Rosh Hashanah Has Competition for the Beginning of the Jewish Year

It’s common knowledge that Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, is the Jewish new year. And yet, despite the obvious importance of this High Holy Day, the Bible quite clearly stipulates another month entirely as marking the true beginning of the Jewish year. That is the month of Nisan, whose first day falls this year on Saturday, April 6. By dint of its connection to the story of the Exodus from Egypt, Nisan would indeed seem to be the most important month of all.

At a crucial moment in the book of Exodus, with the Israelites still technically slaves to Pharaoh, God has smitten the Egyptians with the first nine plagues. The tenth—the slaying of the firstborn—is about to occur, and with it, Egypt’s power over the Jews will have effectively collapsed. Soon the Israelites fulfill their first major commandment as a nation by offering the paschal sacrifice and will then depart from the land of their enslavement. It is at this point, between the end of their enslavement and their coming to life as a nation capable of fulfilling God’s commands, that Nisan becomes the first month of Israel’s new calendar:

And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying ‘On the tenth of this month let them take for themselves every man a lamb for his father’s house, a lamb for a household. . . .’” (Exodus 12:1-3)