25:2-5), and after seven cycles of sh'mitah the Yovel, or Jubilee Year was to be observed ( Lev. Even the years are numbered: every seventh year was sh'mitah - a Sabbatical year ( Lev.
The day begins at sundown the climactic day of the week is Shabbat - the seventh day of the week the moon and its phases in the night sky are the timepiece for the months, and the seasons of the year are marked with special festivals or mo'edim (appointed times). The Hebrew lunar calendar (i.e., luach ha'yare'ach ha'ivri: לוח הירח העברי) is "set" differently than the solar calendar. The very first word of the Torah indicates the awareness of the significance of time - בראשית - "in the beginning." ( Genesis 1:1), and according to Rabbinic tradition, the very first commandment given to the children of Israel after being delivered from Egypt was to sanctify the "New Moon" ( Exodus 12:1-2), thereby causing the fledgling nation to depart from the solar tradition of the Egyptians (Ra worship) and to look to the moon for a new means of reckoning time and seasons. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven (Eccl 3:1)