


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 5783. Why do the Jews have a...
Parshat Hachodesh: the New Moon and the Passover Offering
On the Shabbat that falls out on or before the first day of the month of Nissan, a section of the Torah is read in addition to the regular Torah reading. This Torah reading is called Parshat HaChodesh (Exodus 12:1–20), and relates what God told Moses in Egypt two...
The Blessing of the New Month
The Shabbat which precedes Rosh Chodesh (new month), the beginning of a Hebrew month, is referred to as Shabbat Mevorchim, or the Shabbat when we bless. On this Shabbat a special prayer is recited after the Torah is read but before the Torah scroll is returned to the...