JEWISH YEAR · 2 OF 3
The first month and the new year
How can the new year begin in the seventh month? Ask what each source is counting, and two different beginnings become a useful map.
In this lesson
First for which purpose?
A school year and a January-to-December year can begin at different points without either being a mistake. “First” becomes clear when we know what is being counted. Our sources likewise distinguish the numbering of months from other year boundaries.
In Months and seasons, we learned why our calendar uses lunar months within a seasonal year. Now we will connect numbered months with familiar names, then read a small map of the Torah's appointed times. Keep the month reference below nearby; memorizing every name is not the first task.
We begin with the Torah, the five books of Moshe, Moses. Hashem, “the Name,” is our customary way of referring to God. These sources teach us how the year's rhythm becomes part of our shared service to him.
A first month in the story of deliverance
Exodus 12 begins with Hashem speaking to Moshe and Aharon (Aaron) in Egypt. Our people have not yet departed from slavery. The chapter introduces Pesach, Passover, and the departure that the festival will recall.
החדש הזה לכם ראש חדשים; ראשון הוא לכם לחדשי השנה
This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first of the months of the year for you.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Notice the repeated “for you.” The instruction addresses Israel. It orders our month count in the setting of deliverance, not simply in a list detached from our story. Also notice what is being counted: the months of the year.
1. Where are our people when this month is called first, and why does that setting matter?
We are in Egypt, as the chapter introduces Pesach and the departure. The month count is given within the story of deliverance. The setting helps explain why this beginning carries meaning beyond being a convenient calendar label.
From a number to a name
Exodus 12:2 says “this month,” not “Nisan.” A later biblical book supplies an explicit connection. Esther is set among our people in the Persian Empire, long after the Exodus:
בחדש הראשון הוא חדש ניסן
In the first month, which is the month of Nisan.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
This phrase joins the number and the name: first month = Nisan. The full verse also identifies Adar as the twelfth month. We are using a later biblical witness to clarify the numbering, rather than inserting the name Nisan into Exodus's wording.
2. Which source actually says that the first month is Nisan?
Esther 3:7. Exodus 12:2 establishes the first-month instruction in the Pesach setting; Esther explicitly connects the number with the name. Keeping those two pieces of evidence distinct makes the explanation stronger.
More than one beginning
The Mishnah is a collection of teachings of our sages. Its tractate, or named section, Rosh Hashanah concerns the new year and the calendar. Its first teaching begins:
ארבעה ראשי שנים הם
There are four beginnings of years.
באחד בתשרי, ראש השנה לשנים
On the first of Tishrei is the beginning of the year for years.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Rosh Hashanah literally means “head of the year.” The Mishnah lists different beginnings for different counts and responsibilities. It does not announce four identical public New Year celebrations.
The literal phrase “for years” needs explanation. Rambam, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, explains it in his commentary on this mishnah as the count from Creation, used in dating documents. This is a boundary for year reckoning, not a replacement of Nisan in the numbered sequence of months.
3. What is wrong with “The Mishnah says we celebrate the same New Year four times”?
The four beginnings serve different counting purposes. “Beginning of a year” is not automatically the name of an identical celebration. The Mishnah teaches us to ask what each beginning is for.
Keep the month names nearby
Here is an ordinary year's sequence, counted from Nisan. Use it as a reference while you read:
- Months 1–4
1 Nisan · 2 Iyyar · 3 Sivan · 4 Tammuz
- Months 5–8
5 Av · 6 Elul · 7 Tishrei · 8 Cheshvan, also called Marcheshvan
- Months 9–12
9 Kislev · 10 Tevet · 11 Shevat · 12 Adar
A leap year has Adar I and Adar II before the next Nisan. Adding the second Adar does not make Tishrei the eighth month: the count from Nisan to Tishrei stays the same.
Work through the claim, “Rosh Hashanah begins the year, so the first month must be Tishrei.”
- Ask what is being counted. The claim treats month numbering and year reckoning as the same question.
- Find the first month. Exodus gives the instruction; Esther explicitly names Nisan.
- Find the year boundary. The Mishnah names the first of Tishrei “for years”; Rambam explains the year-count use.
- Revise the claim. Nisan begins the numbered month sequence. The year count changes at Tishrei, which remains the seventh month.
4. Explain how a new-year boundary can be in the seventh month.
Month numbering and year reckoning have different starting points. Counting Nisan as 1 puts Tishrei at 7. The first of Tishrei can begin the year count without renumbering Tishrei as month 1. The two statements answer different questions.
The Torah also speaks of a year turning
The Torah's language is richer than a single row of numbers. Exodus describes the Festival of Ingathering, when produce is gathered from the field:
וחג האסף בצאת השנה באספך את מעשיך מן השדה
And the Festival of Ingathering at the year's going out, when you gather in the produce of your work from the field.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
“The year's going out” belongs to the agricultural setting. Exodus 34:22 speaks of the same ingathering at “the turning of the year.” The Torah can describe an agricultural year-turn while also numbering months from the Pesach setting.
The ingathering festival is Sukkot, which we will study next. These verses help us hear the harvest rhythm. The first-of-Tishrei boundary is a further, specifically stated point in the Mishnah; we should not pretend Exodus 23 prints that date.
