Nisan

The name of the month is an Akkadian language borrowing, although ultimately originates in Sumerian nisag "first fruits". The current, non-biblical Jewish month names were adopted during the Babylonian captivity. In the Babylonian calendar its name was Araḫ Nisānu, the "month of beginning".[1]

• 10 Nisan – Yahrzeit of Miriam the prophetess, sister of Moses and Aaron[2]
• 10 Nisan – Yom HaAliyah – Aliyah Day, Israeli national holiday
• 14 Nisan – Fast of the Firstborn – on 12 Nisan when the 14th falls on Sabbath
• 14 Nisan – Birkat Hachama is recited once every 28 years
• 15–21 Nisan (22 Nisan outside of Israel) – Passover
• 23 Nisan – Mimouna – Maghrebi Jewish celebration of the end of the Passover prohibition on eating chametz, on 22 Nisan within Israel
• 26 Nisan – Traditional yahrzeit of Joshua[3]
• 27 Nisan – Yom HaShoah – on 26 Nisan or 28 Nisan when the 27th falls on Friday or Sunday respectively, interfering with Shabbat

• 1 Nisan (circa 3761 BCE) – Creation of the Universe according to Joshua ben Hananiah's opinion in the Talmud, tractate Rosh Hashanah 10b–11a).
• 1 Nisan (circa 1638 BCE) – Death of Abraham according to the Talmud
• 1 Nisan (circa 1533 BCE) – Death of Isaac according to the Talmud
• 1 Nisan (circa 1506 BCE) – Death of Jacob according to the Talmud
• 1 Nisan (circa 1456 BCE) – First mitzvah is given to the Jewish people (Exodus 12:1–2)
• 1 Nisan (circa 1455 BCE) – Tabernacle (Mishkan) inaugurated; death of Nadab and Abihu;
• 1 Nisan (1772) – Birth of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov
• 1 Nisan (1892) – Death of Rabbi Elimelech Szapira of Grodzhisk
• 2 Nisan (1920) – Death of Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe. His last words are recorded as, "I'm going to heaven; I leave you the writings."
• 3 Nisan (1492) – The Alhambra Decree orders the expulsion of Spanish Jews from Castile and Aragon (but not Navarre).
• 7 Nisan (circa 1416 BCE) – Joshua sends two spies to Jericho.
• 8 Nisan (1948) – Birth of Yaakov Yechezkiya Greenwald II, the present Pupa Rebbe
• 10 Nisan (circa 1456 BCE) – The first Shabbat HaGadol was celebrated by the Israelites in Egypt five days before The Exodus.
• 10 Nisan (circa 1417 BCE) – Death of Miriam, 39 years after the Exodus.
• 10 Nisan (circa 1416 BCE) – The Israelites cross the Jordan River into Canaan (Book of Joshua, 4)
• 11 Nisan (1270) – Death of Nachmanides
• 11 Nisan (1902) – Birth of the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson
• 13 Nisan (circa 474 BCE) – Haman's decree to annihilate the Jews is passed.
• 13 Nisan (1575) – Death of Joseph Caro, author of the Shulchan Aruch.
• 13 Nisan (1866) – Death of Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the third Lubavitcher Rebbe.
• 14 Nisan (1135) – Birth of Maimonides
• 14 Nisan (1943) – Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins. The uprising would last until 3 Iyar, and is now commemorated in Israel on 27 Nisan.
• 15 Nisan (circa 1713 BCE) – Birth of Isaac
• 15 Nisan (circa 1456 BCE) – The Exodus from Egypt
• 15 Nisan (474 BC) – Esther appears before Ahasuerus unsummoned and invites him and Haman to a feast to be held the same day. During the feast she requests that the king and Haman attend a second feast the next day.
• 16 Nisan (circa 1273 BCE) – The Israelites stop eating manna six days after entering the Holy Land.
• 16 Nisan (circa 474 BCE) – Esther's second feast, during which she accuses Haman regarding his plot to annihilate her nation. Ahasuerus orders his servants to hang Haman.
• 17 Nisan (circa 24th century BCE) – Noah's Ark came to rest on mountains of Ararat[4]
• 17 Nisan (circa 474 BCE) – Haman hanged after Esther's second drinking party.
• 21 Nisan (circa 1456 BCE) – The sea splits, allowing Israel to escape the Egyptian army.
• 26 Nisan (circa 1386 BCE) – Death of Joshua
• 28 Nisan (circa 1415 BCE) – Battle of Jericho by Joshua (Book of Joshua ch. 6).
• 29 Nisan (1620) – Death of Hayyim ben Joseph Vital, a Kabbalist and a disciple of Isaac Luria.
• 29 Nisan (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. That event, the 29th of Nisan, called the Zwetschgen Taanit "Plum-Fast", was commemorated by a fast and a Purim festivity until the extermination of the Jewish community there.[5]

• In the Akkadian of Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia nisānu, which derives from Sumerian nisag "First fruits". Akitu was a spring festival which took place during this month.
• "Nisan" is also the name for the month of April in Arabic (Arabic: نيسان‎), a later Semitic language (see Arabic names of Gregorian months), in Kurdish languages and modern Turkish.
• In the story of Xenogears, "Nisan" is the name of a country, named after the Hebrew month.
• Quartodecimanism

• Resources on the Month of Nisan
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Nisan
• Strong's Concordance: Nisan
• This Month in Jewish History