Year, The

The Jewish year starts on Rosh Hashanah, "the Head of the Year," the day when Adam and Eve were created. The number of any given year (at the time of the writing of this article, the year is 5767 (2007)), is the amount of years which have elapsed since cr...

Why Moses died on his birthday.

Thought you knew how many tribes there are? How many heads a shin has? Or that you've mastered basic addition? Rabbi Levi Yitzchak shows us deeper insights into these seemingly simple ideas . . . and so much more!

What actually occurred on the first Rosh Hashanah, more than 5700 years ago? What are we commemorating?

It was the only event that required the attendance of every Jew -- men, women, and children -- reminiscent of the historic moment when our nation stood at Mount Sinai, when every member of our nation was present when G‑d lovingly gave us the Torah.

The Jewish "leap year", which occurs seven times in a 19-year cycle, has 13 months instead of the regular year's 12. This is so that the lunar-based Jewish year should remain aligned with the solar seasons (12 lunar months make up a total of 354 days -- s...

Since Hakhel—the septennial event requiring the entire Jewish nation to attend— has not occurred since Temple times, the exact particulars have become murky. In this article we will reconstruct the fine details as depicted in the vast canon of rabbinic li...

Every seven years, on the holiday of Sukkot, every single Jew would gather in Jerusalem and listen to the king read from the Torah. Why was this so special and how is it relevant today?

The Hebrew leap year ensures that the Jewish calendar remains true to the solar cycle

In Temple times the king would read from the Torah before the entire nation in the year of Hakhel. Why is this specifically the role of the king? This class explains the unique function of a Jewish king.