Nisan

Nisan (or Nissan; Hebrew: נִיסָן‎, Standard Nisan Tiberian Nîsān) in the Hebrew calendar is the first month of the ecclesiastical year and the seventh month (eighth, in leap year) of the civil year. In the Torah it is called the month of the Aviv (e.g. Book of Exodus, 13:4 בְּחֹ֖דֶשׁ הָאָבִֽיב ḥōḏeš hā-’āḇîḇ). It is a spring month of 30 days. Nisan usually falls in March–April on the Gregorian calendar. In the Book of Esther in the Tanakh it is referred to as Nisan. Karaite Jews interpret it as referring to the month in which barley was ripe.

This article is about the Hebrew calendar. For the Gregorian calendar month Nisan in Turkey, see April. For the character from Manchu folklore, see Tale of the Nisan Shaman. For the Japanese automaker, see Nissan.

← Adar       Nisan (נִיסָן‎)       Iyar →
Tu Bishvat Passover, the Festival of the Unleavened Bread, begins on the 15th of Nisan and commemorates the Israelites' liberation from Egyptian slavery.
Month number:	1
Number of days:	30
Season:	Spring
Gregorian equivalent:	March–April

Name

The name of the month is an Akkadian language borrowing, although ultimately originates in Sumerian nisag "first fruits". The current, non-biblical Jewish month names were adopted during the Babylonian captivity. In the Babylonian calendar its name was Araḫ Nisānu, the "month of beginning".[1]

Holidays and observances

• 10 Nisan – Yahrzeit of Miriam the prophetess, sister of Moses and Aaron[2]
• 10 Nisan – Yom HaAliyah – Aliyah Day, Israeli national holiday
• 14 Nisan – Fast of the Firstborn – on 12 Nisan when the 14th falls on Sabbath
• 14 Nisan – Birkat Hachama is recited once every 28 years
• 15–21 Nisan (22 Nisan outside of Israel) – Passover
• 23 Nisan – Mimouna – Maghrebi Jewish celebration of the end of the Passover prohibition on eating chametz, on 22 Nisan within Israel
• 26 Nisan – Traditional yahrzeit of Joshua[3]
• 27 Nisan – Yom HaShoah – on 26 Nisan or 28 Nisan when the 27th falls on Friday or Sunday respectively, interfering with Shabbat

In Jewish history and tradition

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• 1 Nisan (circa 3761 BCE) – Creation of the Universe according to Joshua ben Hananiah's opinion in the Talmud, tractate Rosh Hashanah 10b–11a).
• 1 Nisan (circa 1638 BCE) – Death of Abraham according to the Talmud
• 1 Nisan (circa 1533 BCE) – Death of Isaac according to the Talmud
• 1 Nisan (circa 1506 BCE) – Death of Jacob according to the Talmud
• 1 Nisan (circa 1456 BCE) – First mitzvah is given to the Jewish people (Exodus 12:1–2)
• 1 Nisan (circa 1455 BCE) – Tabernacle (Mishkan) inaugurated; death of Nadab and Abihu;
• 1 Nisan (1772) – Birth of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov
• 1 Nisan (1892) – Death of Rabbi Elimelech Szapira of Grodzhisk
• 2 Nisan (1920) – Death of Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe. His last words are recorded as, "I'm going to heaven; I leave you the writings."
• 3 Nisan (1492) – The Alhambra Decree orders the expulsion of Spanish Jews from Castile and Aragon (but not Navarre).
• 7 Nisan (circa 1416 BCE) – Joshua sends two spies to Jericho.
• 8 Nisan (1948) – Birth of Yaakov Yechezkiya Greenwald II, the present Pupa Rebbe
• 10 Nisan (circa 1456 BCE) – The first Shabbat HaGadol was celebrated by the Israelites in Egypt five days before The Exodus.
• 10 Nisan (circa 1417 BCE) – Death of Miriam, 39 years after the Exodus.
• 10 Nisan (circa 1416 BCE) – The Israelites cross the Jordan River into Canaan (Book of Joshua, 4)
• 11 Nisan (1270) – Death of Nachmanides
• 11 Nisan (1902) – Birth of the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson
• 13 Nisan (circa 474 BCE) – Haman's decree to annihilate the Jews is passed.
• 13 Nisan (1575) – Death of Joseph Caro, author of the Shulchan Aruch.
• 13 Nisan (1866) – Death of Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the third Lubavitcher Rebbe.
• 14 Nisan (1135) – Birth of Maimonides
• 14 Nisan (1943) – Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins. The uprising would last until 3 Iyar, and is now commemorated in Israel on 27 Nisan.
• 15 Nisan (circa 1713 BCE) – Birth of Isaac
• 15 Nisan (circa 1456 BCE) – The Exodus from Egypt
• 15 Nisan (474 BC) – Esther appears before Ahasuerus unsummoned and invites him and Haman to a feast to be held the same day. During the feast she requests that the king and Haman attend a second feast the next day.
• 16 Nisan (circa 1273 BCE) – The Israelites stop eating manna six days after entering the Holy Land.
• 16 Nisan (circa 474 BCE) – Esther's second feast, during which she accuses Haman regarding his plot to annihilate her nation. Ahasuerus orders his servants to hang Haman.
• 17 Nisan (circa 24th century BCE) – Noah's Ark came to rest on mountains of Ararat[4]
• 17 Nisan (circa 474 BCE) – Haman hanged after Esther's second drinking party.
• 21 Nisan (circa 1456 BCE) – The sea splits, allowing Israel to escape the Egyptian army.
• 26 Nisan (circa 1386 BCE) – Death of Joshua
• 28 Nisan (circa 1415 BCE) – Battle of Jericho by Joshua (Book of Joshua ch. 6).
• 29 Nisan (1620) – Death of Hayyim ben Joseph Vital, a Kabbalist and a disciple of Isaac Luria.
• 29 Nisan (1699) – In Bamberg, Germany during a commercial crisis in 1699, the populace rose up against the Jews, and one Jew saved himself by throwing prunes from a gable-window down upon the mob. That event, the 29th of Nisan, called the Zwetschgen Taanit "Plum-Fast", was commemorated by a fast and a Purim festivity until the extermination of the Jewish community there.[5]

Other uses

• In the Akkadian of Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia nisānu, which derives from Sumerian nisag "First fruits".
• "Nisan" is also the name for the month of April in Arabic (Arabic: نيسان‎), a later Semitic language (see Arabic names of Gregorian months), in Kurdish languages and modern Turkish.
• In the story of Xenogears, "Nisan" is the name of a country, named after the Hebrew month.
• Quartodecimanism

References

1. Muss-Arnolt, W., [www.jstor.org/stable/3259081 The Names of the Assyro-Babylonian Months and Their Regents], Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 11, No. 1 (1892), pp. 72–94 [76], accessed 10 Aug. 2020
2. Megillat Ta’anit, fast days; Targum Yonaton, Nu. 20:1.
3. http://www.ou.org/judaism-101/bh-yom-yom/nissan/
4. (Nisan before Torah, Genesis 8:4, Exodus 12:1)
5. "Bamberg". Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved 30 April 2014.

External links

• Resources on the Month of Nisan
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Nisan
• Strong's Concordance: Nisan
• This Month in Jewish History