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    Chapter 1 · Arba’ah Rashei Shanim

    Four New Years

    Lesson 1 of 14 22 min

    The tractate opens not with the Day of Judgment but with a calendar: the year has several starting points.

    Lesson goals
    • 01Restate the source in your own words.
    • 02Identify the central distinction and explain its significance.
    • 03Apply the distinction in the exercise without adding a ruling absent from the source.
    01

    Source and decoding - Rosh Hashanah 2a

    Rosh Hashanah 2a
    אַרְבָּעָה רָאשֵׁי שָׁנִים הֵם, בְּאֶחָד בְּנִיסָן — רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה לַמְּלָכִים וְלָרְגָלִים. בְּאֶחָד בֶּאֱלוּל — רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה לְמַעְשַׂר בְּהֵמָה. רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר וְרַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן אוֹמְרִים: בְּאֶחָד בְּתִשְׁרִי.

    There are four New Years: on 1 Nisan - for kings and festivals; on 1 Elul - for animal tithes; on 1 Tishrei - for years, Sabbatical and Jubilee years; on 1 Shevat - for trees per Beit Shammai, and Beit Hillel say on the fifteenth.

    There are four New Years: on 1 Nisan - for kings and festivals; on 1 Elul - for animal tithes; on 1 Tishrei - for years, Sabbatical and Jubilee years; on 1 Shevat - for trees per Beit Shammai, and Beit Hillel say on the fifteenth. Each domain gets its own counting point.

    02

    Building the reasoning

    1. 1Restate the source in your own words.
    2. 2Identify the central distinction and explain its significance.
    3. 3Apply the distinction in the exercise without adding a ruling absent from the source.
    03

    Terms to decode

    ראש השנה למלכים
    New Year for kings
    רגלים
    festivals
    לאילן
    for trees
    04

    Before moving on

    Insight

    This lesson is a study framework, not a halachic ruling. Check everything in the sources, and bring practical questions to a rabbi.

    Practice

    Build a four-row table: date and what is counted from it.

    Lesson wrap-up

    The year is not one line: it is a system of counters.

    Check your understanding

    Test yourself before marking the lesson complete.

    Question 1 of 3

    For what is 1 Nisan the New Year?

    Next lessonThe world is judged at four times