Beginner · About 50 min · Free · at your own pace

Understand your Hebrew date

Learn to read a Hebrew date, explain leap years, handle an evening birthday boundary and plan an observance in four guided steps.

Start this path

A date converter supplies an answer, but understanding the calendar helps you notice which question you have asked. This path starts with a date label, builds a model of months and years, and then applies that model to birthdays and observances. You will keep the civil date, Hebrew date and evening boundary visible together.

Use a notebook and the calendar tool. The reading estimates include short exercises; you can split the four steps over several visits. A community’s anniversary or observance convention remains part of the answer, so record it rather than assuming every calendar uses an identical rule.

What you will learn

  • Read the day, month and year in a Hebrew date.
  • Explain why some Hebrew years have an extra Adar.
  • Record an anniversary or holiday with its evening boundary and named convention.

Before you begin

No Hebrew reading is required. Keep a notebook and choose one date you would like to understand.

Step 01

Read a date before converting another one

A Hebrew date has a day, month and year. Read each separately before comparing it with the civil date. Hebrew letter numerals and transliterated month names can look unfamiliar without indicating a different date.

Read and explore

Source notes: Hebcal · Hebrew date converter and sunset option

Next stepConnect lunar months with a seasonal year

Step 02

Connect lunar months with a seasonal year

The Hebrew calendar combines lunar months with an adjustment that keeps the annual cycle connected to the seasons. A leap year adds a month. Counting months from Nisan and changing the numbered year in Tishrei serve different purposes.

Read and explore

Source notes: Chabad · The Jewish Calendar Year

Next stepKeep the evening boundary and birthday rule

Step 03

Keep the evening boundary and birthday rule

A civil date alone may leave the Hebrew birth date uncertain near the evening boundary. The anniversary calculation is a second question. Birthday and yahrzeit algorithms also differ, especially when a date is absent in another year.

Read and explore

Source notes: Hebcal · Hebrew date converter and sunset option · Hebcal · Birthday and yahrzeit algorithms

Next stepMake a calendar note someone else can use

Step 04

Make a calendar note someone else can use

The beginning evening, daytime date and observance schedule belong together. For Passover 2026, 15 Nisan falls on 2 April and the festival starts the previous evening. Israel and Diaspora calendars can list different ending dates.

Read and explore

Source notes: Hebcal · Passover 2026 dates

Check your understanding

Try it yourself

Check your understanding

1. Why does the Hebrew calendar add a month in some years?
See the answer and explanation

To keep lunar months aligned with the seasons.

An extra month helps keep the lunar calendar connected to the solar seasons. Hebrew years still have differing lengths; a leap month does not make all years 365 days.

2. 15 Nisan 5786 falls on 2 April 2026. Which note correctly identifies the opening of Passover under the cited calendar?
See the answer and explanation

It opens on the evening of 1 April.

The holiday opens on the previous evening, 1 April. The daytime date label and the opening evening answer related but different questions; check local times and the selected schedule.

Sources and further reading

  1. Hebcal · Hebrew date converter and sunset option
  2. Chabad · The Jewish Calendar Year
  3. Hebcal · Birthday and yahrzeit algorithms
  4. Hebcal · Passover 2026 dates
Learning paths