When is Jewish New Year?

Factual Questions
1

We bought a Jewish New Year card to give to some friends of ours, but forgot to note the date of Jewish New Year.

When should we send it?

Thanks.

2

To arrive approximately on Rosh Hashonah, which is “Jewish New Year” – it means, literally, “head of the something-or-other-implying-year.” It’ll be on the calendar every year; in 2004 it’s September 16.

Its Gregorian-calendar date varies from year to year owing to the Jewish custom of having 12 28-day months per year (if I have this right) with Adar followed by an intercalated “leap month” called Veadar about 30% of the time, so that the Jewish year is either a couple of weeks shorter or longer than the Gregorian year, shifting the dates of the Jewish festivals back and forth across a span of about 30 Gregorian-calendar days.

3

thanks very much, Polycarp.

4

Hebrew 101:

Rosh: Head
Ha: a prefix using indicating a definite article - “the”
Shanah: year.

Close, but no cigar.

There are twelve months, but they are either 29 or 30 days. None are 28. This results in the Jewish year being about 11 days shorter than the solar year. Seven out of every nineteen years an extra month of 30 days is added to the calendar (usually called Adar Sheinei [“second Adar”] - although it is sometimes [but rarely] called V’Adar [“and Adar”].

In addition, certain calendircal adjustments are made so as to make sure that Rosh HaShannah does not fall out on Sunday, Wednesday or Friday.

Zev Steinhardt

Zev Steinhardt

5

One minor point to add:

The holiday actually starts the night before on the 15th. And if the recipient is Orthodox or Conservative, they likely will not open the card if it arrives on Rosh HaShannah, so you’d want to get it there by Wednesday.

Zev Steinhardt

6

Thanks very much, zev. As always, you’re a font of interesting info.

7

I was not aware of this tidbit. What is the reason for this?

L’Shana Tova,
Haj

8

Rosh HaShanah (and Shemini Atzeret, which occurs exactly three weeks later) cannot start on Friday or Sunday, as that would block out two days in a row – one for the festival and one for Shabbat. Sources differ on which holiday is the driving factor for this rule. The source that I remember (sorry, no cite available, just my memory of a lecture a few years back) said that Shemini Atzeret is the driving factor. Note that this rule does not in any way prevent Pesach or Shavuot from starting on Sunday. In fact, in this coming year, Pesach does in fact start on Sunday.

Rosh HaShanah cannot start on Wednesday, because that would place Yom Kippur on the following Friday, and that would place the most holy day next to Shabbat. There would be no opportunity to prepare for Shabbat.

But what about Yom Kippur falling on a Sunday? Why is this not covered in the second rule? Conveniently, because the first rule prohibits Rosh HaShanah from starting on Friday, Yom Kippur is prevented from falling on a Sunday.

9

Rosh HaShanah does start on a Wednesday night this year, and Yom Kippur starts on a Friday night. Or did you mean that Rosh HaShanah morning cannot be a Wednesday morning?

Sorry to be pedantic, but your explanation threw me when I looked at my calendar.

10

In the Jewish calendar, the day begins at night - so Wednesday night is really the beginning of Thursday.

The first day of Rosh HaShannah cannot come out on Wednesday, because that would place Yom Kippur on Friday. As Scuba_Ben pointed out, if that were to happen, there would be no way to prepare for Shabbos.

The first day of Rosh HaShannah also cannot come out on Friday because that would place Yom Kippur on Sunday. The difficulty with this is that it still leaves a 2-consectutive-day situation where one cannot cook or prepare food. Likewise, preparing for the meal before Yom Kippur would be impossible on Shabbos.

The first day of Rosh HaShannah cannot be on a Sunday because that would place HoShannah Rabbah on a Saturday - and the HoShannah Rabbah ceremonies cannot be carried out on Shabbos.

Zev Steinhardt

11

Zev:

IIRC, the reason (or at least the primary reason) for not allowing two total non-work days in a row (Yom Kippur and Shabbos consecutively, not necessarily in that order) was not a matter of the food preparation, but of removal of a dead body from a place.

12

I had heard that reasoning as well. However, the problem that I have with that is that there are times when the first day of Yom Tov (where burial is forbidden) is on Friday or Sunday. Why should this be a problem for Yom Kippur when it is just as forbidden on any other Yom Tov Rishon (where we don’t push off the holiday)?

Zev Steinhardt

13

Not burial, Zev, but removal to a more convenient (less humid, for rotting/smelling issues? I’m not certain what the specific concerns are. Maybe they date back to Temple times and it’s a purity concern) place. On Yom Tov you can carry it, on Yom Kippur and Shabbos, you can’t.