Hebrew Calendar
Adar II 5790

Adar II is the month that closes a leap year. It exists only in the seven years out of every nineteen in which the calendar takes an extra month, and then it is the one standing between Adar I and Nisan, twenty-nine days, after which spring begins.

It is also the month everything that makes Adar *Adar* moves into. Purim falls here, the Fast of Esther falls here, Shushan Purim falls here, and the Torah portion of Zachor is read on the Sabbath before it. The Adar I that came first is the addition; Adar II is what closes the circuit that opened last Nisan.

The reason is simpler than it looks, and has nothing to do with which of the two is "extra": Purim stays in the Adar that touches Nisan.

Which of the two Adars is "the month that was turned about"

The Scroll of Esther establishes that Purim be kept "year after year" ¹. It reads like a technical phrase, but in a year with two Adars it becomes a question: which one?

The Talmud brings both positions, and R. Yochanan shows that they were arguing over those same three words. R. Eliezer b. R. Yose held that, exactly as in an ordinary year, it means "the Adar adjacent to Shevat": the first. Rabban Shimon b. Gamliel held it means "the Adar adjacent to Nisan": the second ².

Notice what is elegant about both readings: neither speaks of a real Adar against an imitation one. Both identify the month by what sits beside it. The question is only which neighbour counts more, the one before or the one after. The law follows Rabban Shimon b. Gamliel, and so Purim stayed pressed up against Nisan.

One redemption next to another

Why the neighbour on that side? The Talmud gives one short reason, and R. Tavi is the one who phrases it: "The reason of Rabban Shimon b. Gamliel is that it is preferable to place one redemption next to another" ³.

That is: better that the rescue of Purim leans on the rescue of Passover. Keep Purim in Adar I and another thirty days open up between it and the seder night; keep it in the second, and the two great days sit a single month apart, almost in one run.

And that is exactly how it plays out. In a leap year Adar II is a near-continuous stretch: from Purim on the 14th to the seder is precisely four weeks, with Rosh Chodesh Nisan in the middle. Anyone who has lived through one knows the feeling: the costumes are barely put away and the Passover cleaning has to start.

The dates of Adar II, in order

Rosh Chodesh Adar II (30 Adar I and 1 Adar II). Two days, because Adar I always has thirty.

Shabbat Zachor. The Sabbath before Purim, on which the portion of Zachor is read. In a leap year it is read here, not in Adar I.

The Fast of Esther (13 Adar II). The fast that precedes Purim, and so it moves here along with it.

Purim (14 Adar II). The day the dispute above settled. What is done on it, and exactly when, is on the Purim page.

Shushan Purim (15 Adar II). In Jerusalem and the other anciently walled cities Purim is kept a day later, and that date shifts into the second month too.

Nisan follows immediately. In a leap year the proximity is felt sharply, because the whole run-up to Passover is packed into four weeks.

The people whose date moves

The argument about the two Adars does not stay on the page. There are people it touches directly: anyone who carries a personal date in Adar.

Take a boy born in Adar of an ordinary year whose thirteenth year turns out to be a leap year. He suddenly has two possible birthdays, a month apart. The Rema rules: "One who was born in Adar and reaches bar mitzvah in an intercalated year does not become bar mitzvah until Adar II" ⁴. He waits the extra month. The same logic that moved Purim into Adar II moves the birthday there too.

Now take the opposite case, a day of death. Here a live disagreement survives to this day, and the Shulchan Arukh lays it out from both sides. The author rules: "When the day on which one's father or mother died falls in Adar and the year is intercalated, one fasts in Adar II" ⁵; this is the Sephardi practice. In his gloss the Rema notes that some say to observe it in the first, "and such is the custom, to fast in the first" ⁶, the Ashkenazi practice; and some are stringent enough to mark both.

This is perhaps the less familiar side of the month. For most people Adar II is just another line in the calendar; for some, it is the question of exactly when to light the candle.

Common questions about Adar II

When is there an Adar II?
Only when the year is intercalated, which happens seven times in a nineteen-year cycle. Such a year carries two months of Adar, and Adar II is the second of them, the one that touches Nisan. An ordinary year has a single Adar.

Does Purim fall in Adar II?
Yes. In a leap year Purim (19/3/30), the Fast of Esther (18/3/30), Shushan Purim (20/3/30) and the reading of Zachor (16/3/30) are all in Adar II. Adar I carries only *Purim Katan*.

How many days are in Adar II?
Twenty-nine, the same as Adar in an ordinary year. The Adar I before it has thirty.

When is Rosh Chodesh Adar II?
Two days: the 30th of Adar I and the 1st of Adar II (5-6/3/30).

What civil month does Adar II fall in?
Usually March. In a leap year Passover lands late, so Adar II sits further into the civil spring than an ordinary Adar does.

Adar II in the calendar: Hebrew and civil dates side by side

The grid at the top of this page shows Adar II as the Hebrew calendar sees it: the large numerals are the days of the Hebrew month, with the matching civil date printed beneath each one. You can see at a glance which civil date Purim falls on in a leap year and which weekday it lands on, and from which day the countdown to Nisan begins.

You can see the two days of Rosh Chodesh at the start, Shabbat Zachor, the 13th, 14th and 15th in the second half, and the 29th of Adar II closing the month on the eve of Rosh Chodesh Nisan. The button above the grid prints it to one page, portrait or landscape, without the navigation or this text.

• Every date in the year in one table, and from there each festival's own page: Jewish holidays 2026
• The full printable calendar: printable Hebrew calendar
• For a civil-month view: monthly calendar

Related pages

• March 2030
• April 2030
• The Hebrew month of Adar II 5790