Nisan or Tishrei: Which Is the First Month of the Jewish Year?

“This Month Shall Be for You the First of the Months” (Shemot 12:2)

On the one hand, we celebrate the beginning of a new year on the first of Tishrei — Rosh Hashanah. On the other hand, the Torah instructs us to regard the month of Nisan as the first of the months of the year. How do these two ideas fit together? The Ramban (Nachmanides), in his commentary on this passage, brings order and clarity to the issue.

The Ramban writes: “The meaning of ‘This month shall be for you the first of the months’ is that Israel is to count it as the first month, and from it they are to count all the months — second, third, and so on, until the completion of the year in twelve months. The purpose of this is that it be a remembrance of the great miracle, for whenever we mention the months, the miracle will be recalled.”

According to the Ramban, the Jewish people were commanded to regard Nisan as the first among the months of the year in order to preserve the memory of the great miracle God performed for us when He took us out of Egypt. This also explains why, in the Torah, the months are not given distinct names but are referred to simply as “the first month,” “the second month,” “the third month,” and so forth. Assigning unique names to the months would undermine the goal of constant remembrance of the redemption from Egypt.

What About Rosh Hashanah?

The Ramban emphasizes that, as is well known, we count the beginning of the year from the month of Tishrei. There is no contradiction between this and the Torah’s designation of Nisan as “the first month” and Tishrei as “the seventh.” When Nisan is called the first and Tishrei the seventh, this does not describe their position in the annual cycle, but rather their relationship to the redemption. As the Ramban explains, it means “first to the redemption and seventh relative to it.”

In other words, the Torah’s numbering of the months is not intended to mark the chronological start of the year, but to serve as a constant reminder of the month in which we were redeemed from Egypt. This is the meaning of the verse: “the first for you” — not the first in the calendar year, but the first for you, as a remembrance of your redemption.

What is the Origin of the Names of the Months?

This leads to a natural question: where did the familiar names of the months — Tishrei, Cheshvan, Kislev, and so on, originate?

The Ramban addresses this as well: “Our sages already mentioned this matter and said that the names of the months came up with us from Babylonia. Originally, they had no names among us. The reason is that at first their counting was a remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt. But when we returned from Babylonia, and what Scripture said was fulfilled — ‘They will no longer say: As the Lord lives who brought the children of Israel up from the land of Egypt, but rather: As the Lord lives who brought up and led the children of Israel from the land of the north’ (Yirmiyahu 16:14–15) — we returned to calling the months by the names used in Babylonia, to remember that it was there that we stood, and from there that the Holy One, blessed be He, brought us up.”

The month names we use today are, in fact, imports from the Babylonian exile, of Persian origin. They appear in the books of the prophets who lived in Babylonia, such as Zechariah, Ezra, and Nechemiah, as well as in the Book of Esther. As we recall from the Purim story, Haman cast lots against the Jewish people “in the first month, which is the month of Nisan.”

A Dual Memory of Redemption

The Ramban offers a profound insight: just as the Torah’s original way of numbering the months was intended to preserve the memory of the redemption from Egypt, so too the later adoption of Babylonian month names serves a similar purpose — to remember the second redemption, from the Babylonian exile.

Thus, every time we mention a month by name, we are reminded not only of time passing, but of God’s acts of redemption — first from Egypt, and later from Babylonia — woven permanently into the Jewish calendar and consciousness.