The Jewish Calendar Explained

Film Focus: Many people may not realize that the Jewish calendar follows a completely different pattern than the Gregorian calendar the Western world follows. This short video explains the Jewish rendering of time and how the calendar is laid out.

Text Focus: Pages 60–69

Discussion Questions:

1. What does it mean that the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar?
2. How is the length of a month determined in the Jewish calendar? How many days does it have?
3. Why is it important to the Jewish tradition that the lunar and the solar calendars align?
4. How does the Jewish calendar reconcile the numerical differences in the lunar and solar calendars?
5. What happened in the middle of the fourth century to impact the Jewish calendar? Why is this event still important today?

*Ave Maria Press has requested permission to link to this video for use in the classroom as part of the accompanying lesson. If for any reason, the producer does not wish this video to be included on this site, Ave Maria Press will remove it posthaste.