Tevet is the tenth month of the Hebrew calendar counting from Nisan, and it is the depth of winter: January, the coldest days of the year, the heavy rain, and the earliest darkness. It opens in the middle of Hanukkah, the last and fullest candles are already lit in Tevet, and then runs on into a long quiet stretch.
On its tenth day falls the fast of Asara B'Tevet, marking the day the siege of Jerusalem began before the destruction of the First Temple. Tevet is the one month the Bible names outright, and it is also the month whose fast opens a chain that only closes on Tisha B'Av, half a year later.
“That is, the month of Tevet”
Most Hebrew month names never appear in the Torah, and only a few are named in the Bible at all. Tevet is the sharpest case: it occurs exactly once in the whole Hebrew Bible, in the book of Esther, and when it does the text takes the trouble to gloss it: “in the tenth month, that is, the month of Tevet” 1. The verse catches the moment when the new Babylonian name still needed translating back into the old number.
The name itself is linked to the root t-b-a, to sink or to be immersed: the month the ground is soaked through. From it also comes the phrase tekufat Tevet, the old Hebrew name for the winter solstice: the point at which the shortest day of the year passes and the light begins to return.
The days of Tevet, in order
Rosh Chodesh Tevet. One day or two depending on the year: if Kislev ran thirty days, the new moon lasts two. It is the only Rosh Chodesh of the year that falls inside a festival.
2 or 3 Tevet. The last day of Hanukkah, Zot Hanukkah, closing the eight days. The date shifts with the length of Kislev.
10 Tevet. A fast from dawn to nightfall, marking the beginning of the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. It is the only public fast in the calendar that is kept even when it falls on a Friday, and is never postponed.
10 Tevet: the General Kaddish Day. On the same date, in 1949, Israel's Chief Rabbinate established a day of remembrance for victims of the Holocaust whose date of death is unknown, on which Kaddish is said for them. It remains the date on which many families mark a yahrzeit that has no other date.
The end of the month. Tevet is a fixed month, always twenty-nine days, and Shevat follows it.
The first time anyone was afraid of the dark
The Talmud tells a short story about this month, and it is one of the earliest accounts of what winter feels like.
Adam, in his first year in the world, saw the days getting shorter. He did not know this was simply how the world works; he assumed it was because of him. “Woe is me — perhaps because I sinned the world is darkening around me and returning to chaos” 2. And so, the passage says, he sat eight days in fasting.
What happened next is the point: “when he saw the winter solstice and saw the day growing longer, he said: this is the way of the world. He went and made eight days of festival” 2. He watched the day begin to lengthen, understood that this was just how things go, and turned his eight days of fasting into eight days of celebration.
It is a remarkably exact description of what still happens in Tevet. The year's turning point falls inside it, and from that moment, without anyone noticing right away, the days are already getting longer.
The month the siege begins in
Tevet has a particular place in Jewish memory: it is the opening of a story that ends half a year later.
Ezekiel, in exile, received the date in real time. He dates the prophecy to “the tenth month, on the tenth of the month”, and is told to write it down: “Son of man, write down the name of this day, this very day — the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem on this very day” 3. Record the date. From today the siege begins.
That siege lasted about two and a half years and ended on Tisha B'Av. When Zechariah listed the fasts of the destruction centuries later, he listed them by month number: “the fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth” 4, and the fast of the tenth on that list is Asara B'Tevet: the first to happen, and the last to be counted.
That is how the month gets its double shape. It opens with the fullest candles of the year, reaches a day that remembers the beginning of the end, and at exactly the same time, unconnected to any of it, the sun has already started coming back. After it comes Shevat, and in the middle of Shevat, Tu BiShvat, which is already talking about trees in bud.
Common questions about the month of Tevet
When is Rosh Chodesh Tevet?
It depends on the year. If the preceding Kislev ran thirty days, Rosh Chodesh Tevet lasts two: the 30th of Kislev and the 1st of Tevet; if Kislev ran twenty-nine, it is a single day. Either way it falls inside Hanukkah, the only Rosh Chodesh of the year that lands inside a festival. This year it falls on 12-13/12/34.
When is the eve of Rosh Chodesh Tevet?
On the 29th of Kislev (11/12/34), which is itself one of the days of Hanukkah.
How many days are in Tevet?
Twenty-nine, always. Tevet is one of the fixed-length months of the Hebrew calendar; it does not vary between a full and a deficient year.
What holidays are in Tevet?
The closing days of Hanukkah at the start (7-14/12/34), and the fast of Asara B'Tevet on the tenth (22/12/34), which is also the General Kaddish Day for victims of the Holocaust. Some of them have a page with dates and times.
When does Tevet end?
On the 29th of Tevet, and the next day is Rosh Chodesh Shevat (this year on 11/1/35). Because Tevet has twenty-nine days, Rosh Chodesh Shevat is always a single day.
A Tevet calendar: the whole month on one page
The grid at the top of this page shows Tevet as the Hebrew calendar sees it: the large numerals are the days of the Hebrew month, with the corresponding civil date printed beneath each one. You can see Rosh Chodesh Tevet at the start, one day or two, depending on the year, the closing days of Hanukkah that fall inside it, and the tenth of the month.
Because Tevet always falls between December and February, a civil calendar splits it across two months. Here it appears as one unit. The button above the grid prints it to a single page, portrait or landscape, without the navigation or this text.
- Every observance of the year in one table, and from there each one's own page: Jewish holidays 2026
- The full printable calendar: printable 2026 Jewish calendar with holidays
- For a civil-month view, in which December and January appear separately: Gregorian month calendar
Related pages
References
- Esther 2:16 אסתר פרק ב׳, פסוק טז
Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in his royal palace, in the tenth month — that is, the month of Tevet — in the seventh year of his reign.
source - Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zarah 8a עבודה זרה דף ח׳ עמוד א
Our rabbis taught: when Adam saw the day growing shorter he said, woe is me — perhaps because I sinned the world is darkening around me and returning to chaos… When he saw the winter solstice and saw the day growing longer, he said: this is the way of the world. He went and made eight days of festival.
source - Ezekiel 24:1-2 יחזקאל פרק כ״ד, פסוקים א–ב
The word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month: Son of man, write down the name of this day, this very day — the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem on this very day.
source - Zechariah 8:19 זכריה פרק ח׳, פסוק יט
Thus said the God of Hosts: The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth month, the fast of the seventh month, and the fast of the tenth month shall become occasions for joy and gladness, happy festivals for the House of Judah; but you must love honesty and integrity.
source