Lunar New YearLunar New Year is the first new moon of a lunar calendar or lunisolar calendar year, whose months are moon cycles. The event is celebrated by numerous cultures in various ways at diverse dates. The more well-known celebrations include New Year's Day (or week) in the Chinese calendar and Tibetan calendar of East Asia; the Buddhist and Hindu calendars of Southeast and South Asia; the Islamic calendar and the Jewish calendar that originated in the Middle East; and the Nisga'a calendar from Canada.
MiriamMiriam (מִרְיָם Mīryām, lit. 'Rebellion') is described in the Hebrew Bible as the daughter of Amram and Jochebed, and the older sister of Moses and Aaron. She was a prophetess and first appears in the Book of Exodus. The Torah refers to her as "Miriam the Prophetess" and the Talmud names her as one of the seven major female prophets of Israel. Scripture describes her alongside of Moses and Aaron as delivering the Jews from exile in Egypt: "For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam".
HaggadahThe Haggadah (הַגָּדָה, "telling"; plural: Haggadot) is a Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. According to Jewish practice, reading the Haggadah at the Seder table is a fulfillment of the mitzvah to each Jew to tell their children the story from the Book of Exodus about God bringing the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. According to Jewish tradition, the Haggadah was compiled during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods, although the exact date is unknown.
Fast of EstherThe Fast of Esther (Ta'anith Ester, תַּעֲנִית אֶסְתֵּר) is a fast on Purim eve commemorating two communal fasts undertaken by the Persian Jewish community of Shushan in the Book of Esther, for the purpose of praying for salvation from annihilation by an evil decree, which had been the instigated by the royal vizier, an anti-jewish enemy of the Amalekite nation. This fast, unlike other fasts, is a custom. It is not mentioned in the Talmud, however is mentioned in the Midrash and other later sources from the days of the Gaonim.
Gezer calendarThe Gezer calendar is a small limestone tablet with an early Canaanite inscription discovered in 1908 by Irish archaeologist R. A. Stewart Macalister in the ancient city of Gezer, 20 miles west of Jerusalem. It is commonly dated to the 10th century BCE, although the excavation was unstratified and its identification during the excavations was not in a "secure archaeological context", presenting uncertainty around the dating. Scholars are divided as to whether the language is Phoenician or Hebrew and whether the script is Phoenician (or Proto-Canaanite) or paleo-Hebrew.
MannaManna (mān, μάννα; اَلْمَنُّ; sometimes or archaically spelled mana) is, according to the Bible, an edible substance which God provided for the Israelites during their travels in the desert during the 40-year period following the Exodus and prior to the conquest of Canaan. It is also mentioned in the Quran three times. In the Hebrew Bible, manna is described twice: once in Exodus 16:1–36 with the full narrative surrounding it, and once again in Numbers 11:1–9 as a part of a separate narrative.
