Nisan // נִיסָן
About Nisan
Nisan is the first month of the ecclesiastical year, called the "first of the months of the year", "first month", and the month of Aviv (Spring). Nisan comes around the same time as the secular month of March, in the spring! Counting from 1 Tishrei, the civil new year, it would be the seventh month, but in contemporary Jewish culture, both months are viewed as the first and seventh simultaneously.
The Hebrew word “Nisan” may be related to the Hebrew word nitzan, which means “bud.” Nisan marks the birth of spring, signaled by the arrival of new buds and the birth of the Israelite nation. Physical and spiritual seeds are planted in Nisan—seeds for the summer crop and seeds of freedom and liberation.
Holidays in Nisan
Nisan History
circa 24th century BCE
Noah's Ark came to rest on mountains of Ararat
circa 1713 BCE
Birth of Isaac Avinu
circa 1638 BCE
Death of Abraham Avinu
circa 1506 BCE
Death of Jacob Avinu
circa 1456 BCE
The Exodus from Egypt, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm
circa 1455 BCE
Mishkan inaugurated on the second year (Exodus 40)
circa 1417 BCE
Death of Miriam the prophetess, 39 years after the Exodus
circa 1415 BCE
The Israelites cross the Jordan River into Canaan
circa 1217 BCE
The Israelites stop eating manna six days after entering the Holy Land.
circa 474 BCE
Most of the Purim story!
1270
Death of Nachmanides
1492
The Alhambra Decree orders the expulsion of Spanish Jews from Castile and Aragon (but not Navarre).
1575
Death of Joseph Caro, author of the Shulchan Aruch.
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. The Plum-Fast was commemorated by a fast and a Purim festivity until the extermination of the Jewish community there
1943
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins. The uprising would last until 3 Iyar, and is now commemorated in Israel on 27 Nisan.
Nisan Zodiac
The mazal (constellation) for Nisan is Aries, the טָלֶה / taleh (ram).