Article / Updated 03-26-2016
The Jewish calendar isn't just a tool for observing the passage of time. Judaism marks and celebrates time in a number of ways — holidays, Shabbat, the weekly readings of specific portions of the Torah, and the rituals of the personal life cycle.
Months and years in the Jewish calendar
The Jewish calendar, unlike the civil Gregorian calendar, is based both on the cycles of the moon as well as the sun — the months correspond to cycles of the moon and the years correspond to cycles of the sun.