Four Jewish New Years in the Hebrew Calendar
October 02, 2002
In response to a query by email, and an inability to answer this question off the top of my head, I’ve decided to post the answers I’ve found to the question: How many Jewish New Years are there?
There are four:
- 1 Tishrei
- 15 Shevat
- 1 Nisan
- 1 Elul
1 Tishrei
The first of Tishrei serves as the New Year for several purposes, the best known being the New Year for the civil calendar, or “the new year for seasons” — Rosh Hashanah, literally “the head of the year.”
15 Shevat
The second new year is 15 Shevat, the New Year for trees. Most Jewish sources consider 15 Shevat as the New Year both for designating fruits as orlah and for separating fruits for tithing.
1 Nisan
The third Jewish new year is 1 Nisan, which corresponds to the season of the redemption from Egypt and the birth of the Israelite nation. The Torah’s command that “this month [i.e. Nisan] is for you the beginning of the months, it shall be the first month of the year to you.“
1 Elul
The last new year, 1 Elul, is the New Year for the tithing of cattle.
For a comprehensive article from which these quotes were taken see Michele Alperin’s article ”In ancient times there were four new years on the Jewish calendar"
Posted October 2, 2002 09:53 PM
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