Leap Year, The Jewish

Adar: the month especially "pregnant" with meaning.

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 ...

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 -- ...

The confluence of solar and lunar time in the 19-year Jewish calendar cycle

This year is a shanah meuberet (lit., "a pregnant year") or a leap year on the Jewish calendar. The Jewish leap year, which occurs 7 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 ...

The solar year is longer than the lunar year. The seasons are determined by the movement of the sun. But the Jewish People set their months and festivals by the moon. Every few years, we add a thirteenth month to synchronize the two cycles.

Purim, as everyone knows, falls in the month of Adar. Actually, according to the Kabbalists, it's the other way around: Adar rises in Purim...

The Jewish calendar normally consists of twelve lunar months. A lunar month -- from the moment when the crescent new-moon appears until it disappears once again -- is roughly 29.5 days. Twelve lunar months equal 354 days; eleven days less than the solar ...

Question: My mother passed away in the month of Adar of 5756 (1996). When do I observe the yahrtzeit on this year, a leap year that has two Adars? Answer: Most years on the Jewish calendar (almost two thirds of them) have only one Adar. On a leap year, ...

The lunar year is eleven days shorter than the solar year. Therefore, every two or three years, an additional month is added to the Jewish calendar, to bring the lunar and solar years back into alignment.