New Year
Why don’t Jews celebrate New Year’s on January 1st?
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz While the entire world is celebrating, bringing in the new year, Jews are more subdued. Everyone else is flipping their calendars from 2022 to 2023, but the Hebrew calendar is already a quarter of the way through...
Three Things We Must Renew Daily
By Chaim Barzel We have all made New Year's resolutions: to eat healthier, to get to sleep earlier, to make up with an old friend, etc. That is because the new year is a time of renewal. A new year means the opportunity to start over, and...
What is Tu B’Shevat?
Tu B'Shevat, the New Year for the Trees, is considered a minor festival in Judaism. There is no reference to the holiday of Tu B'Shevat in the Bible, but the Mishna (Rosh Hashana 1:1) notes that there are four distinctive New Years in the...
The Biblical New Year
Establishing a calendar in Judaism requires a total reset from how time is marked on a secular calendar, realigning the days, weeks, months, and years according to Biblical principles. Days and weeks The days of the week are oriented...
The Portion of Pinchas
Our portion picks up where last week’s left off, in the aftermath of a plague. Phineas is blessed by God for his actions and a new census of the people is taken. The brotherless daughters of Zelophehad appeal to Moses for a share in the...