5. Does “at the year's going out” by itself state that the formal boundary is the first of Tishrei?
No. Exodus's phrase describes the ingathering setting, not a numbered first-of-Tishrei date. The Mishnah names that boundary, and Rambam explains the year-count use. Read each source for what it actually supplies.
Appointed times, not just days off
Leviticus, the Torah's third book, presents Hashem's instructions to Moshe for Israel. Chapter 23 describes Shabbat and the annual sacred times. Before the annual sequence, it says:
אלה מועדי יהוה מקראי קדש אשר תקראו אתם במועדם
These are Hashem's appointed times, sacred convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed time.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
A mo'ed is an appointed time; mo'adim is the plural. A mikra kodesh, a sacred convocation, is a holy occasion proclaimed for our communal service. These times belong to Hashem and give shape to our life together.
Use the following map to read the chapter. It records the passage's sequence, not a complete practical festival schedule.
- First month: Pesach and Matzot
Leviticus 23:5–6. The Pesach offering is on the fourteenth. The seven-day Festival of Matzot begins on the fifteenth. Matzah is unleavened bread; matzot is the plural. We commonly use Pesach for the whole festival, while the passage makes this narrower distinction.
- Seven weeks and fifty days
Leviticus 23:15–16. The passage reaches the next occasion by a count: seven complete weeks and fifty days. Deuteronomy 16:9–10 calls it Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks. This Leviticus passage does not give it an explicit numbered month and day.
- Seventh month, day 1
Leviticus 23:24. Rest and a remembrance marked by a sounding. This is the day we know as Rosh Hashanah; that familiar name is not the wording of this verse.
- Seventh month, day 10
Leviticus 23:27. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, belongs to our return to Hashem and seeking atonement. Returning and repairing introduces that work through our sages' teachings.
- Seventh month, day 15: seven days
Leviticus 23:34. Sukkot, the Festival of Booths. The next reading will join its date with harvest, memory and rejoicing.
- The adjoining eighth-day assembly
Leviticus 23:36. A sacred convocation follows the seven days. It is called Shemini Atzeret, the Eighth-Day Assembly. Counting from the fifteenth places it on 22 Tishrei; that date is our inference from the sequence.
The map has two major clusters, in Nisan and Tishrei, with the counted approach to Shavuot between them. It is not an inventory of every Jewish observance. Purim is grounded in the later biblical book of Esther; Hanukkah belongs to the later story of the Temple's rededication and the teaching of our sages. They too belong to our shared year.
6. Which occasion is reached by a count rather than an explicit month-and-day date in this Leviticus passage?
Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks. The source gives seven complete weeks and fifty days. A source map should preserve that form rather than insert an explicit date and imply it is printed in these verses.
7. Does “Pesach on the fourteenth” mean that the seven-day Matzot festival starts on the fourteenth?
No. Verse 5 names the Pesach offering on the fourteenth; verse 6 begins the Festival of Matzot on the fifteenth. Commonly calling the whole festival Pesach does not erase that distinction. Read the next verse before using a familiar name to decide the date.
From a source date to community practice
Diaspora means our communities outside the land of Israel. A community calendar may show a second festival day. Rambam explains how distant communities formerly faced uncertainty about the court's month declaration, and how our sages retained a second-day observance after calculation was established.
This pattern belongs to diaspora festival practice; Rosh Hashanah is observed for two days in Israel as well. It does not mean every holiday is doubled, every day of Sukkot is repeated, or Yom Kippur becomes a two-day fast.
The Torah's date tells us where an appointed time belongs in the year. A local rabbi and community calendar guide the practical schedule. Keeping those purposes distinct lets us read the source accurately and take part in our community's life.
8. Does a second festival day mean that the diaspora uses a different first or seventh month?
No. The second day concerns observance received through our tradition, not a different month-numbering system. Nisan remains the first month and Tishrei the seventh. Rosh Hashanah's two-day observance in Israel also shows why “everything outside Israel is doubled” is an inadequate rule.
Recall before the next reading
At your next session, recall Nisan, Tishrei and the two different counts before opening the map. Name the two major festival clusters and the occasion reached by counting weeks.
9. Check your annotation and recall.
The phrase points to 15 Tishrei. Leviticus 23:34 identifies Sukkot there, for seven days. It does not by itself supply a civil-calendar date, a local service time or every practical observance rule.
Nisan begins the month numbering; Tishrei, the seventh month, begins the year count. The map clusters Pesach/Matzot in Nisan and Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot in Tishrei. Shavuot is reached by counting weeks. Use these anchors to begin the Sukkot source reading.
Return to the sources
- Exodus 12:1–2 and Esther 3:7: the first month and the name Nisan.
- Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:1 and Rambam's commentary: different beginnings and the count of years.
- Exodus 23:16 and 34:22: the ingathering and the year's turn.
- Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16: appointed times and the Feast of Weeks.
- Rambam, Laws of Sanctifying the New Moon 8:5–6: month names and order; 5:4–12: second festival days and their geographic distinctions.
- Esther 9:20–22 and Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 21b: Purim and Hanukkah in the wider Jewish year.