Hebrew (Jewish)

Jewish Date Today

As of Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at 7:15 PM, today's Hebrew (Jewish) date is:

4 Sivan 5786

ד׳ סִיוָן תשפ״ו

Yom Revi'i Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Today's Hebrew (Jewish) date — full detail

Date: 4 Sivan 5786
Hebrew: ד׳ סִיוָן תשפ״ו
Short form: 4 Sivan 5786
Month: Sivan
Year: 5786 AM (Anno Mundi — 'in the year of the world')
Weekday: Yom Revi'i · יוֹם רְבִיעִי
Gregorian: Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Why today matters

Today falls in Sivan, the month of Shavuot (the Festival of Weeks), which commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Shavuot is observed on the 6th of Sivan. Shavuot is observed on the 6th (and in the diaspora, also the 7th) of Sivan. Many communities hold an all-night Torah study session — the Tikkun Leil Shavuot — in remembrance of the night before the giving of the Torah at Sinai. Dairy foods, especially cheesecake, are traditional. The Book of Ruth is read.

On the third new moon after the Israelites left Egypt, on that very day, they came to the wilderness of Sinai. — Exodus 19:1

How we compute this

Hebrew (Jewish) is a lunisolar calendar. Each year contains 353, 354, 355 (common); 383, 384, 385 (leap) days, with each month averaging 29 or 30 days, set by lunar months. Years are counted from 1 Tishrei 1 AM = 7 October 3761 BCE (traditional date of creation) (era: AM (Anno Mundi — 'in the year of the world')).

The Jewish calendar is the oldest continuously-used calendar in the world, governing Jewish religious life since biblical times. Hillel II — patriarch of the Jewish community in the Land of Israel — published the mathematical version of the calendar in 359 CE, replacing the older system in which the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem proclaimed each new month after receiving witness testimony of the crescent moon. The current calendar uses a 19-year Metonic cycle (years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 are leap years with a 13th month, Adar II) to keep Passover in spring and Sukkot in autumn. Every observant Jew's daily prayers, every wedding date, every yahrzeit anniversary, every bar/bat mitzvah, and every yom tov — all are anchored to this calendar. It is not merely a method of marking time; it is the architecture of Jewish religious memory.

Used by: ≈15 million Jews worldwide. Regions: Used for religious observance and the civil calendar in Israel.

Frequently asked

What is the Jewish date today?

Today's date in the Jewish calendar is 4 Sivan 5786. In Hebrew script: ד׳ סִיוָן תשפ״ו. The weekday is Yom Revi'i (יוֹם רְבִיעִי) — the Hebrew week begins on Sunday (Yom Rishon, the first day) and ends on Shabbat (Saturday).

When does the Jewish day begin and end?

The Jewish day runs from sunset to the following sunset, not from midnight to midnight. This follows the order of creation in Genesis 1: "and there was evening and there was morning, one day". For practical observance — when a holiday begins, when Shabbat candles are lit, when a fast starts and ends — the relevant moment is always sunset (technically tzeit hakochavim, when three stars are visible, for the day's end). This is why a Jewish holiday "on the 15th" actually begins on the night of the 14th in the secular calendar.

How does the Jewish calendar govern life-cycle events?

A boy's bar mitzvah falls on the Hebrew anniversary of his 13th birthday; a girl's bat mitzvah on her 12th. A wedding date is chosen by Hebrew date (avoiding the Three Weeks, the Omer, and certain other periods). The yahrzeit — the anniversary of a death, observed by lighting a 24-hour candle, reciting Kaddish, and giving tzedakah — uses the Hebrew date, which means it can fall anywhere within a 25-day window in the Gregorian calendar across someone's lifetime. Even a baby's brit milah (circumcision), held on the 8th day, is counted in Hebrew days from sunset to sunset.

How are leap years calculated?

The 19-year Metonic cycle places leap years in positions 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 — seven leap years per cycle. In a leap year, an entire extra month (Adar I) is inserted before the usual Adar (which becomes Adar II). This keeps Pesach in the spring (Nisan) and Sukkot in the autumn (Tishrei), as required by Torah. To find out if a given year is a leap year, compute (year mod 19); the remainders 0, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, and 17 indicate leap years.