Subject 01 · Jewish Calendar & Time
Jewish Calendar & Time
The Hebrew calendar is the spine of this library. It is lunar and solar at once, it begins the year with reflection rather than resolutions, and it gives each month its own letter, sense, tribe and inner work.
- 18
- Lessons
- 52
- Minutes of reading
About this subject
Start with the guide to the Jewish year for the whole map. Then follow the months as they come: Elul into Rosh Hashanah, the quiet growth of Shevat, the reversal of Adar, the freedom of Nissan, the counting of the Omer into Shavuot, the mourning and love of Av.
Start with these
The essential lessons
Essential 01 · 4 min
ELUL: The Month That Changes Everything
Elul is the last month of the Jewish year, the thirty days before Rosh Hashanah. Together with the ten days that follow it, it forms a forty day period of reflection and return, teshuvah, before Yom Kippur. Its practices are honest self examination, the shofar, Selichot prayers, charity and repairing relationships.
Essential 02 · 3 min
The Guide to The Jewish Year
The Jewish year is a cycle of twelve or thirteen lunar months, beginning with Tishrei and Rosh Hashanah, that pairs each season with a specific kind of inner work. Rather than a list of dates, it functions as a repeating structure of expansion and contraction, clarity and concealment, growth, reset and return.
Essential 03 · 3 min
What to Actually Do in the Most Powerful 48 Hours
Rosh Hashanah, the head of the year, is the two day Jewish new year that opens the Ten Days of Return leading to Yom Kippur. Tradition gives the day five names, each describing a different dimension: the head of the year, the day of the shofar, the day of remembrance, the day of judgment and the day the world was created.
Syllabus
Everything in Jewish Calendar & Time
- 01
month of Elul · 4 min
ELUL: The Month That Changes Everything
Elul is the Hebrew month before Rosh Hashanah and the beginning of a forty day journey to Yom Kippur. What teshuvah actually means, and how to use these days.
- 02
the Jewish year · 3 min
The Guide to The Jewish Year
The Hebrew calendar is not only a way of tracking dates. It is a repeatable framework for reflection, growth and return. Here is how the Jewish year is built and how to live inside it.
- 03
Rosh Hashanah meaning · 3 min
What to Actually Do in the Most Powerful 48 Hours
Rosh Hashanah is not the Jewish January. Its five names, why the shofar sounds like birth, and a practical list for the two days themselves.
- 04
Hebrew birthday · 3 min
Do You Know Your Hebrew Birthday?
Kabbalah treats your Hebrew birthday as a personal Rosh Hashanah. What the day means, and four traditional ways to mark it: bless, give, pray, reflect.
- 05
Tu B'Av · 2 min
The Mysterious Holiday You've Never Heard Of
Tu B'Av, the fifteenth of Av, has no rituals and no special food, yet the sages called it the happiest day of the year. Why borrowed dresses matter more than romance.
- 06
month of Av · 3 min
Rosh Chodesh Av
Av holds the saddest day of the Jewish year and, six days later, the happiest. What the Temple was, why we still mourn it, and the inner work of the month.
- 07
month of Tammuz · 3 min
Tammuz: The Month of Transformation
Tammuz has no major holiday, and that is the point. The month of sight, the fast of the seventeenth, and the work of seeing things as they really are.
- 08
what is Shavuot · 3 min
Tap Into Shavuot
Before Shavuot was the giving of the Torah it was a wheat harvest festival. How the sages transformed it, why we read Ruth, and what receiving really asks of us.
- 09
month of Sivan · 2 min
Sivan: The Month We Learn How to Receive
Sivan carries Shavuot and the giving of the Torah. Why receiving, not conquering, is the spiritual work of the month.
- 10
month of Iyar · 3 min
Iyar: Healing Is Kind of BS, Here's Why
Iyar is an acronym for I am Hashem your Healer. What Jewish healing actually means, and why Iyar is the most Israeli month of the year.
- 11
counting the Omer · 3 min
The 49 Days That Can Change You
Sefirat HaOmer is a forty nine day framework of inner refinement between Pesach and Shavuot. What the sefirot are, and a simple way to actually do it.
- 12
Pesach meaning · 3 min
It's Pesach Baby
Two dimensions of Passover: the individual exodus from your own narrow places, and the collective birth of a nation in its land.
- 13
month of Nissan · 3 min
Nissan: The Month Where Everything Begins Again
Nissan is called the first of months. Its letter, sense and tribe, why the Jewish year begins twice, and five ways to live the month.
- 14
Queen Esther story · 5 min
Lessons from Queen Esther
Everyone knows the story. Almost no one reads it closely. Five lessons from Megillat Esther, with the verses, on identity, preparation and feminine leadership.
- 15
Purim meaning · 3 min
Rockets and Miracles
Purim written from a bomb shelter in costume. Why hiddenness is the whole holiday, what Yom K'Purim means, and the four things we actually do on the day.
- 16
month of Adar · 2 min
Adar: The Month Where Reality Can Reverse
When Adar enters, joy increases. The letter, sense and tribe of the month, and why joy is treated as a mechanism of transformation rather than a mood.
- 17
Tu BiShvat · 3 min
Tu BiShvat: An Almost Forgotten Holiday
From a tax date for fruit trees to a Kabbalistic seder in Tzfat to Zionist tree planting. What Tu BiShvat was, became, and how it is celebrated now.
- 18
month of Shevat · 1 min
Shvat: The Month of Quiet Growth
Shevat is the transitional month when winter begins turning toward spring. Its inner work is one word: faith in what is becoming.
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